building thriving virtual worlds =profit
DESCRIPTION
Building Thriving Virtual Worlds =PROFIT. Justin Beck CEO. UA costs are rising… Player retention is THE way to make profit. R&D Design of the game Publishing Social engagement with your users Live Ops Incorporating feedback into the content updates. How we make money. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Building Thriving Virtual Worlds=PROFIT
Justin BeckCEO
UA costs are rising…
Player retention is THE
way to make profit
R&DDesign of the game
PublishingSocial engagement with your users
Live OpsIncorporating feedback into the content updates
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How we make moneyDownload the game for free
Play and love the game
Buy virtual currency
Spend virtual currency in the game
Repeat and buy more
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Virtual Goods Expenses
Purchase Swag 30%
Level Up 22%
Premium Resources 15%
Everything Else 33%
67%
Gross RevenueTotal Accounts
Average Payer LTV
$5M1.8M$145
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Design
Open World to Explore
• Flag chains• Direct engagement with neighbors
Hunting Parties
• Group hunting• Invite in-game friends for
synchronous game play
Kingdoms
• Recruiting, building, warring
Player to Player Trade
• The virtual economy formed around trade
Chat and Messaging
• The social infrastructure to pipe it all together
Things we would do differently
• Synchronous game play• Relying on neighbors• Total persistence• A true economy
Things we got right
• Robust chat system• Smooth friend, invite, and personal messaging
system• Faces and characters • Social Engagement Loops
Publishing
Marketing and Communication
• Community building is downward, upward, and cross communication.
Update Hut Posts
Support Tickets
Game Forum
App Reviews
In-Game Chat
In-Game Messages
Social Media
PR / App Description
PLAYER CROSS COMMUNICATION
GAME DEVS
Engagement
• Ask questions and respond to player questions• Facebook makes this engagement even easier
Update Hut Posts
• Communicating change logs• Preview updates before they come out• Replying to feedback• In-game messaging about updates so that
everyone knows they exist
Curating a list of Beta testers
• Sending beta builds• Getting bug reports back from them• Getting game play feedback from them• They will be fickle (just like your players)• They will be intense when engaged • Auto Error reporting
Customer Support
• Have a straight forward customer support policy– Ignore the bad, reward the good
• Discipline when necessary• Metrics to Measure:
– Ticket volume and backlog– Average solve time– Average response time– Productivity
Live Ops
Swag
• Custom hats, weapons, and skins• Limited time, in general high price• Very cool looking
– Player recommended Swag– Connected to Holidays
• Bundling with Sales
Economy
• Very small adjustments to problems and situations
• Player confidence in market stability is shaken when large changes happen– Players speculate and then act, thus causing large
swing changes
Competitions
• Weekly Hat Races• Weekly Tournaments• League Rewards based on timeline
Additional content
• Our “Ages”– Exploration– Gathering– Emergence– Kingdoms– Ascension
• Dungeons• Expanding skills• Increasing level cap
Recap• Design
– Stay focused on features, social implications, and the social engagement loop (including motivation)
• Publishing– Build strong downward and cross communication channels in
the product– Focus on engagement and quality over support
• Live Ops– Plan for content, know how much it will cost– User player feedback in making it– Know how it will be messaged and consumed
Thanks!