A high level talk about Data Analytics in the Games Industry. This was part of the Data Fest 2019.

1. Aberdeen, Scotland
13th of March, 2019

2. Mining for Data in the Games Industry
Thomas Hulvershorn
Head of Analytics

3. What do you guys
need data for?

4. Daily Data Production Yield
9 Million Events
500 Million Data Points

5. Established 2011 in Dundee
Outplay Entertainment is the largest
independent Mobile Games Developer in the UK

6. Metagame
Story
Core Game
Match 3
Progression
Saga Map

7. Analysis of Player Behaviour
Generic id
Country – Device - Platform
Campaign Attribution
First Game Launch
Session Account
Level Account
Match Account
Event Started / Ended
Tutorial progress
Shop visit
Revenue
Ads watched
Crash Log
DLC Log
Framerates / Loadtimes Sign Up
Social Event

8. Games as Service
Product Management
Regular Updates
- New Feature Releases
- Content Updates
- Soft Config Changes
Data Driven Insights
- Prioritisation
- Growth hacking
- Sprint Planning

9. Real Time Data
Operation
Crash
Detected
Cause:
New Release

11. Game as a Service
Service
Planning, Running
and Measuring of
Events / Sales
Refining the in-
game Economy
with A/B Tests

12. Evaluating A/B Tests
Variation of difficulty changes between
Level 30-34 on the LTV of players split by different stores

13. Example: Impact of a new Release
With every
release we’ll
check the
impact on
Game
Performance

14. Strategic Roadmap
Strategy
Trended KPI
Analysis and
Business
Intelligence
drives Decisions

15. Management Information Tool

16. Example: Benefit of Game Localisation
English
Other Languages

17. AI and ML to predict Player behaviour

18. Game as a Service
Operation Service Strategy
Data Analytics

19. Data Science Careers in
the Games Industry

20. Looking for the impossible?Eierlegende Wollmilchsau

21. Coder
 
Scientist
Designer

22. Story Telling
Inspired by http://drewconway.com/zia/2013/3/26/the-data-science-venn-diagram
Coder
 
Scientist
Designer

23. My career path
• 1st Computer: ZX Spectrum (1983)
• ‘Diplom Physiker’ (Applied Physics)
What? Where? How long? What did I learn?
Client Software Developer Insurance Company 2y First ‘real’ Job, SW Development, Actuarial KH
Application Developer
Test Lead / Test Manager
Head of Business Unit
Business consultant
Actuarial Core
Systems
8y Testing and QA, Leadership, Client – Customer
Relationship, Standard Software Development
and Customisation, Waterfall model
QA Manager
Director of QA and Certification
Games Developer
Publisher
8y Games Industry, Mobile, English, Leading
international teams, Web development and Test
QA and Analytics Manager Outplay
Entertainment
1y Data Analytics and Data Science
Analytics and Operations Manager
(Production)
2y Production in the Games Industry
Agile SW Development
Analytics and Operations Manager 2y DevOps, IT, Customer Support
Head of Analytics
(Insights and Product Management Group)
1.5y Product Management, Insights

24. Outplay Data Insights Team
Typical Background of our Analysts
–MSc Artificial Intelligence
–B.Sc. Maths and Statistics
–MSc Information Science
–Ph.D. Geoscience
–MSc Mathematics
–BSc Maths and Physics
–MSc Physics
–MSc International Business
*(not considering technical Analytics)

25. Knowledge and Preparation
• Experience in a Scripting Language, e.g. R or Python
• Ability to write complex SQL queries
• Excellent knowledge of applied Statistics and
Visualisation
• Knowledge of the products of the company
• Passion for Games!

26. Resources
• Outplay.com
• Twitter @DerHUL
• Further Reading
– ‘The Lean Startup’, Eric Ries
– ‘Storytelling with Data’, C.N. Knaflic
– ‘Data Analysis with Open Source Tools’, P. Janert
– ‘Data Analysis’, Phillip K. Janert
– ‘Impact Mapping’, Gojko Adzic
– ‘Freemium Economics’, Eric B. Seufert
– DataCamp, Udemy, Coursera