Category: News

Presented by Agora.io

You know that app idea that’s been rattling around in your head? The one that’s too good to tell others about, where the details are sketched in your favorite notebook. It has your favorite songs and references. It’s so you, and finally the world will see what you have to say. 

No one wants it.

Not me, not the person next to me in line at the coffee shop, and not the people working there either. Why does your app matter to us? What do your users need in their lives? Have you even asked? People download and delete apps at a dizzying pace, ravenous for new games. Let’s figure out why your idea deserves to exist, and how you can make it matter to today’s mobile users. 

Before we do any more sketching or coding, let’s look at some mobile market stats.

The mobile market is expanding, yet retention is declining: 

• From 2019 to 2020, the market is expected to grow from $152b to $165b (8.5%)
• Average Day 1 User Retention across all genres is 36%
• Average Day 7 User Retention across all genres is 11.5%
• Average Day 28 User Retention is between 2-8% (realistically, around 2-3%)
• User conversion rate is declining year over year for most genres; average games convert just under .3% of players, compared to .4% in 2018

In other words, if you attract 1,000 users through your initial launch, by Day 2 you’re at 360, but by Day 7 it’s dropped to 115, and by Day 28 it’s maybe 50 people. 

The market for mobile games is increasing year-over-year, yet the amount of people who will stick around long enough to play your cool-new-thing is shrinking. Perhaps people are looking for something else in a market saturated with clones of other games. What are they looking for? Better yet, why are they looking for new games in the first place?

Instead of inducing more nostalgia with new games, let’s look to solve a problem facing our society today. If we can tap into a need that’s unmet by culture, we differentiate our product beyond factors like “genre” and “art style” and create something fresh that brings value to a noisy market. 
An issue that faces Americans today is the increasing phenomenon of loneliness. 

• Nearly half of Americans report sometimes or always feeling alone (46%)
  or left out (47%)
• One in five people rarely or never feel close to other people (20%) or feel like there are people they can talk to (18%)
• Generation Z (adults ages 18-22) is the loneliest generation and claims to be in worse health than older generations

Almost every other person you walk past on the street feels lonely most of the time, and the trend is heading upwards. 

While the real root cause for this loneliness is up for spirited debate, I think it’s fair to say that in American society today, we are spectacularly failing at providing the culture or services to nourish our relational needs and personal esteem. Social bonds are a fundamental need of humanity. We don’t function properly without interaction and feedback from the groups we participate in.

Never in history have our peers been more accessible. With a few taps of my thumb on a smartphone I can order a pizza to my friend’s house and video chat them to see how it was. Yet we painfully yearn for the simple pleasure of having a friend we deeply trust and interact with daily. Again, why are people looking for new games in the first place? We’re lonely, don’t know what to do about it, and hope that new games will help.

What can we do as developers to more effectively meet this underserved need?

We can build apps and games that are aimed at creating and improving human bonds, thus enhancing the lives of players everywhere. In doing so, I believe we’ll experience a massive improvement in the retention, conversion rate, and monetization of this new wave of experiences. 

Let’s say we want to build a mobile game where a community is inseparable from the experience.

Since our experiential and monetary success are tied to people finding satisfaction interacting with other players during play, let’s analyze some choices for implementing interaction into our experience. 

On one hand, we can use a standalone service like Discord. It’s relatively simple, well known in the game space, and effectively removes the overhead of setting up communication services. While making things easier in the short run, players associate their interaction and communication with Discord, instead of your game. 

Another option is to embed the interaction directly into your game using a service like Agora. By empowering developers to easily integrate group video-chats within the context of the experience, players can quickly spin up group video/voice chats to talk and play in the same place. As a result, the associations of interaction, gameplay and community are streamlined into one experience. 

As people participate in this community that they have helped to build, the intrinsic value generated adds value to your game. Time-in-app and app loyalty increase, significantly boosting the likelihood of in-app purchases.

Players will advocate for your game, word-of-mouth brings in interested friends, and the community strengthens. Your application is now a hangout spot, a stomping ground, and something of value that people participate in.

People want to play your game so they can hang out, and they want to hang out so they can play.

Fortunately, there has never been a better time than today to leverage technology to connect people using Agora. 

