Game Design for Serious Games on the example of EDURINO. The story, the progress and the feedback system at EDURINO To this end, I have written a simple and clearly understandable story: The child is the hero with the magic stylus and is asked for help per episode by a world traveler – the respective EDURINO figurine. In the first episode, Mika the vixen, after being awakened with the figurine on display, tells of the world of words that has been infested by the little chaos monsters. These have made a mess of everything and have confused all the guardians creatures of knowledge. Only the child with his magic stylus can help them and put everything back in order. Meanwhile, the child sees the map of the World of Words, which is divided into four areas: the Forest of Rhymes, the Mountains of Long and Short, the Lake of Syllables and the Forecourt of All Beginnings. In each of these areas, a guardian creature is actually responsible for the respective knowledge. Both on the map and throughout the game, the two opposing effects of magic and chaos can be seen both narratively and visually. Magic stands for knowledge, the power to create something good and right, and order. It is always visualized with white-greenish particle effects specific to magic. Chaos, on the other hand, is not evil per se, but well… chaotic. The cute little chaos monsters make a mess of everything and leave a special pink-grey visual effect wherever they have left disorder. This is also the case on the map, where at the beginning each area, each guardian creature and each of the quests marked on it in the form of buttons are visually covered with the chaos effect. The child now completes the quests linearly, one after the other, thus helping the creatures one by one and freeing one area after the other from the chaos monsters. With every creature the child helps and every quest the child completes, the effect of the chaos monsters on the map gradually disappears, and the children free the four areas one after the other. So in EDURINO the child is not rewarded by abstract points or the like, but by completing tasks that are clearly broken down into small tasks that make sense to the child. It helps the previously suffering creatures and sees the effect of its own good deeds and gets the thanks and recognition for it. Moreover, it can always see its progress on the map, which is gradually freed from the visual effect of the chaos monsters. Moreover, we use this dual effect of magic and chaos as a feedback system. For problem-based learning, it is enormously important to playfully try out what works and what doesn’t and get clearly understandable feedback on what is right and what is wrong. Especially with more minor children, it’s not so nice to just make a loud MÖÖÖÖP! toot when the kids do something wrong ;-) Instead, we use the signature effect of magic in EDURINO universally for when the child does something right. And we use the signature effect of chaos when the child hasn’t done something right yet. This clearly communicates to the children that something is not yet “right” without giving them the feeling that they are doing something wrong or failing. The character Mika as a help system The character thus functions as the herald of the story, picking up the child with the call-to-action and accompanying the onboarding. But it also acts as its mentor throughout the game, whom the child can always ask for help. This is because the character moves from the scene at the beginning as a portrait button to the top right of the GUI. When the child taps on this button with the stylus, the animated portrait of the character always explains to the child what to do. The usability of the EDURINO app And on the other hand, we achieve this by giving the children with the map a home screen that is clearly understandable to them because it is fully visualized, and on which all the functions of the game are visually anchored for them:
In a completely separate Parental Gate, we also satisfy the needs and demands of parents for transparency and control of their children’s user experience in the EDURINO App. There, they can see exactly what their children are playing, how much, and what progress they are making in terms of learning content. They can also limit the screen time of their kids in a reasonable way. Serious Games – There and back again In my experience, one of the most decisive factors for success, especially with serious games, is whether you actually know the majority of the limitations and the often numerous requirements as early as possible and deal with them offensively and creatively. And from then on, it’s all about testing. Testing, testing, testing and testing again. Because as with any other game, there is often inevitably a difference between theory and practice, even with the best team. And unfortunately, the best ideas – especially in serious games for children – are useless if they don’t survive the first, second and third “enemy contact”. The EDURINO App Myriel Balzer Myriel (https://myrielbalzer.de) has been working as a freelance game designer, writer and producer in the games industry and other industries since 2009. Besides classic computer games she also develops many serious games and gamification applications or sometimes completely different stuff like Haunted Houses, Themeparks or Edu Larps. You can read more from her on her blog: www.jackofalltrades.myrielbalzer.de The post Form Follows Function (Part 3/3) appeared first on Making Games. Form Follows Function (Part 3/3) published first on https://spymugblog.tumblr.com/ Form Follows Function (Part 3/3) published first on https://waltergillespie.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr Form Follows Function (Part 3/3)
