Strategies Archives - GameAnalytics https://gameanalytics.com/resources/tags/strategies/ Mon, 08 Jul 2024 14:00:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.5 Top resources and guides for building a multiplayer mobile game https://gameanalytics.com/blog/top-resources-for-multiplayer-mobile-games/ Mon, 08 Jul 2024 14:00:32 +0000 https://gameanalytics.com/?p=22388

When developing a mobile multiplayer game, there’s an added layer of complexity. It’s not just the technical challenge of connecting the players together, but every element of your game is affected – from the monetization to the gameplay itself. With that in mind, we’ve brought together the tools and resources that’ll help you make your multiplayer game. Which engine is best for multiplayer games? Most engines feature multiplayer support in one way or another, whether it’s built-in or a plugin. Unity. Despite recent concerns, Unity is still the go-to choice for many mobile developers. Not only do they have guides on their website, they also have tons of the backend tools and features you’ll need to make your multiplayer game run smoothly. Defold. Completely free and open source. Defold is a very lightweight engine that’s perfect for mobile games. But...]]>

When developing a mobile multiplayer game, there’s an added layer of complexity. It’s not just the technical challenge of connecting the players together, but every element of your game is affected – from the monetization to the gameplay itself.

With that in mind, we’ve brought together the tools and resources that’ll help you make your multiplayer game.

Which engine is best for multiplayer games?

Most engines feature multiplayer support in one way or another, whether it’s built-in or a plugin.

  • Unity. Despite recent concerns, Unity is still the go-to choice for many mobile developers. Not only do they have guides on their website, they also have tons of the backend tools and features you’ll need to make your multiplayer game run smoothly.
  • Defold. Completely free and open source. Defold is a very lightweight engine that’s perfect for mobile games. But it isn’t built for 3D games.
  • Godot. Often considered the open-source alternative to Unity. It also has a very active community, building plugins for most of your needs. It’s a good engine for any genre.
  • GameMaker. A great 2D engine that has multiplayer out of the box. While it costs for a commercial licence, it’s a flat fee or subscription rather than based on your earnings.
  • Unreal. If you’re building a deep, 3D, competitive multiplayer game and want the best graphics, the only real choice is Unreal. But it’s overkill if you’re making a more casual game.

It’s always tricky picking an engine. You can easily end up in decision limbo, spending months researching each one. Luckily for you, GameAnalytics is compatible with most major engines and environments, making it easy for you to rely on data at any time.

What motivates people to play multiplayer games?

People play multiplayer games for very different reasons to a single-player game. It’s important to understand those motivations and how they affect your game’s design. Here are a couple of resources to bear in mind when designing.

What tools do you need to make multiplayer games?

There are many tools you’ll need to integrate with your multiplayer game, if you want it to feel fair and satisfying to play. The four main areas to consider are:

  1. Server hosting. Will you host your matches or host from the player’s machine? You’ll likely want to look at cloud providers, such as AWS Gaming or get a third-party to sort it out for you, like Gameye.
  2. Matchmaking. It’s no fun joining a game with players who are far better than you. Instead, a matchmaker groups your players together based on their skill. You can also include other rules, such as their region. What matchmaker you choose largely depends on your engine.
  3. Anti-cheat and DDoS protection. As soon as you open up your game to the general public, you could be a target of cyber attacks or just general cheating. Either way, make sure you have some way to protect the data you’re sending.
  4. Backend systems. Most multiplayer games will need a database of users and other meta-features, such as achievement systems, leaderboards or economies. Services like LootLocker, Photon or Pragma make it easy to set these features up and keep them running.

How do you monetize multiplayer games?

Unlike casual games, advertising doesn’t particularly work with multiplayer. Adverts tend to interrupt the flow of a game, so you can’t show them during a match. Instead, developers need to focus on different models to monetize the game. There are three main approaches:

  1. A one-off payment. Simple and easy. But it can leave you with a problem if you’re paying for ongoing services, such as servers. Make sure you have an exit strategy for how you’ll switch to a community-led game in the future.
  2. Subscriptions and battle passes. These are often the most popular ways to monetize a multiplayer game. Offer new cosmetics and content and keep the game active.
  3. In-app purchases and downloadable content. Offering packs that players can purchase to give them more in-game currency or cosmetic items works well.

However you decide to monetize, it’s important to find the right balance. Make sure you A/B test different prices and bundles to see which is most effective. If you need help, check out our A/B testing.

How do you manage your community?

One of the major incentives for multiplayer games is the social aspect. If you want to keep your game active and thriving, you need to build and engage with your community.

What’s the best way to make a multiplayer game?

It all comes down to data. Your analytics is key to making sure that your multiplayer game is active and effective. You need to track how players behave inside the matches, how your servers are doing, how your monetization models are performing, and what’s going on in your community.

With so many different data sources, it can be challenging to bring it all together in a cohesive way. This is where DataSuite comes in. We can bring all your data into a single Data Warehouse, allowing you to query the data from all these different sources in one central location. Check out what DataSuite can do for you.

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Who are the top mobile game backend providers? https://gameanalytics.com/blog/the-top-mobile-game-backend-providers/ Tue, 21 May 2024 07:16:27 +0000 https://gameanalytics.com/?p=22226

A robust backend infrastructure is the engine that powers all top-grossing mobile games. It enables engaging gameplay experiences and handles essential functions such as user authentication, multiplayer capabilities, LiveOps, leaderboards, cloud storage, and much more. However, there are numerous mobile game backend providers (also called backend-as-a-service) in the market. By the end of this article, you’ll have an understanding of who they are, and how they differ from each other. Should you build or buy your backend tech? Most of the companies you see in the top-grossing gaming charts use bespoke backend technology that they’ve built in-house. This allows for customization and total control of the backend tech stack, but it requires hiring a team of engineers – a time-intensive and costly process. The vast majority of game developers, however, do not have the time, human resources, or money to...]]>

A robust backend infrastructure is the engine that powers all top-grossing mobile games. It enables engaging gameplay experiences and handles essential functions such as user authentication, multiplayer capabilities, LiveOps, leaderboards, cloud storage, and much more.

However, there are numerous mobile game backend providers (also called backend-as-a-service) in the market. By the end of this article, you’ll have an understanding of who they are, and how they differ from each other.

Should you build or buy your backend tech?

Most of the companies you see in the top-grossing gaming charts use bespoke backend technology that they’ve built in-house. This allows for customization and total control of the backend tech stack, but it requires hiring a team of engineers – a time-intensive and costly process.

The vast majority of game developers, however, do not have the time, human resources, or money to invest in building in-house backend tech.

Instead, they use external backend providers, which offer “plug-and-play” solutions that make the process far more affordable and efficient. In turn, this lets them focus on creating exceptional gameplay experiences.

So which mobile game backend providers are leading the way?

Leading backend providers for mobile games in 2024

Metaplay: the backend of choice for games with top-grossing ambitions

Metaplay’s backend is particularly suited to developers building a game with a long-term mindset, one that accounts for the evolving tech needs, innovation, and dynamism required to take a game from good to great. Metaplay offers tools to power feature-complete games from day one all the way through to hit status, such as:

  • Game programming
  • Backend engineering
  • Product and LiveOps
  • QA and customer support

Metaplay’s backend solution is suitable for a wide range of games built on Unity, from casual titles to real-time multiplayer experiences.

What sets Metaplay apart from other backend providers is the flexibility of the technology?

Alternative providers offer a limited set of functionalities, which are good enough to get you on par with your competitors. However, when the time comes to innovate, to add custom game features that are not supported by the limited off-the-shelf functionalities, problems emerge.

Specifically, in these cases, developers need to do a major code refactor or migrate their game to a different backend provider. At best, this is a necessary nuisance that drags on for a few months. At worst, it’s a disaster that eats years of development time.

Metaplay, by contrast, offers a tech upgrade path, ensuring game innovation is never stifled by technological limitations.

Their fully programmable stack is also server-authoritative and, as such, cheat-proof by default, which guarantees developers peace of mind as they scale. And because Metaplay ships as source code deployed into a game developer’s own cloud, when making games with Metaplay, a game studio never has to worry about vendor risk.

The Metaplay SDK includes a pre-built but fully customizable LiveOps and player management dashboard, which has everything ambitious game developers need to engage, retain, and monetize their players as their game grows.

Click here to learn more about Metaplay’s backend for mobile game developers.

Pricing

Pricing for Metaplay’s backend technology starts at €995 per month for managed development environments, opportunities to add production and staging environments as you globally launch your game.
Game studios can also choose from a variety of expert support packages tailored to their needs, as well as bespoke Private Cloud options for self-hosting at scale.

metaplay backend
Metaplay’s LiveOps Dashboard comes with all the tools you need to manage your players at scale.

Beamable

Beamable provides tools for monetizing players (in-game stores, payment infrastructure, notifications), connecting players (leaderboards, chats, guilds or clans, multiplayer gameplay, tournaments), and optimizing the game experience (analytics into player behavior, A/B testing for new features, content management for deploying new content).

From a more technical angle, Beamable also provides admin tools for development, microservices that eliminate the need to build and operate a game server, and more.

They also offer both Unity and Unreal SDKs, allowing developers to add Beamable’s backend service to games built on either of the leading engines.

Pricing

Beamable’s subscription tiers begin at $10 per million API calls, also providing an indie tier for solo or small teams without revenue or funding. For large companies who expect over 200M API calls, Beamable offers special pricing.

Beamable’s LiveOps Portal lets you build and deploy content error-free without engineering.

