TapNation helps nurture over 80 studios to develop hit games.

Data is crucial when working on any genre. But particularly when you’re making a hypercasual game. TapNation helps studios all over the world to develop and improve their games. But to do that, they need accurate data. Fast. That’s where DataSuite comes in: it’s a collection of our services to help you bring all your data together and easily plug it into your other systems.

We spoke with TapNation’s VP of engineering, Kamel Haddad, to see how that works. And what they use DataSuite for.

Tell us a little about TapNation and yourself

Sure thing. We are TapNation. We’re a publisher based in Paris and have taken around 80 different studios worldwide under our wing. Over the last few years, we’ve had around 19 hit titles, counting over 500 million downloads.

Because we work with so many studios, we’ve had to set up multiple internal systems and dashboards to speed up and standardize each game’s metrics. We have to automate a lot; it would take way too long to manually go through every game and see whether it is on the right track.

What problem are you trying to solve?

Ultimately, we need to provide the most accurate data to our studios. There are two ways we use our data. First, through a reporting dashboard, which lets our studios follow their games’ performance and cross-reference it with their acquisition and monetization metrics. And secondly, we need to feed data into our AI algorithms to adapt the games to the users’ behavior. We found that DataSuite was the best way for us to do that.

What issues were you facing?

We need as much granular data as we can collect. And we need it as close to real-time as possible if we’re going to offer our daily users unique gameplay.

We’re investing a lot of effort in the coming months to go deeper into personalizing our gameplay so that our users end up playing our games in totally different ways. We’re hoping to make them enjoy the game the way they want and feel ‘unique’ among the broad audience that a hypercasual title can cover.

How did you tweak DataSuite to your needs?

Ah, this is very important for us. On top of tracking the usual gameplay and ad events, we often need to design events to track custom values belonging to each game.

You see, we have a highly modular C# SDK that handles A/B tests, cross-promotion events, in-app purchases, push notifications, and so on. DataSuite is really flexible and scalable over time, which means we can keep incorporating new events into our dashboards.

How has DataSuite impacted your KPIs?

Really well. Thanks to your data, our A/B tests, and our expert product team, our games see a 50% increase in their LTV over six months after release, on average. A flagship example of this is Giant Rush.

Giant Rush is a game where the player has to run through an obstacle course, smashing through walls and fighting bosses. It’s now reached over 140 million downloads. And we managed to increase the LTV by a whopping 200% over six months of A/B tests.

Throughout those tests, we ended up adding mechanics and features like:

• Walls to break in the game
• Slow-motion when you see your opponent smashes through a wall
• A moving gauge to multiply the earnings at the end of the level, as a rewarded placement
• New kicking and punching animations that players can unlock in the shop.

Those are only a few examples of what we ended up adding. There were many more changes we made throughout the process. And DataSuite was key in making sure we could accurately track the effects of those changes.

How does each department use DataSuite?

We have two major teams that use DataSuite:

• First, our Data Scientists and Engineers. They’re using it to build robust, data-driven machine learning algorithms. These algorithms cover many different topics, like multi-cohort A/B tests, ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) forecasting, automated cross-promotion, in-game ad promotion, and so on.
• Then our publishing team. They use it to follow up on a game’s performance daily, while working closely with our studios to improve the gameplay metrics, like retention, playtime, level complexity, etc… We give them a totally dedicated and detailed dashboard to follow their games, where we combine gameplay insights with business value.

Have you tried similar solutions to DataSuite?

A little. We’ve mostly stuck with you guys since the beginning of our company, as the data you’ve given us is highly accurate, available, and flexible when it comes to tracking additional metrics on the fly. So we’ve felt no need to switch things up.

What made you choose DataSuite in the first place?

We had very good feedback from people in the mobile gaming industry regarding how reliable GameAnalytics’ data tracking and export services are. So we decided to give it a try. It worked well, so we kept it as part of our stack.

Learn more from the best

All DataSuite features (Metrics API, Player Warehouse, and Raw Export) are now available under one simple plan. We believe it might work for you too: from solo & indie to larger publishers. Feel free to get in touch.

And if you’re in the mood for some more reading, have a read through TapNation’s article on why to start your game dev career with hyper-casual games.

