Upload
others
View
20
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
An Evaluation of Existing Game Analytics Tools Business of Gaming Paper by Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Table of Contents Table of Contents Introduction
A brief introduction to game analytics tools Most Common Analytics Features
Funnels A/B Testing Segmentation and Cohorts Messaging API
Comparison Criteria Examined Tools
appsee Countly deltaDNA GameAnalytics Localytics mixpanel Unity Cloud Analytics Upsight Other Noteworthy Tools
Conclusio Abbreviations Sources
Page 1 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Introduction
A brief introduction to game analytics tools All tools discussed in this paper follow a client server principle: An SDK (a library or a package) is added to the game client, which sends recorded data to the server. Data is recorded based on socalled events. Events can be triggered by starting the game client, login into the game, starting or completing a level and so forth . Some SDKs send recorded events 1
to the server outofthebox, although the most valuable data is gathered by implementing custom events. These custom events are usually productspecific . Defining and 2
implementing these events are subject to the game analyst and usually take up most of the analyst’s effort. Not all products support gathering and visualisation of custom events. All analytics tools presented in this paper allow offline recording and automated delayed sending in case the device loses connection to the server. The recorded data is presented in a web interface, usually by utilizing graphs, charts and maps. These allow analysation and interpretation of metrics like user retention rate, daily and monthly active users and platform usage . All products presented in this paper offer multiuser 3
support, and some of the more advanced tools allow customization of the web interface on a peruser basis. Some tools offer a selfhosting option, which is an important issue in terms of data ownership4
. Although all hosted product refrain from gathering personalised data, all of them reserve the right to access, analyse and use aggregated or anonymized datasets as they see fit. Most tools include further access to the collected data the most advanced tools offer direct raw SQL queries to the database, while most of them rely on REST or HTTPGET APIs. Since game analytics is often utilized by marketing experts to boost revenue, most of the tools offer some sort of attribution integration, including pushnotifications and targeted campaigning tools . 5
Most Common Analytics Features
Funnels Funnels help analyzing users and their actions by defining a sequence of events . The 6
amount and percentages of users that complete each individual step are typically visualized in the form of a bar chart. It is a useful tool to find out where exactly users are dropping off , or how many users 7
accomplish a certain goal . 8
1 https://mixpanel.com/help/reference#events 2 http://www.deltadna.com/sdk/ 3 http://www.gameanalytics.com/docs/dashboards/ 4 http://piwik.org/ 5 http://www.localytics.com/tour/ 6 http://www.gameanalytics.com/features/ 7 https://mixpanel.com/funnels/ 8 https://unity3d.com/unity/analytics
Page 2 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Funnel visualisation example from mixpanel.
A/B Testing A/B testing stems from marketing and business intelligence and refers to different experiments to test variants. In analytics it is used to find out whether certain strategies are more successful or achieve more results than others . 9
In game analytics specifically it can be used to present players with different rewards or test a new difficulty setting. A/B testing is often used in combination with Segmentation and Cohorts. 10
Segmentation and Cohorts Segmentation and cohorts can be used to divide users into certain groups , which, in 11
combination with other tools such as funnels or A/B testing, allow for more detailed and specific reports . Users can be segmented due to many different variables, such as device 12
used, amount of money spent in the app, or specific actions that they did . 13
9 http://www.upsight.com/marketing/campaigns/#abtesting 10 http://www.deltadna.com/solutions/engage/abtesting/ 11 http://help.analytics.upsight.com/reports/cohortexplorer/ 12 http://www.deltadna.com/solutions/insight/3dsegmentation/ 13 https://mixpanel.com/segmentation/
Page 3 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
mixpanel segmentation query constructor.
Messaging Messaging users directly via push notifications can be a powerful tool to increase user engagement and enable targeted campaigning . Most SDKs offer push notification 14
broadcasting to users based on certain conditions, such as segmentation group, location, or game client version.
API A comprehensive API allows detailed data mining and custom report generation. Since each product has its own productspecific metrics, an API allows accessing and, ideally, storing data in a plain and downtoearth manner. To achieve this, some services provide an JSONdriven REST API , while others rely on HTTPGET parameters to issue requests. 15 16
Since both methods are widely known and proven ways of transmitting data, there is no conceptually difference in using either.
14 https://mixpanel.com/not 15 http://docs.deltadna.com/restapi/ 16 http://www.gameanalytics.com/docs/faq/, under the heading “How is data captured and processed by GameAnalytics?”
Page 4 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Comparison Criteria The tools in this paper were analyzed by the following criteria:
Key Target Audience and USPs Tool Integration and Time Cost Programming Languages Available Data Formats Programming Interfaces to Third Party Applications (API) Presentation and User Interface Languages and Localization Quality of Documentation Maintenance and Support Pricing Licences and Legal Considerations
Additionally, a short description, the products URL and the Logo is included.
Page 5 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Examined Tools
appsee https://www.appsee.com/
Description appsee is a hosted mobileonly app analytics platform. It offers easy integration into native apps, as well as the most widely used app frameworks, including cross platform frameworks. It focuses on extensive monitoring and automatic event dispatching. By default it is hosted via appsee’s servers, but when applying for the Enterprise edition, optional self hosting is available.
Key Target Audience and USPs appsee is a mobileonly analytics platform and focuses mainly on user behaviour on a very detailed level. It is oriented on the needs of developers and user experience analysts, as it lacks most marketingspecific features like attribution integration or push notifications . 17
Aside from the most common metrics, such as retention rate and conversion funnels, appsee relies mostly on its extensive tracking and recording capabilities . Outofthebox touch 18
heatmaps, automatic event reporting and crash reports minimize the amount of time needed to unfold the product’s potential.
