Have you launched a game but you’re still making decisions based on gut feeling rather than data? Confused with the variety of analytics tools on the market? Worry no more because this session will answer all your questions. Julia from devtodev will share the pros and cons of different analytics setups including in-house, as well as how to create a unified data ecosystem that will help you make data-driven decisions for your game’s growth.

1. 1
How to choose and
integrate analytics
for game’s growth?

2. 2
● Julia Iljuk from
● 5+ years in the gaming industry
● Helping developers to choose and integrate
an analytics platform
● The host of an online course “Game Analytics:
from Basic to Advanced Strategies”
QUICK INTRO

3. 3
Integrate product analytics in 5 steps:
1. Analyze your needs in product analytics
2. Choose setup (in-house vs. ready) and tools
3. Create a map/scheme of events for tracking user activity
4. Implement events and conduct testing
5. Merge all data sources into a unified data ecosystem
AGENDA

4. 4
● Identify (in)effective user acquisition channels
● Analyze behavior of different user segments
● Find reasons behind certain behaviors and metrics changes
● Identify points of growth
● A/B test your growth hypothesis
● Evaluate the effect of new features
ANALYTICS HELPS TO…
Click ad Install Tutorial Level 1
Watch
Ad
Game
Shop
1 St IAP
Invite
friends
In-game
message
Reactivation
Push
notification
Churn
2 St IAP $$$
$
$$$
Player journey

5. 5
ANALYTICS SETUPS
Analytics setups
In-house
Ready (off-the-shelf)
Freemium/premium Free

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PROS:
● The most flexible setup possible.
● Relatively low maintenance cost
once the system is set up.
IN-HOUSE ANALYTICS
App Database
Visualization
tool / BI
Charts, tables,
dashboards
Users
data
Query
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND:
● Lack of native integrations with other tools.
● It’s not free ($ for servers, visualization tools, salaries).
● Technical maintenance is on your side.
● Building dashboards from scratch, no ready
filters/segmentation.
● Analyst can become a bottleneck in the workflow.

7. 7
CASE: IN-HOUSE
CALCULATING AVERAGE TIME SPENT
TO COMPLETE A LEVEL
An Analyst makes an SQL query and
visualizes the result for a Game Producer:
“If you say you’re data-driven but everything has to go
through an analyst, you’re not actually data-driven”.
Fareed Mosavat,
Consumer Growth Product Manager at Instacart
Analyst
Marketing
Manager
Game
Designer
Game
Producer
What is the
average time to
complete a level?
What is… ?
I need to know…
Waiting time:
up to several days

8. 8
CASE: READY
CALCULATING AVERAGE TIME SPENT
TO COMPLETE A LEVEL An Analyst focuses only on complex questions:
Marketing
Manager
Game
Designer
Game
Producer
What is the
average time to
complete a level?
Analyst
A Game Producer
makes a couple of
clicks in the interface
and gets average time
by levels:

9. 9
PROS:
● PMs, Game Designers, Marketers have direct access to data
● Ready reports and user-friendly interfaces for creating
custom reports
● Easy integration via SDK (~ in less than a week vs. years of
development)
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND:
● Pricing?
● Free solutions can use/sell your data
● Less flexible
READY (OFF-THE-SHELF)
SOLUTIONS

10. 10
Allows you to write direct queries to their databases.
SQL IN READY ANALYTICS SYSTEMS

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● Ready reports provided (check demo projects)
● Flexibility (available filters & cohorts, formulas and SQL)
● Limitations (number of custom events, users per account, etc.)
● Access rights for different roles
● Raw data access and storage time
● Available native integrations
● Pricing
WHEN CHOOSING OFF-THE-SHELF
ANALYTICS CONSIDER:

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* Events are data points that are triggered when a
user performs a certain action in a game.
● Define key events (i.e. sign up, tutorial finish,
1st in-app purchase)
● What is going on around the key events?
(i.e. game shop opened)
● Don’t collect data for the sake of data,
it should help you answer questions
NEXT STEP - DEFINE EVENTS*
Click ad Install Tutorial Level 1
Watch
Ad
Game
Shop
1 St IAP
Invite
friends
In-game
message
Reactivation
Push
notification
Churn
2 St IAP $$$
$
$$$

13. 13
ELEMENT_ACTION
Examples:
● booster_used
● character_created
● store_open
ELEMENT_ACTION_ITEM,
ELEMENT_ACTION_LEVEL, etc.
Examples:
● booster_used_potion
● booster_used_bomb
● booster_used_level3
HOW TO WORK WITH CUSTOM
EVENTS & PARAMETERS**?
** Parameters are additional
information about an event that
is sent along with the event.

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● Payment for real money
● Purchase for virtual currency
● Levelling up
● Changing a game location
● Tutorial steps
+ automatically tracked events (install, ad
impression, push sent, push click, subscription)
BASIC (PRESET) EVENTS
* Prewritten events that you need to copy &
paste in your app rather than creating
custom events.

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THE MAP OF EVENTS

16. 16
CASE: MATCH-3 GAME
Dreamland story: Match 3
1. Creating an account and basic setup (~2-4h)
2. Creating a document with the scheme of events (~16h)
3. Integrating events in the game (~12h)
“Divide this time by 2, if you are
doing it not for the first time.”
Michal Wisniewski, BI Engineer at

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CONDUCT TESTING

18. 18
CREATE A UNIFIED
DATA ECOSYSTEM
Tool type Examples
Product analytics Firebase, devtodev, Mixpanel, GameAnalytics, Localytics, Flurry
Attribution (MMP) Appsflyer, Adjust, Kochava, Branch
Ad mediation IronSource, Applovin MAX
Push notifications devtodev, Firebase, Airship, Leanplum, Braze
In-app messaging Airship, Leanplum, Braze
A/B testing Firebase, Optimizely, devtodev, Mixpanel
Subscriptions tracking ChartMogul, Adapty, devtodev

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DRAW A SCHEME
Attribution
platform
Mediation
platform
USERS
A/B testing
Push
notifications
Dashboards and
reports
iOS / Android app Ad account
Analytical
platform

20. 20
www.devtodev.com | julia.iljuk@devtodev.com | Linkedin: /julia-iljuk/
THANK YOU
Let’s chat about analytics!