Azure PlayFab

Azure PlayFab, owned by Microsoft (and formerly known only as ‘PlayFab’), provides a solid set of building blocks to launch a fully functional game and is one of the longest-running backend solutions, having launched in 2014.

On a high level, PlayFab’s offering can be divided into three pieces: multiplayer tools, LiveOps tools, and analytics.

PlayFab’s tools for multiplayer games include party networking and chat, cross-network identity and data, multiplayer servers for low-latency real-time gameplay, leaderboards and statistics, and matchmaking and groups (like guilds or clans).

PlayFab’s LiveOps tools include game economy infrastructure, player communication, automation to set up custom operations and react to events in real time, content management (like remote updates to game assets), and experiments (like running tests on player segments).

Finally, PlayFab’s real-time analytics let developers understand how their game is performing and how users are interacting with it. And in terms of data, PlayFab also ensures GDPR and COPPA compliance.

Pricing

PlayFab’s pricing has several tiers: a free tier for games with less than 100K users, a pay-as-you-go plan, a standard plan at $99/month, and a premium plan at $1,999/month.

Heroic Labs’ Nakama Console allows both technical and non-technical users to quickly perform any needed service tasks.

Photon

Photon’s inclusion on this list could be seen as slightly contentious as, strictly speaking, it’s not exactly a backend (or at least not in the same sense as the other vendors on this list).

More so, Photon is a multiplayer engine that is particularly valuable for developers aiming to create highly scalable and real-time multiplayer experiences.

One of the standout features of Photon Engine is its low latency and reliable networking capabilities, which enable seamless real-time multiplayer interactions. This makes it an ideal choice for fast-paced multiplayer games, such as first-person shooters or sports simulations.

Photon also offers extensive matchmaking and lobby management functionality, allowing developers to create custom matchmaking algorithms and efficiently connect players. This feature is invaluable for games that rely on fair and balanced matchmaking, enhancing the overall player experience.

Another great aspect of Photon is its authoritative server support, enabling developers to enforce game rules and prevent cheating. This is crucial for competitive multiplayer games where maintaining a fair and level playing field is so important.

Note that Photon is not a complete backend provider – it focuses on multiplayer game infrastructure. Some developers, for instance, use Photon in tandem with other backend tools like Metaplay to cover all of their mobile game’s backend needs.

Pricing

Pricing for Photon is tiered according to concurrent users (CCU), with options available for indie developers and larger studios.

Azure PlayFab’s Game Manager allows developers to design, implement, and manage in-game economies.

Heroic Labs

Heroic Labs is a composable product stack featuring an open-source game server, a LiveOps platform, a game development toolkit, and managed cloud services.

Nakama, Heroic Labs’ flagship tool, is a scalable and flexible backend server for multiplayer games. It provides essential features such as user authentication, real-time multiplayer functionality, social features, leaderboards, and server-side scripting.

Nakama is particularly valuable for developers looking to create large-scale multiplayer experiences across different platforms, as it offers high-performance networking and seamless synchronization.

In addition, Heroic Labs’ latest tool, Satori, provides a real-time data platform designed for building live, interactive, and immersive experiences. Satori enables developers to stream data in real time, facilitating dynamic gameplay, chat systems, and live events.

Satori is particularly useful in instances where real-time data updates and instant communication are essential, such as massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), live competitions, or other collaborative experiences.

Heroic Labs’ cloud tool is another handy feature, letting developers deploy dedicated Nakama and Satori clusters on a managed and private cloud.

Hiro, which is Heroic Labs’ game development kit (GDK), is a client-server library built on the Nakama game server with built-in game economy, social, and LiveOps features pre-made to be flexibly integrated into your game.

Pricing

Heroic Labs offers a flexible pricing model, including a free tier for indie developers, and custom plans for larger-scale games.

Photon’s range of products lets you develop and deploy multiplayer games worldwide across all platforms.

Choosing the Right Backend Provider for Your Mobile Game

When it comes to backend infrastructure for mobile games, partnering with an external provider rather than building your own technology offers numerous benefits. Aside from saving significant time and money, developers are able to maintain focus on the number one priority: building an engaging gameplay experience that keeps their players coming back for more.

Choosing the right backend provider is a big decision and requires a lot of research. Ideally, the backend service you go with from day one will remain your provider over the long run, as the cost of switching later is higher and will continue to rise as a game matures.

This article was designed to serve as an overview of the leading mobile game backend providers, but it is far from definitive. Use this as a starting point for conducting deeper research, and remember that your game is likely to evolve in ways you haven’t thought of yet – so ensure your backend provider gives you all the functionalities, scalability, and reliability to support your future tech needs.

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40+ Free Learning Resources For Game Developers https://gameanalytics.com/blog/40-free-learning-resources-for-game-developers/ Mon, 29 Apr 2024 13:00:37 +0000 https://gameanalytics.com/?p=4327

You need to wear a lot of different hats when you’re making a game – especially if you’re doing it solo. One day, you’re a foley artist. Next, you’re a marketer. Even as a programmer or designer, it’s useful to understand how these elements come together, so you can make sure everything ties into your theme. To help you along the way, we gathered all the free resources you can use to learn about the different areas of game development. Before you use the resources, we encourage you to make sure the assets are royalty-free. Game design resources Game design is all about the choices you make. The rules and mechanics that bring your idea to life. From small decisions, like whether to use coyote time in your platformer, to big decisions, like the main theme of the game. Game...]]>

You need to wear a lot of different hats when you’re making a game – especially if you’re doing it solo. One day, you’re a foley artist. Next, you’re a marketer. Even as a programmer or designer, it’s useful to understand how these elements come together, so you can make sure everything ties into your theme.

To help you along the way, we gathered all the free resources you can use to learn about the different areas of game development. Before you use the resources, we encourage you to make sure the assets are royalty-free.

Game design resources

Game design is all about the choices you make. The rules and mechanics that bring your idea to life. From small decisions, like whether to use coyote time in your platformer, to big decisions, like the main theme of the game.

  1. Game Accessibility Guidelines. Every game designer should bookmark these guidelines. They go through the principles you should follow and give examples for each task. There’s even a checklist you can download.
  2. Develop.Games. Thor Hall, the creator behind Heartbound and ex-Blizzard developer, has put together the Develop.Games site. It goes through both the development and the business side of creating games. A must-read for any would-be developer.
  3. GameMaker’s Toolkit. This YouTube channel is an excellent series that deep dives into the most important elements of game design. You’ll find topics like creating puzzles, developing for a specific genre, and the psychology of the players themselves.

  1. GDC Vault. The Game Developers Conference adds all the various talks and presentations from their events to their vault. These range from technical advice on how to develop specific ideas to wider trends and best practices.
  2. The Level Design Book. This website covers everything about level design, starting from the theory to the actual tools you’ll need to get started. There’s even a section for specific assets and resources you can use.
  3. Scroll back (the theory of cameras in side scrollers). This gigantic article could be a book all to itself. It covers everything you might want to know about how to use a camera in 2D games.
  4. Pixel Architect. Dev diaries like these can be a useful way to see how to actually build your game. There are plenty to follow, but Pixel Architect is a particularly good start.
  5. Design Doc. This channel answers the tricky, specific questions you might have about game design, focusing on the mechanics themselves. How do you stop people from hoarding items? Why add critical hits? What’s the point of fast travel?

  1. The Architect of Games. While this channel seems to be about critiquing games with humour – it actually analyzes the actual game design decisions and explores the themes of the game in depth.
  2. Brackeys. A huge channel of tutorials that also delves into the actual game design decisions behind that development. The only downside is that they shut down a few years ago, so some videos can be a little outdated.

Game development resources

At the heart of every game is the code itself. Even if you’re experienced with a programming language, you’re likely to bump into a few surprises when developing your game. Either way, there are tons of resources out there. And if you need an engine, consider the open-source Godot.

  1. freeCodeCamp.org. If you want to learn to code, this is the channel to visit. They go deep into the practical and theory side and even have the full Harvard Computer Science University course as a 25-hour video. Yes, a Harvard University course – completely free.
  2. Game Programming Patterns. Keeping your code clean and organised is a major challenge, so this free ebook teaches you the best practices.
  3. Programming Patterns on Unity. Unity has released a similar guide around coding patterns and explaining how to use them inside Unity.
  4. Ludum Dare. A twice-yearly game jam over a weekend. Not only is it inspiring, but it’s worth reading the posts from other developers as they delve into their process.
  5. Introduction to Game Development with Unity. This Udemy tutorial is a perfect start for anyone looking to use Unity. You’ll see how to use cameras and objects, and understand the Unity interface.
  6. GDQuest. If you want to get into Godot, then look no further than GDQuest. A huge treasure-trove of free tutorials that cover pretty much everything you need – even if you’re not going to use Godot.

  1. Game Development Crash Course. Udemy also has a crash course about how to use the Solar2D game engine.
  2. GitHub Student Developer Pack. Get your school enrolled, and you’ll be able to get access to real-world tools and practice using them. There’s a page about how to get your school involved.
  3. Codeacademy game dev course. This four-hour introductory course will help you get the ball rolling and learn about game design and development.
  4. LootLocker free guides. These step-by-step guides walk you through specific mechanics, particularly meta-mechanics like energy systems.

Game art free resources

Not all games need fantastic graphics to be a success. Vampire Survivors used assets that Luca Galante simply bought in a pack. There are also plenty of videos out there about how to draw pixel-art-style games. If you need a free tool, consider open-source tools like Gimp, Blender, or Krita.