Tool Integration and Time Cost appsee allows integration into the most common iOS and Android Frameworks, including crossplatform app development frameworks. On Android, appsee has to be included in every entry point activity and invoked by a method call. Also, a background service has to be registered at the manifest as appsee uploads gathered data only when the app is running in background to minimize performance hit . 19
Noteworthy are method calls to mark a certain activity as sensitive, thus being excluded from recording . These calls must be in place for all activities that might expose personal user 20
information by appsee’s terms and conditions (see Licences and Legal Considerations). On iOS, appsee has to be included as framework, imported to the app delegate and invoked by adding the appropriate method call to the didFinishLaunchingWithOptions method. An additional method call is needed if the app uses OpenGL in order to expose the Render Buffer to appsee . 21
17 https://www.appsee.com/features/ 18 https://www.appsee.com/features/ 19 https://www.appsee.com/docs/android/native 20 https://www.appsee.com/docs/android/api, under the heading “Hiding Sensitive Views” 21 https://www.appsee.com/docs/ios/native
Page 6 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Custom events can be sent by a singleline method call on both platforms . 22 23
appsee’s integration options.
As the product is designed towards outofthebox usage, the required implementation cost is kept to a bare minimum and can be done within an hour. Custom event implementation is possible, but data retrieval of those events is not supported by the Server API . 24
Programming Languages appsee supports Java and Objective C as well as Ruby, JavaScript and C# development with the according crossplatform development frameworks . 25
22 https://www.appsee.com/docs/android/api, under the heading “Adding Application Events” 23 https://www.appsee.com/docs/ios/api, under the heading “Adding Application Events” 24 https://www.appsee.com/docs/serverapi 25 https://www.appsee.com/docs
Page 7 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Available Data Formats appsee’s data is sent to their servers via the SDKs . appsee also allows video recordings 26 27
of the users sessions, which are only uploaded when the app is minimized to the background, and, by default, only when the user has a WiFi connection . 28
The data is hosted on Amazon Web Services , though selfhosting is possible with the 29
Enterprise edition . 30
Programming Interfaces to Third Party Applications (API) appsee’s Server API is available with the Enterprise Edition only, which allows data retrieval in JSON format using HTTPGET requests. Data retrieval is enabled for metrics only . 31
Presentation and User Interface The appsee web interface is kept intuitively simple and does not utilize any color coding or shortcuts. It’s design is targeted towards usage of the predefined metrics which cover the most common use cases, but does not allow any customization.
Languages and Localization The product is only available in english. There is no localization available, but since the product focuses on recording user action, no use case aside from adjusting the web interface exists.
Quality of Documentation The documentation is publicly available via https://www.appsee.com/docs/. It is grouped into iOS reference and guides and Android reference and guides, as well as a server API reference. The integration guides are further divided by SDKs . 32
The documentation uses different formatting styles that make it easier to read and understand. It uses color coding, code highlighting and images where useful.
26 https://www.appsee.com/docs/android/api 27 https://www.appsee.com/docs/ios/api 28 https://www.appsee.com/faq/performance 29 https://www.appsee.com/legal/privacypolicy, under the header “8. Security” 30 https://www.appsee.com/pricing 31 https://www.appsee.com/docs/serverapi 32 https://www.appsee.com/docs
Page 8 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Integration documentation for iOS.
A short FAQ is also available via https://www.appsee.com/faq.
Maintenance and Support A support platform is publicly accessible via http://support.appsee.com/, but only a limited amount of support articles exist. Support requests can be sent via http://support.appsee.com/customer/portal/emails/new.
Pricing appsee offers a Premium edition as well as an Enterprise edition. They also offer special prices to startups, which can be requested via a contact form on https://www.appsee.com/contact . 33
The Premium edition offers up to five apps and two million user sessions, unlimited recordings, and several analytical tools such as heat maps . A 14day free trial can be 34
started by creating an account . 35
The Enterprise edition offers additional features, such as a server side API, optional self hosting, and legal review . 36
No exact prices for any of the products are listed.
Licences and Legal Considerations The user of the appsee product is solely responsible for determining which types of enduser data is collected and stored they have exclusive ownership over the data. appsee must not
33 https://www.appsee.com/pricing 34 https://www.appsee.com/pricing 35 https://www.appsee.com/start 36 https://www.appsee.com/pricing
Page 9 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
be provided with any personal information regarding the end users if the company receives any personal information, it may block the user's access to the service and site and may terminate the account. Legal consequences could follow as well . 37
Because of this, the user has to use the API functions to hide sensitive information , to hide 38 39
views that show, for example, billing data or other personal information. After terminating the account, all licenses will expire and the user must remove and delete all SDKs . 40
appsee collects information about its users and their endusers and may provide research or business partners with aggregated and anonymized data . 41 42
37 https://www.appsee.com/legal/terms, under the header “5. The EndUser’s Data” 38 https://www.appsee.com/docs/android/api 39 https://www.appsee.com/docs/ios/api 40 https://www.appsee.com/legal/terms, under the header “12. Termination of Your Account and Termination of the Site’s Operation” 41 https://www.appsee.com/legal/privacypolicy, under the header “4. What are the Purposes of the Collection of Information?“ 42 https://www.appsee.com/legal/privacypolicy, under the header “5. Sharing Information with Third Parties”
Page 10 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Countly https://count.ly/
Description Countly is a mobile and marketing analytics solution which focuses strongly on mobile platforms. It’s business model includes a free, selfhosted community edition that does not include commercial usage . The community edition as well as the SDKs’ source codes are 43
published on GitHub . 44
Countly’s web interface.
Key Target Audience and USPs Countly aims towards business and marketing analysts without special requirements, as well as programmers . Countly offers a solid variety of predefined events and metrics and also 45
appreciates user contributions on GitHub . 46
Countly offers numerous metrics outofthebox, covering the most common analytical needs. It’s open source nature is unique in the market and allows extensive security evaluations . 47
Tool Integration and Time Cost Countly provides a server installation script which is tested in Ubuntu and Red Hat Linux Enterprise. Installation and setup can be done within an hour. Countly provides SDKs for all major mobile and desktop platforms.
43 https://count.ly/compare/ 44 https://github.com/countly 45 https://count.ly/features/ 46 http://resources.count.ly/v1.0/docs/contributingtocountly 47 https://count.ly/enterpriseedition/
Page 11 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Depending on the chosen SDK the preparation time cost varies. Sometimes a device ID is needed , or Countly has to be specifically started and ended . It is important to read the 48 49
relevant documentation, but the preparation process can be done within an hour.
