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Mastering Retention Podcast

Ep.92: Creating & Sustaining a great game experience

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_lxOftTpC4⁠

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🎙️ Mastering Retention Podcast: Sustaining Long-Term Engagement with Abhay Ramakrishnan

Host: Tom Hammond, Co-founder of UserWise

Guest: Abhay Ramakrishnan, Product Manager at Deca Games

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Introduction

👋 About Abhay:

Transitioned from advertising copywriting to game design and product management.

Worked at Zynga on games like FarmVille 2 and Zombie Catchers.

Currently at Deca Games, focusing on long-term player engagement and sustainable LiveOps.

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Understanding Deca Games' Approach

🏗️ Deca's Business Model:

Acquires older games with dedicated communities that others have moved on from.

Revitalizes these games by focusing on retention and LiveOps.

Aims to run games for decades, prioritizing community satisfaction.

🔑 Key Pillars for Success:

Delivering on Time: Ensuring consistent and timely updates.

Quality Assurance: Providing error-free and bug-free experiences.

Meaningful Content: Creating content that resonates deeply with the community.

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Sustainable Live Operations (LiveOps)

♻️ What is Sustainable LiveOps?

Developing events and content that are manageable long-term without overburdening the team.

Balancing resource investment with player engagement and revenue impact.

🚫 Unsustainable LiveOps Examples:

Events requiring excessive effort, such as complex systems or highly detailed art assets.

Features that don't justify the development cost due to minimal impact on key metrics.

🎯 Strategies for Sustainability:

Focusing on high-impact areas that align with player interests and business goals.

Utilizing 2D art styles to streamline content production and reduce costs.

Conducting regular retrospectives to optimize processes and reduce diminishing returns.

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Leveraging Community Engagement

🤝 Importance of Community:

Deca prioritizes games with active and engaged player communities.

Community feedback is essential for game improvements and new feature development.

🗣️ Engaging with Players:

Employing dedicated community managers to facilitate open communication.

Involving players early in the development process through forums and direct outreach.

Creating small, trusted groups under NDAs to provide feedback on upcoming content.

📊 Balancing Feedback and Development:

Weighing community suggestions against data insights and design principles.

Prioritizing quality of life improvements and bug fixes based on player input.

Maintaining transparency to build trust and demonstrate commitment to player satisfaction.

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Data-Driven Decision Making and Segmentation

📈 Utilizing Data:

Formulating hypotheses and validating them with real player data.

Focusing on meaningful experiments that can positively impact retention and monetization.

🔍 Player Segmentation:

Segmenting players based on monthly spending habits and engagement levels.

Tailoring offers and content to match the preferences of different spending tiers.

Recognizing the challenges due to tool limitations and aiming for more precise segmentation.

🛠️ A/B Testing:

Conducting tests carefully to avoid community backlash due to small player bases.

Ensuring that experiments are fair and that players are informed about changes.

Using community feedback to guide testing priorities and implementations.

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Balancing Game Design and Competitive Analysis

🎮 Playing Your Own Game:

Team members play the game daily to understand player experiences firsthand.

Identifying and addressing pain points that could affect player retention.

🕵️‍♂️ Competitor Analysis:

Studying competitor features to understand underlying problems they solve.

Avoiding direct feature copying; instead, focusing on what benefits their own players.

Prioritizing improvements to existing systems before adding new features.

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Tips for Improving Retention

🔑 Abhay's Advice:

New Players: Streamline the tutorial to get players to engaging content quickly.

Mid-Term Retention (D30): Monitor player progression to ensure they remain on the ideal engagement track.

Long-Term Players: Continuously provide surprising and delightful content to keep loyal players invested.

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Conclusion

📞 Connecting with Abhay:

Available on LinkedIn for further questions and networking opportunities.

🔗 Final Thoughts:

Deca Games demonstrates the power of community focus, sustainable practices, and data-driven decisions in extending the life of games and enhancing player satisfaction.

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