Hybrid-casual is a fairly new concept to enter the gaming world. You may have heard the whispers around the industry and a few hybrid-casual games already entering the app stores. But it’s starting to make its mark in the market. Players are starting to spend more time in games (with time spent in apps up 80% from 2019 to 2021). And in response, Developers and studios alike are turning their attention to this new type of game development and reaping the benefits (if done correctly).

So what exactly is hybrid-casual? How does this differ from hyper-casual? And what do you need to do to get started?

That’s what we aim to cover. Let’s dig in.

So, what are hybrid-casual games?

It’s when you mix together the simple core gameplay of hyper-casual, with the features and monetization models of mid-core. The hyper-casual market is oversaturated and extremely competitive. So the idea originally came about from developers and publishers experimenting with more features and mechanics in a bid to engage their players and increase retention.

To put it simply, hybrid-casual breaks down into three parts:

• Keeping a simple core mechanic: So still sticking to the short, simple, and satisfying rule of hyper-casual titles. You’ll have one core mechanic for your game, which is still intuitive and easy to learn.
• Layering in mid-core game features: So adding in progression events, leaderboards, collectibles, and more, to add more depth to your game.
• Adding in-app purchases: Offering IAPs, or even subscription options, alongside your ad strategy.

Why the shift from hyper-casual?

For years, we’ve been reading that hyper-casual is the king of the mobile gaming industry. That this genre is one of the fastest-growing genres out there. This is true, but it’s starting to hit its peak.

So why the shift? Before we explain that, here’s some background on the state of hyper-casual gaming.

Hyper-casual has little to no other features

Hyper-casual games all focus on one core mechanic. They’re stripped back of any other features and just focus on simple and intuitive gameplay. It takes seconds for the player to get the gist of these types of games, and usually are as straightforward as swiping or pressing a button.

Image source: Aquapark by Voodoo 

But they tend to suffer from low engagement and retention

Hyper-casual games are addictive but repetitive. It’s due to simple core gameplay, and lack of any additional features or motivations. Players will ultimately lose interest over time, as they don’t have a reason to come back.

Another culprit of this is due to the oversaturation of the market. This genre is the entry point for mobile game developers. They’re simple and quick to make. You have a lot of people now teaching themselves to code and build games, starting with hyper-casual. And you see more studios turning to hyper-casual because there are more accessible deals from publishers.

So there’s an ocean of these types of games out there. In turn, affecting CPI rates, retention, playtime, and LTV (lifetime value).

The ad monetization model alone isn’t working

Hyper-casual relies on ads. Interstitial and rewarded are popular types here. And it works. Players want a fun, free-to-play game that will fill up their time. And, up until now, it’s been a successful model. But with the growing competitive market, it’s not cutting it anymore.

And this affects the amount you can make from these games

To truly be successful when making hyper-casual games, you need low CPI, and high D0 through to D14 retention. Because hyper-casual games rely on ads, if your players don’t stick around and play enough of your game, your ARPU (average revenue per user) will suffer. And worse case, you make a loss.

Hybrid-casual helps increase retention and engagement

If you want to increase your retention, you need to give a reason for your players to come back. The best way to do this is by offering progression and different meta layers and features. So that they can have a sense of achievement from your game and a new motivation to play.

Image source: Bowmasters by Playgendary Limited

It gives breathing room for your CPI

Once you have IAPs in your games, your can afford to have a slightly higher CPI. It gives you the opportunity and time to increase your retention and session length, depending on the type of hybrid game.

How to develop a hybrid-casual game

It’s not as simple as just slapping on a couple of extra features. And although this genre is new and still evolving, there are a few steps you can take to get this right.

Step 1: Work on your game design

What we’ve been chatting about in this blog. Pair together the simple, fun mechanics from a hyper-casual title with the features and progression from mid-core. But don’t just shove in random features. It’s about building a nice engaging game with progressions that you can slowly introduce players to.

Step 2: Experiment with your creatives

Optimize your ads to not only engage hyper-casual players, but also new player types. You may need to experiment with showing those new features to see what works best for your ad creatives. And what people will react to best. You’ll need to go through plenty of rounds of testing, but you’re opening your game up to a world of new players.