Programming Languages Countly offers SDKs for Android, iOS, OS X, Windows Phone, PhoneGap, Cordova and Web (using JavaScript) . Even more SDKs are available through the community, for example a 50
Unity SDK . 51
Since Countly is based on HTTPGET request APIs , SDKs can be written for all platforms 52
that support these requests . 53
Therefore, a myriad of programming languages are available.
Available Data Formats The data is sent to Amazon Servers using HTTP GET requests . However, the HTTPGET 54 55
request contains JSONencoded data as GET parameter, including the app key and the 56
device id.
48 http://resources.count.ly/v1.0/docs/countlysdkforandroid 49 http://resources.count.ly/v1.0/docs/countlysdkforwindowsphone 50 http://resources.count.ly/v1.0/docs/downloadingsdks 51 https://github.com/imkira/unitycountly 52 http://resources.count.ly/v1.0/docs/serverapireference 53 http://resources.count.ly/v1.0/docs/installationfaq 54 https://count.ly/privacypolicy/, under the header “3. How we protect your information” 55 http://resources.count.ly/v1.0/docs/implementationandconfigurationscenarios#devicesdks 56 http://resources.count.ly/v1.0/docs/serverapireference, under the header “##1. Write API”
Page 12 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
A sample API call, showing the HTTP GET request using JSONencoded data
Using another API, raw data can be requested from the server. Countly provides a JavaScript library, which can process this data to be more meaningful . 57
Using plugins, a RESTAPI or Web Interface to browse the database are provided as well . 58
Programming Interfaces to Third Party Applications (API) Countly features a HTTPGET API utilizing GETparameters containing JSON messages. Each metric is exposed as a different parameter, allowing finetuned server queries . 59
There are no dedicated APIs for email notifications or attribution services.
Presentation and User Interface Countly’s website suffers from striking broken translation files . The dashboard itself shows 60
less errors, but when testing the german translation, several mistakes were found as well (See “Languages and Localization”). The dashboard shows limited customization options, however, plugins can be downloaded that add more functionality, such as new metrics or logs . 61
Drilling and Funneling can be used to create custom queries.
57 http://resources.count.ly/v1.0/docs/serverapireference, under the header “##2. Read API” 58 https://count.ly/plugins/listofplugins/, plugin “Database viewer” 59 http://resources.count.ly/v1.0/docs/restapireference 60 https://count.ly/ 61 https://count.ly/plugins/listofplugins/
Page 13 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
The realtime dashboard, showing different charts.
Each page of the interface shows one specific metric, supported by one to two charts, tables, or images. The main focus is always a chart or image, that spans the width of the content area.
Languages and Localization The Countly web interface is available in several languages, including German, Spanish, Turkish, Italian, Dutch, Russian and Chinese . A transifex page exists, where users can help 62
with further translations . 63
The german translations were incomplete at parts most menu items or widget titles were correctly labeled in german, but sometimes an english title was used.
62 http://resources.count.ly/v1.0/docs/usersguide 63 https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/countly/
Page 14 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
A section of the dashboard sidebar menu. Most menu items were correctly translated into german, but “Session durations” was
not translated at all.
Push notifications can be localized , other than that no localization is possible. 64
Quality of Documentation Countly’s documentation is publicly accessible via http://resources.count.ly/. There are several FAQ’s, guides and references . The main landing page has a clear menu structure, 65
whereas the subpages all use a sidebar menu with far too many menu items.
A section of the sidebar menu is visible on the left. Its full size contains more than 100 menu items.
The documentation contains code highlighting. Color coding is only used in some code segments, and the documentation contains no images. The formating of some of the headers is broken they are preceded by several “#” but are otherwise formated like normal text . 66
64 http://resources.count.ly/v1.0/docs/countlypushguide 65 http://resources.count.ly/ 66 http://resources.count.ly/v1.0/docs/countlysdkforandroid
Page 15 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Android SDK documentation, showing the broken headers and the code highlighting.
Maintenance and Support A support platform is available via http://support.count.ly/, which contains public discussions as well as a link to the knowledge base (documentation) . 67
The public discussion forum is grouped into three areas Problems, Questions and Suggestions . The staff seems very active and answers most questions on the same day 68
they are posted . 69
An RSS Feed containing all discussions is available as well . 70
Countly can also be contacted using the contact form on https://count.ly/contactus/ or directly via [email protected] . 71
67 http://support.count.ly/ 68 http://support.count.ly/discussions 69 http://support.count.ly/discussions/questions 70 http://support.count.ly/discussions.atom 71 https://count.ly/contactus/
Page 16 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Pricing The business model does not impose any limitations on users or number of apps, but limits the number of processed events and user sessions . Prices range from free (Community 72
edition ) to 250$ per month. Custom business contracts include a selfhosted Enterprise 73
Edition which includes the full source code of the corporate edition, rebranding and commercial redistribution . 74
The pricing models of Countly, excluding the free Community edition.
Licences and Legal Considerations The terms of service state that the materials (information or software) provided by Countly may not be copied or modified . However, Countly makes note on several pages of their 75
website and their GitHub project, that contribution to the product is welcomed . 76 77
Countly has been contacted about this contradiction, and they promised to rewrite the terms of service modification of the source code is allowed, but neither the logo nor any other trademarked content may be altered or removed. Countly does not sell any collected data with third parties , however they may share 78
aggregated demographic information with business partners for marketing purposes . 79
72 https://count.ly/pricing/ 73 https://count.ly/compare/ 74 https://count.ly/pricing/ 75 https://count.ly/termsofservice/, under the header “2. Use License” 76 http://resources.count.ly/v1.0/docs/contributingtocountly 77 https://github.com/Countly/countlyserver/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md 78 https://count.ly/privacypolicy/, under the header “2. How we use collected information” 79 https://count.ly/privacypolicy/, under the header “4. Sharing your company, data and user information”
Page 17 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
deltaDNA http://www.deltadna.com/
Description deltaDNA is a hosted game analytics platform that offers several editions that provide varying amounts of features. These features range from basic metric collection of player data to advanced AB testing. It is tailored towards mobile F2P games, but can be used for a large variety of games due to its REST API and universal applicable features. An annotated demo of the dashboard and its functionalities can be found on http://www.deltadna.com/demo/annotated/.
deltaDNA dashboard welcome page
Key Target Audience and USPs Although deltaDNA offers a REST API and therefore can be used by every game which can communicate JSON messages via the internet, deltaDNA focuses on mobile and freetoplay games and offers easy integration of the most common ad companies in this sector . 80
Due to the different editions and their pricing, deltaDNA can be used by teams of all sizes.
