Vainglory: 5 lessons for the developer
Kristian Segerstrale, whose Super Evil Megacorp studio launched MOBA Vainglory at the end of last year, spoke about the lessons he learned from working on the game.
Start with the right engine
Vainglory has its own engine. Most of the two years that the game was in development were spent on its creation. The technology was announced as quite ambitious, and this led to the fact that talented specialists began to be hired into the team. The characteristics of the engine allowed the team of artists not to deny themselves anything. As a result, Apple liked Vainglory’s visual style so much that it used it in an iPhone 6 commercial.
iPhone 6 advertisement with Vainglory gameConsider the interests of gamers
The authors of Vainglory call their title “midcore game for hardcore fans”. Each match lasts 20 minutes, not 3, as is typical for many other mobile games. To control the character, the player simply taps on the screen – no swipes. The speed of the attack depends on the speed of pressing.
Work with the community
Segerstrole claims that the company has not spent a penny on acquiring users. She made a bet in the promotion on virality. For this purpose, the game was presented to “star” esports players who specialize in MOBA.
“We invited gamers to the game, invited them to become part of the community, paid special attention to them within the community,” Segerstrole commented.
Measure the distance traveled
In addition to the standard metrics of the game, Segerstrole urged to pay attention to less common ones. So, in the case of Vainglory, its creators tracked the number of views of broadcasts on Twitch. In February there were 500 thousand, and in March – already 900 thousand.
Have patience
It takes time to create a good community.
“Every time we were evaluated from the point of view of previous similar games: “if you didn’t get into the top 10 in the first two weeks, die.” This rule only applies to games of the previous generation. In this generation, it will not be possible to grow a truly engaged community overnight,” Segerstole stressed.
He noted that, for example, the Dota 2 game community has been built for years.
Successful games are created slowly, he concluded.
A source: http://venturebeat.com
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