Insights and tips about the games industry

Tower Defense Simulator (TDS) is a popular strategy game on Roblox, first launched in 2019. Created as a school project, it has since become a massive success with over 3.4 billion visits and an average concurrent user count of 12,000 to 15,000 players. As a tower defense game, TDS emphasizes strategic gameplay, where players must build and upgrade towers to fend off waves of enemies. The game operates on a LiveOps model, regularly introducing updates, features, and events to keep its audience engaged. LiveOps plays a central role in evolving the game, enabling TDS to constantly gather player feedback and iterate to refine the experience. TDS relies on Roblox Analytics to track key metrics like retention, engagement, acquisition, and revenue. For example, funnel events in Roblox Analytics are used to track tutorial effectiveness and identify drop-off points during onboarding. This...

Once your game is published, you’re always looking to grow your player base. But it’s not just about quantity; it’s about quality. Acquiring users who genuinely resonate with your game is vital to building a sustainable, loyal player base. Therefore, finding the right audience quickly is crucial when acquiring new users. The faster you identify your core players, the more efficiently you can allocate your marketing budget, maximizing ROI and attracting high-quality players likelier to stick around. So, how do you go about identifying these users, and how has targeting evolved to meet new challenges? The shift in targeting: How privacy changes reshaped the landscape In recent years, user acquisition targeting has undergone quite a shift. Changes to Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) policy have led to a new realm for mobile marketers, affecting the ways you can reach and...

Midnite Games, founded by brothers David and Julien in 2020, has made a name for itself in the gaming industry, particularly with its hyper-casual classic, Slices, which boasts over 65 million downloads. Initially collaborating with publishers, the studio has recently shifted its focus to self-publishing. Their dedicated team currently includes two developers, two designers, two 3D artists, one producer, and a creative director. As of August 2024, Midnite is working on two games, each at different stages of development. Midnite Studio’s analytics methodology The studio has been using GameAnalytics since 2015 and it has since become David’s go-to tool for conducting gameplay analysis and health monitoring. Using Custom Dashboards, Health and Funnels, he is able to answer questions like: Where does churn occur and what causes it? How can we improve the conversion rate for specific events? How can we...

MarketIQ helps bridge this gap by offering clear insights into what’s working across formats, platforms and more. UA Managers get the metrics they need for data-backed decisions, and Game Marketers get insights on trends and creative strategies to keep campaigns fresh and engaging. As competition is fierce, marketers are hyper-focused on ROAS and want metrics that deliver high-performing campaigns without wasting spend. MarketIQ makes this easier by allowing them to efficiently compare ad performance, analyze top creatives, and spot trends across networks, cutting down on time spent but keeping results high. Additionally, the need for creative inspiration and access to data that shows how different creatives capture attention has been inaccessible to most. With MarketIQ, you can dive into leading creative examples and understand what users respond to, shaping ads that are both targeted and impactful. There is not just...

Game discoverability continues to be a big challenge for studios of all sizes. With an ever-changing landscape of new policies, data restrictions, and a growing competitive environment, it’s the #1 challenge for indie developers and #2 for AAA and AA developers (Game Developer Audience Insights, August 2024). Creating a successful game is no easy task. From initial concepts to launch day and beyond, it requires continuous testing and iteration to find the balance between creating an enjoyable game and running a (hopefully profitable) business. Keeping a keen eye on the performance of your game is step number 1, but to power those insights you need a statistically significant sample size of players to begin with. Bringing us quickly to the first hurdle of game discoverability. To help solve this obstacle, we’re excited to announce MarketIQ – a powerful advertising and...

We’ve had an awesome experience because it’s pretty seamless integrating the API. It’s very easy. We don’t need to worry about the calls or how to integrate properly. We just add the plugin. – Saurabh Saxena, Lead Developer at GRX Immersive Labs. GRX Immersive Labs, a pioneering creative studio, specializes in immersive storytelling and culturally-driven educational experiences. The studio has expanded into developing interactive technologies, including video games. Their latest project, supported by Verizon Innovative Learning HQ, focuses on creating an engaging educational experience that teaches students how to create music. By blending immersive media with culture and social emotional learning, GRX empowers students to connect with their heritage while developing valuable creative and technical skills. Saurabh describes: In the app, students can move through a vibrant, interactive world, creating drum beats, playing the piano, and accessing a library of...

In-app purchases and advertising aren’t the only ways to generate revenue for your hybrid-casual game. Let’s explore some alternatives.

The legacy version of GameAnalytics (V2.5) will no longer be available from 1st of October. We’ve been gathering feedback from users of our legacy platform to identify functionality they miss in the new platform. Most of the requested features are now available, with the remaining areas either in development or set to be released soon. Read on to learn what has been added and what’s coming next. Our previous updates GameAnalytics V3 now live GameAnalytics H1 Update: New Product Improvements GameAnalytics’ Journey to Analytics Excellence – H2 2023 Updates and Improvements Recently added Current day Viewing live data was only possible via our real-time feature, showing data from the last 24 hours. Now, you can view all metrics for the current on-going day (UTC). Select the current day manually or click the toggle in the date picker to disable/enable. Metrics...

This article was originally published on the TapNation’s blog. Mobile gaming has become a thriving industry, with a multitude of games vying for the attention of players. In this competitive landscape, mobile game publishers bridge the gap between game developers and their target audience. They are the ultimate pirates that will launch your games and scale them to new heights. Mobile game publishers serve as a vital link in the gaming ecosystem. They offer assistance in various areas, such as financing, scaling, distribution, and monetization. Their expertise and resources can significantly impact a game’s success in the market, whether domestic or international. Benefits of Working with a Publisher Partnering with a mobile game publisher brings a multitude of benefits to developers. Publishers provide access to industry expertise and market knowledge, offering invaluable insights that can shape the trajectory of a...

When developing a mobile multiplayer game, there’s an added layer of complexity. It’s not just the technical challenge of connecting the players together, but every element of your game is affected – from the monetization to the gameplay itself. With that in mind, we’ve brought together the tools and resources that’ll help you make your multiplayer game. Which engine is best for multiplayer games? Most engines feature multiplayer support in one way or another, whether it’s built-in or a plugin. Unity. Despite recent concerns, Unity is still the go-to choice for many mobile developers. Not only do they have guides on their website, they also have tons of the backend tools and features you’ll need to make your multiplayer game run smoothly. Defold. Completely free and open source. Defold is a very lightweight engine that’s perfect for mobile games. But...

As a large number of studios, publishers, and game developers are heavily relying on data to guide their decisions, they need to decide between building or buying. But which one is more efficient? To assist you in understanding the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), we broke down the following key considerations: Setup requirements Cost calculation Team needs and recruitment

The GameAnalytics monetization series: Exploring game monetization: Traditional strategies Exploring innovative game monetization: Alternative approaches Exploring monetization: Maximizing game revenue Exploring monetization: Using data to guide decisions ______________ Why is revenue data important? Having access to data is important for optimizing your monetization strategies and ensuring their effectiveness for several reasons: Insights into player behavior: By tracking purchase events and other business metrics, game developers can gain deep insights into player behavior. This includes understanding which items or features are most popular, how often players make purchases, and what factors influence buying decisions. Performance evaluation: Data allows developers to evaluate the performance of different monetization strategies objectively. They can measure metrics such as conversion rates, average revenue per user (ARPU), and the lifetime value (LTV) of players. Optimization and iteration: Armed with data, developers can iterate and optimize their monetization...