Make Your Live Service Game Thrive | Andy Needham, Matt Dixon
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Delivered at Casual Connect Europe 2016 Chillingo’s head of studio, Andy Needham and business development director, Matt Dixon will explain how to overcome common challenges in developing and maintaining live service games for players around the world. They will reference case study examples from their multiplayer battle tank game, Iron Force and share what’s made it one of the company’s most successful games.
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Make Your Live Service Game Thrive | Andy Needham, Matt Dixon
- 1. Make Your Live Service Game Thrive Matt Dixon & Andy Needham
- 2. History of Chillingo Chillingo began life in 2001 publishing indie developer games and apps on smartphones. Chillingo has made history on the App Store with several breakout hits including ‘Angry Birds’ and ‘Cut The Rope’. Since acquisition in 2010, Chillingo has expanded its 3rd party publishing services to leverage the knowledge of EA’s teams and strength. Chillingo’s portfolio includes some of the most innovative and successful games on market.
- 3. What is a live service game?
- 4. The evolution to live service Paid Game • In frequent updates • No server • No events • No need for daily analytics Freemium Game • Some updates • In game currency • In game store • Basic use of analytics • No server based events Live Service Game • Frequent content updates via client and server • Regular events • Major use of analytics to enhance game dynamics • Super Social
- 5. Our reference title, Iron Force • Developed by Cool Fish games based in Beijing • Launched July 2013 • Available on both iOS and Android • One of the top 100 monetizing games for the last 2 years running • Reached number 1 top grossing in multiple countries • Reached number 1 top free game in multiple countries • Over 30m downloads • Localized into 10 languages
- 6. The Challenges Retain… Gain… Convert… Support
- 8. Retaining players Identify what your players enjoy about the game and feed them with more of it (but not too much at anyone time!). Provide players with exciting updates, this also gives you something to shout about on social media!
- 9. Retaining players REGULAR events & offers drives both convergence and retention
- 10. Retaining players A social bond is the toughest to form, but the hardest bond to break.
- 11. Retaining players Keep things fresh, new experiences and interfaces.
- 13. Gaining new players Does anyone in the room know any UA companies?
- 14. Gaining new players Refresh your store, UA and marketing assets regularly.
- 15. Gaining new players Client updates can drive placement, make sure they are meaningful!
- 16. Gaining new players Use your communities, engage and they will advocate. Your game needs to become their hobby, every morning, noon and night they should be thinking about their next move.
- 18. Converting to spend In Game Promotions are vital in Live Service games
- 19. Converting to spend Use your soft launch to define your base economy Use your analytics to define levels for new content and offers. Analyze, Target and Promote. DAU DARPU DARPSRetentionLTV
- 21. Support your players Support your communities.
- 22. Support your players Make sure you have a platform that offers bidirectional customer support communication
- 23. Support your players Talk directly to your customers.
- 24. The Result!
- 25. The result Your game will grow and hopefully too your DAPRU.
Notas del editor
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- ANDY Talk about the success to retention is understanding the player’s behaviour Our own experience at EA along with revealing insights from the team at Immersyve have helped us to understand the key to retaining players is to understand their desires, ambitions and motives, and it this self driven behaviour that will drive your economy and it is our role is to use the analytics to help us to clearly present a a quicker and more efficient road to their goals. If you put the player first in everything you do , they will lead your game to success. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you allow the player to enjoy autonomy then the sense of control and ownership will keep your game in their daily routine. .
- ANDY Talk about identifying the popular things Use the analytics and the community to discover what your players enjoy most about their game. Continue to supply more of it but in a calculated manner, More and more content is not going to sustain real long term interest itself . Talk about long term planning Player retention figures are measured in 1 and 30 days from launch , but beyond that you should think about how your are going the keep the game fresh and socially engaging for the next 3- 5 years Talk about regular updates Provide regular updates of the things will be most excited to see in their game, We like to have a monthly update via the server ( Example) and client updates at least every quarter ( example) Reference the Tier Six Tanks survey poll and Freight Yard Map naming competition This regular refresh in turn will keep the social activity buzzing and keep drawing the players back in. Handover Delivering compelling content however, is only one half of the service you are providing 45 SECS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If the players have a real sense of ownership and influence on the game, this will form a strong sense of loyalty and involvement, it is something similar to that seen with sports fans and their favorite team. ( And yes they can be just as vocal !) Get to know your social whales, they are your ambassadors, they are extremely valuable in maintaining the interest and activity around the game. 45 SECS
- MATT Talk about the effect of sales promotions, highlight that you must predict the effect on both short and long term revenue – often a short sale can reduce medium term revenue BUT it will drive engagement. Just having a sale of an item can bring a short term lift but if you combine sales with events aimed at delivering compelling rewards it drives both revenue, engagement and player satisfaction. Tips Pre announce the event in advance to allow layers to plan their strategy. Time the the event to a period when people will have time and money to spend such as Christmas and gain the most value from the deal.