80 http://www.deltadna.com/platform/fastaccurateflexible/, under heading “Flexible”
Page 18 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
deltaDNA offers four different editions as well as three support products. All four editions can be used with an unlimited amount of games and users, but their pricing changes depending on the MAU (see “Pricing”). deltaDNA Go is the edition with the smallest amount of available features but is available for 81
free . 82
deltaDNA On Demand has all available features , but costs a monthly fee . Features can 83 84
freely be enabled and disabled depending on your needs, for every game and every month . 85
deltaDNA Indie is a cheaper version of On Demand it consists of all available features but is significantly cheaper . To qualify for the Indie version, several criteria have to be met . 86 87
deltaDNA Enterprise provides all features as well, but is tailored for companies that wish for a flat monthly pricing or have typically more than 500.000 MAU . 88
deltaDNA also offers 3 support products: deltaDNA+, Healthcheck, and Benchmark. deltaDNA+ can be requested for specific assistance with analytics projects, setup, training or other consultancy . 89
Benchmark provides a thorough report on your (F2P) game in comparison to other leading F2P games. The report reviews several crucial aspects of your game, such as Monetization, Retention, Engagement and Virality . 90
Healthcheck provides a snapshot report of your (F2P) game and lists its strengths and weaknesses. It is far shorter than Benchmark and provides a quick overview . 91
All three products are tailored to your request and as such have no price listed. All deltaDNA editions use a REST API which makes the product useable by all platforms that support communication using JSON messages via the internet . 92
Custom analysis can be performed via the web interface or via issuing SQL Statements (direct database access) . 93
81 http://www.deltadna.com/glance/ 82 http://www.deltadna.com/pricing/ 83 http://www.deltadna.com/glance/ 84 http://www.deltadna.com/pricing/ 85 http://www.deltadna.com/faqs/, under the heading “Player Relationship Management (PRM) Technology”, question “What do you mean by On Demand?” 86 http://www.deltadna.com/pricing/ 87 http://www.deltadna.com/faqs/, under the heading “Pricing”, question “How do I qualify for the Indie developer rate?” 88 http://www.deltadna.com/faqs/, under the heading “Player Relationship Management (PRM) Technology”, question “When should I use Enterprise?” 89 http://www.deltadna.com/solutions/deltadnaplus/ 90 http://www.deltadna.com/solutions/benchmark/ 91 http://www.deltadna.com/healthcheck/ 92 http://docs.deltadna.com/advancedintegration/ 93 http://docs.deltadna.com/directsqlaccess/
Page 19 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
deltaDNA also advertises its quick integration, SDKs that allow easy access to the more advanced datamining tools available on a platform, and templates and examples for common use cases . 94
Feature List (http://www.deltadna.com/glance/)
Tool Integration and Time Cost deltaDNA provides several SDKs which work as an optional convenience wrapper for the REST API . The SDKs automatically report new users, the platform of these users, and allow 95
retention analysis outofthebox. Integration of the SDKs can usually be done within an workhour . 96
94 http://www.deltadna.com/sdk/ 95 http://docs.deltadna.com/faqs/ 96 http://docs.deltadna.com/quickstartintegration/
Page 20 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
On Android, the SDK needs to be imported as a library and initialized in an activity. The appropriate permissions need to be set in the manifest file . 97
On iOS, the library needs to be imported as header file and initialized with a method call. The package has to be compiled with ARC support enabled . 98
In Unity, the SDK needs to be imported as custom package and initialized by a custom behaviour which will be attached to the camera . 99
The data is submitted via JSON by invoking events on all platforms. The SDKs also implement offline data collection and delayed data transmission . 100
The data receiving end of the solution does not require any installation as it is hosted by deltaDNA itself as a PaaS.
Programming Languages The Unity SDK is written in C# and is provided as a packaged Unity Asset . 101
The GameMaker SDK is written in GML (GameMaker Language), the GameMaker scripting programming language. It requires at least the GameMaker Standard Edition, and is therefore not supported in the GameMaker Free Edition . 102
The iOS SDK is written in ObjectiveC and is provided as a zipped Xcode project . 103
The Android SDK is written in Java and comes with an example file. It is also available as a LIB file built against Android 4.4.2 (API 19) . 104
Available Data Formats Data is sent to the deltaDNA platform via JSON. However it is saved on Amazon S3 servers and the data is only stored for the duration of the contract between customer and deltaDNA . 105
Programming Interfaces to Third Party Applications (API) deltaDNA provides a RESTAPI which sends and received data using JSON . 3rd party 106
software can access the data via direct SQL access using postgres ODBC . Email 107
notifications for specific metrics can be activated from within the web interface . JSON 108
message templates for ad monitoring are in place . 109
97 http://docs.deltadna.com/androidsdk/ 98 http://docs.deltadna.com/advancedintegration/iossdk/ 99 http://docs.deltadna.com/advancedintegration/unitysdk/ 100 http://docs.deltadna.com/faqs/ 101 http://docs.deltadna.com/advancedintegration/unitysdk/ 102 http://docs.deltadna.com/advancedintegration/gamemakersdk/ 103 http://docs.deltadna.com/advancedintegration/iossdk/ 104 http://docs.deltadna.com/androidsdk/ 105 http://www.deltadna.com/faqs/, under the heading “Data”, question “How long is data stored?” 106 http://docs.deltadna.com/restapi/ 107 http://docs.deltadna.com/directsqlaccess/ 108 http://docs.deltadna.com/useralerts/ 109 http://docs.deltadna.com/attribution/
Page 21 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Presentation and User Interface
The deltaDNA dashboard.
