You’re blasting through a lot of budget on acquiring users — but those users have notoriously short attention spans. Join our free webinar to hear how the experts turn browsers into buyers — and buyers into engaged users — in an increasingly noisy market. (This webinar is the first in a 6-part series on m
As an Everyplay evangelist at the giant game engine and community Unity 3d, Oscar Clark’s role is to use his 18 years of experience in the industry to help app developers succeed in a market where the space available for consumers to find content — a single, crowded app store on a couple of inches of phone screen — is both literally and figuratively small.
“Think of a game holistically, like you would any other service experience,” Clark says, “and you’ll have a much better chance of being successful.”
Clark explains this in terms of a four-stage lifecycle for both user and developer: discovery, learning, engagement, and churn. And understanding this lifecycle, he says, is key to gaining and keeping fans.
1. Discovery
There’s a precious instant that occurs right after a user sees an ad for an app, and right before they go ahead and tap the screen to download. It’s an emotional moment, not a rational one, Clark says. It’s not a decision, but an impulse, and according to Clark, your first job as a developer is to have a powerful “why” behind the sales pitch that taps that emotion.
He points out iconic games like The Room or LIMBO. “What they have in common is a centerpiece of brilliance that people actively want to talk about,” he says. “Making the game accessible and beautiful — that’s actually marketing spend.”
2. Learning
The second stage in building a loyal user is what Clark calls the handholding stage, where new users are treated gently as the game earns its place on the user’s smartphone. “You have to show me how it’s going to fit into my daily life routine,” Clark says, “plus make it comfortable and desirable to progress, or you’re not going to convert the user from the learning state to the engaged stage.”
3. Engagment
Once a user has engaged, the gloves are off. You can add depth, complications, detail, and offers — the natural friction that needs to occur in any game design in order to sustain interest and add challenge. However, friction for its own sake becomes tedious, and breaks players out of that flow state that keeps games enjoyable, and users hooked..
Advertising is the most dangerous place to cause unnecessary friction: a banner ad that takes a user out of the game, or an interstitial that stops progression or interrupts a user’s action is going to wear a user down over time, if it doesn’t send them running right away.
Here game design needs to focus on what research calls the anticipation of value. The developer needs to create an equitable exchange, in which a user is willing to watch an ad because that’s how they get access to content or items they want or need.
4. Churn
Everyone will eventually leave, Clark says. But if we treat them right, give them rewards and desirable items, demonstrate that they’re valuable to us, then we’ll keep them longer.
“The people who keep playing are the people who love your game,” Clark says, and they’ll keep coming back for more.
Don’t miss out!
In this webinar you’ll learn how to:
- Use data and analytics to identify the right users at the right time
- Build a loyal and engaged audience
- Learn what works and what doesn’t when it comes to acquisition
- Acquire quality users with the right combo of clever, pithy, and simple messaging
Speakers:
- Oscar Clark, Everyplay evangelist, Unity 3d
- Stewart Rogers, director of marketing technology, VentureBeat
Moderator:
- Wendy Schuchart, analyst, VentureBeat