What we learned: Idle Miner Tycoon and Idle Factory Tycoon - Kolibri
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The document outlines the journey of Kolibri Games, focusing on the creation and development of their successful game 'Idle Miner Tycoon' which has achieved over 100 million downloads. It emphasizes the importance of a simple development approach, learning from initial failures, and the significance of player retention metrics in refining game features. The company adopted a games-as-a-service model, continuously updating and iterating on the game based on community feedback and data analysis.
What we learned: Idle Miner Tycoon and Idle Factory Tycoon - Kolibri
- 1. <> M a k i n g H i t C a s u a l G a m e s 9th of October 2019Meetup < >
- 2. What did we learn while building Our Idle Games?
- 3. N A T E B A R K E R Director of Business Development at Kolibri Games New York University Alumnus. Marketing at Disney Mobile and Linekong Interactive. Evangelist at Chartboost.
- 4. A G E N D A Our Story About Idle Miner Tycoon Our development approach Games as a service
- 5. A G E N D A About Idle Miner Tycoon Our development approach Games as a service Our Story
- 6. A G R O W T H S T O R Y K O L I B R I G A M E S This is a story about how we created a gaming franchise spanning more than 100M downloads. And a story about passion, resilience, hard work and long hours.
- 7. H O W I T A L L S T A R T E D K O L I B R I G A M E S Humble beginnings in the student apartment.
- 8. Our first project failed. Why? • Waterfall development instead of agile approach. • Very complex technical approach. • No testing for months.
- 9. So we started from scratch again. And thought about a new genre we wanted to be in. Restart
- 10. K O L I B R I G A M E S S I M P L E P R O T O T Y P E No 3D artwork No social features No localization No IAPs No ad mediation No longterm motivation No cloudsave 2 0 1 6
- 11. K O L I B R I G A M E S S I M P L E P R O T O T Y P E 2 0 1 6 And it reached an outstanding D1 retention. D1 = the fraction of players that return one day after installing the game. Most Free2Play games have a D1 retention of 40%.
- 12. K O L I B R I G A M E S G A M E S A S A S E R V I C E Polishing and expanding our games with weekly updates.
- 13. K O L I B R I G A M E S G A M E S A S A S E R V I C E 1 Development Sprint 1 Week Planning Developing Testing 1 Update
- 14. We began our first steps of marketing in June 2017 and scaled revenue 10x within 3 months. 2 0 1 7
- 15. D E C 2 0 1 7 We decided to move to Berlin. 30 of our people trusted us and moved with us.
- 16. 2 0 1 8 We grew our portfolio to 2 idle games
- 17. 2 0 1 9 We grew our team to over 100 people
- 18. 100 MILLION DOWNLOADS Success is no accident. It’s the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.
- 19. A G E N D A Our Story Our development approach Games as a service About Idle Miner Tycoon
- 20. O T H E R I D L E G A M E S K O L I B R I G A M E S
- 21. F E A T U R E S I D L E M I N E R T Y C O O N Expand the Skill TreeGo on ExpeditionsExplore Your WorldMine Resources
- 22. F E A T U R E S I D L E M I N E R T Y C O O N Expand the Skill TreeGo on ExpeditionsExplore Your WorldMine Resources
- 23. F E A T U R E S I D L E M I N E R T Y C O O N Expand the Skill TreeGo on ExpeditionsExplore Your WorldMine Resources
- 24. F E A T U R E S I D L E M I N E R T Y C O O N Expand the Skill TreeGo on ExpeditionsExplore Your WorldMine Resources
- 25. E V E N T M I N E S I D L E M I N E R T Y C O O N
- 26. S E A S O N P A S S I D L E M I N E R T Y C O O N The Idle Miner Tycoon version of the popular Battle Pass known from games like Clash of Clans, Fortnite and other Top-Grossing Mobile Games.
- 27. Casual / Hyper Casual Easy to pick up Easy to play Mid-core Strong social mechanics Meta Game Long-term retention Idle Short sessions Quick progress/success Player Friendly Ad Monetization
- 28. I D L E M I N E R T Y C O O N K O L I B R I G A M E S Mine Transport Sell Mine Mine Upgrade Mine Transport Sell Mine Mine Upgrade Choke Choke Choke
- 29. You pay You wait
- 30. I D L E M I N E R T Y C O O N K O L I B R I G A M E S Time vs. Money Unblock Barriers Double revenue
- 31. H O W D O E S I D L E M I N E R M O N E T I Z E ? K O L I B R I G A M E S Advertisements In-App Purchases
- 32. A G E N D A Our Story About Idle Miner Tycoon Games as a service Our development approach
- 33. Games are a hit-driven business. The faster you can find out that a game doesn't work, the lower the costs.
