My first analysis report for Inside Social Games, "How to Spot a Breakout Facebook Game", is now up for your reading pleasure. I'm now an analyst for Inside Network, part of the same company who published my Social Times Pro reports for the last year, but my ISG reports are fully readable on the web. Excerpt:
The most important indicator of a breakout success is a relatively strong daily active user-to-monthy active user percentage. In general, a rate of 20% or higher suggests healthy retention and consistent monetization, as supported by data from our Inside Virtual Goods series... As is the case for most games in the early days, Backyard Monsters’ DAU-to-MAU ratio was extremely high for the first month. Going into the third month, however, the game maintained a retention rate of just under 25% DAU-to-MAU... We can say, based on our own gameplay experience during the first three months, that Backyard Monsters proved itself innovative and engaging. Even without features added over the past five months, the game was a well-made resource-management strategy title with special appeal for “hardcore gamers.”
BYM is turning into a grind with 35 outposts. I may give it up.
The bank all button took me from 15 outposts to 35. Without better outpost management tools... it is turning into work.
Posted by: Nalates Urriah | Wednesday, November 09, 2011 at 06:30 PM