Understandably, not all the answers made it into the final article, so here we re-produce the answers our Creative Director Christian Lavoie gave at the time, in full:

Q) Could you give us an overview of your company’s analytics service/technology, and explain what differentiates you from other analytics providers?

All 3 founders of the company have long histories of working in frontline games development and what we wanted to do with Pingflux was allow developers to build an unrestricted view of player behaviour which adapts to their needs, not the other way around.

Where we believe we differ is in this underlying approach of offering developers great flexibility in what they can track and how they want to track it. We do not segregate our data by engagement, monetisation or any preset category. Through Pingflux you can see any one event in many different contexts depending on your needs.

Beyond tracking all the standard KPIs, we also understand that every game is unique and each developer will have their own set of key interests when it comes to their players’ behaviour. So we let them cater their analytics to their needs and provide them with the tools to dig into their data to get a better understanding of what’s really going on in their game.

Q) There’s several interpretations of what analytics role is in games development. What do you see as the core purpose of games analytics, in terms of what it can let games developers achieve?

There is nothing new about using surveys, QA departments, focus groups and forums to try to catch technical issues or gauge reactions to gameplay. Analytics is ultimately an extension of this, but instead of relying on someone to report back, developers can see players ‘vote with their feet’. It’s about granularity and listening to what the masses do rather than what the vocal few say.

Of course the core/base driver of analytics is financial. Either you are trying to understand your players to better entice them with virtual goods (the more well-known approach), or you could just make future development more financially efficient by gaining awareness of what people do or don’t do in your games (the less talked about approach).

We often hear that only a small percentage of players see the whole game, with many actually ditching out quite early. This means you invested money and effort into something that hardly anybody saw. Good analytics allows you to see how far your players got and maybe discover why they lost interest when they did. These insights would allow you to make informed decisions on software updates and/or offer considerations for your next project.

Q) There’s a cynical viewpoint that sees analytics as all about making money, and stifling creativity. What do you say to that? Perhaps analytics can even encourage or facilitate creativity?

Unfortunately, some still believe that if you use analytics you relinquish control to a ‘computer says yes/no’ type scenario. However, if you disregard these tools out of fear of being seen as manipulative and solely money-driven rather than a creative innovator you’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Analytics gives you the chance to understand and learn from the constantly evolving relationship between your game and its audience.

If you are making games for yourself and don’t care what other people think – including your players – then by all means ignore these tools. If however you see yourself as an entertainer, then it seems obvious that you’d want feedback on whether or not your creative endeavours hit the mark.

If a comedian stands on stage and a joke falls flat they know to either work on that joke or bin it at their next gig. If they hit upon something that puts their audience in stitches they know to play on that some more. Yet the use of that audience feedback has surely never been used to diminish the genius of their material or the skill with which it was delivered. You wouldn’t argue that their routines are creatively blunted by their use of the metrics of laughter.

The same stands for metrics in games. Measure the audience reaction to each joke, the sequence in which they are told, the tone used to deliver the material and don’t just use initial ticket sales and reviews as the only indicators of potential. Listen, rework, improve!

Q) Is games analytics as a concept and service something suitable for small and start-up studios? How?

Of course, but it’s more of a challenge because you do need to spend some time on it. Bigger companies who haven’t already designated someone to an analytics specific role soon will, but for smaller companies it’s something we’re seeing being adopted by a combination of people on the team. This isn’t dissimilar to the increased responsibilities for Marketing and PR that developers take on when self-publishing their own games, with the acquisition of new skills it entails.

The good news is that analytics can be used in one-man dev projects if they want. You do not have to be a statistician to understand analytics. All you need is a curious mind, the ability to reason when evaluating results and the willingness to learn.

Q) How can you see analytics methods progressing and evolving? What are the most exciting/interesting developments in that regard?

The focus for analytics has changed massively over the past couple of years, moving away from the early hype of acquisition through virality and onto a more considered approach, leaning more towards engagement and design. It’s becoming much more about what is happening internally.