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Today’s guests are founders of Vidlet, a powerful digital platform and expert professional services for conducting remote qualitative & hybrid research, around the globe, using smartphone video. They talk about selling their previous business, why it’s important to use your own product, and how do you get valuable customer feedback. Doreen Lorenzo and Patricia […] The post 857: How to Get Valuable Customer Feedback appeared first on App Masters. 857: How to Get Valuable Customer Feedback published first on https://waltergillespie.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr 857: How to Get Valuable Customer Feedback Nadya Rusanovich is Lead User Acquisition Manager at Gismart, a developer & publisher of mobile games & entertainment-focused apps with over eight hundred million downloads. Nadya manages a UA team focused on ad networks & playable ads. At Gismart, Nadya participated in 20+ global launches, 7 of which reached the top charts. Working closely with product owners and the discovery team, Nadya has tested over two hundred game prototypes. Read Nadya’s blog in Russian here. The hyper-casual gaming market grows faster than any other mobile vertical. Hyper-casual gaming trends can change as quickly as TikTok trends! Each day, developers and publishers face new challenges, such as competitors copying their concepts or jostling for position on the top charts. To stay ahead, it is important to make decisions quickly and thoughtfully and to establish sound internal processes. This blog explores three foundational tips every hyper-casual gaming app marketer needs to get right: testing, cross-department synergy, creatives and scaling. Testing1. Go Beyond Traditional ChannelsAlways test beyond Facebook. If your primary placement for impressions is a Facebook feed, it can be challenging to predict how the game will behave on other ad networks. Audiences there differ from paid social users. Instead, test on an ad network to predict what kind of performance can be expected there. Use this to confirm or invalidate the results you get from Facebook. By testing on ad networks, you can set your CPI and see how many users are acquired under test conditions. 2. Conduct Tests in Natural ConditionsWhen possible, conduct tests in natural conditions and rely on the algorithms of different channels to evaluate how your product resonates with users. To test in natural conditions, keep default placements and avoid excluding audiences. For example, do not exclude men from targeting even if you believe your game design is for a female audience. Let Facebook’s algorithms explore. If you target specific groups of people or select placements by yourself, it will make installs more expensive. At the testing stage, the goal is to find out how big your audience is and how this audience is structured. You may lose out on some of your potential audience if you set limits too early. 3. Allow the Algorithm to LearnDon’t make decisions only based on a small number of impressions. Instead, allow the algorithms to learn for several days. Only then will you see reliable metrics. If you have a small number of impressions, their statistical significance will also be small. You need to be sure that a good test result is not a fluke. To achieve reliable results, you will need around 10k impressions per campaign. If the CPI is too high and does not decrease during the first 3-4 days, take action before you lose your budget. 4. Key Signs of Successful TestingAfter conducting hundreds of tests, I’ve identified the key signs of success to look for. Here’s how to gauge how much the audience likes a game—and how to increase the chances that a game will become a hit.
Consider all insights received during your testing stage to decide whether to continue working on the app, launch globally, or stop. For a game to hit the top charts, each sign must be met. Synergy Across TeamsTo collect insights and data, a good UA manager must be in sync with the product team. Combining UA, creative producers, and game designers will help you better understand test results and make the right decisions. At the test stage, you must understand various components like:
Strive for transparency at each test stage and across teams. This helps avoid problems if and when you decide to scale globally. Creatives That Show Core MechanicsDuring testing, you need to learn how well the gameplay works and how attractive the idea and the mechanics are for actual users. Focus on creatives that show off the game’s core mechanics. For example, try different colors, camera rotations, composition, different characters and skins. You will find creatives with good metrics as well as acquire insights on how to improve and add new creative features to the game. “Fail” concept“Noob to Pro” concept“Fake” playable Other concepts to try include clean gameplay in different variations, authentic sounds instead of background music, and tutorial-esque creatives. After testing a lot of creatives, you might just find a potential hit. Now you’re in business. At this stage, your best friend and worst enemy is time. Add content, ensure high retention and set up monetization. Simply put, prepare your app for a soft and global launch in the shortest possible time. Trust that every competitor has already thought about — and may even have tested— your winning idea. Are You Ready to Scale Globally?To reach the top of the charts and stay there, you will need a lot of installs. By only leveraging Facebook, you will not be able to do this. Instead, connect all your main UA channels immediately. In a perfect world, that