Presentation of the data relies solely on tables and charts, but supports filtering (both preset and custom) of users and events. Via direct database access raw SQL Queries can be issued directly to the database using Postgres ODBC . Other data visualization methods, such as 110
heat maps, are not supported.
110 http://docs.deltadna.com/directsqlaccess/
Page 22 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Several screenshots of different data visualizations.
The user interface is a menudriven web interface, which is not particularly suitable for mobile use menu bars overlap each other when the website is viewed using a screen with a width less than 1200px. The menu items are not intuitively labeled, thus require some effort to become familiar with. The response time varies sometimes a page is loaded within 2 seconds, sometimes it takes up to 10 seconds. The dashboard is customizable on user level which adds the capability to group metrics and charts.
Languages and Localization The product itself is only available in English. However, it supports localization of its push notifications and engage targeting . 111
Quality of Documentation The documentation is publicly accessible via http://docs.deltadna.com/. It is detailed and grouped into different areas, like “Welcome to deltaDNA”, which provides some tips and answers to frequent questions. There are pages that provide both a quickstart or an advanced integration using one of their SDKs. There is also a more in depth documentation on the specific analytics areas, like data mining or A/B testing. Several webinar videos exist as well, which can be found on http://docs.deltadna.com/webinars/ and explain the specific features of the deltaDNA dashboard.
111 http://docs.deltadna.com/localization/
Page 23 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Overall the documentation is very thorough but worded in a beginner friendly manner. Each topic is additionally accompanied by several images that further document the different steps. deltaDNA also provides a helpdesk for any further questions as well as a forum via http://deltadna.freshdesk.com/support/home.
Maintenance and Support By default one hour of implementation support at the start of a contract is offered to deltaDNA Go users. On Demand users are offered an hour of technical support per month, which can be used for event collection, QA tasks, user advice or training . 112
If further support is needed, deltaDNA+ is available, as well as a support email address ([email protected]) and the previously mentioned helpdesk and forum via http://deltadna.freshdesk.com/support/home.
Pricing The pricing is dependant on the chosen product edition. The Go, Indie and On Demand editions are based on a flexible monthly contract and a monthly fee. Though you can use the product with as many games you want and also have no restriction on the amount of users, the monthly fee changes depending on your combined MAU . 113
The Enterprise edition instead is based on a fix term contract with a constant monthly fee, but is negotiated per case . 114
Due to the fact that deltaDNA Go is available for free, any person interested in either the deltaDNA products or game analytics in general can try it out.
112 http://www.deltadna.com/faqs/, under the heading “Support”, question “What levels of support are available?” 113 http://www.deltadna.com/pricing/ 114 http://www.deltadna.com/pricing/
Page 24 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Pricing Overview (http://www.deltadna.com/pricing/)
deltaDNA+, Benchmark, and Healthcheck are also available but have no prices listed and are only available via direct contact.
Licences and Legal Considerations The data is stored in Amazon S3 and is only stored for the duration of the contract . 115
deltaDNA further does not collect any personal information about the user, and by default the service does not recognise a user over time or across different websites or online services . 116
deltaDNA does not give away personal information about you unless you give them permission or they are required by law to do so . 117
115 http://www.deltadna.com/faqs/, under the heading “Data”, question “How long is data stored?” 116 http://www.deltadna.com/faqs/, under the heading “Data”, question “Is the deltaDNA platform compliant with COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act)?” 117 http://www.deltadna.com/privacy/
Page 25 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
GameAnalytics http://www.gameanalytics.com/
Description GameAnalytics is a free hosted game analytics platform, with a strong focus on mobile games. The product focuses on high report customizability, as well as a strong connection with different attribution tools.
GameAnalytics’ Dashboard
Key Target Audience and USPs GameAnalytics is designed for mobile games, especially iOS games. It promotes itself as being “easy to integrate”, and created “by and for game developers” . It is targeted towards 118
startups and small to medium productions as well as novices in the field of game analytics. The amount of features and event types is limited in comparison with other game analytic tools. Creation of custom events is possible but processing is limited to 100.000 unique 119
events per day . 120
A Unity SDK support for Android, as well as an Android specific SDK, a Corona SDK and a REST API are planned and will be released in June and July 2015 . 121
GameAnalytics is available for free with no feature restrictions. The web interface presents data in clean graphs and charts, with explanatory tooltips and color coding.
Tool Integration and Time Cost GameAnalytics provides two SDKs at this point.
118 http://www.gameanalytics.com/docs/faq/, under the heading “How is GA different from other analytics solutions?” 119 http://support.gameanalytics.com/hc/enus/articles/201288886Trackingcustomevents 120 http://www.gameanalytics.com/docs/customevents/ 121 http://www.gameanalytics.com/docs/
Page 26 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
The Unity SDK comes as a Unity Package which has to be imported. After the import, the Game Key and Secret Key have to be set in the Unity project these keys can be accessed via the dashboard on https://go.gameanalytics.com/ . 122
The zipped files from the iOS SDK have to be added to an existing Xcode project, and their dependencies have to be added in the “Build Phases” section under “Link Binaries with Library” . 123
The data is submitted via HTTP requests to the data receiving end of the solution, which does not require any installation as it is hosted by GameAnalytics itself as a PaaS. Only the registration of an account is needed. Custom events can be set up with a single line of code in the game , . Custom widgets 124 125
need to be created in order to access the custom events, which can be done in the matter of minutes.
GameAnalytics’ widget creation wizzard
Programming Languages The Unity SDK is written in C# and is provided as a packaged Unity Asset. The iOS SDK is written in ObjectiveC and is provided as zipped container, containing a header file and a static library file.
