Game struggling to grow?

Help and Feedback Creations Feedback
1

Hello everyone,

My studio released this game a while ago and it moved out of beta today.

But unfortunately, we don’t seem to be growing at the rate we expected
Please help and give some feedback on the game. Keep in mind it was revamped entirely over the past few weeks according to feedback.

Thanks!
-coolguyweir

5 Likes
2

Hello! have you tried using ad credits or advertising on a social media platform? these methods could help your game grow!

2 Likes
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I put around 15 - 20 USD on ads everyday.

Not much social media but we will push soon.

1 Like
4

The game actually looks pretty cool, but there are a lot (like really, A LOT) of stuff happening around you, very confusing. I really suggest to add the visual tutorial which will clearly show how and where to go, what needs to be done and etc. I noticed that there were a button “Help” (which is tutorial i think) but only after 5 - 10 minutes of playing, maybe add something, that will make the new player click first before he starts (but visual tutorial is kinda better for understanding)
I had a game, where i tried to add as much content as i could, so players won’t be bored while playing, i thought. But this, on the contrary, worsened my game so much that the new players immediately were leaving after 5 minutes of playing. I recommend ya to make less stuff happening around, or leave everything, but they will gradually available to players after they have already gotten used to the game.
Everything else in my opinion looks pretty nice, the UI looks simple with smooth animations, build and other stuff look nice

I hope your game achieves great success in the future, cuz it really has some potential to blow up! :heart:

scrin

2 Likes
5

The way things work now, sponsors won’t really do much for you while they are up. They help make your game visible and most importantly allow you to collect analytics. After a week or two (give or take) your game will begin to become recommended on the home page for random users, and can be more/less based on your analytics and how good they are. Average playtime, revenue per DAU, D1 and D7 retention, and qualified play through rate are the most important metrics to keep an eye on. If they are not up to par with the standard for your genre/subgenre, you won’t be recommended much or at all.

One thing to keep in mind is players you get from sponsors will always tend to lower analytics in every category, and sometimes you are better off without them after your game is up and running. From experience, I’ve had games entirely die with this new sponsor system because too many players were joining from sponsors and therefore lowering my stats dramatically.

If you don’t mind sharing, how are your analytics looking and how are they matching up to the benchmarks for your genre?

TL;DR - If your analytics look decent, give your game a week or so without running sponsors and home recommendations should go up.

1 Like
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What are ways to improve analytics?

I’ve gone to much lengths to try and do that (the analytics for this game in terms of retention and playtime is absolutely miserable)

7

A lot of it is trial and error but adding playtime rewards and scalable (increases for each day streak) daily login rewards can help. I haven’t tried your game so maybe they have them already but try and implement both of those and think of yourself in the player’s shoes; Would I wait 20 minutes for this reward if I played the game? Is this reward worth remembering to log in each day for?

Add some badges as well for different achievements players can get while playing the game.

9

I think the problem is that the game just isn’t very good

  1. loading screen intro too long
  2. game allows mobile players to use vertical screen but the ui doesnt support it
  3. player has no direction at all, no arrows or tutorials
1 Like
10

I’ve played the game for 15-20 minutes, and these are the things I’ve found:

  • As BaconWithOneEye already mentioned, the game is very visually complex. Upon first joining, it takes some effort to figure out the mechanics of the game.
  • Even after 5-10 minutes of concentrated searching, I could figure out all the important mechanics for the core gameplay loop. I personally got stuck at finding items to feed to my first egg.
  • The game does not seem to have a clear goal. Every area is already open from the very first moment. Simply blocking the desert and icy peaks biomes behind a wall would resolve this, as they already have the reward of an improved seed/second ratio.
  • It takes long to obtain enough eggs for the first egg. If the eggs are supposed to behave like bees in bee swarm simulator, I’d recommend making it very easy to obtain the very first egg and hatch it. This way the player has gone through the core gameplay loop of obtaining more eggs and hatching them once, and knows what to do in order to progress.

In short: please improve onboarding and balance eggs and such for new players.

11

I would say your biggest two issues are onboarding and performance.

When playing, I had no idea what I was doing. I walked around, clicked a couple of things, and left.

Onboarding recommendations:

  • Get rid of the intro and play button (it’s unnecessary friction)
  • Have a tutorial-like system for getting the player acquainted with mechanics, one at a time
  • Build the map around incremental learning (for example, locking certain sections of the map until you complete certain tasks)
  • Put the gameplay in the most eye-catchy and space-intensive part of the map, and upgrade stuff on the side
  • Spawn the player in the first step of gameplay, not away from it (more walking = more friction)
  • Make it more obvious when you’re making progress with visual effects, interface, and sounds
  • Make controls obvious, such as with keybind hints
  • Condition the player into feeling like certain things are worth more or less of their time

I also tried this game on my laptop; my laptop isn’t bad at all, and it runs Linux (which runs faster than Windows), so I shouldn’t have any performance problems for most games.

Performance recommendations:

  • Don’t use lights everywhere, and instead just make it daytime
  • Avoid PBR materials when you can
  • Focus on reducing cell draw calls
  • Don’t use realistic lighting

Hope this gives you direction, good luck.

Edit: Make sure you don’t just listen to every point of feedback you receive. Have a goal, and use testing and feedback as a means to reach that goal. Not every piece of advice will be good for you.

1 Like
12

Hello! I tested the game again and its very nice but id love to give some feedback!

  • the green bar when u harvest the thingys or wtv theyre called is really annoying to monitor constantly and makes the gameplay less fun

  • Increase loading times so the tutorial images can load for some people (for me it took 2 - 4 mins and it shouldnt be because of my computer)

  • Overall its very nice just needs some slight improvements!