Technically we’re also seeing more development on things like cluster analysis and automated profiling of player types, with both feeding directly back into your game. The goal here is to try to move away from simple manual A/B testing where you apply the ‘winning’ variant to all players, but rather try to revise your game to target multiple clear subgroups of users at the same time. Sensible application of this kind of analysis can be quite tricky, as is making sure your game and production setup is geared towards these internal divergences. There is still a lot of work to be done on the tools side of this approach to make sure developers retain human insights into their players’ behaviour.

Really, the most exciting thing though is that we don’t have to evangelise on analytics quite so much anymore. Developers are seeking it out by themselves and are really starting to understand how they could be used.

Q) What challenges still face games analytics? What issues need to be addressed to improve what analytics can do for games?

The field is still so new that it’s easy to fall for the trap of having unreasonable expectations about what analytics offers. I think it’s important to increase awareness about what analytics can and cannot do, not only to avoid missed opportunities but to manage expectations. Anyone who thinks analytics alone will cause their game to be a success is in for a shock. The last thing we want to see is someone making the assumption that analytics is a magic wand for ensuring their game is successful. Some will use the tools well and others will use them badly. Analytics won’t turn a bad game into a good game, it’ll just tell you how bad/good it actually was and where those good/bad bits were. Acting on these insights is still hugely important and that’s in the hands of the creatives.

Q) How have you seen games developer’s attitudes towards games analytics change in recent years?

Openness to using analytics still differs from developer to developer, but there is definitely more acceptance of analytics as part of the industry.

Social gaming companies have always been pretty consistent in their acceptance of these types of tools. There is something about offering your game out for free that pretty much demands that you understand all you can about every aspect of that gamble.

The more traditional PC and console developers however have been, generally, quite aggressively critical of analytics but we’re definitely seeing a softening of these attitudes as they explore new business models and become more aware of the potential of the tools on offer. The main point here is that analytics is seen less as a scheme employed by people they disagree with and more as tools that can be used as they see fit.

Q) Was there anything else you wanted to say about games analytics? Perhaps there’s a key issue I haven’t touched on?

User behaviour is rarely black and white, so be wary of snap decisions and definitive answers. Always question, not just the data but also your interpretation of the data. Take the time to dig a bit deeper and try to get to the ‘why’ rather than simply reviewing the ‘what’.

Whether your focus and interest is in saving/making more money or simply getting a better understanding of how people are playing your game, for the sake of the UK games industry we’d really like developers to add anything and everything to their arsenal that they can. The more studios succeed the better off we all are as a whole. So if you can make use of analytics please do! Use ours, use someone else’s, but please do what you can to improve your chances of long term success.

To find out more about our analytics with true cross platform capabilities, head over to the Pingflux website.

As of June 2012  Twitter reached 500 million users worldwide and even though it’s still another 500 million shy of Facebook’s 1 billion, more companies are beginning to have a stronger presence on Twitter than the older Facebook. Not that this blog is suggesting that companies are entirely neglecting Facebook, it just appears that Twitter is where more customer engagement and promotion is occurring.

Take Starbucks for example; they are to date the number one most social engaged of the Interbrand Top 100 according to CNBC . They have over 3 million followers and are constantly communicating with their audience, participating in threaded discussions and posting new offers which sees their audience growing daily. One could just argue that people like coffee and like getting in on deals, but regardless, you can’t deny that Starbucks keeping their finger on the buzzer with Twitter is only good for their business.

So where does Twitter come into play as far as aspiring games developers are concerned? Because not taking advantage of Twitter is something that up and coming developers can’t afford to miss out on. Twitter is not just a format for promoting your product or service, it’s a medium to gain a much more extensive insight on the developments within your industry, it’s a way to find out from your community and your target audience what you’re doing right or wrong and it’s a way to keep track of what your competitors are doing so you’re never too far behind them. But most of all, it’s a way of getting noticed.

Let’s look at some examples, starting with “love-em or hate-em” game developer tycoon’s Electronic Arts. EA have an incredibly strong Twitter presence, with over 1 million followers to date, their feed includes all of their sub accounts and accounts for some of their games such as Battlefield or Medal of Honor which have at times had their own promoted tweets dominate Twitters trend sections. They also regularly engage with their followers with retweets of their comments and photos relating to EA. Because they are keeping themselves engaged with their community they are getting themselves noticed and because they are getting noticed, their investment in Twitter is paying off.