alone will bring a large number of installs. But in the real world of mobile marketing, anything can happen — technical issues, creatives getting rejected and so on. Launch all channels to sustain enough installs, and keep moving your game to the top. It is risky to scale globally with only one high-performing creative, since you won’t have a backup when metrics begin to fall. But remember that during the testing phase, you have already found your best creatives. Keep the good ones, but never stop testing. Creatives will naturally “burn out” and rise in price. You will need to throw new logs on the fire. Also, don’t forget the importance of showing IECs after videos. A video and IEC format dramatically increases the CR of a creative pack on ad networks, thus increasing the number of installs. An IEC should be simple and catchy, with one or two taps before redirecting to the store. You could show an unfinished action, bounce an object on the screen, or offer choices to the user. Here are a few more tips:
Remember the three things that will help you climb to the top: 1) test beyond traditional UA channels, 2) create ads illustrating core mechanics and 3) maintain and increase install volume. Conquering the charts and staying on top is not easy in this competitive market. But if you keep these tips in mind, it will make the journey up a lot smoother. The post How to Hit the Top Charts with Your Hyper-Casual Game appeared first on Liftoff. How to Hit the Top Charts with Your Hyper-Casual Game published first on https://waltergillespie.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr How to Hit the Top Charts with Your Hyper-Casual Game Christina Borisova is Lead Retargeting Manager at ZiMAD, a developer and publisher of popular games for mobile platforms, PC and social networks. Over the past nine years at ZiMAD, Christina focused on developing and improving user acquisition strategies. She started as a junior marketing manager and grew to Head of User Acquisition, in charge of acquiring valuable users and placing company products in front of the right audience. Christina works closely with product teams and UA to develop an active user base for ZiMAD apps. Read Christina’s blog in Russian here. More than two years ago, I decided to focus on retargeting. Like many others, our team had tested retargeting campaigns, but only sporadically and with little success. Back then, our main goal was to increase the number of new users to drive profit. But I realized there was a great opportunity in our 10-year-old app with its 100+ million user base to reactivate those users instead of just focusing on new user acquisition. It was then I began my search for a successful retargeting strategy. My North Star: Paying and Non-paying UsersWhile researching retargeting, the majority of resources I came across recommended re-engaging users who made purchases. By retargeting purchasers, app marketers can increase their share of paying users and upsell, “a method where shoppers are persuaded to buy a product of higher value, or ‘upgrade.’” I also remembered that many user acquisition channels that specialize in retargeting had expressed a desire to work with ZiMAD, as long as we had 20,000 to 100,000 unique paying users within a few months. The most valuable users are those who make a purchase, especially if they are ‘whales,’ highly engaged and loyal top spenders who donate their time and money. As a game developer, we pay special attention to whales. We deter them from leaving and bring them back if they churn by offering exclusive content, hot sales and top priority service. That said, app marketers only target 5-10% of the user base if they focus exclusively on the spending audience. What about the remaining 90-95% of users who never spend a penny? It’s important to remember non-purchasers. You will miss out on most of the user base if you only have eyes for big spenders. After extensive experiments and tests, I made a checklist to guide my retargeting decisions for new and existing apps—regardless of whether they have spenders or not. My process is not universal, and it won’t work for everyone. Every product is unique. But I think my checklist offers a helpful starting point for marketers who have the same questions I did. Here’s what I asked myself, step-by-step, when I devised my retargeting strategy: 1. What Is My App About?Put yourself in the player’s shoes to understand what attracts them. Play the game, be curious and explore what you offer. You will likely discover what features to use in your new retargeting strategy. It’s also a great exercise to understand what screens to use for deep link integrations. 2. What Metrics Does My App Have?Analyze metrics based on three key elements:
3. What Features Do I Use?To discover what features to highlight in a retargeting campaign, you must play your game to see what will attract players to your app. For example, you could use in-game events or special levels if you offer them. Afterward, analyze performance metrics of users playing those special in-game events or levels. Compare the data to isolate the best features to attract returning users. I usually call these features a ‘stimulus’. 4. What Do I Consider Loyal and Highly Engaged?The most important phase of any retargeting strategy is user segmentation. Select user conditions based on activity, but do so carefully. If you choose strict requirements, you will end up with a small, costly sample segment. If your conditions are too broad, your ROI and engagement metrics can be low. Consider the following carefully to decide if an audience is loyal and highly engaged:
