Advanced Indie Developer Mindset

Advanced Indie Developer Mindset

What is a good game to a player?
A game that they like for any reason.

What is a good game to a noob indie developer?
A game that they like for any reason.

What is a good game to an average indie developer?
A game that many people like.

What IS NOT a good game to an advanced indie developer?
A game that they not have SURE that a determined audience like.

What is a game that an advanced indie developer have sure it's good?
A game who obtained good results in tests and metrics.

A good game is what provides more money?
Not exist a good game. What exists is a good game for an audience determined.
The audience that determines if a game is good, no the money.

If the game is free or monetized, this influences only their professional career or social impact.

Even if you make an educational game to help people, without marketing and metrics, you will help less people. Because, without this, you not know, not even, their own audience. 

So, if you can amplify your results with marketing and metrics, because continue with the mindset noob?

What I need do to know if my game is good?
How to know this without measuring? Test it with the main metrics.

What are the main metrics?
These are the tests that answer the main questions.

What are the main questions?
- How much players this game can have?
- How much money this game can do?
- What makes this game have more players?
- What makes this game have less players?
- What makes this game get more money?
- What makes this game get less money?

How to answer these main questions?
With the data from the tests.

What are the main data obtained with tests to a noob indie developer?

Views - Total visits in page game.

Plays - How many plays your game received.

Star Rating - How many stars your game received.

Comments - How many comments your game received.


What are the main data obtained with tests to an advanced indie developer?

DAU - Daily Active Users.

MAU - Monthly Active Users.

Acquisition Costs - How much investment is needed to acquire a new player.

Conversion rate - Every how many views or plays is needed to make a new user and sale or profit.

ARPDAU - The Average Revenue Per Daily Active User.

ARPPU - Average Revenue Per Paying User. Users that have completed a purchase in a game.

Retention rate - Retention is measured by the percentage of users who return to the application, based on the first visit.

Abandonment Rate or Churn - User gets to enter an item in the cart, but does not complete the purchase. How many users download the game but no play. How many users only play the first stage of the game. 

Engagement Metrics - How users are engaging with the game.

Viral Metrics - How viral is a game. For example: Number of invitations sent times their % success rate.

LTV (life-time-value) - Consumer Loyalty: Player spends $10.00 per month for 8 months: LVT = $80

Session length - This metric shows the amount of time users are spending on game per session or scene.

Session interval - It is the time between the first session and the next, showing the frequency with which the user opens the game.

Devices and Operating Systems - Which operating system your application is more used?

Geo Metrics - Show location of players.

Target Audience - Age, gender, instruction, occupation, tastes, etc. 

Failures - The failure rate of an game should be between 0 and 1%.

Latency - It is the application response time. 

Accessibility - Experience Value versus Loading and Downloading. Worth the wait? Users have little tolerance for slow response times. 

Scalability - Maximum load or users. You must be sure that there is an increased load, and application performance does not fall.


What is the difference between Noob Indie Developer, Average Indie Developer and Advanced Indie Developer?

Noob Indie Developer 
- Part of the idea that they knows what people want and like to play. 
- Begins testing the game only when finish creating the game.
- What is right or wrong, need or not improve in your game is based on guesses and hunches not always relevants.

Average Indie Developer
-  They need to create their own tests.
-  They not always knows how to use this data to improve your results.
- Your successes are hardly replicated. Because they do not know exactly what make wrong and right.

Advanced Indie Developer
- They uses an API that generates all these tests and graphs.
- They knows how to use this data to improve your results.
- This learning makes it easier to replicate, keep and increase their successes.


Metrics of this post in Facebook:

Chrome (85%)
Firefox (4%)
OS (3%)
Safari (2%)
Internet Explorer (1%)

Android (57%)
Windows (31%)
iPhone (4%)
Macintosh (2%)
Linux (2%)


This post has been removed from Facebook Group.

I think it was much advanced for the staff there.  

Interestingly, Facebook is a place where people are more interested in satisfying their emotional needs than to get or share some useful information. Most prefer to hear praise.

Because of this, only, amateur of all areas, and professionals of marketing, wasting time in this places. That is why, instead of better the group, always tends to worsen. Because, they always push away the bests. Not for lack of praise, but for lack of patience.

When you stand out much in a group, you are not very well-liked. However, instead of returning to the previous level, this only indicates that you are in the wrong place, and you need move on.




PRESS START - What would you say to someone starting now?
http://gurigraphics.blogspot.com.br/2016/05/press-start-what-would-you-say-to.html