Many mobile game developers rely on app store comments and friends and family to deliver feedback for their games. This is how many people still create games because they have a cool idea and a lot of passion and drive. But with so many games on the market, it’s all too common to see months of hard work come to nothing. Meanwhile, bigger studios and publishers have the budgets and resources to aggressively test and market their games post-launch. In this talk, consumer insight platform PickFu will share examples of how testing game concepts and creatives as part of the development phase can add helpful insight and data to the creation process, and potentially reduce the risk of a final game that doesn’t resonate with players. The presentation will also cover qualitative versus quantitative data, with insights into how mobile game publishers are already using consumer testing at different stages of the development process.

1. 18 November 2021
How to build
amazing
mobile games
with rapid user testing

2. Hi, I’m John.
John Li
PickFu
john@pickfu.com

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Players want to kill time,
not waste time

4. What makes a
mobile game
addictive?
A name that sticks
Enticing characters
Fun scoring mechanics
Attractive color palettes
Exciting actions and animation
Dopamine-triggering sounds
Strong marketing and app store listings

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Ask a bunch of mobile game addicts

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But how?
Finding mobile gamers to ask
for feedback can be hard and
usually done too late
You can’t get to playtesting until your
prototype is playable.
You don’t start seeing download
numbers until you’re up in the app
stores.
You don’t get engagement metrics until
your game has amassed a lot of players.

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Meet PickFu

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What is PickFu?
PickFu is an instant online focus group.
In a PickFu poll, you ask a question
about your creative ideas, such as a
character design, an app icon, an
animation, or sound effect.
Then, the PickFu Panel provides honest
written feedback in a manner of
minutes.
The feedback guides your important
decisions and improves how you
connect with target players.

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HOW IT WORKS
Input a
question
Choose your
target
audience
Get answers
on demand
Make data-
based
decisions

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PickFu: rapid user testing
● Panel: 10,000+ U.S.
consumers under NDA
● Users are paid a small
stipend to answer each poll
● Targetable by demographics
and interests
(e.g. female iOS word
gamers)
● QC’d with human feedback
and ML algorithms
RAPID USER TESTING
● Both quantitative and
qualitative insight
● Written explanation from
every respondent
(qualitative)
● Votes to compare options:
images, text, video, or
audio (quantitative)
● Private results
● Simple, single-question
polls
● Completed in minutes
and hours, not days or
weeks
● Starting at $1/response,
$50 for a single poll.

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Making amazing mobile games

12. What makes a
mobile game
addictive?
A name that sticks
Enticing characters
Fun scoring mechanics
Attractive color palettes
Exciting actions and animation
Dopamine-triggering sounds
Strong marketing and app store listings

13. What makes a
mobile game
addictive?
A name that sticks
Enticing characters
Fun scoring mechanics
Attractive color palettes
Exciting actions and animation
Dopamine-triggering sounds
Strong marketing and app store listings

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Outrun the 80s vs. Super 80s World

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Super 80s World
Comments in favor of Super 80s World:
● “It reminds me of Mario.”
● “I love the 80s and Super 80s World sounds more
exciting.”
● “I don’t like [Outrun the 80s] because it makes it
sound like you are trying to run away from the 80s,
and that was my childhood! I like Option B because
it celebrates the fun 1980s.”
After the test, Michael Cowden wrote,
“I could immediately tell that Super 80s World
communicated the game concept much better. The
folks that liked that name got what the game was
about and, more importantly, wanted to play it!”

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Naming
The best game names are short, memorable,
pronounceable, and easily incorporated into
everyday speech.
It’s especially important to test names before
you enter a market that speaks a language
different than your native tongue.

17. What makes a
mobile game
addictive?
A name that sticks
Enticing characters
Fun scoring mechanics
Attractive color palettes
Exciting actions and animation
Dopamine-triggering sounds
Strong marketing and app store listings

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Dystopia: Contest
of Heroes
With mixed martial artist Conor
McGregor as its leading character, which
supporting characters would players be
most drawn to?
Beetroot Lab

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Dystopia: Contest of Heroes
Beetroot Lab used PickFu to ask 100
Americans who have spent money in the app
store, “Which game character would make
you most want to download and play a
mobile strategy game?”
The poll respondents ranked 6 different
characters from their first choice to the sixth.
The rankings were complete in one hour and
10 minutes.

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Dystopia: Contest
of Heroes
Beetroot Lab
The most popular character in the six-
option poll was this character named
Spectre.
The team at Beetroot is able to take this
data to help inform its game marketing.

