ByteClub

Pinch Media's presentation about iPhone app usage stats raised some interesting questions and prompted us to look into how Scramboni is being used by our players. We don't have an analytics package plugged in, but there is enough data on our servers to compare some of the metrics with those provided by Pinch Media.

Lets start with their numbers. At first glance, "on average, after 20 days, only 5% of users keep using apps that they paid for" sounds surprising (Slide 13 in Pinch Media's presentation). On the other hand, we are talking "average" here, which could be easily misleading. Crappy apps that people don't end up coming back to drag this metric way down. I paid $9.99 for "Things" and use it on a daily basis - best 10 bucks ever spent. On the other hand, there are a few games that I paid for, but haven't really played much. At the same time, you'd think that users spend more time with apps that they paid for - and it does seem to be the case (compare slides 13 and 12), but the numbers are only slightly higher. Slides 14 and 15 talk about breakdown between categories. Games aren't as sticky as some other apps, apparently.

How does Scramboni fare? Here is the chart, to be compared with slides 12, 13 and 14: (Click to enlarge)

Looks like Scramboni is at least twice as "sticky" as an average app in Pinch Media's data set. Returning user rate dropped below 5% on day 55, compared to days 25 and 22 for an average free and paid app according to their data. Sports category apps come closest, crossing the 5% mark around day 43.

Another data point: rough calculations tell us that our most loyal user has spent more than 200 hours playing the game so far. 12 players spent more than 100 hours. 783 players spent more than 10 hours. 83 minutes is the total amount of time that an "average" Scramboni player spent in game.

Why is that so?

That's a $100,000 dollar question. I'd love to know precise answer myself, if it existed. Pinch Media is probably in a much better position to try and come up with some sort of a correlation between feature sets and usage metrics, due to them having a much larger sample of apps. But then again, this is the area where science begins to lose it's power to predict and calculate things, with human psychology playing a much larger role - you can't always compute "why" people like something, only that they "do" like it.

Listen to your users

As for Scramboni, lets listen to what users have to say. We have received over 400 feedback emails in the course of 8 months (if your app doesn't have an easily accessible "mailto:" link that allows people to send feedback, you are missing out, big time). Most players tell us that they like the ability to play with other people. Every game is like a little tournament. Without a doubt, multiplayer competition is a lot of fun.

Another thing that seems to make people come back is the escalating level of difficulty - it's the same trick that keeps World of Warcraft players glued to their monitors. Each level ups the ante, making you want to progress higher. Granted, there are only 3 levels in Scramboni right now, and some people told us that they stopped playing because levels ran out and it became boring. Lesson: give your players room to grow, make the gameplay more varied and challenging as they progress. Always have things for your players to discover, don't reveal everything at once - that would be like a book that describes it's own ending in chapter 1.

Stickier app = more value

Every app is a miniature brand. There is a reason why when Bejeweled 2 comes out, people take notice - if it was any other company releasing a similar puzzle game, it would be foolish to expect same level of response from the public. The stickier your app is, the more value you can extract from it by releasing sequels, porting it to other platforms (Facebook or Android) and more people will recommend it to their friends. Once your company name starts getting recognized, you are no longer limited to rehashing same app to make money - new stuff that comes out of your dev shop will naturally get a boost just because YOU made it. The app stampede at the App Store is making it painfully clear that in order to survive and create a sustainable business around iPhone development, you need to be recognized and remembered (nothing new here, markets worked like this since the first caveman learned how to make stone axes better than anybody else in the vicinity).

If you don't build a brand, you drown in the noise. Make it stick.

-- Peter Bakhyryev