As we enter the new year, the anticipation is high for the unfolding trends that are about to redefine how we create and play games—from AI seamlessly crafting entire game worlds to the ongoing rise of mobile gaming popularity, where developers refine strategies to extend engagement and enhance monetization, alongside their focus on diversity and sustainability.

AI keeps revolutionizing development dynamics

Traditionally, creating expansive open-world games with stunning graphics required large teams and significant time investments. But lately, AI is becoming a leader in a new era where even smaller studios and indie developers gain access to tools enabling the next generation of artwork. That includes the creation of entire worlds through procedural techniques, dynamic dialogue generation, or even players’ live avatar integration within the game.

These AI technologies are currently in their early stages, but the trajectory is clear – they will mature, become more efficient, and more cost-effective. A prime example is MidJourney, which launched just in mid-2022 and has undergone a remarkable evolution in a little over a year.

In 2024, we anticipate a surge in diverse AI-driven tools, followed by a learning curve of testing and optimization. Ultimately, as engines and open-source projects incorporate the best AI solutions, we can expect a standardization that propels game development into a realm of unprecedented possibilities.

Interconnected worlds with cross-platform play

In the realm of augmented and virtual reality, the expected launch of Apple Vision Pro in early 2024 is about to make waves. There are also speculations about the potential release of Apple Glass in 2025. Just as AI reshapes the software landscape of gaming, wearable technology is set to revolutionize the hardware dimension, paving the way for the metaverse.

For players, the impact will be revolutionary, especially as the metaverse opens doors to a more interconnected and immersive gaming experience. Players will be able to seamlessly transition between devices and environments, blurring the lines between virtual and real-world interactions. The gaming experience becomes more fluid, adaptive, and personalized, offering players flexibility and engagement like never before. In this light, developers will need to adopt a more holistic approach, considering various platforms and immersive environments during the design and development phases.

Such democratization of access will allow a broader spectrum of players to enjoy the interconnected and immersive gaming experience the metaverse offers, enhancing inclusivity and the overall gaming experience.

While mostly known for providing analytics to mobile games, GameAnalytics is also compatible with VR. Recently, we empowered studios like VRMonkey and HyperVR to build unforgettable immersive experiences.

The evolution of cross-platform gaming

However, the cross-platform experiences we just described are more than a one-size-fits-all strategy – especially when it comes to hyper-casual games. While simpler titles may synchronize game progression saves across platforms, “the devil” lies in mobile studios expanding their footprint to consoles and PCs. Homa Games venturing into the console realm or some of the top Steam games that recently came from Roblox experiences are great examples of this cross-platform expansion trend gaining momentum. As mobile studios broaden their horizons to include other devices, we witness a paradigm shift in accessibility and engagement. On top of this, such a move will also call for exploring new revenue streams.

NOTE: The convergence extends both ways, as seen with Ubisoft’s upcoming release, Assassin’s Creed Jade, exclusively for mobile, signaling a reciprocal blending of platforms.

Mobile gaming will thrive with these changes

According to Statistica, mobile gaming still does and will continue rising. The company predicts we’ll see a 10% increase in revenue in 2024. It’s only natural as smartphones are convenient and accessible, opening up gaming to a vast audience. Wearable technology and cross and multi-platform play will boost this even further.

But there will be challenges. With new devices and opportunities, developers will have to (re)consider their assumptions around playtime, successful mechanics, and game design choices. They’ll need to research and dig into the data to ensure they’re quickly learning what works and what doesn’t.

Catering to their needs, we designed GameAnalytics to empower developers in their games and app creation journey no matter the circumstances. Compatible with mobile, PC, console, and VR/AR, our analytics help you understand players’ behavior patterns, spot design errors, and optimize your game to boost engagement.

The rise of independent app stores

In May 2023, we saw the Digital Markets Act come into force in the European Union. In simple terms, it restricts what the ‘gatekeepers’ like Google and Apple can do. For example, they must allow “application stores to be accessed by means other than the core platform services.” This means that such platforms can’t anymore stop publishers from redirecting players to their own web stores. It gives publishers way more control over their monetization strategies while avoiding paying a cut to the platforms.