5. What Creative Concepts Do I Use?We often hear that personalization is king and that customized creatives are a must for any retargeting strategy. At ZiMAD, we test personalized creatives designed for a specific feature (like an in-game event or a special level) against slightly different creatives used for traditional UA. For us, they have performed more or less the same. It’s always better to have several creative concepts when testing—whether you adapt the creative for retargeting or not. Asking and answering these five questions have helped me successfully prepare countless retargeting campaigns. Even if your app does not have thousands of paying customers, you can still retarget. Your app just might require a slightly different strategy when it comes to segmenting users. You never know until you test and try. The post 5 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Retargeting Campaign appeared first on Liftoff. 5 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Retargeting Campaign published first on https://waltergillespie.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr 5 Questions to Ask Before Starting a Retargeting Campaign Dariia Opanasiuk is Chief Marketing Officer at Impulse, a leading brain training app with over eight million users. Since 2018, Dariia has managed health & fitness, education and gaming apps. With a team of experienced marketers, she currently leads the performance marketing and advertising strategy for the Impulse app and crossword game, Wordsgram. Dariia’s focus is on growing the Impulse marketing team and improving creative & media buying processes. Learn more about Mobile Hero Dariia. The ConundrumThe world of mobile marketing transforms extremely fast. Apple announced ATT changes in September 2020 that marked a major shift, affecting mobile marketers who relied on the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) to acquire iOS users. This left a pressing question—how do you overcome the deterioration of ad platform optimization, resolve attribution problems caused by IDFA changes, and continue to acquire users efficiently and profitably? Prior to iOS 14.5, the challenges of performance marketing on iOS devices were addressed with testing and proactive scaling. Most advertising platforms relied exclusively on the IDFA to track conversions and to see immediate results of marketing tests. IDFA helped app marketers quickly identify the best creatives, ad sets, and campaigns for scale. Now, we are left with SKAdNetwork campaigns that have different attribution rules. Additionally, we need to wait for SKAD campaign results for seventy-two hours before evaluating traffic performance. For companies who previously tested dozens or even hundreds of ad creatives daily and relied on decisions based on immediate traffic metrics as tests were launched, the new reality is a big challenge. At Impulse, it became a top priority to find alternative user acquisition methods. We searched for new and efficient ad campaign approaches that would allow us to scale traffic and profit margins. This blog explores some of the new strategies that work. The Good Stuff. Web Conversion Campaigns.We started by retesting different types of ad campaigns outside the SKAD network by launching a series of marketing experiments with variables covering types of optimization, funnel approaches, and creative types. Our findings favored web conversion campaigns. The three benefits of web conversion campaigns for our app include:
Since we run hundreds of ad creative tests daily, these three are crucial. Web conversion optimization introduces a fresher audience for ad platform algorithms which means lower CPAs. These campaigns had noticeably lower CPMs in comparison to similar targeting settings for App Install or App Event campaign optimizations. User Journey for Web Conversion CampaignsWe changed the standard user’s journey from ad click to app install by adding one more step—between the ad click and app store page view. After the ad, users are taken to the web page, and then from the web page to the app store’s app page. By adjusting the user journey, we get an opportunity to use custom websites instead of using the app store as a destination page. One quick tip here—act quickly and carefully without overloading potential users with unnecessary actions on the web page. The user’s path becomes longer for three additional seconds (the average time spent on the website before being directed to the App Store) but we now have a priceless opportunity to encourage users to decisively install Impulse on the App Store app page. Here are my top tips for marketers who want to test this approach:
Wrapping It Up with Pros and ConsThe main advantage of web conversion campaigns over SKAdNetwork campaigns is the ability to test and react to ineffective creatives quickly. Results are almost immediate, making it easier to understand what to scale when top-performing creatives appear. Once you scale five to seven creatives at a time, you will know which one starts to burn out. The biggest disadvantage is the lack of algorithm optimizations for the final funnel event. But you still can test creatives using web conversion optimization and scale profitable creatives using SKAdNetwork campaigns. To succeed with web conversion optimization campaigns, you need good creatives, a proactive testing approach, and quick decision-making. One or two days of hesitation can generate losses depriving you of previously earned profit margins. As such, pay attention to time spent on campaign management as it is one of the most important components of profitable scaling. Be prepared to test, learn and repeat. The post Scaling Without IDFA and Staying ROAS Positive: How Impulse Became the 20th Most Downloaded iOS App in the U.S. appeared first on Liftoff. Scaling Without IDFA and Staying ROAS Positive: How Impulse Became the 20th Most Downloaded iOS App in the U.S. published first on https://waltergillespie.