Interview

Our new Measure service 'takes the guesswork out of development,' says GamesAnalytics COO

Shows solutions, rather than just problems

Our new Measure service 'takes the guesswork out of development,' says GamesAnalytics COO
Edinburgh-based analytics outfit GamesAnalytics has just added a new set of self-serve analytics solutions to its predictive modelling platform Predict.

The addition is called Measure, and GamesAnalytics claims that the service will provide developers and publishers with the data they need to optimise their games for better retention and, ultimately, more revenue.

That, in itself, may not be unique. But according to GamesAnalytics, Measure's great strength is that it provides actionable insights whereas dashboards only point out problems.

So, to find out more about Measure, and exactly how it will help developers and publishers make better games and more money, we spoke to GamesAnalytics chief operating officer Mark Robinson.

Pocket Gamer: What is Measure, and what new features does it add to the existing GamesAnalytics offering?

Mark Robinson: Measure is GamesAnalytics' new self-serve analytics environment, which incorporates flexible game performance dashboards with deeper Slice & Dice analytics.

Measure is part of our Predict platform and features a toolkit which enables deep performance insights, which publishers and developers can use to diagnose problem areas and optimise game design, leading to greater player engagement, retention and monetisation.

What exactly do you mean by Slice and Dice Analytics? What capabilities will this provide to developers and publishers?

Dashboards often simply tell you your problems, whereas Slice & Dice actually provides solutions. Both are important and should be used together.

So, if your retention rates are poor or if you are not monetising as well as you had hoped, the game performance dashboards will tell you this.

However, to improve retention and revenues it is necessary to go deeper into the data to understand player behaviours. The Slice & Dice component allows user to achieve this.

The powerful 'point and click' environment allows users to analyse detailed aspects of the gameplay and specific player behaviours to provide game design improvements that will improve the metrics.

To get the most benefit from analytics it is best to combine monitoring and insight – that is, dashboards and Slice & Dice – to provide an analytics environment to optimise your games. It takes the guesswork out of development.

Could you give us a concrete example of how publishers might use Measure to improve or optimise their games?

So looking at mission difficulty is a common example. How does the difficulty curve increase? Are there blocker missions?

Other examples include comparing different releases of the game to show how different player cohorts are performing, understanding the player experience of new players compared to 'experts'.


A screenshot of Measure in action.

The range and depth of analysis possible using Slice & Dice is only constrained by the user's imagination.

How will Measure be priced?

We offer Measure as a monthly subscription service with a basic cost of £1,250 for up to 50 million events per month, which increases depending on the number of events collected.

This model gives publishers and developers incredible flexibility with no up-front costs or long term contracts, making access to such sophisticated analytics tools extremely affordable.

Finally, there's no shortage of analytics solutions out there at the moment. What can GamesAnalytics offer its users above and beyond the competition?

Analytics is a journey and GamesAnalytics is uniquely positioned with its range of technology products and services to support publishers and developers on each stage of the trip.

Measure is a key component for clients who want to self-serve analytics but we are also able to provide analytics consultancy for those who want to fast-track their capabilities.

Ultimately our services create personalised player experiences by implementing our Engage targeted messaging.
Thanks to Mark for his time.

For more information on Measure and the Predict platform, visit the GamesAnalytics website.


Staff Writer

PocketGamer.biz's news editor 2012-2013