Posted by Adam Gutterman, Go-To-Market Strategic Lead, Google Play
Games
Last month at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), we held a developer panel
focused on sharing best practices for building successful app and game
businesses. Check out 5 tips for developers, both large and small, as shared by
our gaming partners at Electronic
Arts (EA), Hutch
Games, Nix
Hydra, Space Ape
Games and Omnidrone.
1. Test, test, test
The best time to test, is before you launch; so test boldly and test a lot! Nix
Hydra recommends testing creative, including art style and messaging, as well as
gameplay mechanics, onboarding flows and anything else you're not sure about.
Gathering feedback from real users in advance of launching can highlight what's
working and what can be improved to ensure your game's in the best shape
possible at launch.
2. Store listing experiments
Run experiments on all of your store listing page assets. Taking bold risks
instead of making assumptions allows you to see the impact of different
variables with your actual user base on Google Play. Test in different regions
to ensure your store listing page is optimized for each major market, as they
often perform differently.
3. Early Access program
Space Ape Games recently used Early Access to test different onboarding
experiences and gameplay control methods in their game. Finding the right
combination led them to double-digit growth in D1 retention. Gathering these
results in advance of launch helped the team fine tune and polish the game,
minimizing risk before releasing to the masses.
"Early Access is cool because you can ask the big questions and get real
answers from real players," Joe Raeburn, Founding Product Guy at Space Ape
Games.
Watch the Android Developer Story below to hear how Omnidrone benefits from
Early Access using strong user feedback to improve retention, engagement and
monetization in their game.
Mobile game developer Omnidrone benefits from Early Access.
4. Pre-registration
Electronic Arts has run more than 5 pre-registration campaigns on Google Play.
Pre-registration allows them to start marketing and build awareness for titles
with a clear call-to-action before launch. This gives them a running start on
launch day having built a group of users to activate upon the game's release
resulting in a jump in D1 installs.
5. Seek feedback
All partners strongly recommended seeking feedback early and often. Feedback
tells both sides of the story, by pointing out what's broken as well as what
you're doing right. Find the right time and channels to request feedback,
whether they be in-game, social, email, or even through reading and responding
to reviews
within the Google Play store.
If you're a startup who has an upcoming launch on Google Play or has launched an
app or game recently and you're interested in opportunities like Early Access
and pre-registration, get
in touch with us so we can work with you.
Watch
sessions from Google Developer Day at GDC17 on the Android Developers YT
channel to learn tips for success. Also, visit the Android Developers website to
stay up-to-date with features and best practices that will help you grow a
successful business on Google Play.
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