Microsoft is already working on its own store, and other publishers won’t be far behind, especially with services like Xsolla making it extremely easy to build a whitelabel payment experience for your game. It won’t be long before it becomes standard practice to sell in-app purchases and subscriptions through your own store.

PS: We are constantly improving our offerings and launching our mobile gaming ranking data, improved market insights, and accurate performance benchmarks soon. Stay tuned!

Subscription-based models reaching their momentum

The growing popularity of hybrid-casual gameplaybrings a shift to the gaming industry. While deeper, more engaging games are required, the higher development costs pose a challenge. Although players are willing to pay for their games more than in the past, their budgets are limited. In this light, subscription-based models have emerged as a strategic solution.

Services like Netflix Games Subscription, Apple Arcade, and Xbox Game Pass offer a curated selection of high-quality games under a single subscription, providing players with access to a diverse gaming portfolio. From a game developer’s perspective, these services act much like a publisher without any more upside from the initial publishing deal. Outside of these all-you-can-eat models, it is also possible to build your own subscription into your game’s business model using recurring payments as a supplementary revenue stream to in-app purchases and ads. Typical examples of benefits offered in an in-game subscription are turning off advertising, exclusive access to features and levels as well as discounts on in-app purchases effectively increasing upsell, as subscribers spend up to 40% more after subscribing. Or tap into up-and-coming services like Multiscription, which offers an integrated cross-publisher subscription tool allowing you to add your game to a broad selection of games making it more likely for players to convert and retain. This trend aligns with broader industry patterns of the upward trajectory of subscriptions across various sectors, Zuora reports.

For hyper-casual publishers, embracing this model presents an opportunity to bundle their games, encouraging players to remain engaged within their ecosystem for an extended duration.

DEI will remain the area of emphasis

While the gaming industry has made strides in introducing more diverse characters and narratives, the underlying issues persist. At the Game Developers Conference (GDC) last year, Anita Sarkeesian, the executive director of Feminist Frequency, highlighted the broken nature of DEI practices. According to Sarkeesian, the problem lies not in the failure of DEI but in its intended functionality:

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are framed as attempts to transform workplace environments into a space that is welcoming for all people, especially those historically underrepresented,” said Sarkeesian, the executive director of Feminist Frequency. “I’m not here to tell you that DEI is broken. I’m here to tell you that DEI is working as intended and that that’s the problem.”

Additionally, recent events, such as awards overlooking women and the industry’s setbacks at GDC, highlights gaps in recognizing and fostering diversity. The acknowledgment of these issues serves as a catalyst for the ongoing transformation within the gaming landscape.

As the industry grapples with these challenges, we anticipate to witness a push for meaningful change in 2024.

Environmental commitments and the gaming revolution

Game developers and players increasingly acknowledge the substantial energy consumption associated with gaming, particularly in powering servers and computers.

Towards the end of 2023, Xbox has taken strides by committing to support developers in monitoring and reducing their energy usage. Initiatives like these, featuring tools that provide insights into a game’s power consumption, show a positive trajectory in fostering sustainability within the industry.

As the industry becomes more conscious of its environmental footprint, these efforts by major players like Xbox may pave the way for similar initiatives across different gaming platforms.

Stay ahead of the curve with sophisticated data solutions

Closely following the trends from the past years and accompanying thousands of gaming studios and indie game developers on their journeys, we are compelled to emphasize the importance of data-driven game development.

As we advance in our commitment towards analytics excellence and further democratization of data, our roadmap for 2024 includes ongoing enhancements and refinements to the GameAnalytics tool. If you wish to speak to us about how we can empower you on your game development journey, you can contact us via email and book a demo.

In the meantime, you can read about our solutions here:

• GameAnalytics data solution – affordable game analytics for studios of all sizes
• GameAnalytics Pro – in-depth analytics tool
• DataSuite – all the gaming data you need

Making your games as diverse, accessible and inclusive as possible is not just a great thing to do, it also opens your game up to a larger audience. How will people with a different sexuality react to your game? Different culture? Different age? Different gender?

Being diverse and inclusive is about acknowledging the differences we all have – and making sure that you think about how your game will affect everyone.

