Give developers the ability to run A/B tests for their games' appearances

The Ask

As a Roblox developer, it is currently too hard to measure the success of my game’s name, description, icon, thumbnails, and localization.

I would like the ability to run A/B tests on my game’s name, description, icon, thumbnails, and localization.

Of course, I would also like the ability to see the results of these tests.

What are A/B tests?

For those unfamiliar, A/B tests are used to measure a difference in metrics due to a change in comparison to a control group.


Blue button or green button? You can use A/B testing to figure out which option is better.


Imagine the ability to do this with game thumbnails, game icons, game names, game descriptions, possibly even different localization phrasing.

The Reason

When I want to improve my game’s discoverability, I currently have the following options:

  1. Make large assumptions with no actual data. I am playing a guessing game. There is no concrete way for me to identify which set of assets is the most effective. I risk losing my existing audience.

  2. Use game sponsors to get a very vague temperature check. There are too many external factors to truly measure the difference in performance. Additionally, I cannot run two different game appearances at the same time. I risk losing my existing audience.

  3. Find a decent realm of discoverability and leave it at that. I do not want to risk losing my game’s audience, even if that means I cannot improve the discoverability.

Precedent

Roblox already runs A/B tests for their own game discovery workflows.

Conclusion

If this issue is addressed, it would improve my development experience because I would be able to optimize my game’s assets to reach the widest possible audience.

55 Likes

Bump. Would love to see this feature, especially when releasing a new game, this is key.

This was announced at RDC (at least for thumbnails)

Must’ve missed this! Is it just Thumbnails or were there mentions of icons? I feel like the icon A/B testing would be far more important.

Big piece of this recently delivered (thumbnail testing): [Live now] Personalize your thumbnails to attract more users

2 Likes