- 34. What is the most important thing to do? Say to a lot of things NO!
- 35. O U R D E V E L O P M E N T A P P R O A C H Our biggest inspiration
- 36. Basic mechanics M I N I M U M V I A B L E P R O D U C T O U R D E V E L O P M E N T A P P R O A C H
- 37. Basic mechanics Rough graphic concepts M I N I M U M V I A B L E P R O D U C T O U R D E V E L O P M E N T A P P R O A C H
- 38. Basic mechanics Rough graphic concepts Iterating on graphics, mechanics, balancing M I N I M U M V I A B L E P R O D U C T O U R D E V E L O P M E N T A P P R O A C H
- 39. Basic mechanics Rough graphic concepts Iterating on graphics, mechanics, balancing Finalizing UX, graphics, mechanics, balancing M I N I M U M V I A B L E P R O D U C T O U R D E V E L O P M E N T A P P R O A C H
- 40. We believe that the most import thing is the core gameplay measured by D1 retention. D1 Retention = the fraction of players that return one day after installing the game.
- 41. Idle Miner Tycoon Idle Factory Tycoon It’s 75% with this one Also with this one Most Free2Play games have a D1 retention of 40%. Not our games.
- 42. K O L I B R I G A M E S S I M P L E P R O T O T Y P E Outstanding D1 retention. D1 = the fraction of players that return one day after installing the game. Most Free2Play games have a D1 retention of 40%.
- 43. • Small team • Find concept / core mechanic • Playable version • Test & iterate 8 1. Start Product Manager Engineer Designer Artist 2. Minimum viable product ??? • Everyone in the company • Is the gameplay fun? • Fixing bugs 3. Internal Testing • Early day retention • Organic downloads • Rating & user feedback 4 weeks 4. External Testing • Add team members • Build more features • Scale with user acquisition 5. Scaling Up forever Game Team D E V E L O P M E N T P R O C E S S O U R D E V E L O P M E N T A P P R O A C H QA
- 44. A G E N D A Our Story About Idle Miner Tycoon Our development approach Games as a service
- 45. We released Idle MinerTycoon in July 2016. Polishing and expanding the game with more than 160 updates. G A M E S A S A S E R V I C E
- 46. 1 Development Sprint 1 Week Planning Developing Testing 1 Update U P D A T E P O L I C Y G A M E S A S A S E R V I C E
- 47. 1% 20% 100% 5% Day 1: Identifying bugs via reporting tool Day 3: User feedback and store reviews Day 4: Release Day 2: Identifying bugs via reporting tool S T A G E D R O L L O U T G A M E S A S A S E R V I C E
- 48. 1% 20% 100% 5% Day 1: Identifying bugs via reporting tool Day 3: User feedback and store reviews Day 4: Release Day 2: Identifying bugs via reporting tool S T A G E D R O L L O U T G A M E S A S A S E R V I C E How do we know which update players will love the most? Which idea is worth developing?
- 49. K E E P P L A Y E R S E N G A G E D G A M E S A S A S E R V I C E Community Feedback Data based Qualitative decisions
- 50. Most of our players are located in the US and Europe.
- 51. Most players stay in the game for 9:24 minutes per session.
- 53. Nice, but now what?
- 54. Will players like a 5th continent? We don’t know and it’s too costly to just test it. So we have to just make a decision. Q U A L I T A T I V E D E C I S I O N S G A M E S A S A S E R V I C E
- 55. A G E N D A Our Story About Idle Miner Tycoon Our development approach Games as a service
- 56. T H A N K Y O U ! Nate Barker Director of Business Development nate.barker@kolibrigames.com
- 57. Thanks for listening And thanks for coming! Next up, we’ll be focusing on ‘Platformer/Runner Games’. We’ll share the details (when, where, and line up) at a later date, so stay tuned. Any questions, feel free to email us at insights@gameanalytics.com.