M. Ali Saatchi

🚀 Ultimate guide to understand if your game is fun 🔑 11 key items on measuring Fun𝟭. 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻• Return Rates: Measures how often players come back.• Churn Analysis: Helps identify why players stop playing.• Time Spent Playing: Indicates how captivating the game is.𝟮. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗙𝗹𝗼𝘄• Progression Curves: Smooth difficulty increases keep players motivated.• Balance Between Challenge and Skill: Ensures the game is neither easy nor hard.𝟯. 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆• Multiplayer Features: Enhances fun through cooperation or competition.• Community Engagement: Active forums and events foster a sense of belonging.𝟰. 𝗡𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴• Player Choices Impacting Story: Increases investment through agency.• Engaging Plot and Characters: Deep stories and relatable characters draw players in.𝟱. 𝗨𝘀𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹𝘀• Intuitive Interface: Easy navigation keeps focus on gameplay.• Responsive Controls: Smooth mechanics enhance player satisfaction.• Accessibility Options: Makes the game enjoyable […]

🚨 Understanding Retention Part 3: LTV and Retention In my previous posts, I covered the importance of long-term retention and how games with low retention will survive. Now, it's time to talk about how we can calculate LTV (lifetime value) and its relation to Retention. ⥅ Here's the formulaLTV = Lifetime ⛌ ARPDAU 👉 Using this formula you can make estimations on your early retention data ❓How Retention Impacts LTVRetention and LTV are closely linked. The longer players stick around, the more opportunities they have to make in-app purchases or watch ads, increasing their lifetime value. ↳Higher retention naturally translates to a higher LTV. Part 1: Part 2: If you found this post helpful: ❤️ → Give it a like 💬 → Share your thoughts in the comments🔄 → Repost it to help others🔔 → Follow me for more insights […]

15-min with just using GPT-4o and GPT-1o to create a complete game idea & concept:👉 Initial prompt for GPT-1o:" I want you to be my Lead Game Designer who knows all about mobile gaming, all genres, all mechanics, market trends, etc I want you to come up with a compelling idea with USPs. I want you to pick the genre and sub-genre for me based on market data, somewhere that has high potential and is quite blue ocean a high chance of success. The idea should be mobile friendly with simple mechanics and at the same time good depth so at first players can easily pass and progress but soon they have improved their skills/characters or whatever to progress further "↳ Here's the game concept and AI-generated idea:- Title: Eden Rising: Rebuild & Survive- Genre: Hybrid-Casual City Builder with Survival […]

🚨 Understanding Retention Part 2: When Retention Isn’t EverythingWe often make quick decisions based solely on retention numbers. But there are times when other metrics hold more weight.❓ Let’s take a look at a retention curve of a project with Day 1, Day 7, and Day 30 rates:* D1: 17.5%* D7: 4.5%* D30: 1.6%These retention numbers are below industry benchmarks, both short and long term.🤔 Would you continue working on this project?Before making a decision, let's look at an important factor:👉 ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): the amount of revenue earned for every dollar spent on advertising.💡This retention data is from Nitro Nation: Car Racing Game. With over 50M downloads and $18M in revenue, this game is thriving despite low retention.⭐️ TL;DREven though this game doesn’t have exceptionally high retention rates, it’s still achieving positive ROAS—proving that , ROAS is […]

👉 One of the most critical metrics when producing a game is ⭐️RETENTION⭐️, specifically, long-term retention. ❓But what does retention mean, and how should we monitor it beyond just the surface numbers?Many teams and even publishers look at retention numbers like D1, D4, and D7, but these only tell part of the story. Long-term retention is what really dictates the success of a game. ↳If we don’t measure and understand it properly, we risk making decisions based on incomplete data.