Game Dojos: Developing Games without Analytics is like Driving with Dim Headlights at Night

Author icon Catherine Mylinh|Comments icon 0

Ann Burkett knows a thing or two about games. She’s a game developer who has worked with Macromedia Shockwave.com, Crafted Fun, Quizmonster and Zynga. Burkett also founded the HTML5 Developers Conference, Bay Area Game and App Developers Group, Games.js, SF Mobile Dev and chairs the Silicon Valley IGDA. And, she’s also also starting development on another game.

Now she’s spearheading Game Dojos, a San Francisco-based game start-up accelerator which offers a three-month mentor program to game start-up entrepreneurs. Through Game Dojos, you’ll meet many of the movers and shakers in the industry, learn how to optimally monetize your games, and even get help with funding, if that’s what you need.

We recently spoke with Burkett about what you can learn from the program, and how you can take advantage of the thousands of connections from Game Dojos’ staff and mentors. She compares developing games to driving a car, and here are her thoughts: Continue Reading…

Why the Obsession with Big Data?

Author icon Owen Martin|Comments icon 0

There are so many articles on big data these days, and it has me wondering, ‘Why the obsession?’ And, does the current data deluge actually require a reconsideration of standard statistical methodology?

Having just completed my PhD in statistics, I came to Kontagent to work as a data scientist in hopes of exploring one of the richest, biggest data sets assembled in recent history. Deciding to come do this stems from very fundamental questions I started asking myself toward the end of writing my dissertation. Specifically I want to know:

  • What is the purpose of theoretical research in statistics?
  • Is statistical theory the art of making inference from data or is it the science of decision-making under uncertainty?
  • And finally, if data processing, data science, and so-called knowledge extraction from data truly form the next big technology that companies will require to stay competitive, as many pundits claim, what besides computing improvements really needs to be researched and developed? Are the traditional statistical methods of Fisher, de Finetti, and Tukey really going to go obsolete? Continue Reading…

7 Tips for Leveraging Big Data

Author icon Dan Kimball|Comments icon 0

Big data holds great promise for a variety of industries, but there are some things you should consider in order to take full advantage of it.

One of Kontagent’s clients, the CEO of a top social and mobile game publisher, recently commented: “When you’re learning how to ski, you learn pretty quickly that whatever direction you’re looking is the direction your skis ultimately will take you down the mountain. The same holds true for data: You really need to make sure the metrics you are looking at from the start are the ones that are most important to your business’ success. That is inevitably where your business will focus.”

That seems like a simple concept, but it’s also incredibly insightful, particularly when it comes to big data.

The business world has been abuzz about the ability to process petabytes of data at incredible speeds and ultimately leverage it for increased efficiency, engagement and profitability. The gaming industry, in particular, has been very good at turning big data into meaningful insights.

Other industries should take some notes from their counterparts at Zynga, Popcap, Playdom and other successful gaming studios that have figured out how to scale their businesses more efficiently. It’s been reported that the health care industry could see an additional $300 billion in value by leveraging big data. And, the retail industry could create efficiencies that lead to a 60% increase in operating margins. These are much bigger industries than gaming, with far-reaching outcomes if they can actually put big data driven decision-making to action.

So, what are some of the lessons learned that can enable organizations to effectively use big data to improve their businesses? Here are seven that I’ve witnessed firsthand.

1. Decide on your key performance indicators (KPIs) upfront
If you don’t have the expertise to properly define these indicators out-of-the gate, enlist some help from service providers who have experience in building data science infrastructure. Then, operate your business around those KPIs.

Read the entire article at Mashable: 7 Tips for Leveraging Big Data

Continue Reading…

Kontagent kScope Social & Mobile News Weekly Roundup

Author icon Catherine Mylinh|Comments icon 0

Can social gaming influence the presidential election?

Big data needs data scientists, or quants, or Excel jockeys
No wonder big data is hot in venture capital this year. Forbes has been running a series on big data, and many of the business leaders it has interviewed say “people underestimate the degree to which big data can fundamentally change their business.”

