Agenda

HOST:

Isaac RoseboomHead of Insight

What the best games knowthat the rest don’t

Agenda Introduction

• Frictionless and interactive on-boarding

• A hierarchical approach to game loop at session, day and

week level

• Aggressive rewarding process that constantly gives player

momentum

Last few years has seen radical improvement in retention mechanics in F2P :

GARDENSCAPES STAR WARS GALAXY OF HEROES CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS

Strong task system to direct player Escalating rewards for daily play Strong elder player loop

Agenda F2P monetization

• ‘GOOD’ retention (e.g. D1 retention of 40% and D7 of 15%) will give an ‘average’ player

lifetime of 15 days

• So if you want a $1.50 LTV (i.e. $1 net LTV) need an ARPDAU of 10¢ **

• In the deltaDNA platform, currently fewer than 30% of games would achieve this.

30%

However running a profitable F2P game is still difficult…

**All revenue figures gross (i.e. before app store cut)

Agenda Why games struggles?

1. Too generous to non-payers

2. IAP is too cheap

3. No drive for spenders to spend again

4. Not enough Whales

Why do games with good retention struggle to monetize?

Agenda deltaDNA study

• 100 best performing games by MAU

• Roughly even split across genres: Puzzle, Action,

Strategy

• Just iOS

• Just US players

Can use deltaDNA data across many games to answer these questions

Charts that follow are for:

Agenda Too generous

Day 7 Retention vs. Day 7 Spender%• Day 7 Spenders: %Players active

on day 7 who have spent at any point

• High Day 7 retention no guarantee of good monetization!

• 38% of games with D7 > 10% have 10c ARPDAU

• 54% of games with D7 Spenders > 10% have 10c ARPDAU

Agenda IAP is too cheap

Conversion does not decrease if minimum price point is increasedBut… ARPDAU increases dramatically

Does not include starter bundles / promotions – just standard pricing

Price point lower than $2 devalues game significantly

Q3 = 75th percentile of games studied; M = median of games, Q1 = 25th percentile of games

Agenda No repeat spending

Hard to get above 10¢ ARPDAU without at least 3 IAPs / spender (lifetime)

Agenda Not enough Whales

Hard to get to 10¢ ARPDAU without at least 5% of spenders being WhalesWhale > $100/month

Agenda Getting to 10¢ ARPDAU

If you want 10¢ ARPDAU, you need:• Day 7 retention > 10%• Payers on day 7 > 10%• Min. price point > $2 • At least 3 spends / spender • At least 5% whales ( > $100 lifetime spend)

16% of games achieve all thisAll that do have ARPDAU > 10¢; 30¢ mean ARPDAU

How can this be achieved? (via analytics of course!)

Derive basic KPI goals from these charts

**All revenue figures gross (i.e. before app store cut)

Agenda How to do it?

• Need at least 1,000 spenders to get any answers from analytics

• At 2% conversion rate, this means 50k players(i.e. serious soft-launch with marketing spend)

• Want to get basics right before this:‣ Core game must drive committed players towards

IAP‣ IAP pricing should be well thought-out ‣ Game must drive repeat conversion

Recipe to build a high LTV game

Agenda Carrot vs stick

Either way, it must be deeply integrated into the core game loop

Design: driving conversion

Premium experience

Flexible play

Pros: Naturally leads to repeat

purchase

Cons: Hard to design

Resource pinch points

Pay walls

Pros: Easy to construct

Cons: Increases churn

REWARD PUNISH

Agenda Good monetisation strategies

CLASH ROYALE

‘Soft’ pinch points

BEST FIENDS FOREVER

Integrated into core reward loop

GOLF CLASH

Well balanced bundle offers Gacha and collection mechanics

STAR WARS: GALAXY OF HEROES

Agenda Building analytics into design

Three step process to drive design-analytics cycle1. KPIs (is there a problem?)2. Shallow (where is there a problem?)3. Deep (what is the problem?)

Developing these mechanics via analytics

Agenda

STEP STEP STEP

KP I SHALLOW DEEP

Example: Conversion

Daily conversion < 1%

Agenda

STEP STEP STEP

KP I SHALLOW DEEP

Example: Repeat spend

Lifetime conversion > 2%

but…Daily conversion < 1%

Spends by level Spender economy balance

Agenda

STEP STEP STEP

KP I SHALLOW DEEP

Example: Pricing

Is my minimum price < $2

Daily conversion > 1%

but…ARPPU = $8

Yes

Agenda

STEP STEP STEP

KP I SHALLOW DEEP

Example: Whales

Lifetime conversion > 2%

Daily conversion > 1%Min. price point > $2

but…ARPDAU = 6c

Most whales build up via daily spend of moderate

amountsLook at player spending

patterns

Agenda Using analytics

• Ability to track and analyze player behavior at granular level

• Ability to build custom reports and track bespoke KPIs over time

• Ability to test quickly and report detailed impact of tests (not just p-value)

How analytics technology can support decision making?

Agenda Conclusion

Designing a successful game is not easy!

Using analytics it is possible to identify and understand underperforming aspects and

improve

BUT…

HOST:

Isaac RoseboomHead of Insight

Thank you!