An example of game development based on Google Analytics data
A few months ago, the developer Tobias Seminski and his friend had something like a game dev development. They decided to create a low-key game and constantly update and improve it using Google Analytics data and user reviews. They did not want to spend half a year developing an unremarkable game that would eventually get lost on Google Play. Anyway, it was not so much time. Therefore, it seemed just a crazy idea - to develop the game, starting only from the feedback from players. Want to know what came of it? More details - in our translation.
Initial version 1.0
First of all, the game had to come up with a concept. Every time I went to Google Play, I was surprised that a simple game, the goal of which was to break an egg, could become so popular and was downloaded more than 5 million times.
')
Despite the relatively low score of the game - only 3.0, people continued to download it. Obviously, on Google Play, the download count is more important than the rating. Surprisingly, in the search results for the keyword "egg" this game comes first.
In the end, we decided to quickly concoct a simple game in the genre of "break an egg". Free soundtrack, 50% of finished graphics, 50% of graphics drawn by my friend, 5 hours to write code, 2 hours to prepare screenshots, upload to Google Play - and Pet Baby Egg is ready!
To open new pets, you need to click on the egg. The higher the level of the player, the more clicks are required to get a pet.
The goal of the game is to collect all the pets. Boredom! And now let's look at the statistics:
Well, well, our game began to download!
611 sessions in 2 weeks. No marketing, just keywords. A rather low percentage of returned users (46.2%) means that in a couple of months no one will play this game.
The average session duration was only 3 minutes 3 seconds. To increase this figure, we decided to interest the players with new content - the opportunity to take care of their pets.
Mission: "Care" - version 1.1
By analogy with Tamagotchi, we added a kitchen, a game room and a bedroom to the game. Moreover, they gave players the opportunity to earn coins by playing with their pet and breaking an egg. We also added a store where you could buy food for coins. It took about a week to add new graphics and code. Here's what we got:
7 days after the release of version 1.1 on the Google Play Store, we received the following data:
The number of downloads increased by as much as 20%!
The rate of returning users grew by almost 52%!
The average session duration has doubled. It worked!
It's time to take stock. With the advent of game events, we learned about all the actions performed by players:
We analyzed the most popular game events and found out that the players like the ball game the most (thanks in large part to the physics engine). For each click on the ball or egg, users received a coin. But, oddly enough, very few people bought balls in the store. Therefore, we assumed that the players simply do not know that it is possible to earn coins in this way.
Coin earning visualization - version 1.15
Before
After
Before
After
So, in version 1.15, users began to buy balls 2 times more often (the rate of purchases increased from 6.77% to 14.99%).
And we decided not to stop there.
Advanced Care Level - version 1.2
Having spent on updates for about a week, we added indicators of the levels of hunger, happiness and energy of the pet, so that players take more care of him and more often go into the game. In addition, the ball game became more interactive - the pet began to beat the serve.
As a result, the percentage of returned users was 57%, exceeding the figure of version 1.1 by 5.5%.
The average session duration increased to 7 minutes 22 seconds - by 142% compared with version 1.0 (3 minutes 3 seconds) and by 24% compared with version 1.1 (5 minutes 56 seconds).
More content and a mini-game for earning coins - version 1.3
At this stage, we had a simple pet care simulator, but we wanted to add more items to the store. Due to the fact that we did not pay enough attention to the game economy, inflation arose in the game. For example, wallpaper for one of the rooms cost 5,000 coins. It was necessary to provide players with a new way of making game currency, and for this purpose we made a new mini-game.
The mini-game made it possible to earn 500–1000 coins in just 1–2 minutes. Look at the results.
The percentage of returned users increased to 70.5%, which is 13% higher than in version 1.2. Mini-game fully justified itself!
More content and new features - version 1.5
In the last update, we fixed minor bugs and added new items and features.
Result:
The average session duration increased to 8 minutes 20 seconds - 273% higher compared with version 1.0!
Conclusion
1. Adding new content allowed to increase players' retention (from 46.2% to 70.5%).
2. Adding new content allowed to increase the duration of the average game session (from 3 minutes 3 seconds to 8 minutes 20 seconds).