What was especially interesting is that while technology has made storing and aggregating data much faster and more affordable, some of these experts say “keeping the data in its raw form can provide insights into long tails, allowing firms to identify and target relatively small cohorts that fall outside the normal distribution… when you get down to the everyday work of data scientists and analysts, in a very quiet average work-a-day way, they are finding a lot of insights that are becoming increasingly critical to the way companies are doing their business.” Read full article.

We’ve seen this firsthand. At Kontagent, our data scientists have been instrumental in providing insights to our hundreds of social customers. (We process millions of messages daily.) We believe, while data is awesome, you need domain expertise to make sense of it all. That’s Moneyball lesson #3: Look at the data that really matters; it may not be obvious at first. Continue Reading…

Applying Lessons Learned on Facebook to Mobile App Development

Author icon Josh Williams|Comments icon 0

The ARM funnel shows a typical customer lifecycle, which is comprised of three stages: acquisition, retention and monetization.

Mobile app developers and marketers can gain a huge advantage by looking at the way social app developers scientifically build and optimize their games around customer data on social platforms. They use that data to learn about what is and isn’t working in their applications, and iterate quickly for increasingly stronger returns. From Acquisition to Retention to Monetization–the three stages in the ARM funnel–successful developers have created entire organizations around data-driven design at each level and across all facets of their businesses.

At Kontagent, we’ve witnessed firsthand the ARM funnel’s crucial role in the success of a large majority of studios that publish games on Facebook–and now on iOS and Android as well. Insights garnered from this model help to focus resources and marketing investment. And, having a perpetual flow of data and a supporting data science infrastructure (with the expertise to act on it), has enabled game studies to acquire users more profitably. Teams of data scientists and developers at Zynga, Popcap, Crowdstar and Gaia, for example, have measured, iterated, tested and optimized relentlessly to acquire more users at better customer acquisition cost and with higher yield ratios than most. It’s no coincidence these are the same guys succeeding on mobile platforms as well. Continue Reading…

Mobile App Developers: You Don’t Have to Start at Square One

Author icon Conor Nash|Comments icon 0

 

Many of the metrics we measure in social apply to mobile users, too.

If you’re developing or have launched a mobile app, are you tracking it properly to ensure that it’s profitable? Do you know what metrics are important, and how to track them?

The remarkable thing about mobile apps is we’re not starting from square one, like we did several years ago in social. Because we now have years of experience developing successful social games, we can hit the ground running in mobile–because many of the same metrics from social games apply to mobile apps.

This is especially true when it comes to the what we call the ARM funnel of Acquisition, Retention and Monetization. It’s the analytics framework by which our social customers have used to develop and iterate their games–and has helped to make them successful. When it comes to mobile devs, here are some metrics in social they can use to improve their apps in mobile: Continue Reading…

To Build or Buy a Social/Mobile Analytics Solution: That is (Sometimes) the Question

Author icon Rohan Sardesai|Comments icon 0

Build vs. Buy: A First-Hand Analysis

The social/mobile gaming space is relatively new, yet the evolution of the space has been rapid. Despite ever-changing tech and design trends, using analytics as a tool to drive success in this space remains critical.

Newcomers to social/mobile gaming must become overnight experts or risk becoming overnight failures. The first wave of successful social gaming companies, such as Zynga, Playdom and other innovators invested heavily in their analytics and business intelligence (BI) tools from day one. Over time they have built large analytics/BI teams, scalable infrastructure and robust A/B testing tools; all of which give them the ability to quickly optimize core game metrics. These companies, now behemoths in the industry, made massive investments in analytics from the start because no commercial solution specific to “social” existed at the time. These sophisticated tools, built from the ground up, gave them incredible insight, and a massive advantage over second- and third-wave gaming companies.