Step 3: Nail your production process

Although this may be longer now, you can still transfer a lot of these skills and practices over from hyper-casual (so optimizing creatives, ideation stage, prototyping, etc). It’s worth noting, that you can expect your development cycle for these types of games to be slightly longer (so, say, for an experienced studio, four to six weeks, rather than the typical one to two weeks development time). But keep that hyper-casual testing mentality. There’s value in rapid testing.

Step 4: Perfect your monetization model

The big thing we’re gonna talk about here is balance. Going hybrid-casual means layering in IAPs. But there needs to be a level of commitment before someone will part with their cash. You’ll need medium to long-term goals to get your players invested.

Players are unlikely to dip into the pockets right away. And they will do it for nothing. Here’s what we know players are willing to spend on:

• Equipping new cosmetics: Skins for characters or weapons. People love customizing their looks and expressing their identities.
• Sending a gift: This implies you have a social element to your game, which is something you could easily do.
• Getting a competitive edge: Whether they want a second chance at a level, or a much-needed boost to beat a boss.
• Unlocking new content: This could be new equipment, characters, maps, or even bonus levels.
• Skipping timers: If there’s a locked level or item tied to a time element, some players may want to wait and unlock then and there.

The earlier you consider your monetization strategy in the game design stage then the easier it’ll be. It’ll be baked into the gameplay, the progression, and upgrades. You can’t just take a hyper-casual game and layer in IAPs. It’s not built for that.

Step 5: Assemble your team

There’s not a one-size-fits-all here. It depends on what type of hybrid-casual game you want to make. But you’ll likely need some more resources and help. A good 3D artist a great place to start, as you’ll want to polish off the artwork and style. Hyper-casual games look the way they are for a reason. It’s to do with CPI. The more polished a game looks, the higher CPI it may have. Which doesn’t work for hyper-casual, but is okay for hybrid.

You can also consider tools and platforms which offer these types of features out of the box. Companies like LookLocker or PlayFab, for example, have premade game systems to save developers time here.

Take a note out of Archero’s book

Archero is easily considered to be the first true hybrid-casual game. The controls are simple and intuitive. All the player needs to do is move around and shoot (both done in one fluid action). And the core loop is straightforward. You fight, get rewards, and then improve your character and equipment.

But what Habby has done is layered in features to add depth to the game. Players can get access to collectibles, new abilities, and upgrades to their weapons. These all scream roleplaying game. And that would be the case, yet these features have also been stripped back and simplified, to appeal to the casual gamer.

Archero monetizes with in-app purchases, subscriptions, and rewarded ads. And it works, because players are motivated by the gameplay. These types of monetization models simply wouldn’t work with a purely hyper-casual game, because the player has no incentive to do so.

A data warehouse can help perfect hybrid-casual games

We mentioned it above. But one of the most important elements behind hybrid-casual is striking that balance of showing ads, encouraging subscriptions, or pushing IAPs.

Data warehouses can make it easy and faster to make important decisions. It can help you decide which items to push, and which ones to scrap. Which players you should show more IAPs to, and which ones you should show more ads to. And much more.

We actually offer data warehouse of our own, which we’ve coined the name Player Warehouse (creative, we know). You can learn more about that here.

Virtual reality is no new concept. Have you ever heard of Sword of Damocles? It was invented by Ivan Sutherland and Bob Sproull, it was arguably the first VR / AR head-mounted display connected to a computer. That was in 1968. Today mobile games are at the start of shifting to VR

But it wasn’t until 1987 that Jaron Lanier used the name ‘virtual reality’ for the first time. He coined the term to help better describe his research. His company was the first ever to sell VR goggles, called the EyePhone, which cost upwards of $250,000 (including the computer to run it).

Image source: Flashbak

Of course, technology has come a long way since 1968.  In 2021, the global VR market size was just under $5 billion, and research shows that we’re now predicting the market to increase to more than $12 billion by 2024. There are over 200 titles available on the Oculus Quest 2, and of course, you can rule them all on this platform using our 100% compatible GameAnalytics Android SDK. The PSVR counts over 500 titles as well. Many of our existing, well-supported SDKs work with VR games, and we’re already enabling some of the hottest VR developers to get usage and gameplay insights. But more on that later.

