Download - Virality and Niche games - Social Gaming
Social gaming“virality and niche games”
By Sriram [email protected]@sriramkri
6 ways to make your app go viral1. Utilizing all FB Platform features Apps can’t be too dependent on any single FB platform
feature … ..but have to utilize all FB platform features available:
publish2stream, notifications, publish pictures, become a fan, bookmarking, email
Some features are better at acquiring users, some are better at retaining users
6 ways to make your app go viral2. Incentivizing co-operation, sharing Apps have to encourage the user to interact with and to
engage other users Incentives, incentives, incentives!
To promote in-game action, To invite new users, To get invited users to accept invitation, To become a fan – Big Thing!, To subscribe to email or bookmarking, To grow avatar, farm, land, accomplish missions etc
Ensure that the users are obliged to engage or to reciprocate action
6 ways to make your app go viral3. Design + User flow Integrate non-conditional viral features in the game
mechanics User has to publish2stream to advance 3 levels up or to
get more points Must invite 3 friends to unlock secret treasure box
Simple UI for UX Complicated applications take a longer time to catch on K.I.S.S Backend: No major complicated effort required
6 ways to make your app go viral4. Start tracking early Tracking + Metrics = Feedback -> Better decision making Listen to your users. Excellent management of community K factor, Click/Publish ratios, Response rates, ROIs
5. Publicity + Customer acquisition Old school – PR, blogs, conferences Cross promotion on 6waves, own apps etc Ads on Rockyou, Fb etc
6. You will also need luck on your side
Those days…Those days, apps relied on
notifications, forced invitations and publish 2streams
These days, more emphasis on publish2stream; incentivizing cooperation
These days…
Question:
What’s the most important tool you can use to make your game viral on Facebook?
Answer:
Publish2stream
To show and tellleveling up, win/loss in battle, sending/receiving, challenging friends, obtaining items, finding items
To seek favours, to make requestsbuildings get constructed faster, to grow your farms, fertilize crops, to fill up clan, to fill up homes, hiring friends in Hotel, survey questions about user, to join as clan members, to join as neighbours
Why do users publish2stream?
1. User s encouraged to publish2stream -> More publish2streams
2. User 1 Publishes/Invites -> If User 2 clicks -> Then, User 1 gets incentives -> More nagging and pleading
3. User 1 Publishes -> User 2 clicks -> User 1 + 2 gets incentives -> Win-win
Pop-ups can have a variety of incentive strategies
Incentivizing publish2streams
Ask yourself…
Would you rather click on …..
Get a sign on bonus?
Continue to Zoo paradise?
Play Tiki resort?
Save [your friend’s] cottage?
Tips for Publish2Stream• Use a cute picture. • Incentivize the small bottom right link
Friends would be able to click and get something in return• Credits/points, more information about friend etc• “Get sign on bonus now”, “Answer XXX’s questions now”
• Use “call for action” headers instead of general statements Most of the published shares use general statements for
headers but use call for action statements as explanation
Publish2Stream analyticsVariables to track
• Date or Cohort• Type of stream post• Designs or styles for a/b testing• # of times pop-up gets shown to user (a)• # of times pop-up gets published to stream (b)• Published/shown ratio = b/a• Total # of clicks from all users for published pop-up (c)• Clicks/published ratio = c/b
Publish2Stream analytics• Click breakdown – Where did users click your publish2stream
post? 1 – Picture (d), % of total clicks = d/c 2 – Header (e), % of total clicks = e/c 3 – Small link (f), % of total clicks = f/c
• Actions completed (republish, redeem, join game, install game, invite friends)
1 – Action 1 – g 2 – Action 2 – h 3 – Action 3 – I
• Total action completed = g+h+I = j• Total ROI = j/c or j/b or j/a depending on what you’re tracking
Date/Cohort Why Pop-up Styles # shown to user
# published by user
Ratio (pub/shown)
27 May Item found Style 1 A B B/AStyle 2Style 3
27 May Game won Style 1
Date/Cohort Total clicks Ratio (clicks/pub)
Call for action
# of clicks % of clicks
27 May C C/B 1. Picture D D/C2. Header E E/C3. Small link F F/C
27 May
Date/Cohort Actions competed
Ratio (action / clicks)
Total action completed
Total ROI
27 May G G/DJ = G + H + I J/CH H/E
I I/F
Other general tips• Actionable data = very important• Relatively Easy - Tracking metrics at the backend• Requires some effort - Showing the metrics on
dashboard on frontend etc • Important - Analysing data, checking which one works
better• Most important - Acting on it by re-developing, re-
designing
Other general tips• Social gaming = A “doing” industry
Focus on doing -> design, develop, test, feedback, iterate, design, develop …
driven by data, NOT intuition. Avoid idealists, scatter brains at operational level
• Good Social game = Excellent product management = monetisation + social/viral + game balance
Niche games + Facebook Niche games/genres are new to Facebook. Finding
the right balance between complex, MMO vs social gaming
FB is a social platform and social features should always be prioritized ahead of additional game mechanics
But higher the complexity, easier for certain type of users to get hooked to the game
High MAU, Low ARPU vs Low MAU, High ARPU. Ie: Kingdom of Camelot
Discussions, arguments between game designer/producer and product manager for social features, monetisation -> normal
Scenarios with simpler game play needed to cater to mass market -> Takes time to convert new users to active, engaging users.
Mouse only = Simple Mouse + Keyboard = Complex, Difficult
Focus - Kingdoms of CamelotUser Acquisition Good Facebook integration. Almost being forced to invite friends
and publish streams Cross promotion with 6waves Social + Strategy – first in the business -> Niche Retention Rich design features Self selective audience members -> not 5 minute users Seamless HTML loading. 1st flash screen load takes a long time,
but all subsequent loading uses htmlMonetisation Multiple purchase options – speed up, production, chest etc Requires more robust payment strategy. Mobile payments should
be made more obvious, and localised according to markets – geoIP, other methods of payment to load within site, not in a separate window
Looking to the future…• Traditional social gaming market getting crowded
“5 minute” games too crowded -> Almost a zero sum game -> Consolidation is happening
Birth of more complex, niche games Dancing, FPS, Strategy, RPG, Racing etc
• Social games to have stand alone sites. Separate sites -> better community management and communal feeling
Less dependence on FB platform Social games could utilize Facebook Connect Stand alone sites monetize better compared to FB Owning the users in the stand alone site Zynga with farmville.com, CMUNE with paradisepaintball.cmune.com