BETA | GAME DESIGN // ANALYTICS
programmes conceived to help developers that are without their own in-house analysts, while others continually craft new ways to extract clear information from data. “We are constantly augmenting our statistical techniques to uncover key insights from the data at the detailed player behaviour level, and this offers an exciting opportunity to tailor and personalise games in real-time,” explains GamesAnalytics’ COO and co-founder Mark Robinson. “This could be actions such as offering inventory prior to a undertaking a quest or delivering a tailored tutorial at the right time for players who are struggling, all the way through to deploying relevant NPCs or creating special products to customise your avatar. All of these marketing treatments are specific and personal to better optimise the experience for the player.”
HERE TO STAY That means that, for now, games analytics companies are here to stay, not just gathering data, but turning it into meaningful information. And now they are starting to help smaller studios taste the numbers. “Regardless of company’s size or the size of
TOOLS OF THE TRADE In that context, analytics are a tool for giving your customersmore of what they want. There will no doubt be core indies and academic coders with no interest in bending to the whim of consumers. But for many the concern is building something that is well liked. And, to do that, some analytics experts
Kontagent’s analytic toolset in action (main image), and (top-to- bottom) Kontagent’s Catherine Mylinh, Chris Wright of of GamesAnalytics, and SetGo’s Christian Lavoie
believe data capture should be put in place from the moment a game blossoms from its very first concept stage, to assure critical success; Metacritic’s impact on the industry is testament how important that is. “We believe in the use of gameplay analytics throughout the entire development cycle of a game, from QA to Beta Testing to demos, release and beyond,” states Lee Heir, producer and product manager at Playmetrix. “Our system has also been used to help track the usability of games, shape DLC design and determine the profitability of virtual items. There is massive potential for developers when using analytics throughout all aspects of game development, not just the financial aspect which in the past has been the automatic conclusion when bringing it up in discussion.” Certainly, developers are warming to the idea of integrating analytics into their pipelines and workflows (see panel ‘The studio line’), but there remains scepticism about welcoming analytics into the world of games making. Often the giants of social are derided for their intense devotion to the law of data – to the point outfits like Zynga and Gaia Online are sometimes painted as being statisticians before developers. For some developers, the issue appears to be a simple matter of being overwhelmed by the numbers; both in terms of the sheer volume, and the task of gleaning anything useful from the stream of data. But a turnaround is coming.
46 | JULY 2012 “There has definitely been more of an
acceptance,” says Heir of changing attitudes towards analytics. “With the market ever-growing, unless a developer has been successfully working on a single franchise or genre of game for years, it is harder than ever to know your players. Companies are beginning to realise that players know best, and if a developer’s name is being passed around by the gaming community as a company that listens to their players, this is a win-win for both developer and player.”
You can look at forums for feedback
but the vocal are always the minority. It’s the bigger number you want to be pleasing.
Lee Heir, Playmetrix That may be the case, but still the issue of
correctly interpreting the data remains perhaps the most significant challenge facing those studios that pursue player-generated data. “A lot of people think that if they simply
have access to the data, they can make a better game. They think they can learn everything about their players, design the game with all kinds of actions and events and it will all magically appear in pretty graphs to show themprecisely what’s happening,” says Kontagent’s Mylinh. “Knowing which metrics are important, and how to represent them in a way that your entire organisation can take action – that really takes a lot of expertise.” Happily, there is some help for developers
keen to learn how to read data. Flurry, for example, offers a number of education
a game’s user base, understanding usage behaviour is invaluable and critical to growing an audience of any size,” says Flurry’s Farago. “Flurry just makes it easy, free and accessible for any game studio to enjoy the full benefits of a robust analytics service.” And Flurry is not alone in extending an
olive branch to indies and small-to-medium sized studios. Playmetrix makes its service free at entry-level, identifying those with less numerous headcounts and budgets – and start-ups – as perfectly positioned to take advantage of the perspective analytics can grant them. “Metrics can benefit start-ups because of
the fact they can see what the majority of their players want,” says Heir. “It’s no longer a blind process. You can look at forums for feedback all day long but the vocal are always the minority. It’s the bigger number you want to be pleasing.” In spite of this, incorporating analytics into
their workflows remains a challenge for even the most devoted of the smaller studios. “It’s more of a challenge for smaller
companies because you do need to spend some time on it,” claims SetGo’s Lavoie. “Bigger companies who haven’t already designated someone to an analytics specific role soon will, but for smaller companies it’s something we’re seeing being adopted by a combination of people on the team.” And, fortunately, there is hope for even the smallest studios still bewildered by the task of translating player behaviour into new design directions. “The good news is that analytics can be used in one-man dev projects if they want,” concludes Lavoie. “You do not have to be a statistician to understand analytics. All you need is a curious mind, the ability to reason when evaluating results, and the willingness to learn.” Those three quality’s, at least, are one thing most developers have in abundance.
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