  1. Itch.io. There are thousands of free assets on itch.io, from character sprites to user-interface elements. Even if you only use them for inspiration, it’s a fantastic collection.
  2. Kenney.nl. Not only can you get thousands of free 2D and 3D assets, there are loads of guides on how to edit them or create your own.
  3. Blender Guru. If you’re looking to create slick 3D graphics, Blender Guru is the channel to follow. He offers guides and tutorials for beginners and advanced artists alike.

  1. Polligon. Created by Blender Guru, you can find Blender textures, models and more in the free section.
  2. CRTLpaint. This site has a bunch of free video series that teach you how to get into digital painting for yourself. From concept art to the principles of design. You can also follow their YouTube channel.
  3. Proko. If you want to learn the basics of drawing, particularly characters, then this channel will help you get there.
  4. 2DGameArtGuru. Learn all the most useful tools, such as Inkscape, Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw. There are absolutely loads of tools here.

Music and sound-free resources

Your music can define the tone and atmosphere of your game. It’s vital to make your game come alive. These resources can help you produce that soundtrack, from composing your melody to putting it all together. If you need an open-source tool, check out Ardour, MuseScore (if you know sheet music), and Audacity.

  1. Sonniss: Free archive. This is one of the biggest libraries of sound effects out there. Every year they give out free samples at GDC. This is the link to their 10GB archive of all those free sound effects.
  2. Bensound. A huge collection of royalty-free music that you can filter and organise by mood.
  3. Music Matters. If you’re completely new to music theory, this channel has tons of videos that will get you up to speed in no time.
  4. Spitfire Audio. Not only does this channel talk you through music theory and crafting tracks from multiple instruments, but they also show the process behind actually composing a track from start to finish. They also have a free library of instrument samples called BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover.
  5. Ryan Leach. Ryan creates videos about how to compose music for TV, film and games. He covers not only basic music theory, but how to easily turn that into an orchestral masterpiece.

Narrative game design resources

Storytelling and narrative design are quite different from writing a novel or script. You need to consider not only the character and plot, but what actions the player might take. It’s all about choices. If you need a tool to help you plan out your story’s flow, look into the open-source engine Twine.

  1. Emily Short. This blog is a huge list of books and blogs that you should read if you want to learn about interactive narratives.
  2. Screencraft: Write for video games. This article explores the various types of writing you might need to cover, from cut scenes to side quests.
  3. Game Developer: Storytelling in games.This article is the first in a series that dives deep into what narrative design is and how to think about it.

Game marketing and monetization resources

Once you’ve developed your game, it’s time to start getting it out to the masses. Here are a few resources to help you get the word out.

  1. Kickstarter: Tips for games. Unsurprisingly, Kickstarter has a section on their site about how to set up your project, entice people in, and get funded. A lot of the advice works well for your general marketing, too.
  2. Helpshift’s marketing guide. Focused on mobile gaming, this ten-step guide walks you through what you need to do as well as in-depth case studies.
  1. Game Marketing Genie. These guys have a great guide and overview about how to market your game, from understanding your competitors to using Steam.
  2. AskGameDev. This channel has a specific playlist all about how to market your video game. There are 17 videos here that will surely help.
  3. Steambase: If you want to research other games, Steambase is a really useful resource. It tracks Steam sales, so you can know when to best discount your own game.

Not only is it important to market your game, but to keep an eye on trends in the industry. What’s working? What isn’t? Here are a few resources that can help you out.

  1. GWI’s gaming playbook. This free report from GWI goes into the stats and figures that you need to know about the industry.
  2. GameAnalytics. Our free tool can help you track and research your own game, but we can also give you insights into the industry.

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Why you should port your mobile game to console or PC https://gameanalytics.com/blog/why-you-should-port-your-mobile-game-to-console-or-pc/ Wed, 03 Apr 2024 08:31:27 +0000 https://gameanalytics.com/?p=22037 Porting mobile game cover

Developing a version of your game for PC or console can help boost sales and reach more players. But is it right for your game?]]>
Porting mobile game cover

Once your mobile game has had time to mature, it might be worth developing a version for console or PC. If you’re looking to port the other direction, from console to smartphone, check out our blog on adapting games for mobile.

In this article, we’ll look at how porting to consoles or PCs could help extend the lifespan of your game, bring in more revenue, and the challenges you’ll face.

What are the benefits of porting your mobile game?

Not every game is suitable to port over to PC or mobile. The platforms have vastly different requirements and player expectations. However, this shouldn’t deter you from exploring the option.

Porting can open your game to a new market

The mobile gaming market holds around half the overall gaming revenue in the world – consisting of around $92 billion. However, it’s worth remembering that console and PC markets still make up the other half.

While there’s an overlap of players, porting your game gives it more visibility, opens up new revenue streams, and provides new opportunities to reach a wider audience.

It isn’t just porting your game that can help you take advantage of the PC and console markets. Cross-platform play is becoming increasingly common, as we explored in our trends for 2024.

The advantages of launching on a new platform are similar to launching in a new country. Not only do you reach those new players, but you can celebrate the launch, reach out to press, and keep your game present in the zeitgeist.

It also gives more choice to your current players. If they can play on their PC or console, as well as their smartphone, they’re far more likely to continue.

Porting increases your return on investment

The cost of porting an existing game is typically lower than going through the whole game lifecycle – half the initial cost, according to iLogos Game Studios.

This is borne out when we look at the figures. In a post from Kevuru Games, elementary 2D games cost up to $10,000 to develop, causal games cost up to $50,000, and mid-level games cost up to $120,000. As a benchmark, they claim that Angry Birds cost around $140,000 to develop.

Meanwhile, iLogos Game Studios estimates it costs around $5,000 to $20,000 to port simple games. Although, for more complex games that can rise to between $20,000 and $100,000.

This makes it a viable option for publishers with an already successful title. Being able to reach the other half of the gaming market, while costing only half your initial development is a far better return on investment than taking a risk on a completely new title.

Porting can lead to increased session length

People tend to play for longer on PC and console than they do with mobile. The average session length of a mobile gamer is around 30 minutes to an hour. The average for console gamers is an hour to two hours.

This was even more prominent when you look at the extremes – an additional 20% of console gamers said they play between two and four hours, compared to only 10% of mobile gamers.

These increases in session length can directly lead to more in-app purchases. The longer people play, the more likely they’ll pay.

What are the challenges to porting your game?

There are plenty of reasons to port your mobile game to another platform. However, there are a few challenges you’ll need to consider before you start the journey.

Advertising is uncommon on PC and console

This trend is changing. While it’s a relatively new and unexplored market right now, Microsoft and Sony have both announced that they’re looking to bring advertising to their games. The difference is that most advertising on consoles or PCs tends to be more subtle native advertising, where the ads are a part of the scenery and world.

Because advertising is still an emerging trend, free-to-play console and PC games rely on microtransactions and subscriptions for their revenue. With that in mind, you’ll need to carefully analyze your data to identify the best strategy. You can also look at other creative ways to increase your revenue on our blog, such as merchandising and IP deals.

The development takes time

Though there are fewer costs associated with porting a game than developing one from scratch, there are technical challenges to consider. The game engine and programming language you use could be unsuitable for the new platform.

After rewriting sections of your code, you’ll also need to make sure that you’ve optimized your game for the new platform. There are different hardware and resolutions to consider, which may need additional options in your settings.

Controls and interfaces might need revisiting

How players interact with your game on PC and console is very different from mobile. Certain mechanics and inputs can be physically impossible to replicate identically. Likewise, your user interface might not be optimized for different controllers. For example, moving items around an inventory can be very different between console, PC, and mobile due to the different ways people interact with the menu.

Data is key to finding the right balance

You’ll need to experiment with subtle variations between platforms. For example, you might show offers at longer intervals than you would on mobile, make levels more difficult to compensate for more dexterous input devices, or adjust user interface elements to be more intuitive. If you need help in this regard, we have a guide on how to run A/B tests using our platform or check out how we can help with your live ops.

You will also need to amalgamate the data from all your versions to see what trends are specific to a platform and which are generalized to your game design. If you need to collect and study data from multiple platforms, look at our DataSuite.

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Navigating the World of Matchmaking: Tips for Game Developers https://gameanalytics.com/blog/matchmaking-tips-for-game-developers/ Wed, 07 Feb 2024 13:12:27 +0000 https://gameanalytics.com/?p=21668 Matchmaker

When building a multiplayer game, your players are going to need a way to find each other. That's where a matchmaker comes in. But what is a matchmaker? How do they work? And is there any difference when it comes to mobile? ]]>
Matchmaker

At some point, when making a multiplayer game, players need to find one another. You need some way to either match players with similar skills or just fill out the lobby. Especially if in mobile games. That’s where a matchmaker comes in.

What is a matchmaker?

A matchmaker is a script or third-party tool that decides which players go into a lobby together. It’s like a good host at a formal dinner. The players ask the matchmaker for a seat, and the matchmaker figures out who they should sit next to, and then leads them to the best table – filled with similar people.

Exactly what criteria the matchmaker uses is up to you – the developer. But typically, you want players of similar skill to play with one another. That’s the main point of the matchmaker: to make the matches fair and equal. You could just shove players into the first available lobby, but it probably won’t be a good match and you’ll just get one player curb-stomping everyone else.

There are generally two ways matchmaking can work:

  1. Server browsers. You show a list of servers to the players and they choose which to join. This doesn’t need a matchmaker.
  2. Playlists. Players ask to join a specific mode, like deathmatch or capture the flag, and the matchmaker puts them into a lobby that matches their skills and preferences or makes a new one.

Depending on your game, you might decide to show this lobby to the players. Maybe let players talk before the match and change the settings. Other times you might keep that hidden and just launch the match once it’s ready.

