designing criminal case for retention and virality

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Corentin Raux and Bastien Cazenave, Co-founders Casual Connect 2013, San Francisco, CA

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Full presentation by Pretty Simple's co-founders Corentin Raux and Bastien Cazenave, on designing the virality and retention for the hit social game of investigation Criminal Case. Launched in November 2012, Criminal Case went from 0 to 9 million players in just 6 months, and reached #2 most played game on Facebook by May 2013. Only 2% of all players came from ads, which means a staggering 98% of players discovered and played Criminal Case organically. The popularity of Criminal Case rests in large part on the quality of the game itself, but though this presentation discusses our overall design choices briefly, how to design a good game is (way) beyond its scope. This presentation focuses on the key pillars of the success of Criminal Case: optimizing the first time user experience, designing virality and retention, and understanding their relationship. This presentation is supported by actual examples and numbers from Criminal Case.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Designing Criminal Case for Retention and Virality

Corentin Raux and Bastien Cazenave, Co-founders

Casual Connect 2013, San Francisco, CA

Page 2: Designing Criminal Case for Retention and Virality

About usPretty Simple was founded in January 2010

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

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My Shops

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Magical Ride

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Criminal Case

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Our games are available on…

Great online distribution platform to launch a new game!

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… And soon on iOS

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Designing Criminal Casefor

Virality and Retention

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Concept

Every week, solve a new investigation with your friends!

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Game Loop

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Game Loop

Look for clues

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Analyze them

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Arrest the killer!

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Exceptional Growth

December 2012 June 2012

English

FrenchGermanSpanish

PortugueseItalianTurkish

9 Million DAUs

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Top Popularity

June 2013

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Exceptional Organic Growth

Organic 98%Ads 2%

Organic 98%

Ads 2%

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How to make this growthpossible?

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Obviously, you need a great game

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We can’t explain how to create a great game

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However we can shareour experience

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1. We chose a universal and social theme

Crime Investigation

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So do I!

So do I!

Meow!

Poor guy…I must catch hiskiller right now!

So do I!

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2. We made it casual

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

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Imagine…

YOU’REa LOSER.

You Failed!

You didn’t find the

fingerprint that washidden in crime #3.

The killer has escaped!

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3. We designed it with virality and retention

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

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Let’s focus on Virality

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Players must invite during the first session

Forget everything else!

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Ideal First Play Session

Invites!

FUN!

FUN!

FUN!

FUN!

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Real First Session

Invites!

Confusion

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Loading MonsterLoadius Monsterus

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Loading screen conversion rate

Game Weight Impact

10 MB5 MB

3.5 MB

87%90%

93%

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Total weight of Criminal Case: 530 MB

First loading weight: 3.5 MB

Still working to make it 2.5 MB !

Criminal Case Weight

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Confusion MonsterConfusius Beastius

fig. 2

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Playtest

Playtest

Playtest

How to make sure people understand the game?

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Never help the playtesterPLAYTEST GOLDEN RULE:

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Clear green action buttons

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

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

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Tech Issues MonsterCrashius to Desktopius

fig. 3

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

How to solve tech issues

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Criminal Case Tutorial

60%

80%

100%

Step 1 Step 7 Step 8 Step 16

20% USERS DROP

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2

Exit Full Screen Mode

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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

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Criminal Case FTUE Funnel

35 Steps tracked in the Criminal Case FTUE

funnel

80%

Step 35

Step 1

100%

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Invites!

FUN!

FUN!

FUN!

FUN!

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This is Hard Work

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

Approx. 6 months with 25 people

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

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

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Remember!Players must invite during their

first session. <- DONE!

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Now people must send invites to their friends!

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1. Good reason2. Right timing3. Ease of use

What makes people invite?

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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

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Choose the Right TimingRULE NUMBER TWO:

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Step 1: desire to continue

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Step 2: frustration

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Step 3: Free Energy Opportunity

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Make it Easy to InviteRULE NUMBER THREE:

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

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Now People Send Invites

!

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That’s not enough!

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

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In Criminal Case,we used another channel

Open Graph Stories

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What is an Open Graph story?

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

What’s an Open Graph Story?

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What is an Open Graph story?

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In Criminal Case, Open Graph Stories

performed amazingly

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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

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What is a cool OG story?

• Visually appealing• Triggers curiosity

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Criminal Case OG Stories

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

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How to create performingOpen Graph Stories?

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Visuals A/B Testing

Which one works best?+18% clicks

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Which story title performs better?

Titles A/B Testing

+9% clicks

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In Criminal Case,we A/B tested more than

500 images and titlesfor Open Graph Stories

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660k installs per day!Virality Results

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So much for virality.

Now it’s time totake care of retention!

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What Makes People Come Back?

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

Forget everything else!

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Retention Channels

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

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Requests – Send Free Energy

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Avoid Spamming!

People send free energy only to their friends who are already

playing the game

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When you accept +2

You send back +1

Receiving Energy

MUTUAL RE-ENGAGEMENT

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Feed Posts

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2

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Feed Posts

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Focus on receiver when using feed posts!

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Feed Posts

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Feed Posts

MUTUAL RE-ENGAGEMENT

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App to User Notifications

Approx. 500k clicks/day29% CTR

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Retention Metrics

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

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Conclusion

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Retention Virality

Players come backon Day 1 because they

receive free gifts from the friends they invited

the day before.

Fact:

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Virality

Retention

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There’s noRETENTION

withoutVIRALITY

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