Delivered at Casual Connect Asia 2016 It can be frustrating: You launch your game and no one discovers it. Downloads are low and everyone is telling you that acquiring users is too expensive for you. In this talk I will share mistakes you can make even at the project's start that can lessen your chances in the competitive space of app stores. Lessons learned from my clients as well as methods that can increase your likelihood of success will be shared. I will explain why it is sometimes even a mistake to look at the app store at all for learning.

1. Do not distribute without permission of the Author
Teut Weidemann
F2p Specialist
Freelance Consulting

2. Who am I
• Working on Games since the 1980’s
• Over 100 titles on C64, Amiga, Atari ST, PC,
Consoles, Online Games, Mobile
• Jobs: Graphic Artist, Programmer, Designer,
Development Director, CEO, CTO
• Frequent speaker at conferences and events
• Teaching “games” at various Universities
• Freelance Consultant as Online Games &
Monetization Expert

3. Clients

4. Career Highlights

5. Frequent Complaints
UA is to expensive!
Visibility! There is none!
I got no downloads!
Apple won’t feature me!
Why do people play my games
crap competition, not mine?
The top 10 are impossible to beat!
Conversion is really so low?90% Zombie Apps!

6. Mobile Market as seen from user game experience

7. User Experience
We have > 3b Smart Devices worldwide
• Ca. 60% play games on them
• That’s 1.8b ‘gamers’
• Most of these do not have our gaming experience!
• Average age 31
• Nearly 50/50 split female/male
• Most of these haven’t played games before we all know
• i.e. they are NOT familiar with standard game mechanics
• Or understand how games “talk” to them

9. Consequence
Most of these users do not know the game ‘language’
• That’s why most games have bright graphics
• As dark games don’t “talk” as well as bright ones
• That’s why most games use known settings
• That’s why most games use abstract, simplified or cute graphics
• That’s why most successful games aren’t full 3d (yet)
All with the goal to maximize reach

10. Mobile ‘Guidelines’
General Guidelines / Commonalities of top 20 games
• Interruptible at any time without negative consequence
• Non Action = Slow – as it otherwise requires full attention
• Casual Internet Connection*
• Flexible Session lengths
And
• Meta Game
• Progression
• Diversity in game modes
• Player needs to be someone (Avatar)
• Single Player, Coop, MP, PvE, PvP

11. Why style guides matter

12. Color Space
Source: http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/infographic-colors-of-the-ios-app-store/197902
Top Games Color Chart:
Top charts titles are mostly
- Bright color space
- Easy to understand graphics style
This means for you
- Dark games don’t sell well (yet)
- Odd* settings/style don’t sell well

13. Cute Graphics
Cute Graphics
Many top games feature “cute” style
- This style has it easier to talk to the
masses
- As many top games feature it many
games adapt without knowing WHY
- Mobile audience is being trained that
this is the norm style
- But it doesn’t work for all genres and
audiences!

14. There are exceptions to the rule
You should not take these exceptions as a guidance
However identifying these exceptions is hard!

15. You can never beat the top spending UA companies

16. User Sources
Source: http://www.referralcandy.com/referral-marketing-guide/2/how-powerful-is-word-of-mouth-exactly
UA only gives you a fraction of where users
come from
Roughly
- 20% is from App Store features
- 30% from UA
- 50% from Word of Mouth (WoM)
So why do people put so much effort in UA?
Because it is the only marketing tool they can control!

17. User Sources
Source: http://www.referralcandy.com/referral-marketing-guide/2/how-powerful-is-word-of-mouth-exactly
The sum of top mobile companies spend more than
US$ 1b on UA – per quarter. You can’t compete!
But WoM generates 2x the sales of
Paid Advertising!
So what does help WoM?

18. WoM basic tools
Icon Name
Clash of Clans
Angry Birds
• Length of title
• Distinguish from Competition
• Search
• Brand
• Language, needs to work worldwide
Ecobony: Steps t….
Rymndkapsel
Yes, there are icon style trends!

19. WoM Advanced tools
Networking Mechanics
Social gifts
Friend invite system & ladder rewards
Asynchronous Coop
Guilds with guild goals
A good game ;)
…

20. Who is your audience?

21. Setting
Setting needs to be mass compatible
- World wide
This means ….
- Western doesn’t cut it
- Underwater neither
- Nor Space / SciFi*
- Nor dark dungeons*
Settings work if a human feels ok “playing” there
There are reasons why some settings haven’t
been successful yet!

22. Genre
Age & Competitive
Genre defines your audience
- Action ➡️ Younger
- Strategy ➡️ Older
- PvP ➡️ Male
- Casual ➡️ Female
- Dark ➡️ Core
- Bright ➡️ Everyone
- USA ➡️ Strategy
- Asia ➡️ Competitive
- Payers ➡️ Older
Source:http://quanticfoundry.com/2016/02/10/gamer-generation/

23. Genre

24. Do not believe the numbers

25. Beware the Averages!
Source: Wikipedia
The Anscombe quartet All 4 show the identical averages/numbers:

26. KPI’s?
Average conversion is <3%?
- Many top games have >10%!
You need 100m players to beat top 20?
- Puzzle & Dragons has less than 30m
- CoC has less than 80m
- Summoners Wars has 50m downloads
Proves that 30m players can get you a $1b
game
Source: Superdata Research

27. Want to beat top 10?
Most games in top 10 are there for years
- And will stay there for more years
You want to be top 10?
- Take your time
- The top pile up users every day; you need to catch up
But do not worry
- Every year there is someone who enters the top 10
Advice: the goal “be top 10” is bullshit.
Your goal should be “be profitable”

28. Most mistakes are done at start

29. Don’t be a sheep
Target app store
gaps
Analyze with care
Be cautious with
public data
Don’t do dark
games*
Be unique in
genre & game

30. Q&A
Twitter: @teut
iTeutYouSo.com
teut986@gmail.com