Let’s look at the effects of Agora’s face-to-face capability in a real use-case. As a successful pre-existing dating app, EastMeetEast integrated Agora’s video chat services into its platform.
By enabling users to connect face-to-face:

• Daily active users increased by 37%
• Daily app sessions per user increased by 20%
• User win-back rate increased (people who haven’t used the app recently returned)

To put that into context, let’s say I have a user base of 1,000 people, each of whom are using the app for 5 minutes a day. On a normal day, I can expect about 5,000 minutes of usage inside my app. After integrating Agora video chat, I can now expect roughly 8,220 minutes of usage per day (1,370 users engaged for 6 minutes a day). That’s a 64% increase of total time spent in my app per day! Put another way, imagine making $8220 instead of $5000 per month because people can see each other in your app.

This increase in engagement was created solely from users seeing each other live and connecting on a deeper level. By using Agora, you are tapping into the next generation of human interaction, and this is only just the start! 

Agora’s superiority in facilitating real-time engagement is maintained by three key advantages: 

simplicity, power, and support.

Simplicity

Agora enables creators and devs of all levels to get up and running quickly. The SDK is easy to use, supports numerous platforms, and tutorials are created to reduce your time from start to successful connection. Simply plug-and-play to tap into the world’s leading real-time engagement platform.

Power

Agora is built upon our SD-RTN, which is essentially a private, VIP internet optimized for voice, video, and interactive streaming. It’s globally accessible and performs above competition despite varying devices, latency, and location.
“With Agora, you get 20–30 video/audio profiles and scenarios with the ability to choose according to your use case. Agora’s option to choose the lowest video profile to reduce impact on the device and latency was a game changer,”

-Selcuk Atli, CEO of Bunch

Support

Agora provides best-in-class developer support. Our team is dedicated to designing solutions specific to your individual use-case to provide the best quality possible for your experience. We also offer 24/7 support services to unblock developers when they are stuck or looking for best practice tips.

So yes, the number of paying players in mobile games is increasing year-over-year, alongside the difficulty for players to see and advocate for your app. However, I believe there is a huge opportunity for developers to use the next generation of tools to facilitate meaningful interactions between people, and create products that stand out amongst the crowd.
By using Agora, you can focus on the experience that makes your product great, and avoid the headache required to set up your own globally accessible video-chat network. I look forward to seeing what you all make, and to a brighter future because of you, intrepid developer!

If you would like to reach out, feel free to email or find me on Slack, and to find more info on Agora in gaming, look no further!

—

Joel Thomas is an artist at heart. He’s designed AR toys at Hasbro, written code at Bungie, and now helps devs on a global scale implement real-time engagement into their games and apps. He currently lives in Seattle, WA, and in his (pre-pandemic) free time loves to travel around the “Upper Left” with the SAKE paddle club competing in dragon boat races. When he isn’t working or paddling, he’s probably taking long walks and eating a lot (mostly not simultaneously).

Ubisoft has released a general statement covering an outpouring of accusations against multiple current and past employees, saying that it has partnered with an external consultant to address allegations of abuse, assault, and racism.

As accusations have continued to surface throughout the game industry this week, Ubisoft in particular has come up time and again.

Today’s statement outlines general actions that the company will make to address what seems like an endemic problem within the publisher. The full statement reads:

“Concerning recent allegations raised against certain Ubisoft team members: We want to start by apologizing to everyone affected by this – we are truly sorry. We are dedicated to creating an inclusive and safe environment for our teams, players, and communities. It is clear we have fallen short of this in the past. We must do better.

“We have started by launching investigations into the allegations with the support of specialized external consultants. Based on the outcomes, we are fully committed to taking any and all appropriate disciplinary action. As these investigations are ongoing, we can’t comment further. We are also auditing our existing policies, processes, and systems to understand where these have broken down, and to ensure we can better prevent, detect, and punish inappropriate behavior.

“We will be sharing additional measures that we are putting in place with our teams in the coming days. Our goal is to foster an environment that our employees, partners, and communities can be proud of –one that reflects our values and that is safe for everyone.”

This is also the statement Gamasutra received in reply to an earlier email for more details on the accusations from earlier this week. Though queried, Ubisoft did not respond specifically to what is being done in response to allegations against Ubisoft editorial VP Maxime Beland, as well as instances of harassment within the community development team, the sexual assault allegations against Ubisoft Massive director Antoine Emond, and accusations of racism, homophobia, and sexism specifically at Ubisoft Sofia.