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr Scaling Without IDFA and Staying ROAS Positive: How Impulse Became the 20th Most Downloaded iOS App in the U.S. Galyna Iefremova is CEO & Founder of SUITSME, a fashion dress-up gaming app helping women find their style, boost fashion skills and express personality with no limits. Galyna founded SUITSME in 2020 when most women remained at home due to the pandemic and could not go out to demonstrate their stylish looks. In less than a year, SUITSME soft-launched in the US and Canada, allowing users to create modern looks using garments of famous fashion brands. Currently, SUITSME is planning for a global launch. Read Galyna’s blog in Russian here. Nothing in the world grows faster than the budgets allocated to digital advertising. The industry is highly dynamic, and the competition is fierce—no wonder every marketer is trying to stand tall against competition and get desired conversions. 70% of advertising effectiveness depends on creatives. After Apple implemented IDFA restrictions, the role of creatives in performance marketing has been amplified. In this blog, I’ve created a list of proven tips that will maximize your ad return-on-investment (ROI). 1. Explore and Conquer Your RealmMarketers can sometimes end up stuck thinking “inside the box”, designing tons of similar-looking ads. It’s okay to try making ads based on direct product exposure, but don’t stop there. Work hard to analyze and understand your audience insights. Follow what your users follow, read what they write in online communities, find their pain points and try to solve them. For example, when we started building SUITSME, I joined competitor communities on Facebook and Instagram. Many insights came from the player’s comments, like lack of diversity in skin tones or names of fashion brands they admire. Need more creative inspiration? Try any of the following:
2. Trigger User EmotionsHuman beings are emotional, even when performing the most rational purchases. Nielsen released a study in 2016 that revealed ads with an above-average emotional response from consumers caused a 23% increase in sales compared to average advertisements. In other words, invoking user emotions has the best chance of success. Design a high-performing ad by tapping into your user’s emotions. Invoke a feeling of relief by solving a problem or create a relaxing effect with something aesthetically pleasing. You want the user to laugh, cry, empathize and provoke discussions. Do not leave the user feeling indifferent. One of the most popular patterns used by game advertisers is having the player fail at exceedingly simple challenges. Seeing someone fail at simple challenges triggers frustration, so the one who sees the ad proceeds to install, play the game and prove they can do better. We tested two similar videos that reached different results. In one video, the player chooses a beautiful look and gets a high score. In the other video, she chooses a ridiculous outfit and fails the challenge. The second video had double IPM (installs per mile) than the first. 3. Use In-App GraphicsThe majority of SUITSME creatives have click-to-install (CTI) conversion rates of over 45%. We achieve this high CTI by using graphics. When a user clicks on an ad and goes to the app store, their journey continues smoothly as they see creatives consistent with what was shown in the ad. If it is a video ad, use the first three seconds for anything that you think might work, then incorporate in-app graphics to show your game’s interface. 4. Craft A Powerful CopyWhen building new creatives, it is easy to overlook ad copy. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the design process that we disregard the message itself. But ad copy is a powerful tool to strengthen creatives. Here are highlights to make sure your ad copy sells.
5. Blend Into the EnvironmentWhere are you promoting your app? Every platform where you advertise a product has its own aesthetics, purpose and goal, and format. Consider this when designing ads. For example, vertical video and static ads used for Instagram stories should have “safe zones” — the area where the content isn’t obstructed or at risk of getting cut off. Video ads for TikTok should be designed for “sound on.” As people go on Facebook to see what their family and friends are up to, it is a good idea to use faces in your ads. Moreover, it is proven that human photos increase the conversion rate If possible, use user-generated images instead of stock photos. Stock images often lack emotion (or are artificial emotions!)—they do not create the same connection as authentic, user-generated images. Compare the two pictures below. Who will you trust more? Don’t be afraid to take your photos and use them for creatives. You will have full content control and won’t have to think about stock photo licensing. 