- ANDY A social bond is toughest to form but the hardest bond to break! Talk about creating the social framework Sustaining the long term interest in the game involves creating new ways to play the game, new events and tournaments to keep the community engaged Talk about role of Legion in social Iron Force uses Legions to drive that social play – people play in teams and this has become the core reason players stay in the game. Talk about legions and events driving retention Players told us that they wanted to be able to have battles between legions. So we devised an event called the League of Legions, 2- 4 players from the same legion can now meet up and play against other legion. Talk about how legion play reinforces the bonds We designed it in a way that both the individual player and the Legion as a whole are rewarded from these skirmishes, this group reward brings a real kudos and respect to the most active within the group. That loyalty and passion is as hard to crack as any real fighting unit . Talk about making it easy to meet Help the players to organize their social play by having regular set times and days when they will all be available to play together. The event takes place every 4 hours during weekends, when the dau’s are at their maximum and increase in intensity around the start times. . 60 SECS
- ANDY Talk about how even though something may not need changing, over time the changing surroundings will force it. The first UI design successfully delivered a very smooth l and intuitive flow around the game, so you would be forgiven to think it is best left alone. But similar to how you see car manufacturers facelift their models mid life to keep them attractive to compete with newer rivals, you should also plan to have a review and update to keep it looking contemporary and in step with it’s surroundings. Talk about the graphics styles dating Originally we had solid 3d skeuomorphic look to the GUI but have now redesigned it to be more in line with the current flat design platform aesthetics. \60 SECS
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- MATT UA is not to be taken lightly. With the cost of entering the charts spiraling and costs approaching upwards of $40 per engaged user UA should be considered carefully. Is it to blast your app up the charts or is it to re-engage users and bring in new valuable users. Make sure your KPIs support consistent spend. UA is not a one shot strategy – it needs to feed your long term strategy. IT IS NOT THE END SOLUTION, it needs to be part of a far wider marketing strategy.
- ANDY Talk about the need to refresh and increase the quality of the marketing Remember assets live forever, so whatever you create has to be of the highest quality. Make sure you refresh your assets to breathe life into your product – this is required for both store and marketing assets – UA especially becomes more successful with every new video. Talk about how you need to apply analytics to the assets performance as well as the game’s The quality of the assets can make all the difference to the success of a marketing campaign, just as everything else in the game be scientific in your approach to your art, create variety of assets and A/B test the results for maximum performance Ask Steve ask how they do the test 30 SECS
- MATT Make sure you have a balance of content updates that are delivered both client and server side. For client updates they need to be meaningful and worth pushing for store placement – treat these as new product launches. New assets, New UA, channel push, social push etc.. Andy: Check if Freight Yard got us placements
- MATT Research shows it’s a social recommendation that drives the most installs. People trust people, if your fans advocate your product it will drive awareness and quite possible an install. Make sure you give players a place to socialise about the game, also make sure you monitor it and engage where necessary. Often organic social melting pots develop that you don’t moderate – keep an eye on these and nurture them. Don’t dictate what people can/ can’t say – let it evolve but guide them with meaningful social topics to talk about. Your game needs to become their hobby, every morning, noon and night they should be thinking about their next move.
- ANDY Talk about the clarity of communication around the advantages of spending The easy bit ! Seriously it is all about communicating to the player how a timely and wise investment will deliver greater rewards quicker Talk about how efficiency is a skill and that spending is a part of that strategy Efficiency is how players demonstrate skill in games, they will form strategies and routines around how and when they strategically use their and spend to maximise their performance
- ANDY Talk about how promotions are needed to re-engage users and work best when tied to a goal. Use promotions wisely, don’t over do them and make sure they are calculated, it can devalue and unbalance the overall economy. Try to tie them in to a long term progression towards new content. Talk about the promo campaign in the graphic and what it was for and achieved Be prepared to answer Q’s about how often we recommend sales of content and boosts etc
- ANDY Talk about how the game adapts as players change the dynamics Your soft launch should be the time to tweak the base economy, but when it goes for a full global live service and the game begins to evolve with the players, then you need to track their behavior and adapt the economy to be in synch with their progress Talk about how we target players with content that is relevant to their progress track the players’ progress in the game and segment them into cohorts, in Iron Force this will be the level they have reached. Each level has a specific set of content that is available to just this group , so it makes sense to target your promotions with custom offers tailored to be be the most relevant to them. Don’t try to sell 18” tyres for a car with 16” rims 40 SECS
- MATT Finally, publishing 3.0 is more focussed on players than ever before. Discuss the PARAMOUNT important of talking to players Social media allows them unparalleled access to you — and to other players The need for 24/7 customer service Answers HQ & command centers (cite IF) Need to devs tools that help empower players, make them heard and then act on their feedback Barriers to exit are high. Barriers to exit are low.
- MATT As mentioned previously, communities are vital to a live service. Give you players a place to hang out and share experiences. Makes sure you have a dedicated team as if your games takes off this will become a full time job Remember most social communities are public so try to keep anything ‘defect or negative’ on a separate platform.
- ANDY Talk about Command post and how we use it to engage players We identified and approached our most ardent players to join a select forum to discuss Iron Force future and to act as spokesmen for the community (example) Talk about Answers HQ and how we use it to empower players and develop ownership Answers HQ is unique to Electronic Arts. It is a support forum, but with a difference it's a global community focused on players helping other players. Furthermore it has gaming aspect with a performance reward you can earn. This is based on how much you contribute, the more you help, the more you'll move up in the ranks of the forum community
- ANDY Talk about Customer services and how we use to give players resolution There are going to be times when your player’s will need assistance on issues specific to them and it is at that time you have to switch to an individual service. Talk about having a direct relationship with the player Always make sure you have a direct contact with them, be honest and show empathy and have your support team immersed in the game and have an intimate knowledge of all the details of the game and be aware of all the social actrivity around the game. Talk about how the CE team are your ears to the ground Your Customer service team are also your eyes and ears to the player’s sentiment and can alert you to any issue that can be starting to emerge. Talk about how there is more to service than fixing things - it is also about fixing relationships Make the customer service experience for your player a great experience. Even if you can’t fix it , you can fix the relationship. If you demonstrate genuine commitment to your player it will turn a potential loss into an amazing victory. Talk about the importance of looking after the top players Know and respect who your top players are and organize your customer service system so that they are prioritized and receive that extra VIP treatment.
- ANDY Handover So what is the last thing we can take from putting your players first?
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