What criteria should I use?

Depending on your game, you’ll have different priorities. A competitive game, like Dota 2 or Overwatch, needs fair and balanced matches. That’s why those games have ranking systems. Don’t match bronze players with diamond, for example. This is particularly important in mobile sports games, like Tennis Clash. But a casual mobile game like Hole.io might be far more concerned about short queue times.

There are three main areas you’ll want to balance. Bear in mind, you’ll probably need to compromise on one of the three. The more criteria you add, the longer it’s going to take to find the perfect match.

  1. The player’s skill. How are you going to judge a player’s skill? A common way is to just use the Elo rating system, but you can always come up with your own way to rank players.
  2. The player’s latency. How fast is the player’s connection to the server? If there’s a big difference between the players, the person with the fastest connection is going to have a major advantage. You probably want to group players with similar latency together.
  3. The queue wait time. How long are players willing to wait before they join a match? A few seconds? A minute? Depending on your game, this can vary wildly. As a general rule of thumb: the longer the match will last, the more willing people are to wait to make sure it’s good.

Among us example

Source: Among Us

These are the three basic areas you’ll want to consider when fine-tuning your matchmaker. But it should also handle a few other aspects:

  • How will it stop players from joining a lobby with someone they’ve blocked?
  • Do you have crossplay in your game?
  • Will you let players join an ongoing match?
  • When should it stop searching and just launch a new lobby?

There aren’t any right or wrong answers here. You just need to decide which is your main priority and how long you’re willing to wait for the ideal scenario before the matchmaker broadens the search.

Matchmaking differences on different devices

Theoretically, there isn’t a difference. The third-party tools you’ll use and the way the matchmaker works are identical. But practically, you’ll have different priorities than a game on console or PC.

For example, mobile players aren’t likely to wait very long. So you’ll want to prioritize queue times above everything else. Seconds, not minutes. That also means, you probably don’t want to connect players to a lobby and let them chat while they wait. Just pop them in the match and let them loose.

Source: Activision-Blizzard

You’ll also need to think about latency problems. Quite a few players are unlikely to have a good connection – they might even be travelling as they play. So make sure you don’t group up those hardcore players at home with the more casual players, sitting on a train and going through tunnels every five minutes.

Which matchmaker should I choose?

There are plenty of options to pick from. Every major tech company has their own matchmaker you could use. Valve has their Steam Matchmaking & Lobbies, Microsoft Azure has PlayFab, Amazon has FlexMatch, and Google has Open Match. Even Unity has its own matchmaker and there are also other options like EdgeGap, Photon or AccelByte.

Which one you decide to use will often be tied into which company you decide to go with for the servers themselves. However, you could always build a custom matchmaker yourself and plug it in if you don’t want to get tied into any specific provider.

As for quality, there isn’t really a bad choice here and it depends on how you set it up. Make sure you look for a matchmaker that lets you adjust your settings and prioritize the three criterias we described earlier.

Keep experimenting to find the right balance

The important thing is to keep track of whether your players are waiting for a match or not. GameAnalytics can help you keep track of whether people are dropping out before they enter a match, and then adjust your settings until you find the right balance.

It can also help to ask players after the match whether they enjoyed the match and their fellow players. This can help make sure the matchmaker is doing its job correctly. Bear in mind, even if a player gets defeated, they might have found the game fun if the game was a close call.

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9 Areas You Should Focus Your Mobile Game Development in 2024 https://gameanalytics.com/blog/areas-to-focus-mobile-game-development-in/ Tue, 30 Jan 2024 17:23:14 +0000 https://gameanalytics.com/?p=7629

What exactly should you be focusing on this year? What are the trends that will really impact your development? We’ve dug through the most popular trends and brought together the topics you should keep an eye on in 2024. 1. Learn about AI and Machine Learning With the release of Google’s Gemini, we’re seeing AI continue to explode. It won’t be long before it’s a common tool that we all use day to day. Getting to grips with how it works is going to be essential, particularly in gaming. At the same time, we’re seeing hyper-casual games shift to richer and deeper experiences – becoming hybrid-casual. In fact, the number of hyper-casual games dropped by 18%, while hybrid-casual grew by 13%, according to Sensor Tower. By their nature, hybrid-casual games have a longer development cycle than hyper-casual games. Using AI...]]>

What exactly should you be focusing on this year? What are the trends that will really impact your development? We’ve dug through the most popular trends and brought together the topics you should keep an eye on in 2024.

1. Learn about AI and Machine Learning

With the release of Google’s Gemini, we’re seeing AI continue to explode. It won’t be long before it’s a common tool that we all use day to day. Getting to grips with how it works is going to be essential, particularly in gaming.

At the same time, we’re seeing hyper-casual games shift to richer and deeper experiences – becoming hybrid-casual. In fact, the number of hyper-casual games dropped by 18%, while hybrid-casual grew by 13%, according to Sensor Tower.

By their nature, hybrid-casual games have a longer development cycle than hyper-casual games. Using AI and machine learning can really speed up this process. You can get the rich, deep experience necessary in a similar amount of time.

AI can help in multiple areas

  • Speeding up your development process isn’t just about getting AI to help you code your game. You can use it throughout the cycle:
  • Ideation. Get AI to help you come up with ideas and ask it to pull out common trends in mobile gaming.
  • Creation. You can generate assets, like 3D models or soundtracks, or use it to create mood boards for your in-house artists.
  • Dynamic content. AI can make your NPCs more realistic by automatically responding to the player. This way, you don’t need to write thousands of lines of dialogue to add characters to your game.
  • Experimentation. A machine learning algorithm can run through your game thousands of times in a few days. So you can test your gameplay, challenges and ad placements to make sure that they’re perfect.

The more data you have, the more efficient your AI model will become. Data fuels the algorithm. The best way to improve your machine learning and AI models is to feed them more data and let them run.

If you need to collect vast amounts of data from multiple sources, look at our DataSuite package. With that, you can bring all your data together to perfect your monetization models and gameplay.

2. Consider a brand partnership

Newzoo states, “To win the hearts of gaming fans, brands will move toward IP crossovers, social media and streamer partnerships.”

We’ve already seen this happening. Fortnite has partnered with brands like Gucci, Marvel, and Netflix. Roblox has partnered with Spotify and Samsung. Overwatch even partnered with McDonalds.

Image source: Spotify

Clearly, brands are looking to tap into the gaming market. It could be cosmetics in your game, in-game billboards that function as product placement, or even entire DLCs.

These partnerships can be a useful alternative to traditional ad models. You can get a new source of income for your title, attract new players, and keep your game fresh.

In fact, on average, IP or brand collaborations boost a game’s Daily Active Users (DAU) by 11% in the first seven days of a launch.

3. Explore augmented and virtual reality

Back in June, Apple announced its Vision Pro headset. Rumours are flying that it’ll launch in early 2024. However, Apple isn’t the only one entering this space – there are plenty of other brands hot at their heels. It’s a revolution in technology to rival the advent of the smartphone, with analysts predicting that there’ll be 6.9 billion AR and VR users by 2028, growing to about $58 billion. Meanwhile, the Augmented Reality Gaming Market Report believes AR alone will grow around 30% year on year.

Whichever way you look at it, the market is set to explode. Not only with players, but with brands. Companies are looking to partner with studios to create experiences for their customers that offer them more value.

While we’re best known for providing KPIs and insights to mobile game developers, we’re also compatible with games in virtual and augmented reality. Check out how we helped HyperVR or VRMonkey.

4. Pump more resources into your Live Ops

As we said before, hyper-casual games are dropping in downloads by 18% each year, while hybrid-casual games are growing by 13%. There’s a marked shift in the industry to move to deeper games, which offer more value to players and increase playtime and engagement.

Live Ops has become the standard way to monetize your game in this new era of mobile gaming. Over 90% of the world’s top games are supporting their titles using this approach. On top of that, 97% of revenue from the top games come from this strategy.

This means that developers need to keep providing support and updates for their games, long after they’ve launched. It’s about building a community, releasing regular content, and keeping your core players engaged and happy.

If you want to make sure that your Live Ops are pulling their weight, it’s useful to run tests and gather data on what’s working. We can help by letting you run AB tests, giving real-time data, and adjusting gameplay parameters on the fly. Check out our Live Ops page for more details.

5. Consider making a web store

In December 2023, a jury decided that Google had an illegal monopoly with its Play Store. It’s yet another example of how lawmakers and judges are attempting to loosen the hold that platforms have over the stores they run.

Right now, Google and Apple alike take a hefty commission from every purchase made through their stores. And they are quite restrictive on what is and isn’t allowed. Recent legislation, like the Digital Markets Act in the EU, has forced these gatekeepers to allow developers to push people towards their own web stores, cutting out these fees.

This is particularly important, considering how difficult it is to acquire new users. Casual games are hit hard by these fees, considering how little they earn from each download.

By creating your own web store, you skip the commission and can encourage players to stick to your own ecosystem of games. You can even offer VIP bonuses for loyal players who use your own store. This compliments the natural shift we’re seeing towards more hybrid-casual games, giving publishers and developers an opportunity to create deeper experiences and relationships with their players.

6. Explore more non-disruptive advertising routes

As the mobile gaming industry shifts towards hybrid-casual, it’s important to focus on keeping players for longer. It’s all about retention. One of the top reasons that players abandon a game is if there are too many ads that interrupt the gameplay. It ruins the fun. Instead, developers need to focus on other forms of advertising to supplement their revenue streams, such as:

7. Let players collect characters

There’s a reason games like Pokemon are so popular. People quite simply love to collect and hoard things. This is why character collection is one of the most popular meta features among the top games.

