One of the most effective analytics tools is cohort analysis. It allows us to track changes in your products by grouping users for any attribute. Let’s talk about cohort analysis, its features, and how it works in app analytics.
For a start, we will figure out what is “cohort’’. A cohort is a group of users that performed a definite action (installed an app in our case) at any time period. Cohort analysis compares only groups, which allows us to observe their activity in time. It doesn’t matter if it’s a day, a week, a month, or a year. It’s…
How devtodev Support Outsourcing Team helped SketchAR app to get more positive reviews and improve user ratings on App Store and Google Play.
The author of this article, Maria Afanasyeva, has been a part of devtodev support outsourcing team for six years. During this time she worked her way up from the best support agent to a Project Manager in charge of several teams. She has thoroughly explored the inner workings of Customer Service, gained considerable experience of user communication, learned to deal with games and apps of various genres.
In the last year, Maria took part in integration of…
Picture this: you made a game/app that you have successfully launched. And since day one (or maybe even since the soft launch) you keep on getting messages from your players/users. They ask questions, point to bugs, curse you, praise you, that is, do everything they usually do. At first, the developer team tries to answer them, but when the volume of the inquires becomes too big, they look to outsource the support.
Can you choose not to answer those questions even if they have no direct impact on your project and those people do not pay you money? No, you…
In this article, I am going to talk about game publishing: who is a game publisher, does your free-to-play game need one, what do publishers do in general, and what you need to successfully pitch your game.
Who is a game publisher?
A publisher is a company that publishes, promotes, and markets its own games or games made by a third-party developer.
For a third-party developer, a publisher plays three different roles:
- the role of a “thermometer”: the publisher can clearly see at what stage of development the product is at the moment;
- the role of a consultant: it gives possible options for the development…
Free-to-play games are very interesting in many ways. If you look at their economy you will see a bit of contradiction: on the one hand, the player doesn’t need to spend money in the game and can receive pleasure for free. On the other hand, free-to-play games are designed in a way that stimulates the player to buy various items in its in-game store.
To make the game profitable, developers try hard to acquire the so-called “whales” — lavish spenders who love buying boosters, decorations, and other useful and expensive staff. But working with whales raises two problems:
- Long-term retention…
Even ten years ago the game marketing was much easier because developers and publishers didn’t need to care about reviews and the place in the app store that much. But times have changed and even games have changed. Now, this is a rather risky enterprise, because competition has increased significantly, the demands of players on the product have risen too, and the costs of have skyrocketed. As a result, you need to invest more and more effort into game marketing.
Here’s what you need to do:
Soft launch and measure your app KPIs
A soft launch is not as soft as the name suggests. This is a…
Big companies get more and more concerned about their brand safety. They don’t want to be advertised on the same platforms as political, fake news and other shady firms. Google tries to policy those ads and platforms but brands are losing their trust and searching for more reliable ad platforms. That’s why they start advertising in mobile games.
Advertising in mobile games may be more tricky then advertising on websites or in videos because players often get very immersed in the game and don’t want to be distracted. Any pop-up ad or any banner covering part of the screen during…
Most free-to-play game developers live off the money which players spend in their in-game stores. The percentage of payers is not that high, that’s why their qualified support is very important.
Who are paying users and how they are different
Premium players are all those people who have made at least one purchase in your game. They liked the app, they became very engaged, they want more of it and that’s why they spent their money on it. But in return, they want to enjoy it without a hitch, and if a problem arises, they want it to be solved as soon as possible. …
I like games and I kinda work in a gamedev related company. To keep up with news and current events and everything that’s going on in the industry I have to watch some useful Youtube channels. I decided to categorize them a little bit and make a short list of those I really like. So, here we go:
The Game Developers Conference or simply GDC is one of the most important industry events and obviously it has its own Youtube channel. Most videos are reports and speeches from the conference but from time to time they upload some episodes…
We at devtodev made the list of must-read books for game analysts which will broaden your horizons and make your games grow faster.
I am Vasiliy Sabirov, Lead Analyst and Co-founder at devtodev, and I’m used to hearing a question from my game industry friends and colleagues about the books that I recommend reading to understand metrics and analytics in games better?
So here’s why I’ve come up with the game analytics booklist for devtodev Education Center. You can check out my list of articles, podcasts, and videos here.
1. Lean Analytics: Use Data to Build a Better Startup Faster by Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz
Eugene Matveev @devtodev
Analyst at www.devtodev.com. Everything you need to know about analyzing and improving games.
