Social gaming“virality and niche games”

By Sriram Krishnan

sriramkri@gmail.com@sriramkri

ContentsDesigning a viral game on FacebookOptimizing viralityNiche games

6 ways to make your app go viral

1. 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 viral

2. 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 viral

3. 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

ContentsDesigning a viral game on FacebookOptimizing viralityNiche games

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

ContentsDesigning a viral game on FacebookOptimizing viralityNiche games

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 html

Monetisation 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

The END

Any comments?

sriramkri at gmail com@sriramkri

http://cn.linkedin.com/in/sriramkrishnan