Our secret developer blogs allow well-known mobilegamer.biz readers to rant about the mobile games business anonymously.
Here, we asked a slots game developer to tell us which dark arts they used to maximise revenue in their games. Here’s what they said:
In a past life, I was the architect and technical lead for a free-to-play slot machine games that offers real cash prizes (technically a sweepstake, as you could get entries without paying for tokens). Each slot machine spin earned you an entry into the large annual prize – mid five-figures USD – with chances for instant small-cash rewards.
Like any kind of gambling, we generated a lot of revenue from casual users, but a good chunk of our ROI came from a few hyper-enthusiastic players: our whales.
Just like in a physical casino, treating your whales with TLC reaps major rewards, far beyond the in-app purchases they generate. Here’s five things to consider before setting out to sea to catch the great beasts.
You can’t hunt them if you don’t know where they are
Analytics is your best friend here. We recorded every spin of every player as well as the outcome, quite a feat when you consider we averaged hundreds of spins per second during busy times. Of course, we also tracked things like their in-app purchases and if they watched ads to get spins.
With this data in hand, you can keep an eye on existing whales, as well as identify potential targets. Did a new player just spend a considerable amount of time on the game, did they have multiple token purchases over a short time? If you’re not tracking, you won’t know.
Make sure to set the hook
We set things up so that sometime in the first twenty spins, we would give new users a $1 instant win. By spending a little money up front, players got a tangible reward that encouraged them to keep playing. A lot of games advertise sign-up bonuses, but making it seem like they randomly won a loot box or unlocked a weapon creates the impression that there’s more treasure to come in the future if they just keep playing.
Make your whales feel special
We required an email address to play, because among other things we needed to be able to contact them if they won the big yearly prize or the smaller monthly ones. In addition, we rewarded players who linked to Facebook with extra tokens.
While we used the info to send out occasional marketing materials, we also developed personal one-on-one relationships with our biggest players. We made sure that if they had an issue, they received prompt help, and got to know them through their Facebook posts. We actually would put up pictures of them in the office, and considered them part of our corporate family.
A whale is more than just a revenue source
If they are heavy players, they are also probably big fans. Many of ours spontaneously posted to Facebook about their experiences with the game, drawing in more players and building a sense of excitement around the app which was organic. We highlighted their photos after each monthly win, turning them into mini-celebrities. They also reached out to each other and built community, like a happy pod.
Feed your analytics back into gameplay adjustments
We spent a lot of time designing the payouts on our various slots to cater to different tastes. Some had less frequent payouts, but for larger amounts, while others paid more often with smaller overall jackpots. A lot of users are “lookie-loos” who will play through their initial tokens and never come back. Use your analytics to see where your loyal players spend their time, and spend your development effort making those parts better.