The advice in this article is only the start. As time goes on, the industry will learn more about how to be more inclusive – more advice will enter the conversation. But it takes effort to stay on top of these changes, so make sure you’re being proactive and regularly searching for new information to stay in the loop.

But for now, look at a few ways you can make more inclusive and diverse games.

Follow universal design principles

Before developing and designing your game, look into universal design principles. Using them as a basis, you should follow these seven principles:

• Make it equitable. So make sure that your game works for all people, and that if it can’t be identical for different people, it’s at least equivalent.
• Make it flexible. Give people the choice to change things that don’t work for them – whether that’s controls or the pace of the game.
• Make it simple. Make sure that your game’s user interface is easy to use, without a lengthy tutorial. And that the options are easy to find.
• Make it available. Give everyone a way to access the instructions, regardless of their physical or mental abilities. For example, how would a blind person read your tutorial?
• Make it safe. Think about how your game might affect people’s mental and physical health. Remove anything that could cause harm. And – if you can’t – at least give warnings.
• Make it effortless. Design your game so that people don’t need to strain themselves or do repetitive actions. And – if you can’t – make it easy to adjust the settings.
• Make it reachable. Make sure that anybody can see and reach the elements of your game, regardless of their body’s size or mobility.

Games for Change has a good process to make sure people are being inclusive, which you can apply to your studio. Adapting their seven steps, you should:

1. Define. Figure out the potential problems and write down any barriers.
2. Research. Look into those problems and get to know them inside out.
3. Brainstorm. Get together and come up with possible solutions.
4. Develop. Pick the best ideas and create prototypes of those.
5. Review. Test the prototypes with a diverse group of testers and get feedback.
6. Finalize. Add those prototypes into your actual game.
7. Evaluate. Test and get feedback on your game to make sure you added those ideas in correctly. (And that nothing else in the game design interferes with your solutions.)

With this process you should be able to create a toolkit that addresses issues for all your games, not just the one you’re currently working on.

Give people options

We’ve written before about how to make your game more accessible. And it almost always comes down to giving people options. Here’s what should definitely be in your settings menu:

• Subtitles. This helps people who are hard of hearing, as well as international players.
• Motion blur, head bobbing, depth of field. Some people can feel motion sick when playing games. These options help them find the right balance for themselves.
• Color palette. At the very least, add options for default, red-green friendly, and blue-yellow friendly. Or let people choose exactly what colors they want to use.
• Difficulty. Letting people choose an easier difficulty can be the difference between them being able to actually play your game or not.
• Controls. If someone only has one hand and you don’t have a way to remap the controls, they’re never going to be able to play your game.
• Tutorials and hints. Let people turn back on tutorials, as they might not be able to remember everything.
• User interface elements. Let people turn off and on aspects of the user interface – or even move them around.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. But it’s definitely the bare minimum you should be doing to make your game accessible.

Just remember, it’s much easier to incorporate these aspects into your game if you start building the game from the ground up with them in mind.

Hire fairly and diversity will come naturally

One way to make more inclusive games is to have a more diverse team. The more varied your team, the more perspectives you’ll have in your team. And the best way to get to that point? Be fair in your hiring process.

If you focus on making your application process fair and equal – you’ll naturally hire a more varied and diverse team. It’s not about hitting a quota – it’s about giving everyone a fair chance.

Widen where you place job ads

If you only advertise your jobs on Mars, you’d only get martians applying. The same is true – if more complicated – if you advertise at specific universities or with specific newspapers.

Wherever you advertise, you’ll only get their audience’s demographic applying. So if you want to increase the pool of candidates, open up where you advertise your jobs. Widen the adverts, widen the pool.

Remove personal details from résumés

The more equal your process, the more likely you’ll hire a diverse team. If you hire purely based on achievements and experience, you’ll naturally overcome any possible biases. (As long as your adverts are in the right place.)

So ask your HR manager to replace the names, age, gender, race and photos on people’s résumés with placeholders. This is called ‘blind recruitment’. And it means that you’ll invite people to interviews based on their experience alone.

Some recruitment software can do this automatically. But you can get someone to do it manually (as long as they’re not involved in actually picking candidates).

