MIGS 2014

5 Steps to Ignite Your F2P Revenue

without Advertising

Paul Winterhalder @winterhalder

What is brainCloud?

brainCloud is a ready-made, cloud-based backend

for game development.

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Using brainCloud, developers can access pre-built features to jumpstart building the most popular free-to-play game types, without having to reinvent the wheel.

by bitHeads

Background

Only one in ten mobile games succeed.

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Background

Harsh Reality: Free-to-Play games make more money.

Free-to-Play Games have been outpacing Premium Games since 2011.*

If you check the Top Grossing list on iOS, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a

premium game in the top 50 — other than Minecraft.

* Source - Flurry http://www.flurry.com/bid/65656/Free-to-play-Revenue-Overtakes-Premium-Revenue-in-the-App-Store#.VF2WF4elMe0

Background

Mathematically, the concept is simple…

$ Success % Conversion

X

$ Spend

X

# Players

=

Background

In practice, success requires a lot of design and meta-systems to achieve.

Multiplatform

Free-to-playSocial

Cross-play

Multiplayer Game-as-a-service

In-app

Promotions

Competition

Players

ConversionSpend

Background

Which in turn require tons of back-end technology and tools.

Multiplatform Multiplayer

Free-to-play Social

In-app

Promotions

Cross-play

Game-as-a-service

Competition

Leaderboards

MatchmakingTurn-basedClan-style

Cloud Data

iOSAndroid

Windows

AchievementsQuests

Virtual Currencies

Design tools

Store Integration

Analytics

Notifications

Pricing Controls

Background

The “Big Guys” have spent years and millions of dollars building these systems.

49* of the 50 Top Grossing games in the iOS App Store

incorporate cloud-tech to enhance gameplay and monetization.

* based on data from August 29th, 2014

Background

Most of us are not the “Big Guys”

IndividualSmall (2-24)Mid (25-100)Large (100+)Owned by PublisherPublisher

M2 Research Developer Survey, presented at Casual Connect, July 24th, 2014

Break-down ofgame developers:

75% of development studiosare less than 25 persons.

Rise of the Indie:

Background

5 Steps to leverage the cloud to ignite your F2P Revenue

(without advertising)

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Solution

Step 1: Go Cross-Platform

Add

Consider and (↑ARPDAU)

Consider (↓ARPDAU, ↑Players)

Consider and

blackberry 2%

ios 42%

windows 4%

android 52%

Source - http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Market-Rankings/comScore-Reports-September-2014-US-Smartphone-Subscriber-Market-Share

Mobile OS NA Market Share* September 2014

Step 1: Go Cross-Platform

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Still plenty to do!Platform-specific porting still required for leaderboards, achievements, notifications, purchasing, etc.

Strategic use of cloud tech can greatly reduce these costs.

(Integrate once with the cloud tech, and take advantage of it on each platform.)

These days the heavy lifting is done by the game engines — Unity, Unreal, Cocos2d-x save you tons of time in moving to new platforms.

Yay Engines!

Solution

Step 2: Enable Cross-Play

Takes Cross-Platform further

Single Experience across devices

Single Communityplayer

experience

Step 2: Enable Cross-Play

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To be effective, must:

Share game state across platforms (cloud saves)

Include purchases

Cross-Play Effective?King.com (Candy Crush Saga) has attributed their cloud save feature as a critical factor in the title’s success — GDC 2013

Solution

Step 3: Add Social Competition

Social Competition is an excellent way to give players additional objectives in your game.

Attract additional players

Competition increases engagement

Step 3: Make it Social

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Cloud features for social competition:

Social Identity

Brags / Posts

Social Leaderboards

Visits

Challenges

Multiplayer !!!

