space ape's live ops stack: engineering mobile games for live ops from day 1
TRANSCRIPT
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LIVE OPS MANAGER, ANDREW MUNDEN
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Introduction
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Who am I?2011
2013
2014
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Who am I?2015
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Live Ops 101
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What is Live Ops?
A Bit More Detailed...Design, create, and execute events and promotions to maximize
revenue and player happiness; while minimizing fatigue and content burn.
● Incredibly Agile● Scrappy● Adaptive
Broad DefinitionDo what needs to be done for a live game to be successful.
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Live Ops Workflow
Framework
Database
Design
ValidationApe WorkGame
Community
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Live Ops Design
● Frameworks
● Estimated Value
● Design
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Value
FrameworksFramework
● Provide Consistency● Broad Balancing● Feeds Into Others
Tools
Item T
Dimensions of Value
● Number of Angles
● Length of Sides
● Symmetry
Modifiers
Number of Angles = 80%
Length of Sides = 20%
Symmetry = 50%
$1.00
$1.50$1.00 * (80%+20%+50%)
a =
b =
c
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EV and Design
sum()
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Events vs. MonetisationType Event Monetisation
Item / Currency Sink High None
Item / Currency Tap Low High
Generates Gross Bookings Low - High High
Engagement High Low
Fatigue Low - High Low - High
● Not Mutually Exclusive● Complimentary Monetisation & Events are Best● Both Share Strong Similarities with Each Other● Spending Fatigue != Playing Fatigue; but is still very real!
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Cadence
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Space Ape Live Ops
Highly Technical Live Operations Planning Board
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F
Live Ops Cadence
I II III IV
E $E $
F
E $ F E
$ F
E - Engagement $ - Gross Bookings F - Player Fatigue
Event Rating System Month
I
II
III
IV
IV
IVIV
I
I I III
III II
IV
Adapts and changes dependent on:
● Content Pipeline● Event & Sales Data● Player Feedback● New Features
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Content
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What is content?Game elements that can be consumed by players.
Examples:● Characters / Robots● Consumable Boosts / Potions● Dialogues / Cutscenes● Campaign Levels
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What is content?
Consistently Hitting 70%+
Event Participation
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Content Drives Revenue
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Content Drives Revenue
Force of Nature
Malice Event Wyrm's Gambit
Birna Event
Ascended Alandra
Scorched Earth
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Gacha
Rival Kingdoms Transformers
Rarities Yes (Now) Yes
Duplicate Handling Yes Yes+
More = Better No Yes
A Brand No Yes
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So, about the bots?
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LIVE OPS: LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT
Event Release Bundles
Premium Crystal
Pool
Free Crystal
Pool
New Bot
Bot Crystal Sale
4 Weeks
3 Weeks
2-3 Weeks
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Questions?
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HEAD OF ANALYTICS, FRED EASEY
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A brief history of targetingNov 2016
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V1. The Stone Age: Shop only
• IAPs only displayed on shop page
• Bulk discount offered for higher spend
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V1. The Stone Age: Shop only • Multiple price points offered, player
will usually see a price they are happy to buy
• Bulk-buy discount encourages players to purchase higher value IAPs
• Players average transaction size tends to stay around the same level for subsequent transactions
• Shop is tucked away in the HUD, players need to actively search for it to find it
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V1. The Stone Age: Shop only
Interesting side-point: the bulk-buy discount for casino games is insane, more like 1000% EV vs 130% EV for non-casino games for top SKU
They have much less of a content burn issue from giving more away, as players tend to scale their bets to their balance
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V2. The Iron Age:Time limited bundles
Time-limited bundle of in-game items offered, with much higher EV* than regular shop
*EV = estimated value: value of bundle contents compared to normal shop
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V2. The Iron Age: Time limited bundles
Revenue (All Users)
Daily
Rev
enue
($)
Live Event + Themed event bundle generated the highest daily revenues
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● Supercell recently added time-limited bundles to Clash Royale
● Very good UI sign-posting
● Triggers on new arenas + special events
V2. The Iron Age: Time limited bundles
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V2. The Iron Age: Time limited bundles
10th Grossing
Top Grossing
Bundles Launched
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V2. The Iron Age: Time limited bundles • Limited time to purchase + high EV +
high quality art = more players buy than normal shop
• Bundle toast “pops” during session, so all players will see it
• One danger is players are trained to wait for sales and stop buying from the normal shop
• Can lead to content burn issues if bundles are too generous
• Relationship between bundle EV and conversion is not linear
• Works best when combined with a live event
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V3. The Steam Age: Timeline bundles
• Player sees a rotating group of bundles
• Prices are targeted based on the player’s historical spend
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Non-spender($0.00)
20 starter launch autobot
20 builder autobot
20 premium character autobot
10 builder autobot
10 premium character autobot 20 battle
10 small alloy_energon 5 battle
low-spender ($4.99-$9.99)
20 premium character autobot 100 battle
20 med alloy_energon
20 builder autobot
10 premium character autobot 20 battle 5 battle
mid-spender ($19.99+)
100 builder autobot
100 premium character autobot 100 battle
40 large alloy_energon
40 premium character autobot 20 battle
10 builder autobot
20 premium character autobot