Make an interview scorecard

The more you can get rid of subjective reasons when choosing who to hire, the more you’ll hire people fairly. So put together a checklist, assign each bullet point a score, and add them up at the end. Now, you can fairly compare candidates – without your personal biases possibly getting in the way.

For example, say a candidate reveals they have ADHD in the interview. Your gut reaction might be that they’ll be easily distracted and unable to perform the role. But if you use a scorecard – asking them specific questions about what they’ve done in the past – you’ll be able to judge their actual performance and skills. Rather than basing your decision on your assumptions about their life.

Find diverse playtesters, if nothing else

If you do all this and still find that your studio isn’t as diverse as you’d like, you can always make sure you’re getting lots of perspectives through your playtesters. For example, in VR – it’s important to get people of lots of different heights testing your game. If everyone who tests the game is tall, you can easily cause problems for shorter people.

If you search for playtesters from different countries and cultures, you’ll – at the very least – be able to catch potential problems before you release your game into the wild.

A diverse team is only the start

You also need to make sure that you’re treating your employees fairly and listening to all their views. But it’s a great start to making sure that you build a more diverse culture. Diverse cultures lead to diverse perspectives. And diverse perspectives lead to inclusive games.

Think about your characters

At this point, you should have a diverse team, a toolkit of solutions, and a standard set of options. You should be able to create an inclusive and accessible game.

Now it’s time to think about the creative side of your game. Your characters. Are they diverse? Is the story you’re telling inclusive? Have you fallen into the trap of making stereotypes, rather than rounded people?

Making a diverse game with a cast of characters from different backgrounds isn’t about hitting a quota. It’s about making sure that you’re not just falling into the habit of making characters that look and think just like yourself.

Don’t assign numbers to physical traits

Activision infamously made an internal tool that – while it was meant to help them create diverse characters – inadvertently came across as clinical and creepy by players.

An example of how Activision’s tool ranks characters in Overwatch.

Why did this cause a problem? Because you can’t assign a number to these aspects. Why does Lucio, for example, rank so high on ethnicity? What makes him ‘more ethnic’ than other characters?

Assigning a number to traits like this is problematic. It puts a value on being one thing over another. That’s not the correct approach. It comes across as just ticking boxes: “Yes, we’ve got a gay.”

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t audit your cast of characters. You should go through your game and ask yourself: What sexuality, race, gender, and physical traits do our characters have? Doing that can help you combat your implicit biases – you might find that all your characters share pretty similar traits, because that’s what’s natural to you. Maybe they all come from the same background. Maybe they’re all the same age. If they are, an audit could help you spot those biases and help you change some of your characters.

Make rounded characters, not tokens

Ultimately, you want to make your characters believable. What you don’t want is to insert a character just to pay lip service to diversity. For example, adding a gay black friend or a damsel in distress. This is called tokenism – defining a character just by their physical traits. And adding them just because.

So don’t try and hit a quota. Instead, create round characters first. Ask yourself: Does their gender, race, or sexuality actually influence their motivations, desires and actions?

When creating a character, you want to start with their overall personality first. So note down:

• Their role in the story. Are they a hero or villain? Mentor or obstacle?
• Their virtues. What’s good about them? Are they just? Restrained? Patient? Courageous? Friendly? Kind?
• Their flaws. What’s bad about them? Are they lustful? An alcoholic? A gambler? Envious? Quick to anger? (Bear in mind, a disability isn’t a flaw. This is about their personality. Not what they can and cannot do.)
• Their motivations. What drives them? Why are they helping or hindering the hero? (Or, if they’re the hero, why are they on their quest?)

Now that you have their personality sorted, you can approach the rest of their character more fairly. Now is when you can come up with:

• Their backstory. How did they get to this point? Where were they born? What events in their life were important to them?
• Their traits. What’s their gender, race, sexuality and body type?

You can now go back over their personality and use their backstory and traits to influence their motivations, but never their virtues and flaws.

For example, a woman from an Indian background will have a very different upbringing to a man from Brazil. This might affect their motivations. But it wouldn’t mean that they’re no longer kind. Likewise, if the point of the character is that they’re rash – that also shouldn’t change, just because of their culture.

In other stories, maybe these traits affect how other characters treat this person. Does that influence their motivations? Are they fed up with being ignored or ostracised?

