designing criminal case for retention and virality

Corentin Raux and Bastien Cazenave, Co-founders

Casual Connect 2013, San Francisco, CA

About usPretty Simple was founded in January 2010

• 3 Games so far• Team: 45 people• Top 10 Facebook Games developer

My Shops

Magical Ride

Criminal Case

Our games are available on…

Great online distribution platform to launch a new game!

… And soon on iOS

Designing Criminal Casefor

Virality and Retention

Concept

Every week, solve a new investigation with your friends!

Game Loop

Game Loop

Look for clues

Analyze them

Arrest the killer!

Exceptional Growth

December 2012 June 2012

English

FrenchGermanSpanish

PortugueseItalianTurkish

9 Million DAUs

Top Popularity

June 2013

Exceptional Organic Growth

Organic 98%Ads 2%

Organic 98%

Ads 2%

How to make this growthpossible?

Obviously, you need a great game

We can’t explain how to create a great game

However we can shareour experience

1. We chose a universal and social theme

Crime Investigation

So do I!

So do I!

Meow!

Poor guy…I must catch hiskiller right now!

So do I!

2. We made it casual

People shouldn’t be afraid of losing because they get stuck during their investigation

Imagine…

YOU’REa LOSER.

You Failed!

You didn’t find the

fingerprint that washidden in crime #3.

The killer has escaped!

3. We designed it with virality and retention

Think it from the beginning and make them part of the game

Let’s focus on Virality

Players must invite during the first session

Forget everything else!

Ideal First Play Session

Invites!

FUN!

FUN!

FUN!

FUN!

Real First Session

Invites!

Confusion

Loading MonsterLoadius Monsterus

Loading screen conversion rate

Game Weight Impact

10 MB5 MB

3.5 MB

87%90%

93%

Total weight of Criminal Case: 530 MB

First loading weight: 3.5 MB

Still working to make it 2.5 MB !

Criminal Case Weight

Confusion MonsterConfusius Beastius

fig. 2

Playtest

Playtest

Playtest

How to make sure people understand the game?

Never help the playtesterPLAYTEST GOLDEN RULE:

Clear green action buttons

100% of play testers completed the first session without any help

But only 50% of players said they liked the game!

Tech Issues MonsterCrashius to Desktopius

fig. 3

1. Track every click2. Observe drops3. Find the problem4. Fix it

How to solve tech issues

Criminal Case Tutorial

60%

80%

100%

Step 1 Step 7 Step 8 Step 16

20% USERS DROP

2

Exit Full Screen Mode

Case Study

60%

80%

100%

S t e p 1 S t e p 7 S t e p 8 S t e p 1 6

NO MORE DROP

Criminal Case FTUE Funnel

35 Steps tracked in the Criminal Case FTUE

funnel

80%

Step 35

Step 1

100%

Invites!

FUN!

FUN!

FUN!

FUN!

This is Hard Work

30% of dev time focused on tutorial and First Time User Experience (FTUE).

Approx. 6 months with 25 people

Many devs fail not because they can’t create a great game but

because most people leave before seeing it’s a great game!

Remember!Players must invite during their

first session. <- DONE!

Now people must send invites to their friends!

1. Good reason2. Right timing3. Ease of use

What makes people invite?

Give a Good ReasonRULE NUMBER ONE:

What is the most valuable resource in your game?

In Criminal Case it is Energy.

We promise more Energy

Choose the Right TimingRULE NUMBER TWO:

Step 1: desire to continue

Step 2: frustration

Step 3: Free Energy Opportunity

Make it Easy to InviteRULE NUMBER THREE:

Pre-selected friends // Green Button // Progress Bar

Now People Send Invites

!

That’s not enough!

In Criminal Case, invites onlyaccount for 50% of total installs

In Criminal Case,we used another channel

Open Graph Stories

What is an Open Graph story?

1. Posted automatically2. Show up in the news feed3. Aggregated by Facebook

What’s an Open Graph Story?

What is an Open Graph story?

In Criminal Case, Open Graph Stories

performed amazingly

OG impact on early installs

December 2012 February 2013

5 times more installs from OG stories than invites

Close to 100k installs/day from OG stories aloneOG stories Invites

Installs from

What is a cool OG story?

• Visually appealing• Triggers curiosity

Criminal Case OG Stories

• INVESTIGATE a crime scene• WORK ON a murder case• AUTOPSY a victim• Etc.

How to create performingOpen Graph Stories?

Visuals A/B Testing

Which one works best?+18% clicks

Which story title performs better?

Titles A/B Testing

+9% clicks

In Criminal Case,we A/B tested more than

500 images and titlesfor Open Graph Stories

660k installs per day!Virality Results

So much for virality.

Now it’s time totake care of retention!

What Makes People Come Back?

They come back because they get a request or a notification from the game.

Forget everything else!

Retention Channels

• Requests• Feed posts• App-to-user notifications

Requests – Send Free Energy

Avoid Spamming!

People send free energy only to their friends who are already

playing the game

When you accept +2

You send back +1

Receiving Energy

MUTUAL RE-ENGAGEMENT

Feed Posts

2

Feed Posts

Focus on receiver when using feed posts!

Feed Posts

Feed Posts

MUTUAL RE-ENGAGEMENT

App to User Notifications

Approx. 500k clicks/day29% CTR

Retention Metrics

In Criminal CaseDay 1 retention is approx. 52%Day 7 retention is approx. 39%

Conclusion

Retention Virality

Players come backon Day 1 because they

receive free gifts from the friends they invited

the day before.

Fact:

Virality

Retention

There’s noRETENTION

withoutVIRALITY