HOW TO USE GAME ANALYTICS TO FINE TUNE YOUR MOBILE GAME
By: Juego Studio
Tags: Game Design, Videogames, Game Development

The mobile gaming market of today is extremely competitive. Thousands of games are released each day, each of them by developers who are hoping to gain a lot of users.

And unlike the games of the past, mobile games are improved by their developers repeatedly, even after once it is released to the public. Mostly mobile game developers keep improving the game through additional content and bug fixes on a periodic basis. And to do this, they rely on game analytics.

Game analytics tools are currently used by mobile game developers all over the world to find ways to improve their games. The tool, once integrated into a game, gives amazing insights into the game’s performance and user behavior. Developers can find areas where their game needs improvement, and take the necessary steps to make the game better than it already is.

Merely integrating analytics won’t be enough though. To fine tune the game in the right way, developers have to keep a few things in mind:

Set KPIs

KPIs or Key Performance Indicators, allow developers to measure how their game is performing as per their target goals. It is the metric against which the game’s performance is measured. The rest of the game analytics analysis process actually relies on KPIs.

There are many different KPIs used to measure the performance of games. And each of them reveals a different picture about the performance of a game. Below we list some of them:

Installations: The number of people who have installed the game.

The number of people who have installed the game. Retention Rate: The number of people who keep playing the game after a particular period of time has passed

The number of people who keep playing the game after a particular period of time has passed Sessions: The number of sessions users have each day within the game.

The number of sessions users have each day within the game. Average Session Length: The average time a gaming session of a player in the game lasts.

The average time a gaming session of a player in the game lasts. Daily Active Users: The number of active users who play the game daily.

The number of active users who play the game daily. Monthly Active Users: The number of users who have played the game in the last month.

The number of users who have played the game in the last month. Churn Rate: The rate at which users abandon or uninstall the game.

The rate at which users abandon or uninstall the game. Average Revenue Per User (ARPU): The average revenue the developer is getting from each user in the game.

The average revenue the developer is getting from each user in the game. Conversion Rate: The rate of players who are paying/ to the total number of players the game has.

Not all of these KPIs are important to measure the performance of a particular game though. The right thing to do is to find the right KPIs according to the particular game’s goals, genre, and target audience.

Knowing the right KPIs this way, will help developers find ways to improve the game. If, for instance, the average session length is an important indicator for a game’s performance, then developers will want to increase the session length. They can take the necessary steps to improve the average session length of players by finding out the reasons why certain people play the game longer, while others don’t. This data will give important insights to optimize the game for better performance, maximizing what makes the former play longer while minimizing the elements that make the latter exit faster.

Create Funnels

Funnels is a crucial metric to analyze in game analytics. Funnels help developers separate the game into different parts, to identify at which of these parts a number of users are dropping off. They can be crucial to identifying where the developer is losing their players in the game’s player journey.

If, for instance, the developer identifies that a lot of players stop playing the game after Level 10, while a lot others stop after Level 25, they can deduce that there might be issues with both the levels. Like, those levels maybe too hard or not too fun, etc. Whatever it is, learning where a lot of players are dropping off allows developers to identify the weak areas within their game, which they can improve to create an overall strong game.

Most top game analytics tools allow developers to see these data visually as well. A visual figure will allow developers to deduce the weak points better than a pure data one. This can help them make better decisions.

Funnels is directly related to the game’s KPIs. Suppose for instance, that money spent per user is an important KPI. If funnels show that certain sets of paying users stop paying or playing after a certain event or level, then developers can take the step to remedy this.

The first step in creating funnels is determining the steps within the funnel. The various steps in a funnel might look something like this:

Game installed

Game opened

Level 1 Started

Level 1 Completed

Level 2 Started

Level 2 Completed

Level 3 Started

Level 3 Completed.

Once the developer creates the funnels, then wait as the data rolls in. Once they find out bottle necks within the funnel, they can start identifying the reasons for the bottleneck. By fixing the issues, they optimize the game for better performance.

Segment the Users

Even for the same game, different players will have different reasons for playing. Some can play to relax, some for the challenge, and some for the love of gaming itself. Though it is impossible for a game to accord for the needs of every type of gamer out there, it makes sense to cater to a wider audience.

Segmentation is another key feature within analytics that allows developers to do precisely this. Using this, developers can segment users into different categories based on various metrics, like age and gender, time spent in game, etc.

By understanding and the segmenting the audience to different segments, game developers can personalize the game more towards them (a personalized experience is more likely to engage and thus retain players.)

For instance, there might be some skilled and experienced players within the game, who might be looking for a competitive gaming atmosphere. On the opposite spectrum, there might be novices who play the game for a more casual and relaxed experience. Segmentation allows developers to give a slightly different gaming experience to both of them.

All this might make a beginner developer confused. They need not however, as some of the top game analytics tools commonly used have default segments which the developer can use. Thanks to them, the developers won’t have to create custom segments for their game, and can instead test the waters with the pre-defined ones offered by the tool. Once the developers get the hang of segmentation, they can start experimenting with their own custom segments and proceed from there.

Conduct A/B Testing

A/B testing is a common technique used in game development. Under this technique, two versions of the same game, with minor differences between them, is offered to two different audiences. Using analytics tools, their performance is then tracked. If a particular version outperforms the other one, the developer usually retains the features in the well-performing one.

This is an excellent method to improve mobile games. Developers will be able to find where the game falls short with accurate data, using which they can further optimize the game, for better engagement, retention, and in turn monetization.

A/B testing is also excellent for introducing new features before rolling out a full-scale update. The new features can be tested on a small sample audience to see how they perform. If these audiences respond positively to these changes, developers can roll out the new features for the entire userbase.

There are few things developers must keep in mind when they are conducting A/B tests. First, they have to define which metrics are important for the tests. Is the crucial metric going to be session time or is it going to be money spent? Defining it prior hand will smooth out the rest of the process.

Next, the developers must determine a good sample size. The sample size must not be too small as that would return data that might be irrelevant.

Third, the developers must decide the overall duration of the test. The test must not be too short, as it would most likely give you data that is unusable. Nor should it be too long, as that too would be counterproductive.

Lastly, developers would be better off by not stopping the tests one the first one is done. Instead, they should run tests repeatedly. By doing so, they can learn things about their audience repeatedly and find ways to improve their mobile game.

Conclusion

Game analytics is a crucial tool which can help developers improve their mobile game in ways they never thought of. It gives insights into what users like with accurate data. This in-turn allows them to experiment and find ways to improve the gaming experience for every single user within their game.

And doing so in today’s big mobile gaming market is not only beneficial, but crucial.