Mastering Retention

There has been lots of speculation that blockchain games are the future of gaming, but what does that future look like? And more specifically, what does the future of blockchain gaming look like? This week on the Mastering Retention Podcast, Daniel Paez (Director of Monetization and Game Economy at Worldspark Studios) joins Tom to try and get to the bottom of these questions. The two of them dive deep into the world of blockchain gaming and all the things that it encompasses.

Here are your cheat codes:

0:35 How did Daniel Paez get into the video game industry?

5:57 Are blockchain games the future of gaming?

11:23 Monetization and game economy within blockchain games.

14:28 1st Generation blockchain games and why they failed.

16:48 Traditional game economies vs blockchain game economies.

21:28 The future of blockchain LiveOps and monetization.

35:20 The flow of money within blockchain gaming.

44:51 Building games with the community.

48:01 How to keep more players around longer.

Pixion, a new video game company, is on a mission to build a new category of competitive games called Lunchtime ESports. The genre aims to allow everyone to be competitive and play at their own pace. This week on Mastering Retention, Tom speaks with Kam Punia (Founder and CEO at Pixion Games) about his team's ambitious goals, high standards and vision for the future.

Here are your cheat codes:

0:43 How did Kam Punia get into the video game industry?

7:54 The founding of Pixion Games.

12:15 Lunchtime ESports

16:33 The Pixion Standard.

19:30 Pixion’s game creation process.

22:44 Boosting an underperforming game’s metrics.

28:11 Escaping Soft Launch Hell.

33:32 Playtest Cloud.

35:08 Your Business Vision should Adapt.

38:16 Web3

43:32 “Fableborne.”

48:30 The Game Loop.

52:24 How to keep more players around longer.

Creating a successful and beloved video game is a tall task. It is even more of a challenge to create a successful and beloved children's video game. This week on the Mastering Retention Podcast, Tom speaks with Luis Cascante (Former Franchise Director at Star Stable) about designing video games for younger audiences and all the challenges that come with it.

Here are your cheat codes:

0:50 How did Luis Cascante get into the video game industry?

7:32 Creating Games for Children.

23:13 In-app-purchasing in children's games.

30:08 Designing a new game for children.

37:24 Experimenting with new video game ideas for a younger audience.

39:08 User Acquisition in children’s games.

42:48 Subscriptions

50:12 How to keep more players around longer.

Most games require compelling live ops and multiple ways in which to make money - casino games are no different. This week on Mastering Retention, Tom speaks with Dafna Ben Onn (Director of Monetization at SciPlay) about the different challenges that face casino games, managing a live ops calendar, player segmentation, monetizing casino games, and much more!

Here are your cheat codes:

1:10 How did Dafna Ben Onn get into the video game industry?

5:12 What is it like to work at SciPlay?

7:42 Defining Player Ops.

9:57 Scheduling Content.

13:47 Who helps to plan a content calendar?

16:06 Scheduling content based on user habits & behaviors.

21:29 How Casino games make money.

28:23 Improving Segmentation

36:08 A good first step for introducing Live Ops.

36:42 Truly understand what you need to solve, before trying to solve it.

39:44 Figuring out what players value.

42:36 Rewards and currency within casino games.

45:18 How to keep more players around longer.

A game is only successful if you attract users and continually provide them with reasons to keep playing. In order to keep your fanbase happy and eager to play, you must be able to understand their wants and goals, and you need to know their behaviors and habits. While players will often be very eager to share their critiques, you can learn more about what a player wants through data and proper segmentation. This week on the Mastering Retention Podcast, Tom speaks with Max Mozgovoy (Director of CRM & Analytics at SegmentValue) about customer relationship management and proper user segmentation.

Here are your cheat codes:

1:32 How did Max Mozgovoy get into the video game industry?

4:49 The importance of Customer Relationship Management.

7:01 CRM within the gaming industry.

10:33 How to build and maintain a good relationship with your players.

12:48 Tracking User Interactions to understand them better.

14:37 Segmentation

23:18 Using segmentation to group users based on their ad tolerance.

28:15 Segmentation based on potential

30:24 Customer Lifecycle Management

38:02 Identifying User Goals

44:45 CRM Systems

48:03 Increasing engagement through understanding players behaviors.

55:03 How to keep more players around longer.

Creating and sustaining a great user experience is a surefire way to lengthen your game’s shelf life. There are many different ways to go about creating or improving a game’s user experience. It can be as simple as choosing an art style, or it can be as complex as using data to identify weaknesses in your game. This week on Mastering Retention, Tom speaks with Abhay Ramakrishnan (Product Manager at DECA) about all the different ways to go about creating a user experience that retains players and drives revenue.