Clans

Social Competition Effective?20 of the Top 50 Grossing iOS Games are Multiplayer.*

Another 11 are Social Builders (visits).*

* based on data from August 29th, 2014

Solution

Step 4: Reduce Cheating + Theft

Client-side IAP validation isn’t secure

Client hacks can ruin a competitive game

Step 4: Reduce Cheating + Theft

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Cloud features for social competition:

Server-side receipt validation

Server-side game config + tuning files

Server-side game logic and win determination

Server-side matchmaking

Server-side player data protection

Reduce Cheating Effective?Some developers claim to experience 3X revenue gains by implementing server-side receipt validation — would definitely vary by platform though.

We’ve all experienced or heard stories of cheating ruining games.

Solution

Step 5: Grow + Keep your MVPs

All players are not created equal

Track and categorize your MVPs

Figure out what they like — why they leave

Create promotions to keep them longer

Create promotions to grow more of them

Step 5: Grow + Keep your MVPs

Dividing your player base into segments allows you to better target your promotions.

Example classifications based on Emily Greer’s (Kongregate) talk at Casual Connect 2012.

Percentage of

Play once, then bounce

Non-repeats Repeats

Play 2-9 times

Regs

Play 10-49 times

Committed

Play 50+ times

37% 40% 12% 11%0% 3% 13% 84%

Percentage of Revenue

Step 5: Grow + Keep your MVPs

Define promotions to monetize players and move them upstream.

Play once, then bounce

Non-repeats Repeats Regs Committed

Play 2-9 times

Play 10-49 times

Play 50+ times

Ignore Push them into Regs

Push them to Committed

Don’t let them leave!

Step 5: Grow + Keep your MVPs

Promotion Example: Committed

Committed

Play 50+ times

Keep them from leaving

GoalSegment Definition

Played >50, spent >$20,

hasn’t played in >5 days

Most committed players play every day… if you start to see gaps in activity, it’s a sign they’re thinking

of leaving

Promotion Definition

Veteran Sale!

Super sale on an offer large enough to get them recommitted again.

Enter brainCloud.

brainCloud is a ready-made, cloud-based backend

for game development.

23

Using brainCloud, developers can access pre-built features to jumpstart building the most popular free-to-play game types, without having to reinvent the wheel.

brainCloud is…

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Rich gaming back-end - multiplayer, cloud data, leaderboards, in-app purchases and much more

Extendable via custom cloud code

Native libraries for iOS, Android, Windows and more

Unity, Cocos2d-x and Unreal engine integration

Easy-to-use development portal

Advanced promotional tools to maximize your monetization

Affordable usage-based pricing

Any Engine, Any Platform…

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brainCloud supports Unity, Cocos2d-x and Unreal - with native libraries for iOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry and more!

And Any Game Type

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Sweet Spot!

Architecture

We have built a secure, reliable and super-scalable architecture — so you don’t have to.

Key APIs

And pre-built all the key APIs that you’ll need.

Tools

brainCloud is more than an API. It’s a toolset to aid in all aspects of the product lifecycle!

DesignDevelopment

Test +Support

ProductManagement

No-brainer Pricing

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Tier API Calls / month DAU * Cost / month Early Adopter!

(until 2016) Per M API +

Tier 0 - 100** $0 $0 $0

Tier 1 2M 2K $49 $25 $35.00

Tier 2 5M 5K $149 $125 $35.00

Tier 3 10M 10K $299 $250 $34.00

Tier 4 25M 25K $799 $700 $33.00

Tier 5 50M 50K $1,599 $1,450 $32.00

Tier 6 100M 100K $2,999 $2,700 $31.00

Tier 7 250M 250K $7,399 $6,900 $30.00

Tier 8 500M 500K $13,999 $13,000 $28.00

Tier 9 1B 1M $24,999 $23,000 $26.00

* Based on 33.33333 API calls per DAU. ** Limited to 100DAU during development (Free!)

Sign up in 2014 -‐ get

Early Adopter Pricing until 2016!

Sign up now!

Register today to level the playing field!

Remember - sign up before Dec 31st, 2014 to get Early Adopter Pricing until 2016!

Go to http://getbraincloud.com

Thank you!

Contact me at paulw@bitheads.com