So there’s potential to enter this space early. But what about mobile titles that have turned to VR? What’s been working? Well, here are the best mobile games that switched to VR.

1. Fruit Ninja VR by Halfbrick Studios

Originally launched back in 2010 on Apple devices, Fruit Ninja was one of the first excellent smartphone app to enter the market. It quickly helped set the scene for what mobile gaming could achieve. And honestly, it was a no-brainer propelling this title inVR.

VR opened new opportunities for Halfbrick

Halfbrick first decided to test their game on the HTC Vive in 2016. Like the mobile version, you need to hack and slash fruit in the air to get as many points as possible. The most significant difference is that you’re equipped with two samurai swords in the VR version, rather than just swiping with your finger. And to keep it fresh, they layered in a new mode, where robots shoot fruit at you, rather than it flying up from the ground.

It’s been such a success that the studio has gone and developed Fruit Ninja 2 – where players can experience a range of new challenges. And instead of hacking and slashing, they use a bow and arrow to hit all those pieces of fruit.

We actually interviewed Halfbrick recently to get their insights into taking mobile to VR. Have a read through the interview here.

2. Angry Birds VR by Resolution Games and Rovio

Another veteran is having a go at VR: Angry Birds by our friends at Rovio. It first came to VR in early 2019 on PlayStation, and Rovio partnered up with VR specialists Resolution Games to tackle this title.

Simple mechanics and traditional gameplay

One of the best things about Angry Birds is that it’s beautifully simple. It was one of the first casual games to hit the market in 2009. Players could immediately pick it up and within seconds, know exactly what the game is about.

The same applies to their VR experience, too. The main changes they introduced were turning it 3D but also adapting controls. Players have to pull the slingshot back to hit the target physically. Meanwhile, players can also travel around the area and hit the structures from different angles. This was a brilliant addition to the game to make it truly feel 3D, without distracting away from the core gameplay happening in x,y,z.

Psst… A little while back, Rovio’s Elif Buyukcan gave us a talk on how they optimize rewarded ads in their Angry Birds games – with help from machine learning and artificial intelligence. This is what we learned.

3. Space Team by Cooperative Innovations

Space Team is one of the most chaotic co-operative mobile games out there. Each player downloads the game on their phone, and they get a specific set of cards and instructions. Players need to work together to overcome whatever anomaly they’re up against.

Big changes that just made sense

Despite the game initially launching in 2012, Cooperative Innovations saw an opportunity to move the title to VR. They launched the new version on Playstation 4 in May 2020, just in time for lockdown.

This game needed a ton of work to shift to VR. Originally a card game, they had to create a whole new environment for gamers to play in, as well as avatars, controls, and more. But they did it well. And made the right choice.

4. Temple Run by Turtle Rock Studios

The classic title, Temple Run, it was one of the first mobile games to make its way to VR truly. It was released on the Samsung Gear VR headset in December 2014. And considering how old this title is (well, for the gaming world), we’re pretty impressed with how Imangi Studios transformed this popular mobile title into VR. They stayed true to the core gameplay, making it almost identical, the only difference being that it’s now first person.

One annoying thing about the game is that you need a touchpad to play. This makes sense, as the tech for VR was nowhere near as good as it is now.

Runaway VR is what Temple Run VR should have been

The kudos (or at least some of it) should actually go to Panoramik Inc. They created Runaway VR back in 2017 for HTC Vive, a replica of Temple Run. But with much better controls and smoother artwork.

In this version, players have to actually physically jump and move from side to side to avoid obstacles and collect coins (rather than use a touchpad or controller). This really adds to the gameplay and experience. And we imagine if Imangi Studios were to recreate Temple Run VR now, we’d probably see them do the same thing here. (In fact, they’ve been creating some pretty cool VR games over the years.)

5. Five nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted by Steel Wool Studios

FNAF is a classic PC horror game. Although not originally built for mobile, we still reckon this is worth a shout-out in this article, as the developers behind this series did a stellar job at reworking this title across multiple platforms.

The series originally came out in 2014 for PC and mobile and eventually made its way over to VR in May 2019. It was easily one of the most anticipated horror VR games to come out, and rightfully so.