3. Google Analytics events can be not only collected but also analyzed with benefit!
We do not recommend that you make mediocre games and update them over time, because in the long run it is not profitable. But we strongly recommend that you use Google Analytics and analyze the collected data.
Initial version 1.0
First of all, the game had to come up with a concept. Every time I went to Google Play, I was surprised that a simple game, the goal of which was to break an egg, could become so popular and was downloaded more than 5 million times.
')
Despite the relatively low score of the game - only 3.0, people continued to download it. Obviously, on Google Play, the download count is more important than the rating. Surprisingly, in the search results for the keyword "egg" this game comes first.
In the end, we decided to quickly concoct a simple game in the genre of "break an egg". Free soundtrack, 50% of finished graphics, 50% of graphics drawn by my friend, 5 hours to write code, 2 hours to prepare screenshots, upload to Google Play - and Pet Baby Egg is ready!
To open new pets, you need to click on the egg. The higher the level of the player, the more clicks are required to get a pet.
The goal of the game is to collect all the pets. Boredom! And now let's look at the statistics:
Well, well, our game began to download!
611 sessions in 2 weeks. No marketing, just keywords. A rather low percentage of returned users (46.2%) means that in a couple of months no one will play this game.
The average session duration was only 3 minutes 3 seconds. To increase this figure, we decided to interest the players with new content - the opportunity to take care of their pets.
Mission: "Care" - version 1.1
By analogy with Tamagotchi, we added a kitchen, a game room and a bedroom to the game. Moreover, they gave players the opportunity to earn coins by playing with their pet and breaking an egg. We also added a store where you could buy food for coins. It took about a week to add new graphics and code. Here's what we got:
7 days after the release of version 1.1 on the Google Play Store, we received the following data:
The number of downloads increased by as much as 20%!
The rate of returning users grew by almost 52%!
The average session duration has doubled. It worked!
It's time to take stock. With the advent of game events, we learned about all the actions performed by players:
We analyzed the most popular game events and found out that the players like the ball game the most (thanks in large part to the physics engine). For each click on the ball or egg, users received a coin. But, oddly enough, very few people bought balls in the store. Therefore, we assumed that the players simply do not know that it is possible to earn coins in this way.
Coin earning visualization - version 1.15
Before
After
Before
After
So, in version 1.15, users began to buy balls 2 times more often (the rate of purchases increased from 6.77% to 14.99%).
And we decided not to stop there.
Advanced Care Level - version 1.2
Having spent on updates for about a week, we added indicators of the levels of hunger, happiness and energy of the pet, so that players take more care of him and more often go into the game. In addition, the ball game became more interactive - the pet began to beat the serve.
As a result, the percentage of returned users was 57%, exceeding the figure of version 1.1 by 5.5%.
The average session duration increased to 7 minutes 22 seconds - by 142% compared with version 1.0 (3 minutes 3 seconds) and by 24% compared with version 1.1 (5 minutes 56 seconds).
More content and a mini-game for earning coins - version 1.3
At this stage, we had a simple pet care simulator, but we wanted to add more items to the store. Due to the fact that we did not pay enough attention to the game economy, inflation arose in the game. For example, wallpaper for one of the rooms cost 5,000 coins. It was necessary to provide players with a new way of making game currency, and for this purpose we made a new mini-game.
The mini-game made it possible to earn 500–1000 coins in just 1–2 minutes. Look at the results.
The percentage of returned users increased to 70.5%, which is 13% higher than in version 1.2. Mini-game fully justified itself!
More content and new features - version 1.5
In the last update, we fixed minor bugs and added new items and features.
Result:
The average session duration increased to 8 minutes 20 seconds - 273% higher compared with version 1.0!
Conclusion
1. Adding new content allowed to increase players' retention (from 46.2% to 70.5%).
2. Adding new content allowed to increase the duration of the average game session (from 3 minutes 3 seconds to 8 minutes 20 seconds).
3. Google Analytics events can be not only collected but also analyzed with benefit!
We do not recommend that you make mediocre games and update them over time, because in the long run it is not profitable. But we strongly recommend that you use Google Analytics and analyze the collected data.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/278863/
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