Source: Pocket Gamer

Allowing your players to collect characters opens up multiple possibilities. They can be in-app purchases, part of your battle pass or VIP subscription service, or even a rewarded ad. Monetizing this collection is a great way to make sure that you’re adding value for your players and giving them incentives to stay.

8. Think about going into the action genre

In 2023, action was the only genre that grew in both revenue (9%) and downloads (13%). These are games that are more high-octane and exciting than your typical hyper-casual genre, and borrow from the rogue-like genre. Games like Survivor.io that throw hordes of enemies at you while you level up your gear.

If you’re not keen on making an action title, it’s worth considering simulation games instead. These have now overtaken the puzzle genre – pinching their number three slot.

9. Be data-driven

Whether you’re creating your own web store, using AI in your development, or looking at non-disruptive advertising routes, data will be central to your strategy. With GameAnalytics, you can get cost-effective, sophisticated and in-depth data that can help inform your decisions and make sure you’re setting yourself on the right path for 2024.

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Game industry trends to expect in 2024 https://gameanalytics.com/blog/gaming-industry-trends-2024/ Thu, 25 Jan 2024 13:49:38 +0000 https://gameanalytics.com/?p=21932

As we enter the new year, the anticipation is high for the unfolding trends that are about to redefine how we create and play games—from AI seamlessly crafting entire game worlds to the ongoing rise of mobile gaming popularity, where developers refine strategies to extend engagement and enhance monetization, alongside their focus on diversity and sustainability. AI keeps revolutionizing development dynamics Traditionally, creating expansive open-world games with stunning graphics required large teams and significant time investments. But lately, AI is becoming a leader in a new era where even smaller studios and indie developers gain access to tools enabling the next generation of artwork. That includes the creation of entire worlds through procedural techniques, dynamic dialogue generation, or even players’ live avatar integration within the game. These AI technologies are currently in their early stages, but the trajectory is clear...]]>

As we enter the new year, the anticipation is high for the unfolding trends that are about to redefine how we create and play games—from AI seamlessly crafting entire game worlds to the ongoing rise of mobile gaming popularity, where developers refine strategies to extend engagement and enhance monetization, alongside their focus on diversity and sustainability.

AI keeps revolutionizing development dynamics

Traditionally, creating expansive open-world games with stunning graphics required large teams and significant time investments. But lately, AI is becoming a leader in a new era where even smaller studios and indie developers gain access to tools enabling the next generation of artwork. That includes the creation of entire worlds through procedural techniques, dynamic dialogue generation, or even players’ live avatar integration within the game.

These AI technologies are currently in their early stages, but the trajectory is clear – they will mature, become more efficient, and more cost-effective. A prime example is MidJourney, which launched just in mid-2022 and has undergone a remarkable evolution in a little over a year.

In 2024, we anticipate a surge in diverse AI-driven tools, followed by a learning curve of testing and optimization. Ultimately, as engines and open-source projects incorporate the best AI solutions, we can expect a standardization that propels game development into a realm of unprecedented possibilities.

Interconnected worlds with cross-platform play

In the realm of augmented and virtual reality, the expected launch of Apple Vision Pro in early 2024 is about to make waves. There are also speculations about the potential release of Apple Glass in 2025. Just as AI reshapes the software landscape of gaming, wearable technology is set to revolutionize the hardware dimension, paving the way for the metaverse.

For players, the impact will be revolutionary, especially as the metaverse opens doors to a more interconnected and immersive gaming experience. Players will be able to seamlessly transition between devices and environments, blurring the lines between virtual and real-world interactions. The gaming experience becomes more fluid, adaptive, and personalized, offering players flexibility and engagement like never before. In this light, developers will need to adopt a more holistic approach, considering various platforms and immersive environments during the design and development phases.

Such democratization of access will allow a broader spectrum of players to enjoy the interconnected and immersive gaming experience the metaverse offers, enhancing inclusivity and the overall gaming experience.

While mostly known for providing analytics to mobile games, GameAnalytics is also compatible with VR. Recently, we empowered studios like VRMonkey and HyperVR to build unforgettable immersive experiences.

The evolution of cross-platform gaming

However, the cross-platform experiences we just described are more than a one-size-fits-all strategy – especially when it comes to hyper-casual games. While simpler titles may synchronize game progression saves across platforms, “the devil” lies in mobile studios expanding their footprint to consoles and PCs. Homa Games venturing into the console realm or some of the top Steam games that recently came from Roblox experiences are great examples of this cross-platform expansion trend gaining momentum. As mobile studios broaden their horizons to include other devices, we witness a paradigm shift in accessibility and engagement. On top of this, such a move will also call for exploring new revenue streams.

homa games cross-platform

NOTE: The convergence extends both ways, as seen with Ubisoft’s upcoming release, Assassin’s Creed Jade, exclusively for mobile, signaling a reciprocal blending of platforms.

Mobile gaming will thrive with these changes

According to Statistica, mobile gaming still does and will continue rising. The company predicts we’ll see a 10% increase in revenue in 2024. It’s only natural as smartphones are convenient and accessible, opening up gaming to a vast audience. Wearable technology and cross and multi-platform play will boost this even further.

But there will be challenges. With new devices and opportunities, developers will have to (re)consider their assumptions around playtime, successful mechanics, and game design choices. They’ll need to research and dig into the data to ensure they’re quickly learning what works and what doesn’t.

Catering to their needs, we designed GameAnalytics to empower developers in their games and app creation journey no matter the circumstances. Compatible with mobile, PC, console, and VR/AR, our analytics help you understand players’ behavior patterns, spot design errors, and optimize your game to boost engagement.

The rise of independent app stores

In May 2023, we saw the Digital Markets Act come into force in the European Union. In simple terms, it restricts what the ‘gatekeepers’ like Google and Apple can do. For example, they must allow “application stores to be accessed by means other than the core platform services.” This means that such platforms can’t anymore stop publishers from redirecting players to their own web stores. It gives publishers way more control over their monetization strategies while avoiding paying a cut to the platforms.

Microsoft is already working on its own store, and other publishers won’t be far behind, especially with services like Xsolla making it extremely easy to build a whitelabel payment experience for your game. It won’t be long before it becomes standard practice to sell in-app purchases and subscriptions through your own store.

PS: We are constantly improving our offerings and launching our mobile gaming ranking data, improved market insights, and accurate performance benchmarks soon. Stay tuned!

Subscription-based models reaching their momentum

The growing popularity of hybrid-casual gameplaybrings a shift to the gaming industry. While deeper, more engaging games are required, the higher development costs pose a challenge. Although players are willing to pay for their games more than in the past, their budgets are limited. In this light, subscription-based models have emerged as a strategic solution.

Services like Netflix Games Subscription, Apple Arcade, and Xbox Game Pass offer a curated selection of high-quality games under a single subscription, providing players with access to a diverse gaming portfolio. From a game developer’s perspective, these services act much like a publisher without any more upside from the initial publishing deal. Outside of these all-you-can-eat models, it is also possible to build your own subscription into your game’s business model using recurring payments as a supplementary revenue stream to in-app purchases and ads. Typical examples of benefits offered in an in-game subscription are turning off advertising, exclusive access to features and levels as well as discounts on in-app purchases effectively increasing upsell, as subscribers spend up to 40% more after subscribing. Or tap into up-and-coming services like Multiscription, which offers an integrated cross-publisher subscription tool allowing you to add your game to a broad selection of games making it more likely for players to convert and retain. This trend aligns with broader industry patterns of the upward trajectory of subscriptions across various sectors, Zuora reports.

netflix games

For hyper-casual publishers, embracing this model presents an opportunity to bundle their games, encouraging players to remain engaged within their ecosystem for an extended duration.

DEI will remain the area of emphasis

While the gaming industry has made strides in introducing more diverse characters and narratives, the underlying issues persist. At the Game Developers Conference (GDC) last year, Anita Sarkeesian, the executive director of Feminist Frequency, highlighted the broken nature of DEI practices. According to Sarkeesian, the problem lies not in the failure of DEI but in its intended functionality:

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are framed as attempts to transform workplace environments into a space that is welcoming for all people, especially those historically underrepresented,” said Sarkeesian, the executive director of Feminist Frequency. “I’m not here to tell you that DEI is broken. I’m here to tell you that DEI is working as intended and that that’s the problem.”

Additionally, recent events, such as awards overlooking women and the industry’s setbacks at GDC, highlights gaps in recognizing and fostering diversity. The acknowledgment of these issues serves as a catalyst for the ongoing transformation within the gaming landscape.

As the industry grapples with these challenges, we anticipate to witness a push for meaningful change in 2024.

Environmental commitments and the gaming revolution

Game developers and players increasingly acknowledge the substantial energy consumption associated with gaming, particularly in powering servers and computers.

Towards the end of 2023, Xbox has taken strides by committing to support developers in monitoring and reducing their energy usage. Initiatives like these, featuring tools that provide insights into a game’s power consumption, show a positive trajectory in fostering sustainability within the industry.

As the industry becomes more conscious of its environmental footprint, these efforts by major players like Xbox may pave the way for similar initiatives across different gaming platforms.

Stay ahead of the curve with sophisticated data solutions

Closely following the trends from the past years and accompanying thousands of gaming studios and indie game developers on their journeys, we are compelled to emphasize the importance of data-driven game development.

As we advance in our commitment towards analytics excellence and further democratization of data, our roadmap for 2024 includes ongoing enhancements and refinements to the GameAnalytics tool. If you wish to speak to us about how we can empower you on your game development journey, you can contact us via email and book a demo.