Take full advantage of the VR space

While keeping true to the core gameplay and story, Steel Wool Studios did a brilliant job layering in new mechanics and using the entire space around the player. Physically reaching to press a button adds to the player’s level of anxiety, as they have to turn their head to watch the panels and doors. VR adds to the experience for this type of game, so really, it only needed a few tweaks to perfect the experience.

If you’re thinking of switching, we’ve got your back

Not everyone will want to switch over to VR completely. Which is fine. It’s still a new and emerging space. But for those who do, it’s an excellent opportunity to be the first on the ground.

If you make the switch, the one big thing we learn from all these games is that things are different in VR. Players act differently than they would on mobile or even on PC, and they explore the space differently, and the usual tricks to force them to spot certain items don’t always work.

This means you’ll need to track different metrics. Thankfully, one of our 35 Integrations and SDK already works out of the box with Oculus Quest. You just need to download them as usual (with one extra step to get them to work with VR). Read our documentation here: Unity, Unreal, or Meta Quest 2 SDK.

We’ve improved our A/B testing feature on GameAnalytics so you can optimize further your games and try out new great ideas and concepts. You can now stop user acquisition and exclude offline users from your tests.

A/B Testing: Stop acquiring users

We notice many game developers want better control over the allocation of users in an experiment. There are situations where developers would prefer a cohort to remain active; however, no more users join this experiment.

For this reason, we introduced a functionality where you can choose if and when you’d like your experiment to stop allocating more users.

How does it work?

While an experiment is running (active), the number of users allocated to the test is displayed on the page.  When you want your test to stop assigning more users, click the Stop Acquiring Users option from the experiment menu. Confirm your action, and that’s all.

GameAnalytics take care of the rest:

• The status on the experiment page will update to confirm that the test is still active but not acquiring any more users
• Users assigned in the experiment so far will continue to be in the test cohort as long as it is active 
• Users continue to receive variant config values in their game
• The experiment will remain active until you choose to Stop from the menu or until it reaches its end of life after two months

We recommend letting your experiment run for at least a few days before hitting the ‘stop acquiring users’ button. This way, sufficient statistical certainty is achieved for the best analysis of your experiment.

Use cases and benefits

• An active experiment is populated with enough users, and the model has calculated results. You are satisfied with the experiment results but want to keep the experiment active so users continue to receive variant config values.
  This means that the events data from such users in the game will continue to include A/B Test information. So you can continue to query metrics data for your experiment users in GameAnalytics Dashboards using these Filters.

• You can start another (concurrent) A/B experiment with new user traffic directed towards the new experiment or once you are satisfied with the current experiment userbase.

Complete documentation is available here, and as usual, feel free to get in touch so we can help with your specific case.

A/B Testing: Exclude offline users

If a user is offline during their first session, we can’t assign that player to an experiment until they’re back online (that’s when our backend servers place them into an experiment and send the values to their device).

Based on your feedback, some game developers prefer that the experiment ensures such users are never allocated to a test.
So we added a checkbox in the experiment set-up flow called ‘exclude offline users’ to provide this control.

Read more about how to set up an experiment here.

You can tick the checkbox ‘exclude offline users when setting up a new experiment. This will ensure our backend servers will not consider new users who were offline during their first session. Once they are online, an attempt to assign them a variant will not be made. These players will experience the default game settings.

Use case and benefits

Enabling this option for your experiment will ensure users’ experience in the game remains unaffected. New users who first opened your game when they were offline will continue to see the default game behavior as our backend servers will never attempt to assign them to a variant once they are online.
Technically this means that such users will not influence the experiment by causing a bias in the statistical results.

However, please note that this will mean the actual population of your new users assigned to an experiment will be lower than what is defined in the experiment setup.

Practical example:

Let’s assume you start one experiment set up to target 50% of your new users. A new player that qualifies all criteria will have a 50% chance of getting assigned to this test. Assuming no other experiment is active, approximately 50% of your new installs will join the test.
However, if “exclude offline users” is checked, some offline users could be in their first session, despite qualifying the test criteria. Since they will be excluded, less than 50% of your new users are likely to join the test.