Insights and tips about the games industry

We’re delighted to announce that we’ve now bundled access to all of our DataSuite features under one plan, with just one price. So it’s now simpler (and cheaper!) to access your GameAnalytics data. If you’d like to learn more, just book a consultation or request pricing for your particular needs here. So what does this mean? Well, without breaking the bank, you can now get access to every feature we have in DataSuite for a single monthly cost. You’ll be able to query your raw data, extract it into your own internal tools, easily spot trends and perform advanced analysis across your entire portfolio of games. In this article, we’re going to cover exactly what those features are, why we’ve made this change, and how you can use DataSuite to learn more about your games and your players. Multiple ways...

Virtual reality has been a hot topic for a few years now. And although there are a few kinks to iron out, VR is starting to take its seat in the gaming industry – it now boasts around 171 million VR users worldwide. We actually support VR games. Our SDKs work out of the box for Oculus Quest games. You just need to download our SDKs as usual, but with one extra step. (But more on that below.) It still comes second place to most other types of gaming in the industry. (Mobile gaming is easily one of the top dogs, having generated $93.2 billion in 2021 alone.) But VR is a space to keep your eye on (or even dip your toes into). But how do you even get started developing VR games? What tools and skills will you...

Imagine this. You come into work, load up your dashboard, and you’ve got a map of the world – each country a different colour. The greener the country, the more your game is making there. Visualizing your data can help you understand how your games are performing on an instinctive level. Numbers don’t often ‘click’ in our minds. But visuals – those give us gut feelings. They can help you see your data from a different perspective, and let you spot important insights you would have otherwise glossed over. But what can you do? Let’s dive into the top data visualization techniques and how to use them. 1. Line charts: Think time Line charts show us how values change over time. They’ll let you spot trends, like whether you have a lull in your installs on the weekends. Need to...

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...

Over our last couple of blogs around data warehouses, we’ve explained how they let you analyze data from across your portfolio and look at what insights you can gather from them. Now, we’ll dive into how to build a data warehouse. What steps do you need to take and what resources will you need? To figure this out, we’ve rounded up the costs, steps, and tools we think you’ll need to get started. Please note, that we haven’t included the cost of running an engineering department (which you’ll need), which can end up being a lot of $$$. What do I need to get started? Before you start, you’ll need to ensure you have the right people. You’ll likely need a software or data engineer, and perhaps an architect or DevOps engineer. You’ll also need to budget for tools like...

The goal of marketing your mobile game? Drive awareness and increase installs. It sounds simple when you narrow it down to that. But there’s a world of tools and techniques you’ll need to research to get it done right. The mobile games industry is a vast one, filled with thousands of games. And making yours stand out is just half the battle. So to give you a fighting chance, we’re rounded up the best articles and resources for you to get started. Let’s dig in. First off, understand your audience Before you even consider sorting your marketing strategy, you need to know who you’re selling to. Sure, you made the game – so you should have an idea of who your audience is. But you’ll need to understand exactly what your players’ motivations are and why they’ll want to play...

DataSuite Raw Export: Every event, every data point; unfiltered, unaggregated, untouched. So you have complete control of how you use it. Fancy learning some more about DataSuite? Watch our other videos: Metrics API from GameAnalytics Raw Export from GameAnalytics

DataSuite Player Warehouse is our prebuilt, fully-featured, data warehouse for your games at a fraction of the cost of building your in-house similar data pipeline. Fancy learning some more about DataSuite? Watch our other videos: Metrics API from GameAnalytics Raw Export from GameAnalytics

Metrics API Fetch your metrics for all of your games – Build custom dashboards showing essential metrics you care about. Compare all of your game’s KPIs and pulse at a glance. Fancy learning some more about DataSuite? Watch our other videos: Player Warehouse from GameAnalytics Raw Export from GameAnalytics

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...

Smashing obstacles with Giant Rush While they’ve seen huge improvements using DataSuite across their portfolio, one game stands out in particular: Giant Rush. (And not just because the character is huge.) The title has now reached over 140 million downloads. And, through a series of A/B tests and insights from the data they collected, they’ve been able to increase the LTV by a whopping 200% over six months for this specific title. “It’s because we A/B test every day,” Philippe Grazina from TapNation says. “We ask questions like: When are players leaving the game? For example, the boss in Giant Rush. If we spot that they’re leaving at the same point every time, we know we need to make a change. Small details like that really help.” Through these granular insights, TapNation can iterate and improve on their game step...

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...