Valve has added a sort of loyalty program to its digital game storefront by ushering in Steam’s new Points Shop alongside this year’s Steam Summer Sale.

It’s similar to past spend-to-unlock-rewards events that have launched alongside previous Steam Sales, but this time around the Points Shop and the digital knick-knacks it sells are both here to say. For devs, this looks to have the added bonus of allowing them to create game-themed backgrounds or emoticons that players can exchange their points for as well. 

“Now you can redeem your Steam Points for emoticons and profile backgrounds associated with the games you own,” reads a Steam explainer.

”The Steam Points program builds upon the existing Steam Trading Cards features and makes them accessible to more players. In addition to collecting and crafting cards, the Points program now offers another, more direct, way to acquire these emoticons and backgrounds.”

In addition to acting as a rewards store, the new Points system also opens up the ability to buy awards for particularly interesting, informative, or funny user review or to any other sort of user-made content on Steam like mods in the Steam Workshop, guides, screenshots, or videos. 

It’s worth noting as well that points can’t just be purchased outright; according to Valve, Steam users will receive 100 points for each $1 spent in Steam on games, DLC, hardware, soundtracks, applications, and in-game items, and users on the receiving end of an award also walk away with some additional points for their trouble.

Presented by Xsolla

Brazil’s massive video game audience offers a huge growth opportunity—if you know the best way to approach the market. To help you grow revenue more quickly and easily, Xsolla’s gaming experts have rounded up essential best practices for game sales and operations in Brazil.

Download Xsolla’s new guide, How to Grow Your Video Game in Brazil, and:

• Find out why this market is key to your growth strategy
• Discover which payment methods reach the most players locally
• Get tips for identifying and preventing fraud in this growing market
• Save valuable time understanding taxes and privacy regulations

Sign up for you free guide now! 

The Gamasutra Job Board is the most diverse, active and established board of its kind for the video game industry!

Here is just one of the many, many positions being advertised right now.

Location: New Orleans, Louisiana

Testronic Labs is a world class Quality Assurance and Localization company serving the global games industry.  Since its foundation in 1998, Testronic has established itself as one of the most trusted testing partners in the industry, remaining resolutely committed to quality.  This commitment is the cornerstone of our success, best exemplified by our recent TIGA award for Best QA and Localization Service Provider of 2019.  

Our view is that Quality Assurance isn’t about playing games or trying to break games for a living.  It’s about problem-solving.  It’s about striving for perfection.  At Testronic, we view the game experience as an immersive, personally meaningful experience that demands the most steadfast commitment to quality.  Nothing should interrupt that experience!  

 Quality matters to us, and stretches to all aspects of our company culture.  With key operations in London, Warsaw, and Los Angeles, Testronic is now expanding to the heart of New Orleans.  Join us!   

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Adhere to company security procedures and escalate perceived breaches to supervisor 
• Apply and comply with company policies and procedures and advocate them 
• Assume ownership of assigned projects and drive them to success 
• Drive and track the development of QA Technicians and Associate Project Leads 
• Ensure that upcoming projects are set up prior to scheduled QA start 
• Identify and assign tasks, ensuring they are completed accurately and thoroughly, and within a specified timeframe 
• Identify and prepare Test Design in line with client and project requirements 
• Identify and communicate staffing requirements and absences 
• Keep track of project budget and pro-actively identify and communicate relevant risks or opportunities 
• Line Management of Associate Project Leads 
• Perform staff evaluation in the monthly ‘Tester Evaluation’ and annual ‘Appraisal’ processes 
• Prepare and deliver Spend Reports for projects within scope of responsibility if/when requested 
• Preparation of data and presentation slides for client meetings and reviews 
• Proactive identification and communication of any issues that may slow down, stop – or improve –the testing progress as early in the project’s lifecycle as possible. 
• Professional and effective communication with your test team, Project Manager and QA Management 
• Provide support and assistance to the rest of the QA or Operations departments as and when required 
• Validate time monitors for staff on your team in iDocs 

TYPICAL DAILY TASKS (NOT EXHAUSTIVE) 

