Game Data Tips #3: Time Chunking

Hacks and tips for everyday work with game analytics data. Jump in!

Tip 3: Chunk your time for powerful benefits

Time is one of the basic and most natural dimensions of the world around us. Too often we don't give it a second thought when working with data.?

What is time chunking?

Turns out there is a way to unlock some superpowers in your data by messing with time. Try using regular time intervals - I call them “chunks” - as an underlying structure for collection and analysis.

Why bother?

When your timeline is organized this way you can easily:

• connect events and metric changes... aka time travel
• build heatmaps or any other space-time-sensitive analyses
• enrich your data with new creative metrics without changing already deployed code

Let's take as an example a “Logout” event in a real-time game loop.?

We can see that the event itself is tracked into a single time chunk. With the new approach, this chunk now contains the full context for the event: values for your Gameplay, Engagement, Retention, and Game Design metrics (see my first tip on what I mean by these).

The event is no more happening in a vacuum somewhere but at the exact “player position”, “time in the game”, “difficulty level”, “interaction amount”, etc.

More to it: investigating the possible cause of the event becomes easier. Each of the preceding chunks has the same level of detail. Effectively, you now have a time travel superpower.

Isn't it nice?

To be continued

I will dive deeper into the edge cases and benefits of time chunking in the upcoming tips.

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Tip 4: Space-time adventures