Unlocking Creativity #10: Mastering the Soft Launch

Here we are again! Yeah I know, haven't been able to write new articles lately. Because my workload has been extremely heavy, and I couldn't find the time.

Anyway..

I will continue to write new articles regularly. I mentioned that we have many questions. Some of these were about soft launch process, and I plan to make a small series on that.

In this article, I will briefly talk about the soft launch process of mobile games...

I often use this phrase: "In data we trust, not intuition or creative ideation."

Because most developers, UA managers, product managers, or people working in the creative side become very attached to their projects. Here, you shouldn't be attached to any game. If the results are bad, you should drop it and move on...

If your product doesn’t look profitable, then it means that the market doesn’t like your product.. just try and find a profitable one..

Now I want to explain the process of a game from draft to publishing.

1- Brainstorm

First, you find a game idea through brainstorming. This is the hardest part. Finding a good idea right away is tough; you should always check the market and do competitor analysis.

2- Prototype?

Then we can move on to prototype production. In the prototype phase, what we actually test is the core mechanic of the game. Remember, a game doesn’t appeal to everyone, but we need to minimize all possible negative aspects. Also, the teams should focus on trying to increase the playtime.

TIP

You should be able to configure through remote config at which time interstitial ads become active within the game.

3- Retention

The next stage is the retention test. In this phase, the creative team is asked to produce creatives related to the game. At least 1-2 sets of creatives, or a total of 5-10 creative tests, will be sufficient at this stage.

You should bring in at least 1000 users to properly test the game. Of course this is depending on game genre. In a good scenario, if the CPI is $0.5, it would be $500 per day for 1000 users. If you are testing in the US, it would not make sense to do this on hybrid and hyper genres.

If you get a negative result from this retention test, you return to the prototype phase. You need to think about how to improve retention.

I will talk about how to improve retention in a separate article.

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4- MVP

If you get good results from the retention test, welcome to the MVP phase.

Why is the MVP phase important? Because it helps determine the balance of the game and best reflects the real user experience. Nowadays, since more hybrid games are being made, you should ensure there is enough content for successful measurement, considering D30 retention.

You should also consider Monetization and IAP in this phase. Remember, the values measured in the MVP phase will differ from those measured in the end product.

5- LTV / CPI Test

Then, you move on to the publishing phase and conduct LTV-CPI tests. At this stage, you should produce 15-20 creatives and monitor the game's performance. Here, you should evaluate the game well from a Monet and UA perspective.

When conducting LTV tests, measure LTV14 for hyper-casual, and LTV60 or LTV90 for casual games. Of course, you should make LTV predictions. This means you don’t need to test the game for 14 or 60 days...

LTV30 is considered a more comprehensive and reliable measurement. However, using LTV7 or LTV14 for certain strategic decisions can also be reasonable.

So you need to figure out, on which day, you generate enough revenue to cover the cost of acquiring a user… Because the rest will be profit...

As for how soft launch creatives should be, I will talk about that in a separate article :)

BONUS

It's also useful to look at A/B tests for the game. You should improve your game by A/B testing in this process.

• Art style (realistic vs cartoonish)
• Core mechanics (Tap vs swipe vs hold vs tap and hold)
• If you have a boss character at the end of the game, change the boss styles
• If your game is too easy to play, increase the difficulty level..

All of what I've written are the stages to be followed from soft launch to hard launch.

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If you find it useful, don't forget to share this article with your friends in the industry. And if you have any questions, you can always ask me.

See you next time!