Game Operations Fundamentals - PlayFab
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Your game is awesome; you need a post-launch strategy that’s equally awesome. Learn the 5 key things you need to plan for to help your game get to the top of the charts and stay there, without throwing a ton of money away on user acquisition. Come prepared with questions and get advice on your game from game operations guru Scott Willoughby, former digital strategy expert for Wizards of the Coast and PopCap.
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Game Operations Fundamentals - PlayFab
- 1. a Platform-as-a-Service company Game Operations Fundamentals Scott Willoughby Director of Game Operations Success
- 2. Game Operations Fundamentals Scott Willoughby Director of Game Operations Success July 30, 2015 1
- 3. Why Are Live Ops Important? 1. Build Game 2. ?????????? 3. Profit! July 30, 2015 2
- 4. Live Ops is Phase 2 Everything from ship to sunset is a live ops challenge. Everything the light touches is live game ops. July 30, 2015 3 • Acquisition • Engagement • Conversion • Retention
- 5. But First! KPI Installs • Organic • Paid Users • Daily (DAU) • Monthly (MAU) • New vs. Returning Retention • Day 1/7/30/90 Conversion • Paying Users (Lifetime & Daily) • First Time Payers Revenue • Avg. Revenue Per User (ARPU, DARPU) • Avg. Revenue Per Paying User (ARPPU, DARPPU) • Daily Revenue July 30, 2015 4
- 6. Acquisition Get to know the POPE! • Paid • Owned • Partnership • Earned KPI to Watch: Installs, Retention, First Time Payers July 30, 2015 5
- 7. Engagement Give Players a Reason to Do More! • Social Connection • Events • Leaderboards • Personalization / Expression KPI to Watch: DAU/MAU, New vs. Returning Users July 30, 2015 6
- 8. Conversion Simplify and Motivate Spend Activity! • Economy Design • Sales • Offers • Alternate Value • Ads • Affiliate • Invites KPI to Watch: Revenue, ARPU, ARPPU, Paying Users, First Time Payers July 30, 2015 7
- 9. Retention Keep Players Coming Back! • Content Plan • Communication • In-App • Push • Email • Social • Incentivize • Transition KPI to Watch: Retention, MAU, New vs. Returning July 30, 2015 8
Editor's Notes
- Paid: Incent, Non-Incent, Networks…track for ROI optimization Owned: Web, Social, Mail Lists, X-Promo Partnership: Publishing Platforms, Promotional Partners Earned: PR, Event Coverage, Blogger/Streamer Coverage, P2P Viral
- -Socially connected players are up to 2x as engaged -Things like individual and community quests, or events can give people an ongoing reason to engage -Competitive players like to see how they stack up; multiple leaderboards allow more users to have a meaningful place -Customizing the experience can be a huge engagement driver (increases ownership) as well as a revenue driver
- ECONOMY: -How will you monetize? Premium, Freemium, Ads, Free-to-play with paid DLC, or true Free-to-pay (aka ‘Free to Win’ –Wargaming CEO) -Think about economy balance: profile a few different users and model content consumption against earn rate. -Start with at least 60 days of content for NON-PAYERS -Look at your mechanics in terms of earning power per session -Build a spend curve to match earnings and price items just outside of earnings to create desirability and avoid runaway inflation Other things to think about: -Where is your first pinch point? When might you pressure a non-converting user out of the game? (I prefer to avoid and find ways to allow a BETTER experience) -Err on the side of too tight early on, and loosen if needed (hard to go the other way) -Model the ‘cost to complete’ for different types of users…consider this when planning your business metrics as it dictates your upside SALES: -Cash discounts, limited offers, time or event-driven items; free gift with purchase; bundles -Surfacing offers is key to drive significant KPI lift!!! Message visibly! -Create a sense of urgency, and vary sales regularly to avoid sales fatigue (the Macy’s effect) OFFERS: -Impulse purchases at pain points (extra life, time extension, auto-win, preserve progress, etc.) -One-time offer Starter Bundles or deep discounts for non-payers -Repeat purchase offers ALT VALUE: Let non-monetizers pay with installs and eyeballs -Advertising (of course), but make it worthwhile to the user, not painful (disable ads). See Crossy Road (bonus coins) and Adventure Capitalist (4 hour earning multiplier). -Affiliate offers (Offer Walls): give in-game rewards for completing partner offers (can ad 15-20% revenue) -Social and invitation functionality can encourage users to get value by inviting friends
- CONTENT: -Launch with 60-90 days of gameplay, and have a development plan for additional content -Create an evergreen gameplay loop -Monitor customer progression and stay ahead of user progress to avoid losing your veteran whales -Feature like PvP, Tournaments, Quests, etc. help provide replayability between content updates COMMS: -Quality, quality, quality…see blog posts on my FIVE principle -In-app messaging is critical for surfacing offers, content, and encouraging user behavior -Push…if you’re not using it, you need to. See blog post on why it’s so important. 25-50% of DAU will come back through push notifications. -Email: Cheap, but valuable…how to re-engage users who you can’t reach in-app or via Push? Onboarding, invites, lapsed, transactional, marketing -Social: Facebook SSO, publishing open graph items, and email are all valuable, but also encourage and reward ‘Likes’ and ‘Follows’, they give you another way to engage and reach players outside of the game INCENT: With all of this, incentivize wherever you can: bribery works! As you get more desperate, get more generous TRANSITION: Once a player seems to have little to no interest in returning, try to cross promote them if you can. Keep them in the mall!
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