Successful uses of Twitter as a business tool in the games industry isn’t just limited to the companies however, key figures within the companies have found success also. Markus Persson of Mojang and mastermind behind the immensely popular sandbox game Minecraft currently has around 950,000 followers and is known to have an extremely vocal and at times controversial presence within the Twitterverse. While Minecraft has become a driving force of indie games due to its compelling gameplay and word of mouth buzz over the internet, Persson’s presence on Twitter and no-publicity-is-bad-publicity stance doesn’t exactly hurt Mojang’s brand awareness. If anything, it makes it even stronger.

Similarly, Cliff Bleszinksi, formerly of Epic Games, is another individual who is known to taking quite an unusual stance on Twitter with his particular humorous and laid back approach to dishing out tweets to get himself (previously his company) noticed. Just recently, he made the headlines for offering to “fix” the declining Resident Evil franchise after the polarized reception of Capcom’s latest installment to the franchise “Resident Evil 6”.

These are not the only approaches to getting yourself noticed on Twitter, just some examples. You don’t have to be quirky or break the trend to get yourself noticed, but you do need to know your audience and the type of people you want to sell yourself to. That is something which the listed examples can say they have got covered. (well perhaps not EA after this year’s Mass Effect related controversy which aided in their awarding of “Worst Company in America“!)

This guest blog was written by Ryan Edwards (PR intern) – Ryan is a former International Journalism student from Liverpool John Moores University, with a working background in PR and Marketing. *All views are his own.

https://twitter.com/RyEdwards91

Prozone is one of the most commonly used resources for data analysis in football, with 15 out of 20 current Barclays Premier League squads using it and over 100 sporting teams using the analytical service worldwide. The service primarily focuses on the following coaching progress: Live Analysis, Post-Match Analysis, Trend Analysis and Opposition Analysis.

Now while the service that Prozone provides is traditionally aimed at the sporting industry as most people know it (Football, Rugby etc.), the above coaching progress could very easily be applied to a very different type of “sport”: eSports.

“eSports”, which concerns the competitive play of video games, is more popular than it’s ever been, with dozens of different leagues and tournaments all over the world, concerning all different types of genre of video game from FPS to MMORPGs, even FIFA has been a part of the World Cyber Games since its beginning in the year 2000. While there’s many different genre of games that are played in eSports, for the purposes of this blog, let’s examine how Prozones methods could play out in an FPS like Halo.

First, we look towards how the Live Analysis function would play out. Prozone’s Live Analysis provides an insight into the performance on the players on the pitch. It allows its users to review key events as they play out in real time and monitor the performance of individual players and the team’s units as the match progresses. As to how this service could play out in eSports with a game like Halo, it could just as easily be converted to giving an insight as to how each individual virtual player on a team is performing, which player has the strongest kill-death ratio? who’s the most accurate shooter? how long has the team held the lead for,? or if it’s a game mode like Capture the Flag, who has held the flag the longest? who has attempted to get the flag the most? who has protected it the most?.

Secondly, we examine how the Post Match Analysis function would be used for an eSports team. This analyses every aspect of the performance once the match is over, it also assess both the players and the team from either single game or multiple game. To place this in the eSports context, it could serve as means of providing an overall report of how the team as a whole performed against their opponents, how consistent they have been with their wins in terms of using it over the course of a few games? who is consistently playing the game well and who the weaker players are?. It can also help the teams understand which game mode suits their playing style better if the modes are alternated between matches; is the eSports team more effective in Slayer than they do in other modes?. This service can be easily used to help an eSports team to get a better understanding of what is working and what isn’t working in their current strategies.

Thirdly, we will look at how the Trend Analysis feature would work in an eSports setting. This is basically a much more specific examination of what works and what doesn’t  whilst also looking at what style of play is being utilized by the team the most and what each individual player does more than anything else. With eSports this could be used in determining what weapons are selected the most frequently? what perks are picked the most frequently?; which player is using the armor lock perk the most? who is using the jetpack perk the most? and more importantly, are these choices of perks working for that individual player? Is there something better they could be using to improve the team overall?.