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Dystopia: Contest
of Heroes
Beetroot Lab ran 5 separate PickFu polls
to determine which app icon featuring
Conor McGregor’s character they should
launch with.
Beetroot Lab

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Dystopia: Contest of Heroes
The first poll compared 6 different
icons, with Conor McGregor’s
character against various colored
backgrounds and with different
framing.

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Dystopia: Contest of Heroes
Since the results of the first test were
close, Beetroot Lab kept the framing of
the character all the same and tested
colors only.
The bright blue background was most
popular, followed by purple and yellow.

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Dystopia: Contest of Heroes
Next, Beetroot took the top 3 colors (blue,
purple, yellow) and tried two different
versions of the Conor McGregor character —
one with his hands gripping his vest and the
other with his arm extended.
The blue background wins again, and the
version with his hands gripping the vest
edged out the version with his arm
extended.

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Dystopia: Contest of Heroes
And then, just to be sure, Beetroot
took the winning pose and tested it
against different colored
backgrounds.
Once again, blue wins out, so the
team is confident.

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Dystopia: Contest of Heroes
Finally, the team tests one final
element: Conor’s tattoo coloring.

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30. What makes a
mobile game
addictive?
A name that sticks
Enticing characters
Fun scoring mechanics
Attractive color palettes
Exciting actions and animation
Dopamine-triggering sounds
Strong marketing and app store listings

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Goins vs. G-Bucks
Goins had some unintended (and unfortunate) associations.
More people associated it with groins than with coins.
● “When I hear G-Bucks, I immediately think of the
Fortnite currency V-Bucks, but when I hear Goins, I
think of a nasty medical condition.”
● “Goins sounds dirty to me.”
● “Goins sounds kind of cheesy.”
● “[Goins] is just too easy to make fun of.”
The word Bucks also helped respondents identify the word
as currency:
● “Sounds more like money and easy to remember.”
● “Sounds more like currency.”
G-Bucks also fits the naming convention behind GawkBox
and strengthens the overall branding. “I think it’s a little
more consistent with the app and the app name – it makes
more sense to me,” one respondent commented.

32. Current
users
Tools for understanding gamers
Target
users
Quantitative data - “What” Qualitative data - “Why”
In-game
instrumentation
App
marketplace
analytics
Ads
App store
metrics
Communities /
forums
App store
reviews

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Ready Chef Go!
Mojiworks
Ready Chef Go! launched on Snapchat
in December 2019.
As one of only a few third-party
developers on Snap Games, Mojiworks
relies on constant feedback from its 65
million players.

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Ready Chef Go!
Mojiworks
Jen Bolton, Mojiworks’s V.P. of player
insights (the player whisperer),
constantly reviews A/B tests on
Snapchat.
These tests provide the “what,” but they
don’t provide the “why” players like or
dislike certain features.
Plus, there isn’t always time to run live
tests — take, for example, seasonal
content.

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Ready Chef Go! holiday 2020 - Jingle Burgers

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Ready Chef Go!
Mojiworks
Player numbers went up as soon as the seasonal assets
launched on the platform.
“Players are actively looking for holiday-related content
towards the end of the year, so seasonal graphics and
icons tend to draw a lot of taps. PickFu testing helped us
find the most appealing direction for our seasonal
assets, so we could stand out in the holiday-ified game
list in Snapchat. They worked so well that we're using
them again this year.”
- Jen Bolton, V.P. of player insights

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Add PickFu to your ASO efforts

38. App store
optimisation
Competitive analysis
App icon
App name
Subtitle
Description
Screenshots
Trailers/videos
Keywords
Category
Ratings

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Brawl Stars screenshots

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Brawl Stars
Sample comments:
● “[Option] D allows you to actually see the game.
Options C/B/A don't actually show you the game.
However, [Option] C is better than [Option] B because
you see your three battlers, and can give you an idea of
it being a 3v3.”
● “[Option] C simply shows more information. It has the
side with all of the options such as social, news,
brawlers - It also shows character looks, and promotes
the ability to play with friends.”

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Brawl Stars description

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Recap

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What we’ve discussed
If you want to know what makes a mobile game
addictive, ask mobile game addicts.
Break out of your bubble and hear from the people you
want to download and play your game.
The earlier and more often you can involve
players in your development process, the better.
Don’t wait for working prototypes, beta versions, or live
app store listings. Start at the idea phase.

44. Test at every
stage of game
creation
Pre-production
o Game / name / character concepts
o Competitive analysis
o Art design
Production
o Gameplay animation
o UI design
o SFX
Launch and beyond
o App icon
o App store screenshots
o App store description
o Game trailers
o Online and TV advertising

45. Let’s make amazing
mobile games together
John Li
john@pickfu.com
Coupon code
DEVGAMM