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7 min read
#Game Design

Quit the Grind: Other Ways to “Level”

In many RPGs you reach a point when battles are neither novel nor challenging, when you’re just going through the motions for gold or experienceーalso known as grinding. It can kill any momentum the game had going, and it turns play into work. The problem is that grinding is hard to avoid in the standard RPG formula where each battle pushes you closer to the big “level up.” You’re inherently rewarded for grinding, and sometimes forced to by sudden jumps in difficulty. Many classic RPGs have explored alternatives here, tooーlet’s see how they handled “leveling up.” LIMITED NUMBER OF ENEMIES This is the most simple solution- you can’t grind if there aren’t any more enemies! This is used by many Strategy RPGs (Fire Emblem, Front Mission, etc.) that they are divided into stages with a set numbers of enemies. This...
19 min read
#Game Deconstructions

If Vainglory Doesn’t Make it, No One Will

In short: Vainglory is without a doubt the best MOBA that has been made for touch screen devices. It’s a giant fish in a very small pond that is the MOBA category on touchscreen devices. If the pond grows into an ocean, it’s only because of this game. Super Evil Megacorp’s (SEM) Vainglory is easily the most hyped mobile game of 2014 – and for a very good reason. Vainglory delivers a true multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) with unseen graphics and a game engine that can run this piece of art at a massive worldwide scale on touchscreens. Vainglory is MOBA on mobile, not MOBA for mobile. It stays true to the genre with a large enough map, multi-dimensional champions, complex item strategies and long game sessions. In fact, the only casual part about this game is that it’s...
clash-of-clans-monetization
7 min read
#Ads & Monetization

Soft Touches on Clash of Clans Monetization

I’ve met a lot of fellow free-to-play-game developers recently and talking about games always eventually turns to monetization. Talking about monetization inevitably turns to the big successes in the market, including Clash of Clans. I love Clash’s monetization design, as it’s very simple to understand from the player’s perspective. It doesn’t enforce payment at any point and it’s extremely clever in some of the subtle details that I think are driving the urge to spend money. Here are a few of the details I can’t remember reading about and which people sometimes don’t think are as obvious as I thought they were: First purchase value proposition Every single player I’ve talked to, purchases an additional builder as the first purchase. Builders are a massively constrained resource in the game and vital for the game pacing once you’ve built the first...
4 min read
#Ads & Monetization

PvP Could Increase Your Game Revenue by 510%

The key to success and drawing revenue for any game is to be fun to play. Shocking huh? I’m sure you had already figured that out on your own. What you might not be entirely aware of is the importance engagement has over game revenue, and a simple way to improve it. A recent study by Kongregate reveals compelling data that shows that having a player vs player mode is a really powerful engagement tactic. Nothing beats human interaction when it comes to keep the players coming back for more. And more gameplay equals more chances of cashing in. Let’s break down the numbers of the study. I think you’ll be blown away! The more the merrier When players like the game and are engaged, they are closer to paying because they find value in doing so. We’re shown that...
1 min read
#Data & Analytics

The science behind mobile game addiction

A great infographic on why players keep coming back for more...
8 min read
#Data & Analytics

Predictive analytics set to become more valuable in light of rising CPIs

Say you produce and market mobile apps for iPhones. You have 1 million active users in the US. Now what are these users economically worth to you? Let’s do a little thought experiment: Say you were to sell them all at market cost-per-install (CPI) to other mobile developers. In January 2012 that would have yielded 1.3 million USD – very roughly speaking and abstracting from transaction cost and economies of scale. The same thought experiment would have generated around 2 million USD in December 2012. And by now, it would generate a staggering 3.4 million USD for you [1]. That’s quite a change, isn’t it? The industry is consolidating. A few main players generate big revenues and spend big on user acquisition. The market is crowded with pretty good apps, marginalizing viral and organic growth. For developers with thin capital...
8 min read
#Data & Analytics

The Golden Curve: Determining Player Value in Freemium Apps

It is impossible to perfectly know the value of a user before they stop playing the game. You can only estimate it, i.e. make a statement about the probable value of a user. This is where the Golden Curve comes in, and Julian Runge tells you all about it in this article.
6 min read
#Data & Analytics

Free to Play and Its Key Performance Indicators

David Xicota presents a glossary of the most relevant and common terms in the online games industry. They constitute the background of why it’s important to design games that engage with the players.
10 min read
#Data & Analytics

Introducing Clustering IV: The Case of Tera Online

Anders Drachen, Christian Bauckhage and Rafet Sifa provide a couple of examples showing how cluster analysis operates in practice on player data and how to present the results of cluster analysis, in order to make them actionable. This is the last post in its series.
6 min read
#Data & Analytics

Introducing Clustering III: Challenges and Pitfalls

Anders Drachen, Christian Bauckhage and Rafet Sifa take a look at the specific challenges involved when using clustering for game analytics.
3 min read
#Tool & Product

The GameAnalytics-PlayMaker Integration Got Better

Jean Fabre about how well PlayMaker and GameAnalytics work together.
7 min read
#Data & Analytics

Introducing Clustering II: Clustering Algorithms

Anders Drachen, Christian Bauckhage and Rafet Sifa briefly outline several classes of algorithms and discuss the types of contexts they are useful in. This is the second in a series of four posts.
10 min read
#Data & Analytics

Introducing Clustering I: Behavioral Profiling for Game Analytics

Anders Drachen, Christian Bauckhage and Rafet Sifa introduce the foundations of cluster analysis for player behavior, and the background for why these kinds of techniques are useful for game analytics. This is the first in a series of four posts.