Finally we look at how the Opposition Analysis could be used in eSports. Prozone uses its Opposition Analysis feature to identify upcoming opponents strengths and weaknesses, therefore informing management and coaches of their tactical decisions as well as improving the preparation of their team. This would be directly applicable to its possible use in eSports, helping teams figure out what areas of the game their future opponents are strongest and weakest at, so for example, do they hold their leads longer than you do? What types of weapons are they using? Are they better with them than you are? Which game modes do they play better in? Do they kill spawn? Do they camp?. In many sense, Opposition Analysis covers the first three areas just applied to opponents instead of your team.

While there are options available for Data Analysis such as eSports Scout, they are currently very basic and are limited in the amount which are available to use. They are nowhere near as refined and as evolved as services like Prozone.  If such precise level of service was made available, Data Analysis could become as much of an integral part in eSports as it is in football today.

So as for asking the question of could Prozone’s methods of data analysis be applied into eSports, the above statements suggest that the data that would be collected wouldn’t be too far away from the player in the real world and the player in the virtual world.

This guest blog by Ryan Edwards (PR intern) – Ryan is a former International Journalism student from Liverpool John Moores University, with a working background in PR and Marketing. *All views are his own.

https://twitter.com/RyEdwards91

Take PerBlue’s mobile location based massively mutltiplayer hit “Parallel Kingdom” for example. An RPG which places users in a virtual world based on the player’s GPS location, it was the first RPG in a location based format for iOS and Android platforms and as of last year, its user base surpassed 1 million users worldwide. A fair share of boxed products on consoles struggle to reach 1 million users let alone surpass that figure, for a free-to-play location-based game to do that is an impressive feat.

“Shadow Cities”, an award winning iOS game from Finish developers Grey Area which splits players into two factions to conquer their city, is another fine example. It shows the potential that location-based gaming has to offer potential investors and big game companies.

Gaming is not the only area that the location-based format is present in, there is one particular non-gaming example which even casual or non-gamers will have heard of. While not a game itself, look at the popularity of the location-based social networking app Foursquare. How many friends on your Facebook do you see constantly “checking-in” at whatever location they happen to be at the time? As of April 2012, it has been reported that around 20 million Facebook users currently use Foursquare worldwide. Now imagine these users as hypothetical customers of a location-based game priced at around £1. That’s £20 million in revenue! Of course this is an extremely ambitious estimate, but one that is not entirely out of the realms of possibility. All it takes is the right marketing and an appealing theme for a game to take flight to these sorts of heights.

Whilst TV-based consoles would obviously not benefit from location based games, handheld consoles such as PlayStation Vita, with its own built-in GPS, could certainly cash in on the potential that the genre has. Sony has a track record of introducing new types of game experiences to their handheld devices, with Augmented Reality games like Reality Fighter. Imagine the scope that a big company like Sony would be able to offer up to location based games on the Vita. Such an investment would breathe new life into a small niche and give more room to expand in bigger gaming formats.

Nintendo 3D’s Street Pass which allows gamers to play each other by toting their devices is arguably the closest that console gaming has come to embracing the notion of location based games, but event this is a relatively small step in terms of the ambitions which this medium of gaming is capable of.

Of course like most sources of investment, location based gaming is not without its flaws. Even going back to discussing Foursquare earlier, you have to ask yourself the question, just how many of those 20 million users, are active users? The same can be applied to games like Parallel Kingdoms, not all of those 1+ million users will be using that game at one time. Most location based games are free-to-play and there lies the real disadvantage for big companies as far as investment is concerned. It isn’t like boxed games, where upon purchase the real source of profit has been made.

So how exactly could location based gaming work with big games companies? The answer lies with changing the revenue model. Whilst a pay-to-play model would undoubtedly find its fair share of critics in the form of its die hard fans, it may well have to be the next step in seeing location based games progress to the level of ambition it has set up for itself. In-App purchases may keep location based games steady but in reality there is only so far that these games can progress by having this as the only source of revenue. World of Warcrafts pay monthly model may not sit well with some of the more casual gamers, but it’s 10.2 million subscribers are testament to the fact that this type of model works well enough for Blizzard.

This isn’t the only model that is available to location games, this is just merely one example. A pay-to-own model would hypothetical see much change in boosting how attractive location gaming would appear to bigger investors. If location based games wants to grow further, it may need to bite the bullet and embrace the idea of a model that sees better financial gain.