In the meantime, you can read about our solutions here:

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Cybersecurity for Game Developers: Top Tips to Stay Safe https://gameanalytics.com/blog/cybersecurity-for-game-developers-top-tips-to-stay-safe/ Thu, 11 Jan 2024 14:45:20 +0000 https://gameanalytics.com/?p=21675

Protecting yourself isn’t necessarily hard. Not if you’re aware of the techniques hackers use. So, with data breaches becoming increasingly common in the news, we thought we’d give a little advice about how to protect yourself.]]>

There’s a common misconception that cybercriminals only target big business. But small businesses are actually three times more likely to be a target than larger companies. From the hacker’s perspective, it’s easy pickings. Small businesses have less security and fewer safeguards in place to protect themselves.

But protecting yourself isn’t necessarily hard. Not if you’re aware of the techniques hackers use. So, with data breaches becoming increasingly common in the news, we thought we’d give a little advice about how to protect yourself.

How do hackers attack game developers?

It’s not just your game that hackers might target. They could target your business and infrastructure, too. That’s why it’s important to think about how your game, backend systems, and internal tools link all together – especially if you’re making a multiplayer game.

For example, if you’re a small developer, you might decide to host your multiplayer matches on your own servers. But if those are the same servers where you store your player database, filled with usernames and passwords, you’re making it easy to find that data.

Social engineering is the biggest threat

Research from CS Hub found that social engineering is the number one business threat. This is just a fancy way of saying that the easiest way to hack someone is to trick the people themselves – your players or your employees. In other words, if you want to break into a vault, it’s far easier to get the manager to open the door for you than to drill your way in.

Hackers will go to extreme lengths to trick you. It might be as simple as an email that looks like it’s from one of your tools. Or it might be complicated. For example, they might look at your CEO’s Facebook page, hack their daughter’s account, and send a message from her asking for information that could help them guess a password.

Eventually, they could end up being able to send emails directly from the CEO’s personal account. Would you question an email from your boss telling you to send you an access code? Probably not. But you should.

Exploiting your game

Hackers can either look at your game code directly, try to inject code, or just generate random inputs until they strike lucky. This is usually fine in a single-player game, where spawning in an item doesn’t matter. But in a multiplayer game, where there might be real-world value to those items – it can be a serious problem.

Admin commands are particularly juicy for hackers. If you’re running an MMO, those admins might have tools to block players, reset passwords, or see people’s real names. Having those commands could help them trick a player or even blackmail them.

Targeting your infrastructure

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is where a hacker will send thousands – if not millions – of commands at your servers in a hope to overload them and make them crash.

At the very least, it can be irritating. Your game falls down and you lose revenue. But hackers might also use it to blackmail you by holding your game hostage.

They could target your file storage, your databases, your employee’s laptops, your emails – everything around your game.

Neon image

Protecting your game from hackers

Most security experts tout one rule: Zero trust. Approach everything with scepticism. Do that, and you’re far less likely to succumb to trickery.

Teach staff and players about social engineering

Education is key. If people know the techniques hackers might use, they often think twice before giving away valuable information. They question whether that email is legitimate or whether they should really be giving that code they were texted to the person on the other end of the phone.

Obviously, it’s far easier to teach your staff. But you want to educate players, too. If you have an in-game chat function, remind players that you’ll never ask them for their password. Or to never tell anybody the two-factor authentication code you just sent.

Fortnite email

Source: The Sun / Epic Games

Check through another medium

Now that your people are familiar with the types of attack, they will hopefully avoid giving out sensitive information. But what if your CEO really does need that access code?

Simple. Check using another communication tool. Give them a ring or set up a video call. That way, you’ve got proof it’s actually them asking for the information.

Make sure every layer of encryption is strong

It’s all well and good to have super strong encryption on your player database. But it’s all for nothing if someone’s email is just “password123”. There’s a reason “the weakest link” is a common phrase.

Keep everything up to date

As tempting as it is to hit “remind me later” whenever you get a popup for an update, just update it. Whether it’s your operating system, your game engine, or some third-party plug-in you’re using. Make sure everything is up to date.

Test your game for exploits

Try breaking your own game. Think like a hacker and see if you can summon items, use admin commands or launch services. Generate random inputs and try to inject code into every text box you have.

You can even offer rewards to players if they find bugs. Sure, most of those might not have any serious ramifications. But some might.

Hide sensitive code from the client-side image

Put blockers in place to stop hackers from directly seeing the code that’s requesting information. And make sure the data itself is encrypted. For example, if you need to call on a player database to get their name, don’t call it directly from the player’s image. Otherwise, the hacker could find out what service you’re calling and even get the IP address of the database.

Instead, call the server-side image and get it to do the heavy lifting. It can then encrypt the specific data and send it back to the player. Even if they break the encryption, they don’t get access to the database itself.

Keep your data safe with DataSuite

If you’re collecting and storing analytics data from lots of different sources, you probably want a data warehouse. With DataSuite, we host and keep all that data secure on our servers. And we never share it with any third-parties, so you have total control over it. Read more about DataSuite and see if it’ll work for you.

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AI-Driven Creativity: Prototyping Games in the Digital Age https://gameanalytics.com/blog/ai-driven-game-development/ Tue, 26 Dec 2023 12:01:43 +0000 https://gameanalytics.com/?p=21115 AI and game development

While you can’t (yet) plug in a prompt and have it develop a fully functional mobile game, you can use AI to help you come up with ideas and speed up your process. So here are a few ways you can use AI when developing your prototypes.]]>
AI and game development

AI is definitely going to change how we work, play and live. But right now, it’s not exactly great at being original. It tends to churn out a lot of generic advice and content. But, while you can’t (yet) plug in a prompt and have it develop a fully functional mobile game, you can use AI to help you come up with ideas and speed up your process. Here are a few ways you can use AI when developing your prototypes.

How should you use AI?

Regardless of whether you’re playing around with Midjourney, ChatGPT or any other AI, there are a few rules to getting the most out of it.

Make your prompts specific

The more detailed and specific you are in your initial prompt, the more useful the response will be. If you’re generic, you’re going to get generic responses. Asking it to come up with a “unique mobile game concept” isn’t going to get you far. Instead, make sure you give it as much information as possible. Write in your prompt like you’re describing a brief. The more you put in, the more helpful the response will be.

Don’t stop at the first response

Using AI is all about refining your prompt and becoming more and more specific until you get to a response that works. When testing the AI, we often needed to add caveats or get it to perform tasks one by one if we wanted to get the best result.

Use multiple AIs

We’ve found that it’s best to give multiple AIs the same prompt. Ask Bard, Bing and ChatGPT the same question, and you’ll get much more varied responses. So mix and match between AI if you want some variety. It can also smooth out some issues we’ve found with certain prompts. What works with one AI might get completely different results with another.

What can you use AI for?

It’s best to use AI when you’re looking for a very specific output that would take a team ages to do themselves. If you try to use it to come up with original ideas or themes, you’ll find that your prompts are too open-ended. Those are best left to real humans. For example, if you just ask it to come up with themes for your mobile game, it’ll likely rehash ideas that are already popular – basically telling you to create games already in the top charts. Not particularly useful. But specific tasks – that’s where AI shines.

1. Brainstorm your concepts

This is an area where AI can excel. Coming up with thousands of ideas in mere seconds. With the right prompting, you can get it to create a huge list of concepts to add to your own ideas. Even so, most of those will be duds (much like in any brainstorm). But that’s fine. You’re just using them for inspiration.

As for the prompt, it’s best to ask it for ideas using a specific mechanic or with a specific theme. For example, “show me a long list of themes for a hyper-casual game that uses swipe mechanics.”

2. Make snippets of lore for your items

If you have thousands of items, it can take up a lot of time writing a paragraph of text for each one. With AI, you can generate these snippets of lore almost instantly.

Bard example for game dev 1

We asked Bard to create lore snippets for various magical items in a game.

The responses you get won’t be perfect, but they give you a starting point. Edit them and make changes to fit your specific needs, and you’ve saved yourself a ton of time. Similarly, you could use AI to write the backstory for locations, bosses, levels, or even power-ups.

3. Write short descriptions for multiple items

While lore can add flavour to your game, you’ll often find you need to have a few short sentences as hover-over text for every item in your game. Give the AI a list of items you need to describe, and you can speed up that process.

Bard example for game dev 2

AI can easily put together short descriptions for multiple items at once.

4. Create characters in just a few prompts

By building on multiple prompts, you can develop a whole host of characters to populate your game. For example, you could start by getting the AI to brainstorm a list of twenty Japanese names suitable for an archer. Once you have your name – we’ve chosen Yumi (meaning “bow”) – you can ask for a more detailed description.

Bard example for game dev 3

With a name in hand, we know have an entire character bible for Yumi the archer.

By telling Bard to use specific headings, we can generate multiple snippets of information that will be vital in making Yumi a rounded character.

5. Write dialogue to sprinkle into your game

There are numerous situations where you might need a short piece of dialogue from your characters, whether that’s when they level up or when they first enter the dungeon. By telling an AI about the character and listing the various situations, you can get it to produce all these snippets at once.

Bard example for game dev 4

Giving AI a list of headings is a useful way to get multiple results at once.

If you need more, tell the AI exactly how many snippets of dialogue you want. Or maybe you include multiple characters and see how they interact with each other.