Question your internal biases

Making your game inclusive and diverse is really all about making sure you challenge your own biases. So be proactive and challenge yourself. Question whether your design or narrative is reaching as many people as possible.

And a key part of that is writing a story that’s true to the characters – not stereotypes or cliches. So if you’d like to learn more about how to craft that story, read our blog on how to improve your narrative.

In May 2021, Anime Dimensions leapt from 122 unique users to over 10 million within 60 days, with around 200 million unique sessions. It was one of Roblox’s best launches ever, and they managed it with just three months of development. Since then, it’s reached over 31 million users and 680 million sessions. We spoke to their founder, who goes by the username Coolbulls, and they very kindly agreed to share what they learnt along the way.

Coolbulls explained that they have been using GameAnalytics since 2017, and they were one of the first Roblox developers to integrate our Roblox SDK, even back in May 2021 when they had just 122 users. They added that “learning to use analytics was a key skill as part of my developer journey.”

So let’s explore their journey and find out what first-hand experiences led to such meteoric success.

Massive hits can be made in three months

In late March of 2021, Albatross Games began working on Anime Dimensions. The game itself is akin to an action RPG like a souped up Diablo. Players traverse through dungeons (called dimensions), upgrade their character, and switch out abilities.

“The game is also multiplayer, with up to 50 players at once,” explained Coolbulls. “I think what made it successful was its accessibility. It’s very simple to pick up and learn compared to other Roblox games in the same niche.”

The game launched just three months after they started developing. Through Roblox, they were able to launch on PC, mobile and Xbox. This likely contributed to the fact it was an instant success – hitting over 90,000 concurrent users in the first week, and over 200 million sessions within the first 60 days of launch. It holds the record for best review scores of any game launch in Roblox’s history. And it has now been played over 680 million times.

A large part of this success also comes from regular updates, Coolbulls explained. Since the launch, they’ve released 30 updates – and several of these have boosted engagement back to levels they saw at launch, keeping Anime Dimensions an ongoing success story.

Experience matters, not team size

There’s an apocryphal story that Pablo Picasso was once approached by a woman in a restaurant and asked for a drawing. Picasso scribbled on a napkin and asked for $10,000. Furious, the woman complained that it only took Picasso thirty seconds to draw.

“No,” Picasso apparently said. “It has taken me forty years to do that.”

The same seems true of making Roblox games. With a team of only two – Coolbulls and a 3D modeller called d5no – Albatross Games was able to create a hit title with just three months of development time. But Coolbulls has been making games on the platform since 2008 – back when developers did it purely for the kudos.

“My first popular game was a war-themed tycoon I made in 2009,” they explained. “And I’ve made a few more since then that have become hits.”

This experience – of developing and playing on the platform – is how Coolbulls was able to spot an opportunity. They were inspired to create Anime Dimensions because of two games that launched earlier in 2021. Those two games were unpolished and the developers abandoned them – but it meant that Coolbulls had spotted a gap in the market. People wanted something like Anime Dimensions.

Learn the culture of Roblox

“It’s worth remembering that Roblox is a completely different culture than you might expect. The game engine, virtual economy and publishing platform are all within the same ecosystem,” Coolbulls said. “It’s easy to reach tens of millions of people by just clicking publish. And this makes it simple for younger developers.”

But while it’s easier to develop on Roblox – and possible to develop much more quickly – newer developers often misunderstand the culture.

“Nearly every company I’ve seen come onto Roblox does so believing that their experience will translate over,” Coolbulls explained. “It doesn’t. Because of Roblox’s closed ecosystem, a unique culture has formed and you need to adapt to it to succeed. Long-time Roblox developers are going to have a significant edge over you in understanding what works and what doesn’t.”

So it’s best to go in and assume you know nothing. Go through all the top games and see how they’re made and what styles appeal to the players. It’ll take time before you’ll understand the culture.

Hire and talk to Roblox developers

The best way to learn that culture? Speak to the developers themselves. The community is friendly – and always willing to help. And you’re going to need their expertise.

“Bringing in developers from outside of Roblox has a big culture gap,” Coolbulls said. “While Roblox isn’t as difficult to pick up as other game engines, the intricacies of the platform and the design of the games themselves are best understood by those who’ve been playing since childhood.”