6. Testing, testing, testing.To maximize the outcome of creatives, test several versions with different backgrounds or faces. You will be surprised at how different the results could be. For example, we created two versions of a video ad where one had a much better click-through rate (CTR) than the other. Can you guess which one performed the best? For our tests, we used Facebook as a marketing platform and Android as an app platform. We created a campaign for a wide audience with one ad set and several versions of the creative inside (from three to five). Once we achieve substantial results, we turn off the test. If a particular creative shows good results on Facebook, it will also likely perform well on other platforms. So do not miss out on a high potential ad by making only one version of it. My six tips have worked well for our team, but you need to make your own secret sauce. Marketers who achieve positive ROI will tell you there is no single formula for a successful ad. It is about investigating the market, studying your consumer, trying many concepts and triggering user emotions. I hope these six tips guide and help you design high-performing ad creatives. The post 6 Insider Tips to High-performing Ads appeared first on Liftoff. 6 Insider Tips to High-performing Ads published first on https://waltergillespie.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr 6 Insider Tips to High-performing Ads Digitization proved it’s worth during the pandemic with mobile-first businesses across the globe reaping the rewards. In Eastern Europe, in-app revenue rocketed. According to data from App Annie, consumers spent $1,330b on in-app purchases in Russia during 2020. In Ukraine, consumers spent $220b and in Poland the figure was $390b. An IAB study found that during the pandemic, Romanians increasingly sought their mobile devices for entertainment and shopping. As a result, mobile advertising managed to attract 60% of total online advertising revenue in the country last year. The Eastern European market also offers many benefits to app marketers not available elsewhere. Lower CPMs and less regulation offer a great opportunity for testing. The introduction of 5G across the CIS region, and the increased bandwidth and high-speed data that comes with it, also offer a huge advantage for mobile advertisers. But navigating and dominating the Eastern European app market can still be a challenge. In this article, we’ve outlined some essential tips for promoting your app in the region. Read the article in Russian here. Good Testing GroundSome of the world’s most innovative apps have roots in Eastern Europe. Tech trailblazers like Skype, TransferWise and Bolt have all come out of Estonia. While Poland was one of the first European countries to roll out an app that collects reams of personal information in its fight to combat the pandemic. It is also true that many of the apps born out of Eastern Europe make the majority of their profits in other parts of the world. Dariia Opanasiuk, Chief Marketing Officer at Genesis (Impulse) adds: “For apps that are not geo-specific and intend to go worldwide, Eastern Europe may be a good market for a soft launch or quick tests. Lower CPMs give a great opportunity to do that cheaply and being able to access these countries via all the main traffic channels will save a lot of time. The Eastern Europe market gives marketers the possibility to gather data on user behavior, define success criteria, discover the most effective promotion methods without committing significant budget.” Dariia Opanasiuk, Chief Marketing Officer at Genesis (Impulse) Vladimir Ilchenko, UA LEAD at Nakusi Games comments: “We don’t have such strict regulations as China and there is no big barrier to enter the market. So, all that makes our market similar to other European countries, but with lower eCPMs.” Vladimir Ilchenko, UA LEAD at devgamm Max Mikhedov, Lead UA at Easybrain comments: “I believe that these markets are still underestimated. Perhaps companies believe that they will make less money in them. But they actually offer an opportunity because there is less competition in the market, making it easier for apps to take the top spot in their vertical or industry.” Max Mikhedov, Lead UA at Easybrain Get Hyper-LocalEastern European consumers are used to product offerings in localized languages, both from local players and foreign market entrants. In order to compete effectively in this region, it’s key for marketers to translate creatives into local languages. It’s also important to understand local social and business customs and nuances. Kirill Grigorev, Senior User Acquisition Manager at Dataduck comments: “Most of the people in Eastern Europe speak local languages and do not speak English so you need to make sure your creatives are localized. You need to understand Eastern European sentiments when preparing a marketing strategy. Try to avoid any messaging that can cause a negative reaction.” Kirill Grigoriev, Senior User Acquisition Manager at Dataduck Aleksey Golovachev, Marketing Team Lead at Awem Games comments: “The share of Eastern European countries in the marketing mix is usually small, so many developers neglect localization. However, this is critically important. In Russia, for example, no more than 5% of the population know English (according to the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion).” Aleksey Golovachev, Marketing Team Lead at Awem Games Aleksey Tishakov, CMO at ZiMAD comments: “The Eastern European market, especially Russia, has grown in recent years and has provided an opportunity for game developers to expand their player base. In general, understanding regional characteristics is the key to a successful marketing strategy, but unlike, for example, specific Asian countries, it is not necessary to introduce a unique user flow here, language localization is enough.” Alexey Tishakov, CMO at ZiMAD iOs 14.5Apple’s iOS 14.5 update and the depreciation of the IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) affected app marketers around the world, and the story was no different in Eastern Europe. Marketers scrambled to find workarounds to capture consumer data, target the right audiences, and run personalized ads. Vladimir Ilchenko comments: “Just like other companies all over the world, here