How do game designers use metrics to measure game success?

I think Game Performance metrics are rather developer, product manager or QA division's job. A Game Designer should not focus on the performance issues caused by a hardware or software. Their primary focus is in game metrics that would change players behaviour. Things that players struggle to complete but having fun, easy to pass but not fun, or too hard to finish and not having fun. These main spots should be on game designers watch.

It is well known that the game design industry is highly competitive in todays market, its safe to say that game designers use metrics extensively to measure their games success in order to make data-driven decisions that help in the improvement of the game. However concentrating on metrics like; Retention rate, which indicates how many players continue to play the game overtime. Level Completion Rate, which is the percentage of players who complete each stage, which gives insights on game progression and satisfaction. Session length gives insights on player engagement. When it comes to monetization metrics, (CPI) Cost per Install and Lifetime Value (LTV) are two key metrics which can increase monetization efficiency.

While objective measures like frame rate and loading times are important, it's equally crucial to consider how players perceive performance. Keep track of player feedback, analyze social media sentiment, and use surveys to gain insights into their experience with performance issues. Take a closer look at performance metrics from a cognitive load standpoint. Remember that performance metrics can vary across different platforms and hardware capabilities. Consider the cost-benefit of optimization efforts.

Gold standard for me, add Fps counter and measure it before every release on several low end platforms with minimum requirements.

While game designers may not directly track UA metrics by themselves, they play a crucial role in optimizing the User Acquisition/marketing assets to improve the effectiveness of the campaign. A couple of important metrics we look at include: 1. CPI - Cost per Install: (Lower the Better) It denotes the average cost incurred to acquire a user. This should always be less than the RPI (revenue per install). 2. ROAS- Return on Ad Spend (Higher the better): The ratio of Ad Spend vs Ad revenue. A positive ROAS indicates revenue generated from acquired users exceeds the advertising costs. Achieve this as early as possible. We also track Conversion Rates, Retention rates & Virality Coefficients as important metrics to optimize campaigns

User acquisition metrics are used to measure the effectiveness of a game's ability to attract new players. These metrics can include the number of new players over a certain period of time, the cost of acquiring a new player through advertising, and the effectiveness of different marketing channels in attracting new users.

Keep track of the effectiveness of different marketing channels such as organic, paid, social media, and influencer marketing. Allocate resources based on ROI and experiment with new channels and tactics to reach diverse audiences and optimize your acquisition funnel.

Fun is often hard to put into metric form, but there are ways to pull this kind of data to see if what we're designing is truly "fun" for our players. A drop off point trigger based upon stage progression or by time in game can often indicate if players are enjoying their time in our games. People's time is one of the most important currencies we have in video games, by them taking the time to play your game, it shows their engagement and more importantly - having fun.

Analyze player engagement through the lens of flow theory. Keep track of player immersion, the balance between challenge and reward, and the sense of progression. Strive to optimize for optimal flow states where players are fully engaged and intrinsically motivated to continue playing.

User monetization metrics are used to measure the effectiveness of a game in generating revenue from its players. These metrics can include the average revenue per user (ARPU), the lifetime value (LTV) of a customer, and the conversion rates from free to paying users. Understanding these metrics is crucial for evaluating the financial success of a game.

Apply insights from behavioral economics to guide players towards desired monetization actions. Optimize pricing, create limited-time promotions, and strategically implement scarcity elements to ethically and effectively influence player behavior. Consider fairness and value perception when designing your monetization strategies. Avoid aggressive tactics or misleading practices that may alienate players. Analyze sentiment data and conduct surveys to gain a better understanding of how players perceive your monetization model, and make adjustments accordingly.

Instead of solely relying on feedback during the launch phase, incorporate continuous feedback channels such as live chats, community forums, and social media listening tools. Stay connected with players and adjust your game according to their changing preferences and requirements.

I've used a mix of numbers and user feedback to understand how well my games are performing. Look at length of engagement, number of installs, number of regular players, performance metrics, and more. Reviews are insightful, pay attention to what players are saying in forums and ratings, what they like or don't like about your game, what features they would like to see added, and if they're running into any problems while playing. By keeping an eye on both of these metrics and what players are saying, game designers can figure out what's working well and what needs improvement. This helps with decisions about updates and new features to keep players engaged, leading to a better overall experience for everyone enjoying the game.

You cant always measure your players behavior by metrics on spread sheets. Designers should watch what players do. If there is multiple paths to reach a certain level, and you find your players figuring out an alternative path, thats something valuable. Or you catch them doing exactly the opposite, taking their sweet time away from the path you put them on (RPG Games Side Quests). Now you know they can use more side quests rather than an extension to the main quest line. A/B Testing is old school, may not work on big pc titles, but rather more effective on your casual - hybridcasual mobile titles.

User behavior metrics provide insight into how players engage with a game's content. This includes identifying the most frequently used features, tracking player progress, and identifying potential areas of difficulty. Game designers can use this information to refine and improve the overall gaming experience.

As a Game Designer I think it is better to be Data informed rather than data driven. I think it is important for a designer to be holistic and consider other factors and components.

A lot of times people cling too much to the "primary metrics" such as retention, ARPU, session time, session length etc. in order to measure the progress between different iterations of their game. But these have limits, and when your next AB test shows nearly the same retention, how do you measure the impact of that feature? You build "secondary metrics" which are specific for each individual game. Events such as battles played per day, cards upgraded per day, secondary game mode participation by DAU %, win rate % of specific character in deck, daily % of currency flows into all of the sinks and sources in the game economy, etc. Only by having the proper measurement for your feature iteration, you can then clearly evaluate its impact.

I disagree with most of my colleagues. Game designers don't "use metrics to measure game success". Even f2p game designers don't do that. At least, I've never seen a GD doing so. I've seen product managers (often helped by data analysts) measuring game success, and game designers discussing with product managers which metrics makes more sense to measure. Game designers are often busy enough writing design specs, using the game editor, tweaking config files, testing the game, and discussing with devs, artist and product manager what's important and what's not for the game experience. Don't get me wrong. I do think that game designers could benefit of spending time defining and studying metrics. But this is not in the job description.

Metrics and KPIs for your business are as crucial as the way you collect them, especially in this new "privacy era" where user ID is being progressively removed. It would be benefitial if there are some lines drawn by the different methods to collect data and attribute it, for instance the new data-driven attribution model of some ad networks, last-click attribution being deprecated, conversion modelling, etc to better understand how reliable are our metrics and our approach to them

On prior projects myself and the team have set metrics for success such as 'no crunch', and having things like that made explicit then had a huge knock-on in terms of being able to advocate for ourselves and directly reference that metric when planning out work for a coming week or suchlike.