122 https://guides.gameanalytics.com/content/sdk?page=unity&step=3 123 https://guides.gameanalytics.com/content/sdk?page=ios&step=1 and the following steps 124 http://support.gameanalytics.com/hc/enus/articles/201288886Trackingcustomevents 125 http://www.gameanalytics.com/docs/customevents/
Page 27 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Available Data Formats When an event is triggered, the SDK collects the data and sends it via JSON to the servers of GameAnalytics . 126
Programming Interfaces to Third Party Applications (API) An REST API is currently (May 2015) in planning and will be released in June 2015. Email reporting can be enabled from within the web interface, although no email alerts can be set up. According to , the REST API will support heatmap data retrieval via HTTPGET 127
requests but that is currently undocumented.
Presentation and User Interface Results are presented in bar and line charts, as well as grids. They have a clean layout, with describing tooltips, color coding and metric definitions.
The retention line chart.
Every graph can be refreshed and many can be enlarged to full screen size. Widget data can be filtered (for example to only show data in a specific date range), and custom charts can be created as well.
126 http://www.gameanalytics.com/docs/faq/, under the header “How is data captured and processed by GameAnalytics?” 127 http://support.gameanalytics.com/hc/enus/articles/200841716Requirements
Page 28 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
A custom chart, showing how many and which coin packages have been bought between the 10th and 20th of April.
The funnel visualization tool shows the conversion of users from event to event. It is also color coded and has clearly marked values and percentages. Hovering over any of the visualization data shows a detailed tooltip which presents the information in a textual way.
A funnel visualization for user conversion between levels.
The user interface is very box oriented, with each widget being in a separate container. It focuses on a clean presentation of data, with more information and descriptions available via a hover or an additional click. The menu is purely icon based and has no text (except for the hover title). It is not designed for mobile use, as the containers have a fixed width and do not scale or rearrange themselves. The response time is fairly quick and the page loads quickly and fluidly. Refreshing widgets works swiftly.
Page 29 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Languages and Localization The product itself is only available in English. Localization options are very limited Time zone, date and time format, as well as currency and number format of the dashboard can be changed. Specific events, like the Business Event, can provide a localized currency code . Other than that there is no localization 128
available.
Localization options of the dashboard
Quality of Documentation The documentation is publicly accessible via http://www.gameanalytics.com/docs/. Several guides (https://guides.gameanalytics.com/content/sdk) are also available, as well as documentations via GitHub (https://github.com/GameAnalytics/GASDKIOS/wiki, https://github.com/GameAnalytics/GASDKUNITY/wiki). There are also several documentational articles on the support page (http://support.gameanalytics.com/hc/enus). Due to these many different documentation locations it is often unclear where to find specific information. The documentation on http://www.gameanalytics.com/docs/ only provides a general overview and no indepth information . The guides via https://guides.gameanalytics.com/content/sdk 129
are more in depth and provide a checklist style menu on the side, which helps to check on progress. They also contain helpful images and code snippets . The wiki pages via GitHub 130
are thorough as well, but there are several obsolete projects publicly listed which can be confusing . 131
128 https://github.com/GameAnalytics/GASDKUNITY/wiki/Business%20Event 129 http://www.gameanalytics.com/docs/ 130 https://guides.gameanalytics.com/content/sdk 131 https://github.com/GameAnalytics/
Page 30 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
The documentational articles on the support page provide a well explained introduction, and are accompanied by several images . 132
Maintenance and Support To check on the system status a status page can be accessed, that lists whether specific systems are operational, as well as previous incidents . 133
The support page provides links to documentation articles, as well as code examples. Requests can be submitted as well, by leaving some contact information, a ticket category and a description of the request. These requests can not be publicly accessed though, and there is no forum . 134
Pricing The product is entirely available for free . 135
Licences and Legal Considerations The end user must be able to reject the use of GameAnalytics and any game using GameAnalytics must provide the user with (at least) a link to do so . 136
If an account is inactive for ninety days, GameAnalytics may delete the account and any customer data contained in it without further notice . 137
GameAnalytics has the right to collect and use information collected by their users, with respect to their Privacy Policy . They also have the right to share information about you or 138
your users with third parties with whom they have a strategic relationship, such as game developers and advertisers . If this information is further aggregated and/or anonymized, 139
GameAnalytics may also share this information without limitation . 140
GameAnalytics allows data collection for game development and analytical purposes only and explicitly forbids usage of data for marketing purposes . 141
132 http://support.gameanalytics.com/hc/enus/ 133 https://gameanalytics.statuspage.io/ 134 http://support.gameanalytics.com/hc/enus 135 https://go.gameanalytics.com/signup 136 http://www.gameanalytics.com/terms/, under the header “Privacy”, article 9.4 137 http://www.gameanalytics.com/terms/, under the header “Fees and Services”, article 5.3 138 http://www.gameanalytics.com/terms/, under the header “Privacy”, article 9.1 139 http://www.gameanalytics.com/privacy/, under the header “Information Sharing or Disclosure”, article 5.1 140 http://www.gameanalytics.com/privacy/, under the header “Information Sharing or Disclosure”, article 5.4 141 http://www.gameanalytics.com/terms/, under the header “Privacy”, article 9.7
Page 31 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Localytics http://www.localytics.com/
Description Localytics is a hosted app marketing and analytics platform. It supports many different platforms and allows custom built dashboards. It also offers many analytical features, and marketing features can be requested as well.
Key Target Audience and USPs Localytics focuses on app marketing and analytics it targets the broader app market instead of just the games branche . It offers features regarding attribution and remarketing. Due to 142
its scaling prices it is both suitable for small businesses as well as large companies . 143
Localytics tries to offer features that answer certain questions, that can range from “What are users doing in my app?” to “How many users have bought something in the last 15 days?”. Its marketing specific features aim to make customers understand their users behaviour as well as make advertisements more effective . 144
Tool Integration and Time Cost Depending on the chosen SDK the integration process differs, but each integration is recorded in the documentation . After integrating the SDK, the SDKs .open and .close 145
functions have to be added to the functions that start and exit the app . 146
The SDK can be installed in under 15 minutes . 147 148
Programming Languages Localytics provides many SDKs such as an iOS SDK, Android SDK, as well as a Web SDK (based on JavaScript) . 149
More SDKs are available . 150
142 http://www.localytics.com/ 143 http://www.localytics.com/pricing/ 144 http://www.localytics.com/tour/ 145 http://docs.localytics.com/#Dev/Integrate/integrate.html 146 http://docs.localytics.com/#Dev/Integrate/integrate.html 147 http://www.localytics.com/ 148 http://docs.localytics.com/#Dev/Integrate/integrate.html 149 http://docs.localytics.com/ 150 http://docs.localytics.com/#Dev/sdkdownloads.html
Page 32 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
The complete list of available SDKs.