in Eastern Europe we are facing difficulties with iOS 14.5 and later versions. As a result, some companies have started testing new products on Android.” Danusia Buquet, Head of Sales, CSE at Liftoff adds: “The iOS 14.5 update rattled the app marketing industry. In Eastern Europe, marketers shifted their ad dollars to Android. On Android, marketers still have full visibility into what drives performance at a granular level and can optimize to their heart’s content. But it’s still early days. As more users adopt 14.5 and marketers get comfortable with the new normal on iOS, most of us expect ad spend on iOS to fully recover.” Danusia Buquet, Head of Sales, CSE at Liftoff Galyna Iefremova, CEO at SUITSME adds: “One significant factor that forced marketers to completely reconsider their app marketing strategies is the introduction of Apple’s restrictions on the transfer of personal data. As a result, more and more marketers are turning to influencers, both local and global, to promote their apps.” Galyna Iefremova, CEO at SUITSME Sergey Tsondinov, Head of Marketing at Beresnev Games comments: “All mobile marketers are faced with the challenges of adapting to the new iOS and the upcoming Android changes. This has really affected how marketers approach purchasing and traffic estimation. It is quite possible that this challenge will result in the need for even closer integration of marketing and product. Both in terms of product ideation and monetization.” Sergey Tsondinov, Head of Marketing at Beresnev Games The Eastern European market holds a lot of untapped potential for mobile app marketers. The costs are lower meaning even those with smaller budgets can reap the benefits of this market. It’s also a good time to be a mobile marketer in Eastern Europe as users are spending more time than ever before connected to their devices. But to make the most of this region, it’s important to understand the market and the challenges which are unique to it. Those that do, will get ahead of the rest. The post App Marketing in Eastern Europe: What You Need to Know appeared first on Liftoff. App Marketing in Eastern Europe: What You Need to Know published first on https://waltergillespie.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr App Marketing in Eastern Europe: What You Need to Know Game Design for Serious Games on the example of EDURINO. Part 1 is here! The Game Design Problem Analysis 1. I look at the whole constraints analysis. I try to perceive all constraints as a kind of big map, as a “problem” that wants to be solved, like a big puzzle. 2. I think about what, within the framework of the constraints, is the logical, but also economically sensible solution to this “problem”, which also creatively and innovatively extracts the absolute optimum from the situation and transforms the apparent “constraints” into creative strengths. And because this is all a bit abstract when written down like this, I would like to explain it to you, at least in excerpts, using a wonderful example. The EDURINO App The target group of preschoolers (and parents) At the same time, you must not completely overstimulate them, especially in a serious games app, because otherwise they will quickly learn nothing at all. Another factor that should not be underestimated is that the target group of preschoolers also includes the target group of parents. And parents of preschoolers, whom they want to support with an app, naturally have one or two other demands on such an app in addition to pure fun. They usually want to know what their children are doing in the app and whether and how well they are learning. And they also want to have control over what happens to their child and how much time their child spends in front of the screen. The stylus as a unique input tool The EDURINO figurines Sustainable motivation in a serious game
It is probably self-explanatory that this should never happen in a serious game. And certainly not in one for preschoolers. After all, who wants to make a game that not only leads to the kids not wanting to play the game anymore, but then later sitting in school wondering why they should even bother if they don’t get any points, badges or leaderboard listings for it? From these constraints – and all the others, a detailed developmental psychological inventory of our target group and an extremely extensive learning objectives catalog – we then developed the unique game design of EDURINO. The game design of the EDURINO app: The magic stylus But the thing is: naturally, it’s actually much less complicated for kids to just use their finger than the pen. They never have to look for their finger first, and of course, it’s still exhausting for preschoolers to hold a pencil correctly. So it was clear: It must be much cooler to use the app with the pen than with the finger. And so, the magic stylus was born. I’m not kidding, that’s exactly what we did: the pen is sold to the child as a powerful magical artifact from the very beginning. And only the child, as the bearer of this pen, can use it to do real magic in the worlds of the EDURINO Universe. It is the pen that makes the child a hero and gives it power over all sorts of things and creatures in this world: It can make objects float from A to B, it can make objects talk, the child can tickle creatures or make water flow again. The whole thing is accompanied with appropriate particles and sound effects. Sounds trivial, but strikes a chord with kids that age. They all use the pen instead of their finger. And that even though their finger would of course have exactly the same “power” in the app and create the same pretty magic effects. But please don’t tell them that. ;-) Part 3 coming soon! The EDURINO App Myriel Balzer Myriel (https://myrielbalzer.de) has been working as a freelance game designer, writer and producer in the games industry and other industries since 2009. Besides classic computer games she also develops many serious games and gamification applications or sometimes completely different stuff like Haunted Houses, Themeparks or Edu Larps. You can read more from her on her blog: www.jackofalltrades.myrielbalzer.de The post Form Follows Function (Part 2/3) appeared first on Making Games. Form Follows Function (Part 2/3) published first on https://spymugblog.tumblr.com/ Form Follows Function (Part 2/3) published first on https://waltergillespie.