6. Help refine your mechanics

If you know what type of game you’re creating, you can get the AI to help with specific tasks. Maybe you need a puzzle for a dungeon or a list of items a shop might sell. For example, imagine you’re making a crafting game. You can feed in your resources and have the AI come up with a list of recipes.

Bard example for game dev 5

Kickstart the design process by getting AI to come up with some baseline crafting recipes.

7. Refine the writing you already have

It isn’t just generating text that you can use AI to help you with. As we’ve mentioned, AI can be rather generic if you’re too open-ended. So if you want truly original thinking – develop the lore yourself and then get the AI to refine it.

Bard example for game dev 6

We tell Google Bard to rewrite our description of Yuttgard.

From our – quite bad – description of Yuttgard, Bard has produced something much more enticing. It’s not perfect, but it’s got way more flare than our original and would be ideal if we’re only trying to put together a prototype.

8. Write marketing materials

Scripts for videos. Headlines for banner ads. App store descriptions. These all need words that you might not have time to create yourself. Just remember to give as much information in your prompt as you can.

Bard example for game dev 7

Even if we don’t use the exact wording, the AI can give us a good starting point for our App Store description.

Use analytics to track your success

Once you’ve made your prototype, you’ll probably want to run some A/B tests to see what’s working with your players, and whether your idea is as rad as it sounds. In which case, try out our A/B testing tool and get all the data you’ll need.

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From console to pocket: How to adapt your game for mobile https://gameanalytics.com/blog/adapting-games-for-mobile/ Thu, 21 Dec 2023 05:50:45 +0000 https://gameanalytics.com/?p=21737 Rocket League Sideswipe

Adapting your game to mobile is no walk in the park. Yoru controls are different, you have a much smaller screen size, and you're much more limited with the hardware. And yet, Psyonix nailed this perfectly. Here’s what we can learn from them. ]]>
Rocket League Sideswipe

Taking a game from console or PC to mobile is tricky. The controls are far more limited and the screen can easily get cluttered and unreadable. The hardware can’t handle as much physics, especially when that game is a premium title. But the developers at Psyonix did a fantastic job when recreating their Rocket League game into the mobile sensation, Rocket League SideSwipe.

This wasn’t just a copy-and-paste job. Psyonix made some serious changes to the gameplay, design, and mechanics. All for the better. Aside from the obvious theme of rocket-fueled cars, this feels like an entirely different game. In this article, we analyze what exactly those changes are, and what you can learn from them.

Three rules when taking your game from PC to mobile

When making mobile games, you should aim to hit three principles: make them short, satisfying, and simple. When we compared the differences between the two games, we found every change the developers made contributed to one of those rules.

1. Make your game simpler and consider the screen size

There are some key differences and limitations between PC, console, and mobile. But user interface aside, playing on a smaller device is a heck of a lot different to when you have a large screen and controls.

That might mean removing or limiting certain features to make your game work for your mobile version. Or completely rethinking the gameplay itself.

Here’s what you can do.

Understand what limitations you’re working with

You have less CPU power, less space, and less time from your players on mobile. So you need to understand what limitations you have and adjust your game to cater for them.

Psyonix decided to make the game 2D, instead of 3D, for example. Not only did this make it simpler for the player, but this also avoids the massive amount of physics calculations that a 3D game would have. Fewer dimensions, fewer calculations for the device, faster game.

The developers also limited how many players can have in a match. While you can have up to eight players on console or PC, you can only have up to a maximum of six on mobile. This not only makes it quicker to find matches but makes the games less overwhelming and busy.

Build your game to work on a smaller screen

Mobile phones are getting larger, but you’re still comparatively working with a much smaller screen. For example, if the map for Rocket League SideSwipe was any bigger, the player would need to zoom out. Players would struggle to see their own car, with their thumbs blocking most of the action.

Rocket League sideswipe map

2. Keep the session lengths short and snappy

Players don’t have much time when playing on mobile. They could be anywhere. On a bus on their way to work, in a queue at the bank, or even in the bathroom. You don’t always have their full attention for long. So you need to keep your game short and snappy.

Cut out features that don’t add to the mobile experience

On mobile, clutter will cause your players to drop out. Psyonix got around this by cutting out instant replays on their mobile version. This kept the matches shorter and punchier. Because the maps are smaller, it’s also quicker and easier to score a goal. Having instant replays every 20 seconds would just constantly interrupt the match.

Sideswipe chat function

Rocket League SideSwipe also removed the chat function and instead replaced this system with stickers. It’s easier and quicker to communicate with your teammates (or mock your enemies).

Test to find the perfect session length

In the original Rocket League, the matches were five minutes long. But in Sideswipe, they’re only a minute and a half on average. This keeps players engaged and decreases any potential dropouts. When we looked at the data from Benchmarks+ (part of our new pro tier), we found that the typical session length for casual games is about 4 – 5 minutes. So for a game like Sideswipe, this is around 2 – 3 matches per session.

This can vary from game to game. So make sure to test what session length works best for your players by watching your retention and drop rate.

3. Make your players feel epic

Your players will naturally spend less time in casual mobile games, so you want to make sure they have a great experience when they do. That way, they’ll keep coming back.

Replace inactive players with bots

Drop rate on mobile is much higher, as players could leave for any reason – lost signal, got a phone call, or reached their bus stop. If your game is online, consider adding bots to replace inactive players, so as not to interrupt the game for everyone else. This is what Psyonix did, and it works fantastically.

Cater for all types of players

With mobile, you’ll find yourself with a lot more casual players. Having an offline option, difficulty levels, or a top-tier matchmaker to pit them against players in their own skill range can make sure your game stays fun for everyone.

To cater for more ambitious players, introduce leagues, training arenas, and competitions. Just remember not to overcomplicate any of these – you’ll need to strike a balance between customization and options, and simplicity.

Rocket League Sideswipe training

Make the game rewarding wherever you can

When playing on a console for a couple of hours, overexaggerated sounds, graphics and notifications can get annoying. But this is crucial for shorter sessions on mobile. You need constant feedback and rewards to keep your players satisfied.

Psyonix did this in their mobile version. In SideSwipe, the graphics are a lot more exaggerated when you hit the ball and score. There’s a lot more excitement and colors. Whereas in the console game, it’s less so.

Rocket League Sideswipe collectibles

Use data to perfect your monetization models

There are plenty of monetization models you can adopt for your mobile version, and there’s no ‘one size fits all’ strategy when it comes to your mobile game. It’ll take a lot of testing and tweaking to strike the right balance of fun for your players, and a healthy ROI.

Rocket League SideSwipe is a completely free-to-play game, where players earn items, skins and cosmetics through levelling up. Nothing more. The mobile version helps Psyonix reach new players for their console version, where they make money through their Rocket Pass subscription, in-game purchases, physical merchandise, sponsorships, and DLC.

In a 2022 interview on GamesIndustry.biz, Psyonix co-studio head Phil Piliero, said:

We’ve seen significant growth in territories outside our core playerbase, especially in international markets where mobile is the primary platform for gaming. This has allowed us to reach new audiences in addition to our console and PC players, and gives these players their first experience within the Rocket League franchise.

What Psyonix did may not be the best route for your own title. You’ll need data to find out what’s best for your games. And a lot of it. Our free tool can help you answer all of your major analytics questions. And if you’re looking for something more advanced, then our DataSuite products can help you out. Get started today, or speak with our team on how we can help you.

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Retention Rate Secrets to Reduce User Churn https://gameanalytics.com/blog/reducing-user-churn/ Tue, 12 Dec 2023 10:44:01 +0000 https://gameanalytics.com/?p=21771 retention rate

Out of all the many mobile industry benchmarks, it’s important to keep player retention rates top of mind. Retention allows marketers to understand when, and perhaps why, a user leaves their game — which gives you the ability to slow the rate down and keep your users around. In this article, we’ll cover the basics of mobile game retention rates and some of the secrets game marketing pros deploy to reduce churn, as well as look at how you can learn from your retention metrics. What’s The Point of Retention Rate? Retention rates are a key indicator of game growth and its health. Not only does a game with better retention likely mean players enjoy using it, but good retention also means it can generate revenue quickly. In the meantime, low retention means rapid user churn, lower user reviews, and...]]>
retention rate

Out of all the many mobile industry benchmarks, it’s important to keep player retention rates top of mind. Retention allows marketers to understand when, and perhaps why, a user leaves their game — which gives you the ability to slow the rate down and keep your users around.

In this article, we’ll cover the basics of mobile game retention rates and some of the secrets game marketing pros deploy to reduce churn, as well as look at how you can learn from your retention metrics.

What’s The Point of Retention Rate?

Retention rates are a key indicator of game growth and its health. Not only does a game with better retention likely mean players enjoy using it, but good retention also means it can generate revenue quickly. In the meantime, low retention means rapid user churn, lower user reviews, and a lessened likelihood of conversion.

Retention rates are a useful tool for understanding why users disengage from games. Combined with a cohort analysis, retention rates can help marketers pinpoint if there’s an area in your game that causes churn. These are all key reasons why marketers keep an eye on retention along with other key metrics.

What Is a Good Retention Rate?

By what criteria should we compare whether retention is good or bad? Though you might have internal benchmarks for this, GameAnalytics provides industry comparison as a part of their Pro offering.

In the player retention report from 2019, GameAnalytics found out that the top-performing titles have a retention rate of 40% for Day 1, 15% for Day 7, and 6.5% for Day 28. Be mindful that these rates are for the best games — some genres have retention as low as 1.5% by Day 28. And this is by no means a rare occurrence.

It’s also worth noting that benchmarks for retention change depending on your game or app category. Generally, travel apps have vastly different use cases versus a music app, for instance. As such, benchmark retention with a degree of caution.