Guest blog by Ryan Edwards (PR intern):

Ryan is a former International Journalism student from Liverpool John Moores University, with a working background in PR and Marketing

https://twitter.com/RyEdwards91

Pingflux is a cloud-based analytics solution that records and evaluates user behaviour in real-time, measures the impact of updates and allows for easy reporting of key metrics such as engagement, retention, monetisation and more.

Coming from a game development background ourselves, we understand the importance of tools that are easy to implement yet powerful in their application. We continuously develop Pingflux in direct response to feedback we get from our existing customers and through the many, many conversations that we regularly hold with fellow game developers in our network about what a good analytics solution has to offer:

“Provide a tool that fits my requirements, not the other way around.” – We understand that not every game is the same and that not every developer wants to know the same things. So we made it easy to track all the standard KPIs, while using our flexible approach to allow you to easily track more of the specifics you want, the way you want.

“Make it truly platform agnostic” – With today’s digital and games industry in a constant state of flux with regards to dominant and emergent platforms, the trend towards cross platform development is getting more evident. For us it’s important to ensure you can monitor and understand player behaviour regardless of which platform you choose to adopt for your game – either today or in the future.

“Do not impose segregation of my data by engagement, monetisation or any other category” – It’s important that you are able to see any one event in many different contexts; because that’s the only way you can build an unrestricted view of gameplay which adapts to your needs, not the other way around.

“Provide an end-to-end service; with support from start to finish” – We love big data and we love games, so we will support you in furthering your understanding of your audience. We provide you with the SDKs to suit your projects. We receive, store and process your events. We give you access to your data through a web-based interface.

Now, while it’s true that analytics have risen to prominence through their use in F2P social games on social networks, the technology and application has expanded and moved on from that at a rapid pace. We now see analytics in use across a wide range of games and genres on practically any platform out there, especially since more and more titles are experiences spanning multiple platforms concurrently.

And while micro transactions and virtual goods were the early growth drivers of the F2P business model, we’re can already see that there’s a whole lot of innovation still to come in this space. Many developers are already building on their early successes and continue to understand more and more about their audiences through the use of flexible analytics software like our very own Pingflux.

And finally, where does the name Pingflux actually come from?

Ping is another way of saying query or probe. In sonar terms, you ping the world in order to gain a better understanding of your surroundings, to spot things that might be of immediate or distant interest. In technology terms you are testing a channel between you and something of interest; it’s a probe, a way to ask “what’s the state of affairs in this link between here and there”.

Flux in this instance is focussing on the idea of the ever changing nature of the digital world. This notion of constant dynamic change could relate to the infrastructure or rules of the platforms developers are dealing with today, or changes in behaviour in users, or even the changes/iterations that you’ve engineered within your products.

Together, Pingflux can be seen as toolset for sounding out the evolving change that surrounds digital entertainment products. You are querying dynamic change.

You can find out more about Pingflux on our website www.pingflux.com, by following us on Twitter @Pingflux or by requesting a live demo by emailing demo[at]pingflux[dot]com

The investment from The North West Fund for Digital & Creative, which is part of the £185m North West Fund financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the European Investment Bank, will support Setgo’s software development and roll-out to its customers.

Follow this link for the full press release.

Did you know we’re hiring?

It was a great event with a really diverse crowd and Heather delivered an insightful and well considered session that was very well received. BdaaS – Big Data as a Service – is clearly a burgeoning industry facing some interesting challenges.

Follow Heather on Twitter to hear what else she’s got say for herself and check out the photos from the event here.

Follow us on SetgoAnalytics to hear about future events like this one.

Photos courtesy of Ryan McGuinness Photography

“Quo Vadis [...] takes an in-depth look at the questions of proper marketing, sustainable business models, the necessary research and appropriate fostering of young talent. This means that the entire range of subjects pertinent to the video game industry is covered by a single conference, and at levels for enthusiasts and beginners as well as for industry veterans! This year major emphasis has been placed on all topics related to online games.”

Sounds good to us. If you’re there and would like to meet up, then send us a message through our website or follow us on Twitter.