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr Form Follows Function (Part 2/3) Today’s guests are founders of Vidlet, a powerful digital platform and expert professional services for conducting remote qualitative & hybrid research, around the globe, using smartphone video. They talk about selling their previous business, why it’s important to use your own product, and how do you get valuable customer feedback. Doreen Lorenzo and Patricia […] The post 857: How to Get Valuable Customer Feedback appeared first on App Masters. 857: How to Get Valuable Customer Feedback published first on https://waltergillespie.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr 857: How to Get Valuable Customer Feedback Game Design for Serious Games on the example of EDURINO. Learning in the context of serious games is, without a doubt, the coolest thing ever. Because learning games are not only as far away from dry frontal teaching as the beach is from the desert. They also achieve something that educational research has been demanding of “normal” teaching for years, but which is not really being achieved:
The elements of the periodic table and their possible combinations are simply much easier to remember if you have already used them dramatically and heroically in a wizard vs wizard battle. Serious Games are Serious Business While normal games “only” have to function technically, be fun to play, be marketable, and ultimately be profitable, serious games must also convey learning content or skills as demonstrably as possible or even bring about real changes in behavior. In addition to skills in game design, knowledge and experience in the areas of (social) psychology, didactics, and even sociology are extremely helpful. I can recommend “Social Psychology” by Aronson, Wilson and Akert from the Pearson Studium publishing house as a really helpful basic reading. Here, topics such as social influence, prosocial action and all kinds of biases in the perception and also influence of people are explained very beginner-friendly, practically and using many different examples and pretty colorful info boxes. Furthermore, you usually have to deal with even more restrictions than with any other “normal” game. Be it through the learning content itself or through the often special target groups: Dementia seniors usually do not show outstanding enthusiasm towards weird humor and general nerdiness. Children of preschool age are almost always still unable to read fluently. And managers at Volkswagen are not at all as keen on geeky badges or an epic mount as one might often expect from die-hard gamers. But above all, the learning content itself usually makes it impossible to just go ahead and design a cool game. However, limitations in the game design process are not bad per se. On the contrary, they can often release unbelievable creativity and enable previously undreamed-of innovations. Provided you know them as early as possible and they do not appear unexpectedly during the already advanced production. Ralf Adam once said to me on the subject of risk lists: “If you don’t control the risks, they will control you.” And as true as that is in production, it’s also true in game design with the constraints: If you proactively face up to the constraints right at the beginning and work them out as early as possible, then not only do they not pop up constantly during the ongoing production and, in the worst case, ruin your concept. But it is precisely from the supposed limitations that the best ideas and those best tailored to the target group and learning content often emerge. For this reason, two of my methods have proven themselves in recent years, especially for serious games: a constraints analysis and a game design problem analysis based on it. The constraints analysis Production Constraints Technical Constraints Art or Usability Constraints (Serious) Game Design Constraints Part 2 and Part 3 coming soon! The EDURINO App Myriel Balzer Myriel (https://myrielbalzer.de) has been working as a freelance game designer, writer and producer in the games industry and other industries since 2009. Besides classic computer games she also develops many serious games and gamification applications or sometimes completely different stuff like Haunted Houses, Themeparks or Edu Larps. You can read more from her on her blog: www.jackofalltrades.myrielbalzer.de The post Form Follows Function (Part 1/3) appeared first on Making Games. Form Follows Function (Part 1/3) published first on https://spymugblog.tumblr.com/ Form Follows Function (Part 1/3) published first on https://waltergillespie.tumblr.com/ via Tumblr Form Follows Function (Part 1/3) |
About MeI work as a Freelancer in Texas, I develop software's and website's. I have good skill-set in programming and I am a blogger too, I have my own website in which I post my blogs, basic steps to developing software's and tips on debugging the issues. Visit my website to learn the easiest way of debugging issues in your software or computer. |