Crossover: 2014

Chapter 117 The Birth of a Phenomenal Mini-Game

Among the many metrics that measure free-to-download (in-app purchases) games.

In addition to the number of daily active users, the number of active paying users, the average revenue per user, and the average revenue per paying user are very important.

Lifetime value (LTV) and user retention are also quite important parameters.

The so-called lifetime value LTV (user lifetime value) = LT*ARPU (user's average lifetime * average revenue per user)
In layman's terms, life cycle value refers to the average income that each player brings to game developers or game operators from entering the pit to abandoning the pit.

The so-called user retention rate: users start using the game within a certain period of time, and those who continue to use the game after a period of time are considered retained users. The proportion of these users to new users on the day is the user retention rate.

The retention rate is classified according to different scenarios, and there are statistical cycles including daily retention, weekly retention, and monthly retention.

For a small game, it is not necessary to use monthly retention to measure, in fact, only considering daily retention and weekly retention is enough.

There is a reason why the two metrics of lifetime value (LTV) and user retention are quite important parameters.

Generally speaking, the life cycle value can intuitively reflect the ability of a game to absorb money;

The user retention rate can intuitively reflect whether a game can be played or not, and whether it is loved by players.

Of course, this is only for sane game developers.

For game developers whose SAN value is too low, the games they develop do not consider the user retention rate at all, but only consider the lifetime value.

According to the philosophy of this kind of game developers, it doesn't matter whether users retain or not, you just need to come in and pay the money.

It would be even better if he could scold a few words while paying the money to help his game become more topical and popular.

Perhaps this approach can reap quick money for a while, but Lin Hui does not agree with this approach that is almost the same as fishing in a dry marsh.

Although the two data of user lifetime value and retention rate are very important, Lin Hui cannot see accurate data from his personal developer account in a short period of time.

Even with the help of a third-party game evaluation agency, Lin Hui could not obtain accurate relevant data in a short period of time.

About 24 hours after the game was launched, Lin Hui could obtain the corresponding data in the developer's background.

At present, the data corresponding to the two indicators of user lifetime value and retention rate in the personal developer account are all vacant like "—".

The personal developer account gives a rough forecast of the daily active volume.

However, this prediction is a bit tasteless and too conservative.

According to the forecast given by the background of the AppStore personal developer account.

The number of active users on the first day of the game "Hill Climb Racing" is likely to reach more than [-].

Although the game "Hill Climb Racing" has only been online for a few hours.

However, the number of downloads has already reached 500 million. According to this trend, the number of effective downloads on the first day of the world has exceeded 1000 million, which is appropriate.

Isn't it normal to have more than 1000 daily active users among [-] million players?

(Of course, this is just a game. For some forum apps, although the number of user downloads may be high, the number of active users may not be high)

In fact, as long as a game is not too stretched or some functions are too persuasive, the number of active users on the first day cannot be low.

Lin Hui thinks that with the design level of the game "Hill Climb Racing", it is conservatively estimated that the number of active users on the first day can reach more than 300 million.

It's not that Lin Hui is blindly confident, Lin Hui's self-confidence is well-founded.

Because Lin Hui used the engineering files of the previous game "Hill Climb Racing 2" for development.

Lin Hui actually released "Hill Climb Racing", although the picture quality is still the style of the original "Hill Climb Racing" in the previous life.

But in terms of its connotation, it is developing as much as possible in the direction of "Hill Climb Racing 2" in the previous life.

The playability of "Hill Climb Racing 2" in the previous life is quite high.

"Hill Climb Racing 2" has not introduced the online factor Lin Hui.

For other gameplays that do not involve online, Lin Hui has basically introduced them into his remake of the game.

Lin Hui also introduced an achievement system, and this is not the first time Lin Hui has introduced an achievement system in game development.

When developing "Life Restart Simulator", Lin Hui introduced the achievement system into the game.

All in all, Lin Hui is trying to conform to its consistent game design [handling] concept as much as possible, and at the same time enrich the connotation of the game to the greatest extent and explore the playability of the game.

I believe players can appreciate Lin Hui's good intentions.

When it was almost six o'clock in the afternoon on the 20th, Lin Hui received another official reminder from the AppStore:
"Congratulations to your incredible developer, your game "Hill Climb Racing" has successfully exceeded 1000 million (valid) downloads worldwide."

To be fair, this download speed is much faster than the download speed of "FLAPPPY BIRD" that Lin Hui launched earlier.

This has a lot to do with the game's free download strategy, and it also has a lot to do with the launch time Lin Hui chose this time.

The launch time of "Hill Climb Racing" is Saturday afternoon in China.

At this time, many potential game audiences are relatively free, and many people have time to play games.

In addition, according to the time difference, BJ time is Saturday afternoon, although it is still early morning in New York/New York time (East Coast of the United States), it is Saturday morning in Los Angeles/Los Angeles time (West Coast of the United States).

That is to say, even if there is a time difference, Lin Hui can at least take into account the normal daily life of half of the overseas player audience.

In any case, the launch time of "Hill Climb Racing" is much more reasonable than that of "FLAPPPY BIRD" when it was launched last time.

All is ready except for the opportunity.

Everything is developing towards a positive feedback trend, and now we only look at the player's feedback.

Lin Hui noticed that many people in his circle of friends were sharing the game "Hill Climb Racing".

However, this does not mean that the game is very popular with players.

Lin Hui is the game "Hill Climb Racing" developed using the "Hill Climb Racing 2" project files

There is a small function in "Hill Climb Racing 2". Every three hours, there is an opportunity to watch advertisements to upgrade car components.

But Lin Hui has no habit of placing advertisements in games.

So this function was changed by Lin Huimo to choose to share the game to Moments or private message to friends every 3 hours.

There is a certain probability to get an opportunity to upgrade car components.

So now although there are similar sharing in the circle of friends.

Lin Hui also doesn't know whether users share because they really like it or if they are just a bunch of big pig hoofs who share for the sake of doing tasks.

But in any case, there are indeed many people sharing.

Lin Hui also received many sharing messages from his classmates.

Lin Hui suddenly thought of a question.

He couldn't tell whether these players were sincerely sharing.

Aren't other users just as stupid as to not be able to tell whether these people are sharing sincerely or with some purpose?
Isn't that wonderful?
A phenomenal mini-game seems to be born.

　And at night

　　
　
(End of this chapter)