Category: Work

No Size Fits All

The most recent episode of CppCast featuring David Sankel ends with a good reminder: There is no One Software Methodology to Rule Them All, because we work in different contexts. Your environment matters. If you're a startup whose principle threat is obscurity, "move fast and break things" is good advice. If you're an avionics developer, … Continue reading No Size Fits All →

Paid Acquisition on Mobile: A Scrappy, Practical Guide

Notes on a talk by Mike Gordon of Iron Horse Games Iron Horse has had 11M installs, mostly on Android, mostly paid acquisition Marketing in 3 phases on Google Play Google Play organic installs are significantly higher than Apple ROI tends to be better Open beta Don’t treat this as a test platform, because you … Continue reading Paid Acquisition on Mobile: A Scrappy, Practical Guide →

Design by the Numbers: Using Data for Good

Notes on a talk by Evan Losi of Scopely at GDC 2019 Play tests only take you so farCapturing analyticsTrack everything—every time a player does anythingEverything a person interacts withWhich screens they openWhat activities people takeResources (what players earn and spend)Look at the aggregated dataKey metrics/KPIsEnd results of player behaviorRetention, conversions, ARPU/ARPDAUEverything sums up to … Continue reading Design by the Numbers: Using Data for Good →

App Store Optimization (ASO) for Great Developers

Notes on a talk by Enric Pedro of Lab Cave and Joyce Zhou Joyce Zhou of IGG ("I Got Games"), developer of Lords Mobile ($50M/month)Enric Pedro (@enricpedro), Chief Marketing Officer of Lab Cave (ASO company)—hola@labcavegames.comASO is the process of getting more users by improving visibility within the app store and optimizing the app profile visit-to-install … Continue reading App Store Optimization (ASO) for Great Developers →

Community-Driven Discoverability for Indies

Notes on a talk by Patrick Corrieri of Dry Cactus, developer of Poly Bridge Game design decisions aimed at promoting the title in socially-driven way, rather than "real" marketing Battling against saturation, algorithmic curation (or no curation at all), lack of cross-promotion showing similar games (e.g., in Epic store) We need to drive as much … Continue reading Community-Driven Discoverability for Indies →

How to Run an Indie Studio Without a Surprise Hit

Notes on a series of 3 micro-talks How to get client work and balance it against your own IP development (Christopher Langmuir of Anemone Hug Interactive) Anemone Hug has had 4x revenue groth every year (since 2015) 50% of all hours company-wide on internal IP development Can't hide from the business stuff You're going to … Continue reading How to Run an Indie Studio Without a Surprise Hit →

2014 vs 2018: The Shape of Success Before & After the Indiepocalypse

Notes on a talk by Jason Rohrer Speaker made 13 games in a row without making any money Financial success is a long term project, both for developing a reputation and for getting good at making games Expect failure; don’t give up after failure Indiepocalypse Came from a string of public failures from companies with … Continue reading 2014 vs 2018: The Shape of Success Before & After the Indiepocalypse →

Building Better Habits

These are my notes on an interview with James Clear: Designing Your Environment to Shape Your Behavior Improving habits basically means overcoming your orientation toward immediate gratification to instead improve delayed returns. To create habits that stick, you need to: Make it obvious This is the cue/trigger to remind you to do the thing Design … Continue reading Building Better Habits →