What should a mobile game producer know?

What questions can a candidate be asked for the position of a mobile game producer, what tasks should he be ready for, – he shared on his Facebook page Ilya Eremeev, who previously served as a creative producer of Game Insight, and now is an executive producer at Mail.ru Games Ventures.

Ilya published a real test task, which he used to find a producer of a mobile project in the company. With the permission of the author, we publish the test task on our pages.

Ilya YeremeyevTest assignment for the position of producer

Tasks do not have an unambiguous correct answer. The course of thoughts, the logic of conclusions and the ability to argue their decisions will be evaluated.

Tasks based on hypothetical examples, if you do not have enough information to solve, you can add details yourself, indicating this in the answer.

Task 1

The game with a high LT of the player has been in operation for 2 years. The project has reached a dead end, no innovations and improvements improve the indicators, organic matter is falling.

Designers propose radical changes in mechanics and balance, which theoretically can turn the situation around.

• What are the consequences of such an action?What factors should be taken into account and how to make a decision on making or rejecting changes?
• Task 2

The studio, previously engaged in games in the genre of city builders, offers a pitch of a new hardcore project.

• How to evaluate a pitch and what factors to consider when deciding on a greenlight?Task 3
  

A casual mobile game with an audience of “women 35+” has the following indicators:

• 7% of paying;
• ARPPU $10;
• MAU 300 000.

The producer of the project suggests introducing advertising monetization.

• Is it worth doing this? What could be the consequences of such a decision?Task 4

The studio launches a new original project in sotflonch.

• What parameters should I pay attention to first of all, how to evaluate the results of the launch?Task 5
  

In a hardcore game, as a result of balance changes, ARPPU increased by 60%, but the conversion to paying users fell proportionally. The overall gross remained unchanged.

• Can these changes be considered positive?Task 6
  

The midcore game has excellent retention, but extremely low conversion to paying.

• Why can it be so? How to test your hypotheses? How to fix the detected problems?Task 7

Market research has found two potential opportunities. Take up development:

2) a product in an almost free niche, but with a narrower potential audience and a lack of team experience in this genre.

• Which product should be developed and why?Task 8
  

In a casual game, the retention of the first day is excellent, but the retention of the seventh and subsequent days is very low.

• What kind of problems can this talk about? Suggest options for increasing retention for the seventh and more days.Task 9
  

The studio has launched a new product in the genre in which it already has a line of very popular products. The indicators of the new game are 20% lower than the indicators of the top games in the portfolio. There is no way to buy traffic with CPI.

• What should I do in such a situation?Task 10
  

Additional question to task 9.

• What to do in a midcore game in which it is possible to buy traffic with CPI?Task 11

In a midcore game with high retention and low conversion to payers, the meta component was completely redesigned. After that, retention and monetization rates did not change significantly.

• What does this mean? What further actions should be taken?Task 12

You come as a producer to a new project in a genre that you are familiar with. The project has been in operation for about a year and its indicators are slightly below satisfactory.

• What will be your first actions? How will you build a product development strategy?Task 13
  

You decide to start developing a new game.

• How to choose a genre and setting, what will guide you?Original: document

Source: Ilya’s Facebook page