Here are your cheat codes:

1:25 How did Abhay Ramakrishnan get into the video game industry?

3:05 The DECA Difference

5:47 Sustainable LiveOps events.

8:35 Art style can impact your game’s sustainability.

10:27 Ways to activate your game’s community.

14:57 Weighing new features against quality-of-life features.

18:19 When done correctly, can segmentation create a better player experience?

27:04 How to use Data to create a better player experience?

32:45 Will users pay more if the user experience is great?

39:49 LiveOps systems and tech.

41:16 Selecting A Community Managers

45:02 Design Pillars

51:10 How to keep more players around longer.

Whether you are building a team from scratch or adding on to an existing team, having common goals and values can have a massive positive effect on your company and its products. This week on Mastering Retention, Martina Gianfreda (Co-CEO at Whatwapp) walks Tom through the process of building a co-founding team and sustaining your company's success through shared core values.

Here are your cheat codes:

1:01 How did Martina Gianfreda get into the video game industry?

4:40 What to look for in a co-founding team?

11:48 Process for coming up with a new game idea.

16:50 How can your game transcend international boundaries?

27:25 How has marketing changed over the last few years?

30:33 Ideal Head of Growth candidate.

33:44 Pay Performance Marketing

38:50 Building a games team.

43:24 Hiring based on shared core values.

45:32 Pre-employment skill-based testing.

47:21 Programmers

50:48 How to keep more players around longer.

The role of a product manager can vary widely depending on what industry he/she is in, and even then, companies within the same industry often define that role differently. Regardless of how a product manager role is defined, it requires someone that can balance the “Big Picture” and the small details. This week on Mastering Retention, Tom speaks with Stav Klauzner (Head of Product at SciPlay) about the balancing act of being a product manager and loosely defines what the ideal video game product manager should look like.

Here are your cheat codes:

0:52 How did Stav Klauzner get into the video game industry?

2:43 Segmentation over Personalization.

5:45 Defining your segments.

9:21 First-Time-Player Experience.

12:12 How to be a better product manager.

15:20 Balancing the big picture and the small details as a product manager.

18:14 Feature Prioritization.

23:38 How do you measure the success of a games campaign?

26:16 Turning a game into a gaming business.

28:45 How often should a product manager listen to player feedback?

32:17 Social Obligation Mechanics

36:23 Monetization Tools.

47:59 The ideal product manager.

50:58 How to keep more players around longer.

There are many different ways to go about creating a video game, but two of the main methodologies are Lean and Agile. The lean methodology puts an emphasis on reducing waste by recycling content, and managing workflow, whereas in Agile, teams emphasize small batch sizes to deliver results quickly. This week on “Mastering Retention” Ruby Urlings (Director, Production at GSN Games) speaks with Tom about these methods, their respective benefits, and so much more!

Here are your cheat codes:

1:20 How did Ruby Urlings get into the video game industry?

5:30 In-office vs remote game companies.

7:27 Game Production Methodologies.

10:38 Defining the Agile methodology.

13:24 Defining the Lean methodology.

15:42 The perfect Match-3 levels.

21:10 Sprint Completion Rate vs Velocity.

26:46 Using Agile and Lean together.

27:42 Content Reusability.

30:05 Using Agile in the early stages of development.

33:56 Biggest mistakes Ruby has made with Agile or Lean.

35:30 Ways to make your team more efficient.

37:03 Learning every side of the business can be very helpful.

40:07 Processes for juggling many different tasks.

49:32 What roles are most important to creating a game?

51:01 How to keep more players around longer.

Thousands of games are made each year, and very few go on to have great success. Despite their success, these games are rarely sitting atop the charts years down the road. Creating a successful game is hard, but maintaining that game’s success and daily active users is beyond difficult.

This week on Mastering Retention, Tom speaks with Jonathan Durr (Studio Director & Co-Founder at Foxbear Games) about long term content treadmills, what metrics are useful when trying to maintain a game for years, consulting with your game’s most fanatical users, and feature development.

Here are your cheat codes:

1:17 How did Jonathan Durr get into the video game industry?

3:57 How to approach new game ideas

5:31 Deciding what features to implement in Marvel Strike Force

8:06 Tracking Regularity Data*

10:05 Catering to different groups of “regulars”

13:58 Time or money

15:44 Increasing your games longevity

20:09 Long term content treadmill

24:33 How to maintain your game’s LiveOps for years

28:50 Limiting burnout

31:13 Consulting with die hard fans about new content and features.

38:19 Balancing content for experienced users and new users.

45:22 Feature Development

50:03 How to keep more players around longer.