Wooga: analytics is not the main thing

Wooga offers to “take care” of the players so that developers can get the maximum profit from the growing market of social games. The company believes that the main thing is love, it will not be replaced by analytics.

During his speech at the Game Developers Conference Europe (GDC Europe) in Cologne, Timo Dries from the Wooga team admitted: “We don’t know what our players want.” “When it comes to casual or social games, you can’t rely on intuition, because the expectations and preferences of players are constantly changing,” he added. Dreis believes that it is not necessary to go to the other extreme – to start only from metric indicators. 

Example: even before the release, the casual game Monster World was tested on several players, thanks to which Wooga was able to change its design in a timely manner. But when you focus on the average player, “you can‘t measure it in the se.” But with the help of funny animation, Wooga developers managed to raise the rating of the previously unpopular Monster World character.

The secret of success is simple: “To create a wonderful game, you need both a heart and a brain,” says Dreis. It is necessary to show the players (especially the “veterans”) that the developers add every little detail or joke to the game from the bottom of their hearts. This is how the love that the studio puts into its product is expressed. 

So, a tip from Timo Dreis: “Add your creativity, love and enthusiasm to all the indicators and analytics, and then you will get something cool.” 

A source: pocketgamer.biz