• Lead and guide the team on the assigned clients and/or projects 
• Keep track of overall progress, metrics and noteworthy findings on assigned clients and projects 
• Professional and effective communication with your test team, Project Manager and QA Management 
• Vetting new bugs, and tracking bug database statistics and metrics 
• Prepare written reports on a daily basis in agreed report formats 
• Prepare and maintain relevant project documentation and Confluence pages 
• Validate time monitors for staff on your team in iDocs 
• Ensuring that any new starters are being supported fully by yourself or a senior technician 
• Create, maintain, and update coverage checklists 

EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS 

• Proven experience in a Games QA environment as a Project Lead, Project Manager, Senior QA Technician or Associate Project Lead. 

TECHNICAL SKILLS 

• Use of standard business software applications (e.g. Microsoft Office) 
• Experienced using a variety of different bug databases 
• Familiarity with console, mobile, and PC setup and settings 
• Familiarity with a variety of online test management systems 
• LQA: Familiarity with a variety of online text databases 
• Knowledge of and experience with QA submission requirements testing (compliance) 
• Ability to provide rationale and justification for requests 

PERSONAL SKILLS 

• Excellent communications skills (verbal and written) 
• Ability to lead and motivate others  
• Ability to multitask effectively while under pressure and to deadlines 
• An ability to identify opportunities to upsell additional services, or find out about additional projects 
• A basic understanding of revenue, margins, and financial considerations 

ATTITUDE & VALUES 

• Hard working & honest 
• Punctual time-keeping 
• Flexible attitude 
• Prepared to work on shifts 
• Willing to occasionally work long and unsociable hours 
• Able to maintain a positive attitude and boost team morale 
• Considerate of the broader picture, and the company as a whole 

Interested? Apply now.

Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.

Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.

Looking for a new job? Get started here. Are you a recruiter looking for talent? Post jobs here.

Insomniac has shared a statement in reply to a round of accusations made against multiple former and current members of the studio, saying in a tweet that it was aware of the complaints and took action based on that information.

“We were aware of the allegations made in a former employee’s tweets today and had taken numerous steps to address them. For legal and privacy reasons we will not respond to individual allegations about specific former employees,” reads a statement from Insomniac shared to Twitter. “We are a workplace family that has actively promoted diversity, inclusion, representation and equality for our entire existence. We will continue to do so every single day. “

The response follows accusations from earlier this week that Insomniac Games prioritized protecting the careers of accused sexual predators at the studio over the developers that reported the actions of those individuals. 

At least one accuser says the studio’s treatment of women–and its inaction against a now-former staffer accused of harassment–was their chief reason for leaving, and others have since taken to Twitter to share similar sentiments.

“I have a list in the double digits of women who were harmed by the actions of this company – some so much so that they declined to speak about it to me at all,” reads one account. “Insomniac has throttled careers of great women, left them no option but to ‘resign’ and protected sexual predators.”

“I’m one of those women and I’m still suffering from my time there,” shares another.

The story at the center of those initial accusations says a now-former Insomniac Games HR employee routinely pushed boundaries with coworkers, including incidents that ranged from inappropriate conversations to numerous attempts to pressure those coworkers toward sex.

When the behavior was reported to higher ups, the reporting employee says they faced professional retaliation for doing so and the HR employee remained at the company despite both new and previous complaints until being fired for a different incident down the road. 

This is just one of several stories that have surfaced this week as members of the game industry speak out against incidents of harassment, manipulation, and assault they’ve experienced at the hands of peers and established names in industry, following allegations made against multiple Ubisoft staff, game writer and designer Chris Avellone, and many more.

In this GDC 2018 talk Valve’s John McDonald discusses how the company has utilized deep learning machine learning techniques to combat cheating in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

According to McDonald’s practical rundown, deep learning has proven to be very effective at identifying cheating behavior without any client-side instrumentation, making it robust against malicious attack by cheaters and cheat vendors.

He revealed how, by retraining regularly, the network continues to evolve, picking up new cheating behaviors within hours of their appearance. As a result of this approach, certain types of cheats have been reduced by a factor of one hundred.

It was fascinating stuff, and now you can watch McDonald’s whole talk for free over on the official GDC YouTube channel!

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page.