Should Marketers Focus on Retention?

For most marketers, keeping an eye on retention is vital. But how high of a priority should it be for you? Amongst user acquisition, in-app conversion, and monetization metrics, retention might not be a marketer’s primary issue, especially if you try to apply paid user acquisition as a remedy.

After all, most churn is likely to occur when a user finds they no longer desire to play the game. Players might churn through forgetting, boredom, or (in small part) frustration from a lack of fulfillment of their needs.

As such, marketers need to identify not just where users churn, but why. In such cases where:

  • The game is enjoyable, but users haven’t gotten past the tutorial.
  • New functions are released.
  • Offers for in-game purchases go live.

Paid re-engagement campaigns to boost retention are a great tool. However, if players are switching off because of boredom or lack of ongoing features, you may want to turn to organic methods that require more cross-collaboration within your company, such as making good use of loyalty programs that provide differentiated benefits to VIP players, or elements that grant levels and badges when certain goals are achieved.

With these tools, you can increase long-term interest by allowing players to reenter the game independently without continuous paid marketing actions, reducing the cost as well.

Going Organic to Find Retention Boosts

There’s more in a marketer’s toolbox than you might realize. In addition to advertising, it is important to expand the inflow of organic users through owned channels.

The retention of users who install organically is often higher than that of users who come through paid media. As such, channels like SEO, ASO, and other owned channel management need to be given some attention.

SEO, for example, is often viewed solely as an acquisition strategy. But if you make it a priority to study retention and learn about your long-term users, you might find the keywords that lapsed users may be searching for outside of your app, if they’re looking for an alternative. By creating content that targets such keywords you might be able to get users back by helping them discover features they may have missed.

Collaborate, Communicate, Convert

The real secret to improving retention is that your marketing organization, which is placed at the forefront of dealing with players, needs to play a key role in digesting external feedback from them and effectively conveying that feedback to product teams. This relationship can result in better retention, allowing the metrics related to your success to flourish.

In the process, a marketer’s communication and collaboration skills become core competencies. Understanding different points of view and communicating well is fundamental, especially as marketing and product teams move closer together. None of this happens automatically, and it requires a lot of skill. But ultimately, it is possible to make vast improvements to retention rates by working cross-functionally to get things done.

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Influencer Partnerships: The Key to Expanding Your Game’s Reach https://gameanalytics.com/blog/how-to-find-gaming-influencers/ Wed, 22 Nov 2023 13:58:51 +0000 https://gameanalytics.com/?p=21293 social influencers cover image

Working with social media influencers can open up an ocean of new players for your games. But who are the best influencers to work with? How do you go about finding them? And how can you get in touch with them? ]]>
social influencers cover image

Partnering up with a social media influencer can bring in hordes of new players. There are thousands of influencers out there who rack up billions of hours of consumers’ time (a recent YouGov survey showed us that Q3 2019, the number of hours of live gaming content watched has more than doubled, from 3.8 billion hours to 9.0 billion in Q2 2021). GWI’s latest report estimates that 84% of gamers use YouTube for gaming content and news.

GWI Social Report

And with new laws around privacy and advertising affecting UA campaigns, now might be a good time to look at alternative ways to get exposure for your titles and bring new players to your game. But which influencers should you work with? And how do you find them? Here’s what we know.

Figure out your objectives

Depending on your budget and preference, there are a few ways to find the right partner. The first is to buddy up with an agency that works with influencers. This can be a much easier and simpler process than doing it yourself, but it comes with setbacks. Or, you can go about it yourself. This can be a longer and more tedious process, but it can reap more results (and save a cent or two in finders fees).

Before we dive into the how, when, and why, you’ll need to get a few things in order:

  • Perfect your pitch: This should be short, simple, and sweet. You’ll want to include a catchy and descriptive title, a short description of your game, and any trailers and imagery. You don’t need to oversell here – let your work speak for itself. You can even use AI to lend a hand here. Just make sure to personalize it and use the suggestion as a guide (rather than just copy and paste).

Bard AI example

  • Define your audience: There are thousands of influencers, all covering different genres and games. Define who your target audience is (age, gender, likes), and you’ll have an easier job of vetting who you should work with.
  • Figure out your budget: This’ll help you decide how many influencers you can work with, how long you want your campaigns to run, and whether or not you can afford to work with an agency.

Using an agency to find influencers

If you’re short on time, pairing up with an agency could be a good way to go. They can save you a lot of hassle and cut out a lot of the legwork.

Five agencies to consider:

  • Matchmade: They specialize in YouTube and Instagram, and cater for all gaming platforms.
  • Game Influencer: They can can help secure Let’s Play videos, integrated ads into their content, product placement, and pre-rolls.
  • Disobey: They have over 15K creators connected on their Twitter, and work with studios like SEGA, Raw Fury, and NVIDIA.
  • Pocket Whale: These guys specialize on YouTube, Twitch, Instagram and Snapchat.
  • The Handbook: This tool acts much more like a directory which you can sign up to. It costs around £70p/mo, and has a long list of influencers you can reach out to.

The Handbook example

What can an agency help with?

  • Cut out a lot of the admin. If you’re doing it yourself, you need to be organized. So that’s research, spreadsheets, and time you could better spend on your game.
  • They’re the experts. They can help you find the right partner, perfect your pitch, even advise on when is best to reach out to an influencer (so you avoid conflicting with other game launches and events, to increase your chance of being accepted).
  • They have a foot in the door. It’s not a complete cold outreach. They work with these influencers every day and have built a relationship with them, so you’ll likely get much better and faster results than doing it yourself.
  • They can scale with your game and budget. These agencies can work with and scale with your success. They can tap into their network of influencers to create campaigns of different sizes and scopes, depending on your needs and budget, which they can adapt over time easily.
  • They can help optimize your ROI. Influencer agencies have tools and dashboard to track campaign performance, and can make adjustments to optimize your return on investment (ROI). A good agency should also be sharing insights and their recommendations to increase performance (from creatives, pitches, through to picking the right partner).

What are the drawbacks of using an agency?

  • They might not focus on your niche. There are plenty of genres and sub-genres (especially within mobile gaming). If you’re building a puzzle idle mobile game with a ‘dog plumbers in space’ theme, well that’s a very specific game you have there. And some of these agencies might not have contacts that specialize in that area.
  • They might not have the influencer you want. There are thousands of influencers out there. If you have a specific influencer in mind, they might not be connected with any agency – they could be handling their sponsorships and partnerships themselves. So you could lose out on the perfect match. Take The Frustrated Gamer for example. When looking on their YouTube channel, they direct any business enquiries to their personal email. And although they might also be working with some agencies, they could easily be a missed opportunity. Or the agency might be charging you for something you could find yourself.

Frustrated Gamer YouTuber example

  • It costs money. Depending on what the agency’s model is, it could cost you a pretty penny working with one. Some usually charge a flat rate for every video, where others can take a commission on top of your results.
  • No guarantee of getting sponsored. The influencer still needs to accept the job. And there’s no guarantee that they will. So you could be paying with no actual outcome (depending on their model).
  • Lack of control. When working with an agency, you might have less control over which influencers you end up picking, the creative direction of your campaign, and the timing and scheduling of content. You could also have to give up some control over your overall messaging, which might not be ideal.
  • Room for error. They say don’t shoot the messenger. But in this scenario, if your agency partner miscommunicates something about your game, gets the pitch wrong, or even isn’t as convincing as you would be when reaching out, well it can affect your campaigns, or even chances of getting picked.

How to search for influencers yourself

Finding influencers for your games isn’t necessarily rocket science. It just takes some time, patience, and a good pitch. When looking, you want to make sure you reach out to as many as possible, with different ranges of popularity and niches. The more popular they are, the harder they’ll be to convince (and the more they’ll probably cost). So have a large, focused list of who to target. Here are a few things you can do:

Cast a wide net

It’s tempting to go for the best influencers out there. Afterall, why wouldn’t you want PewDiePie raving about your game? But micro-influencers (smaller, and sometimes are more specialized) can be just as effective, and even have higher engagement rates. Take Retromation – he has around 200k subscribers and specializes in rogue-like games. But he regularly gets over 25% of his subscribers watching his videos. Meanwhile, a star like PewDiePie has over 100 million subs, but only around 5% watch regularly. (And most of his content isn’t actually gaming.)

Also, the more popular an influencer is, the more competition you’ll be fighting against to grab their attention. So reaching out to a range of influencers will give you the best chance of landing a few partners to work with.

Search for similar games

Use key terms like “gameplay”, “review”, “let’s play” or “guides” while searching for your competitor’s games on social channels. If you find any gamers making content around those similar titles, chances are they’ll like and cover yours, too.

BitLife YouTube Example

Look at your direct competitors

You can see who your competitors or similar studios have partnered up with by heading to their social media accounts, saving you from starting your search from scratch.

Check that they’re the real deal

You want to make sure whoever you partner up with has real followers and high engagement rates. Influencer marketing tools like HypeAuditor and BuzzSumo can help you do a background check, and find out what their engagement is like.

Keep an organized list

Your outreach should reach triple digits. So you’ll need an organized excel spreadsheet (or any other organizational tool), to keep track of who you’ve contacted, what the status is, how large that influencer is, and what you’ve secured.

Plan ahead and give yourself time

Whatever route you go down, make sure you give yourself plenty of planning time. Ideally, you’ll want to reach out to agencies or influencers a few weeks before you launch your game. That way, you should have perfected your creatives and game, and give yourself enough time to reach out and schedule your game into a creator’s calendar.

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