10 premium character autobot
high-spender-1 ($39.99+)
100 premium character autobot
40 massive spark 100 battle
40 premium character autobot 100 builder
20 premium character autobot
100 massive alloy_energon
40 massive fuel_cells
high-spender-2 ($200+ last 7D)
100 premium character autobot
40 massive spark 100 battle
100 builder autobot
100 massive alloy_energon
100 large fuel_cells
V3. The Steam Age: Timeline bundles
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V3. The Steam Age: Timeline bundles • Much better at upselling than single price-point bundles• No product team curation required after initial setup• The games we launched with timeline bundles generate more
than 2x the LTV of the previous game that did not have timeline bundles
• Work well in conjunction with time-limited bundles - the revenue will often stack rather than cannibalizing
• Same dangers as single price bundles - danger of content burn and cannibalizes shop sales
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• When we analyzed the data, we saw that mean previous spend is a better predictor than max spend, for predicting next spend amount
lifetime_spend
max_prev_tiers
mode_prev_tiers
median_prev_tiers
mean+prev+tiers
previous_tiers
tiers_price
lifet
ime_
spen
d
max
_pre
v_tie
rs
mod
e_pr
ev_t
iers
med
ian_
prev
_tie
rs
mea
n+pr
ev+t
iers
prev
ious
_tie
rs
tiers
_pric
e
- 0.2
0
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0.2
- 0.4
- 0.6
- 0.8
- 1
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Coming next: The Rocket Age M-L targeted bundles
Timeline bundles targeted via machine learning to maximize player LTV
$10 Resource Bundle
$20 Character Bundle
$5 Builder Bundle
$100 Character Bundle
$40 Battle Bundle
$10 Battle Bundle
$100 Character Bundle
$40 Battle Bundle
$10 Battle Bundle
Many different types of bundles created by product team (+re-purpose existing ones). Covers all permutations of price + type + EV
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• Each bundle is scored based on the chance of the player purchasing it • The approach we are working on is separate models for price and type• Price based on previous bundle conversion (nearest-neighbours model)• Type based on what types sell well given specific player conditions (eg the
resource bundle is more likely to be purchased by players running low on resources)
• All bundles are assigned a % chance of purchase. We then multiply by bundle price to give an estimated return for each bundle and serve the one with highest return
• A random element will be included to stop the system from stagnating on specific bundles
Coming next: The Rocket AgeM-L targeted bundles
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Questions?
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PRODUCT MANAGER, MITCHELL SMALLMAN
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Rival Kingdoms:Trials, Tools, and Tricks in Live Ops
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A Little Context
● Slide with RK launch stats
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… but Rival Kingdoms had a problem.
● UA costs for RK were very high, super dark fantasy plus core RTS made it very expensive to market
● This is where many would consider the game in serious trouble, but our ARPPUs were so high it seemed like there was plenty of life left
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More Trains… or more Track?
? ?
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The Track In Front Of The Train
● Changed our sales strategy to event currencies (boosters) that provide ease of acquiring new exclusive content during an event
● Diamonds moved as a sink in frequently updated gacha chests, while staying a core loop currency
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Controlled Currencies
● Introduced “Mithril” in late 2015, Crafting in 2016
● Currency are capped or distributed only in events
● Raise cap, sell more, change the balance, create new demand
● The key: Tied directly to events and live ops
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Recipe of of a Successful Elder Game Event
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A Choice of Spend and Activity
● Should be fun if you spend $0, $5 or $100
● Should be fun if your alliance has a wide make up of different players with different behaviours
● Should feel achievable to all
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Social Connection & Competition
● Requires some co-ordination (this is fun)
● Keep in mind, heavy social can exhaust players, it’s harder to turn down your friends than a game developer
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Our Tools
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Live Event Config
● Allows us to change the goals, rewards and timings for an entire event
● If we use no new rewards or art, we could create a complete event in a matter of minutes
See video for live demo: https://youtu.be/Ct-885u1pAE?t=10m10s
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Live Bundle Tool
● Using standardized SKUs, able to create bundles on the fly
● The answer to the “what if you have a weak event?” problem
See video for live demo: https://youtu.be/Ct-885u1pAE?t=10m10s
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Reward Systems
● We’ve also built tools for frequent long term events
● In general, if we do something frequently, we try to put it live
See video for live demo: https://youtu.be/Ct-885u1pAE?t=10m10s
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Streaming Art
● Fresh Art = More Excitement = Better revenue
● If we need to pivot an event and offer a new item, we can stream in the art instead of baking into content
See video for live demo: https://youtu.be/Ct-885u1pAE?t=10m10s
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The Space Ape VIP Program
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Not Just Whales
● VIP includes streamers, large Kingdom leaders as well as large spenders
● Increased communication with devs is the primary benefit, not huge in game rewards, works both ways
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Data Analysis: Day To Day
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Measure Twice, Cut Once
● See how much each currency has changed after event
● Key segments: progression and spend tier
● What is the distance between segments?
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Measure Twice, Cut Once
● As your game gets less DAU, averages become less useful
● Frequently look at smaller segments and distribution
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Questions?
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