With new platforms being developed every day, and previously untapped “gamers” entering the space through free-to-play channels, the opportunity to build successful games is bigger than ever. So, how do up-and-coming companies get a comparable level of analytics into their games? Do they build it themselves or buy something commercially available?

I have worked in social gaming in a first-wave company (where we built our own analytics) and in the second-wave where we decided to buy an off-the-shelf solution. The goal of this post is to outline some of the factors to consider while making a Buy vs. Build decision at this point in the industry’s life cycle. Continue Reading…

Kontagent kScope Social & Mobile News Weekly Roundup

Author icon Catherine Mylinh|Comments icon 0

Mobilewalla found that mobile apps released on Sundays statistically performed the best.

Launch your mobile app on Sunday
According to new research from mobile analytics service Mobilewalla, Sunday is the best day to release a mobile app; however, Wednesday appears to be the most popular day among developers. Find out the worst day to release your app. (Hint: It’s different for Android and iOS.)

A tiny gaming company has Zynga in its crosshairs
Rumble Games wants you to “swing your sword or fire your gun, not decorate your castle and spam your friends with invitations.” It was a big enough idea to prompt investors from Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures to drop $15 million into the company in its first round of funding after it was founded less than a year ago.

This is what the company has to say about the current state of social gaming. Kixeye wasn’t amused by Rumble Games’ comments, calling it “smack talk.” Read Kixeye CEO Will Harbin’s response. (Disclosure: Kixeye is a Kontagent customer.)

On a related note, a recent move by the Justice Department could give Zynga a new billion-dollar opportunity. Continue Reading…

Gaia Online CEO on Important Mobile App Metrics to Track

Author icon Catherine Mylinh|Comments icon 0

Gaia Online CEO Mike Sego discusses the lessons he learned in social app development that Gaia is applying to mobile.

Happy New Year!

Here at Kontagent, we’ve helped hundreds of social customers win by helping them gain better insights into their users’ behaviors. And, we have even more exciting product features planned this year. (Sign up for our newsletter for the latest Kontagent news and updates.)

We’re always improving our already-powerful, best-in-class analytics platform. We’ve been leveraging our knowledge and experience to help many of our social customers make a successful transition into the mobile space, too.

Whether you’re in the early stages of developing a mobile application, or you’ve already launched it and have a substantial user base, looking to social app developers for a history lesson on how to do it right can give you a huge head-start, and greater chance at success.

Kontagent Konnect Interview:
Gaia Online CEO Mike Sego

Gaia Online has been able to do this with Monster Galaxy–a hit on both Facebook and iOS. In the first installment of our Kontagent Konnect Executive Interview Series, we spoke with CEO Mike Sego on how the company is applying many of the lessons it learned in social to mobile, including:

  • The metrics that are most important to succeeding on mobile
  • How to monetize on the F2P model
  • How to successfully split-test on iOS (yes, it is possible!)
  • Other tactics used to keep players engaged and coming back for more Continue Reading…

How Does Zynga Really Make Money from Free Games?

Author icon Dan Kimball|Comments icon 0

Source: The New York Times

Recently, I was talking to a colleague about how there is now technology that enables non-verbal brainwave communication between two people. Essentially, you put a device on your head that translates chemical synapses in your brain into patterns that are recognized as words, phrases or entire ideas. A person on the receiving end of this communication can then absorb these patterns in their own brain device, which will then interact with his chemical synapses. And, a conversation occurs.

It is absolutely mind-numbing to think about how much data needs to be processed in order to create patterns out of chemical synapses that an individual experiences at any given time. In fact, the adult human brain is estimated to contain from 100 to 500 trillion synapses! How could there possibly be a technology powerful enough (or scientists insightful enough) to process and interpret that volume of data, and then find a way to translate that into meaningful communication?

Well, on a much (much) (much) smaller scale, Zynga (public as of this morning) and other social game companies have achieved a similar feat. (Side note: VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi penned a great piece on the history of Zynga.)

In our view, the Internet has been through three defining phases of its short life in the modern era: Continue Reading…