Available Data Formats Data is saved on Amazon S3 servers . 151
Data can be exported using many different technologies. Each technology supports different input and output formats. The technologies also offer different use cases . 152
Programming Interfaces to Third Party Applications (API) Localytics offers interfaces to several acquisition sources, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google AdWords . 153
They also offer interfaces to ad tracking vendors, such as adjust, ADX, AppsFlyer, Kochava, Tapstream, and TUNE . 154
Presentation and User Interface The Localytics interface uses a sidebar menu. Each page focuses on one metric, and displays charts, images, tables and description text. Filters can be set to focus on different aspects of the metric.
151 http://www.localytics.com/tour/ 152 http://docs.localytics.com/#Analytics/rawdataexports.html 153 http://docs.localytics.com/#Marketing/Attribution/integratedpartners.html 154 http://docs.localytics.com/#Marketing/Attribution/nonintegrated.html
Page 33 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Some menu items can be clicked but may not be available in the Pro edition. The user is notified of that and an upgrade link is provided. The dashboard can be customized chart widgets can be added, reordered and deleted. The widgets also support changing the date range for the displayed data. A direct link to a page with more information about the widgets data is also provided . 155
The Localytics Dashboard.
Languages and Localization The dashboard is only available in English. No information regarding localization could be found.
Quality of Documentation The documentation can be publicly accessed via http://docs.localytics.com/. It has a sidebar menu as well as a search bar, and is divided into several areas containing guides, like Marketing, For Developers, and API . 156
The documentation provides detailed guides on the installation and integration of the iOS, Android and Web SDKs . 157
More guides for the integration of the other SDKs are available as well . 158
Each documentation article gives a short description on how to integrate the feature on the different platforms.
155 https://dashboard.localytics.com/ 156 http://docs.localytics.com/ 157 http://docs.localytics.com/#getstartedtitle.html 158 http://docs.localytics.com/#Dev/Integrate/integrate.html
Page 34 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Documentation example for “Tracking customer lifetime value”.
The documentation uses code highlighting and cross links between documentation articles. It is very detailed and uses only few different formatting styles.
Maintenance and Support Support can be contacted via http://www.localytics.com/contactsales/ or via http://dashboard.localytics.com/contact/support when logged in. There is no support platform all support links redirect to either the two previously mentioned contact forms or to the documentation.
Pricing Localytics offers two editions, Pro and Enterprise. The Pro edition is further split into a version that solely focuses on analytics and one that features both analytics and marketing features. The pricing of the Pro edition depends on the chosen version as well as the MAU. It can range between 0$ per month to up to 1,200$ per month . 159
The Enterprise edition features more items and is only available as a custom package via direct contact with Localytics. Its price is therefore not listed . 160
159 http://www.localytics.com/pricing/ 160 http://www.localytics.com/pricing/
Page 35 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Features and prices in an overview.
Licences and Legal Considerations When exceeding the MAU limit set in the contract with Localytics, the user has to pay a 100$ fine per each million additional data points (per each additional 10.000 MAU) . 161
The user may also not send any personally identifiable information of their endusers to Localytics’ servers . The user is also solely responsible for the enduser data . 162 163
161 http://www.localytics.com/termsofservice/, under the heading “3. LICENSE RESTRICTIONS AND CUSTOMER OBLIGATIONS”, article “3.2 Unauthorized Use of Service” 162 http://www.localytics.com/termsofservice/, under the heading “3. LICENSE RESTRICTIONS AND CUSTOMER OBLIGATIONS”, article “3.3 Privacy and Data Protection” 163 http://www.localytics.com/termsofservice/, under the heading “6. PROPRIETARY RIGHTS”, article “6.1 Results and Customer Data”
Page 36 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Localytics may freely aggregate enduser data, and is the sole owner over this aggregated data. As such they are free to publish and disclose this data . 164
Should a third party sue the user and claim that the user's use of the service infringes any US patent or copyright claim, Localytics agrees to defend the user against these claims, as well indemnify the user for settlement amounts or damages . 165
Should instead Localytics be sued directly, because of anything the user might have wrongfully done with the tool, the user must defend Localytics in court, as well as indemnify Localytics for settlement amounts or damages . 166
Localytics has been awarded for its transparency, accountability and choice regarding the collection and use of personal information . 167
Localytics requests that they do not receive any personal information about endusers . 168
164 http://www.localytics.com/termsofservice/, under the heading “6. PROPRIETARY RIGHTS”, article “6.4 General Learning; Aggregate Data” 165 http://www.localytics.com/termsofservice/, under the heading “8. INDEMNIFICATION”, article “8.1 Localytics Infringement Indemnity” 166 http://www.localytics.com/termsofservice/, under the heading “8. INDEMNIFICATION”, article “8.2 Customer Indemnity” 167 http://www.localytics.com/privacypolicy/, under the heading “TRUSTe” 168 http://www.localytics.com/privacypolicy/, under the heading “PII Collected via the Services”
Page 37 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
mixpanel https://mixpanel.com/
Description mixpanel is a hosted mobile app and website analytics platform. It offers many important analytical tools, and does without any marketing tools. Instead it offers unique notification features. It bases its pricing on the amount of events tracked instead of MAU.