If you can, try and see if you can hire successful developers. However, Coolbulls points out that this might be difficult.

“The most financially successful developers won’t be for hire,” they said. “And those willing to be hired usually don’t have knowledge of how to make a financially feasible game.”

It’s a fair warning. So what to do? Instead, make sure to speak to many different developers. And make sure you’re giving the correct incentives if you’re trying to hire those that have been successful. They’re going to need a good reason to come to you.

Understand the competition

Your competition – and the players themselves – are much younger than you’d expect. Over half of Roblox’s players are under 12 years old. This presents a strange challenge, as there will be fads and ideas that you won’t be privy to.

“It can seem enticing to think: ‘If all these kids are making money, why can’t my team of professionals do the same?’” Coolbulls said. “But this young mindset presents a unique form of competition. They understand the audience better – their taste in games, what’s trending, and what’s on social media.”

It’s also worth remembering that younger developers have less financial responsibility. These games could be a passion project they work on after school or college, while they live at home. They don’t need a stable paycheck to survive.

“This lets them take more risks and spend more time on otherwise financially unfeasible projects,” Coolbulls added.

Instead, Coolbulls has noticed that companies have needed to find large brands to sponsor their game or they’ve had to buy out established games if they’re ever going to compete against the local developers.

Use metrics to take the next step

Much like the other younger developers on Roblox, Coolbulls started out adding whatever they thought was fun or cool. But over time, they realised that it wasn’t quite working.

“Analytics has completely reshaped the way I think about and design games,” Coolbulls said. “Now, I focus on what’s lacking from looking at the analytics. It lets me track how much a feature gets used, or whether or not something was successful. It lets me learn and iterate much more effectively than what I’ve done in the past.”

Using analytics to track metrics and test their ideas, Coolbulls has been able to get an edge over other developers on the platform.

Start your Roblox journey

If you’re considering developing a Roblox game and want to make sure it’s the best possible game you could make, make sure you’ve got your analytics set up.

“GameAnalytics was easy to set up, easy to learn, and was – most importantly – free,” Coolbulls added. So make sure you try out our Roblox integration for yourself.

Heads up, it’s now possible to deploy a version of our analytics platform into your own setup and systems with a Private Instance. Having a private deployment of GameAnalytics is an ideal solution for any studio and publisher looking to become more independent and gain greater control over their own tools and data.

In this update, we’ll explain what a Private Instance is, why we’ve rolled out this service, and how you can get started.

Why we created Private Instance

We’re seeing a shift in the industry. More large-scale studios and publishers are bringing tools and systems in-house, with the goal of managing their own data pipelines for custom reporting, along with improving data compliance and security.

That’s why we’ve released Private Instance. With your own private deployment, you’ll now be able to use all the GameAnalytics features, but on your own servers. So you can build out custom functionality and even style it in your own branding without spending years building it from scratch.

What does Private Instance look like?

It’ll be a fully custom analytics tool that sits in your company’s infrastructure. We’ve enabled it so you can:

• Customize it for your specific needs. Our platform is based on components, so you can deploy, scale, and modify each one whenever you need to.
• Collect data from over 20 different SDKs. So you can plug into engines like Unity, Unreal or even use our pre-built APIs.
• Transform your data. If you’re collecting data from lots of different sources, you can use our DataSuite services to process your data in more ways than ever. All included.
• Use our prebuilt features. That includes A/B testing, remote configs, advanced user management and even your own admin interface.
• Own your data and security. You will be in control and store all of the data for your games on your own systems.

Keep your studio compliant

We’ll continue monitoring new privacy regulations and legislation. When a new law affects the market, we’ll update our tech and process data in a compliant way. So you can spend more time building games, and rest assured your studio stays in step with changing regulations.

How does it work?

We’ll sit down with your team to figure out exactly what components you need. After that, there are two stages to getting set up: implementing it into your environment, and then sorting any ongoing support and maintenance. We’ll walk you through every step of the process.

Get in touch to get started

We understand the importance of analytics. We’ve spent years building, testing, and perfecting our analytics tool for the gaming industry. So if you want to learn more about Private Instance and get started, get in touch with our team via this page.