Key Target Audience and USPs mixpanel is designed for mobile apps and websites . It provides 8 libraries as well as a 169
HTTP API, and is therefore usable on many platforms . It also offers several charts and data 170
visualizations, but also provides the possibility for custom reports . 171 172
Its is also unique in regard, that it offers inapp notifications, push notifications, SMS and email . 173 174
Tool Integration and Time Cost Integration a library takes less than 10 minutes . Guides on how to integrate the libraries can 175
be found on the help desk . After adding the chosen library to an existing project, events can 176
be tracked using a single line of code . 177
Programming Languages mixpanel offers libraries for iOS, Android, JavaScript, Python, ActionScript 3, ServerSide Java, PHP and Ruby, as well as a HTTP API that uses JSON objects . 178
Available Data Formats Data can be exported in a raw or formatted form using APIs . 179 180
169 https://mixpanel.com/ 170 https://mixpanel.com/help/ 171 https://mixpanel.com/features 172 https://mixpanel.com/help/platform 173 https://mixpanel.com/help/reference 174 https://mixpanel.com/notifications/ 175 https://mixpanel.com/help/reference/trackinganevent 176 https://mixpanel.com/help/ 177 https://mixpanel.com/help/reference/trackinganevent 178 https://mixpanel.com/help/ 179 https://mixpanel.com/docs/apidocumentation/exportingrawdatayouinsertedintomixpanel 180 https://mixpanel.com/docs/apidocumentation/dataexportapi
Page 38 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Programming Interfaces to Third Party Applications (API) mixpanel offers HTTP APIs that use JSON to send and receive data . It also allows 181 182
exporting of formatted data, using Python, PHP, Ruby or JavaScript . 183
Presentation and User Interface The web interfaces displays tutorial videos detailing its different features as long as no event tracking has occurred. The interface uses a sidebar menu and groups its menu items into “Engagement”, “People” and “Applications”. Custom reports can be built by clicking “Create New” in the “Applications” group, and following the guide on the screen as well as the platform documentation . 184
The mixpanel web interface, showing the default tutorial videos if no events have been received yet.
Languages and Localization The mixpanel web interface is only available in English. There are no localization options.
181 https://mixpanel.com/help/reference/http 182 https://mixpanel.com/docs/apidocumentation/exportingrawdatayouinsertedintomixpanel 183 https://mixpanel.com/docs/apidocumentation/dataexportapi 184 https://mixpanel.com/help/platform
Page 39 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Quality of Documentation The help center is publicly accessible and provides developer documentation, a FAQ, guides and tutorials, as well as videos . 185
The documentation uses a lefthand sidebar menu, as well as a section overview of the current page on the right side. It uses code highlighting, color coding, images, and cross links between documentation articles. There are integration guides for all SDKs, as well as API references . 186
The Android push notifications documentation
The FAQ covers both basic and advanced questions, and can be searched . 187
The “Platform” subpage, which consists of one very long page with several anchors and a sidebar menu, covers the creation of custom data visualizations and reports. Custom reports can be built using JavaScript or a GitHub fork . 188
The mixpanel university offers several video tutorials that help understand metrics and charts, and how to use the web interface . 189
185 https://mixpanel.com/help/ 186 https://mixpanel.com/help/reference 187 https://mixpanel.com/help/questions/ 188 https://mixpanel.com/help/platform 189 https://mixpanel.com/learn/trends
Page 40 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Maintenance and Support A live chat is available via the web interface . Support can also be requested via 190
Pricing The pricing is based on data points. Depending on the amount of used data points, a different edition is provided. If more data points are used in a month than are provided in the edition, the user must either pay an overage charge or is upgraded to the next edition. The tracking of each event counts as one data point . 191
The pricing models of mixpanel
Licences and Legal Considerations The user agrees to not send any sensitive information to mixpanel, such as authentication credentials or personal information about your endusers . 192
mixpanel may use aggregated user data for their own purposes . 193 194
Endusers can optout of the automatic retention of data by going to https://mixpanel.com/optout/. The user is also responsible to provide notices to endusers regarding the optout option and generall tracking of their information . 195
In case of misuse of the service, the user has to defend and indemnify mixpanel . 196
190 https://mixpanel.com/report/ 191 https://mixpanel.com/pricing/ 192 https://mixpanel.com/terms/, under the header “PRIVACY POLICY” 193 https://mixpanel.com/terms/, under the header “PRIVACY POLICY” 194 https://mixpanel.com/privacy/, under the header “SHARING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION”, article “Information We Share” 195 https://mixpanel.com/terms/, under the header “PRIVACY POLICY” 196 https://mixpanel.com/terms/, under the header “INDEMNITY”
Page 41 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Unity Cloud Analytics https://unity3d.com/unity/analytics
Description Unity Cloud Analytics is Unity’s own analytics software, which is currently in beta and available for free. It currently provides SDKs for most of Unity’s supported platforms, as well as the most important analytical tools, and the creation of custom events and their visualization is possible.
Key Target Audience and USPs Unity Cloud Analytics is a new service from Unity and is currently in beta. It is targeted to developers who already use Unity to create their games, and want to use game analytics to learn more about their players . 197
Since Unity already supports publishing games on numerous platforms, an analytics tool that can also collect data from all these platforms is useful. The beta already offers the most important analytical features, such as the metric monitor, data explorer (for custom events and charts), funnel analyzer and segment builder . 198
Tool Integration and Time Cost The integration takes less than 15 minutes. The SDK has to be downloaded and imported. After that, a short script to start the analytics process has to be added . The app will now 199
start sending event data.
Programming Languages Unity Cloud Analytics is available for mobile (iOS, Android, Windows Phone), desktop (Windows, Mac, Linux), as well as web applications (Unity WebPlayer, WebGL) . 200
Available Data Formats Due to the missing documentation, it is unclear how data is saved.
Programming Interfaces to Third Party Applications (API) No third party application APIs are available.
Presentation and User Interface The Unity Cloud Analytics web interface uses many different charts to visualize its reports, such as line, bar and pie charts. Custom events and charts can be created as well, using the Data Explorer tool.
197 https://unity3d.com/unity/analytics 198 https://analytics.cloud.unity3d.com/ 199 https://analytics.cloud.unity3d.com/integration/ 200 https://unity3d.com/unity/analytics
Page 42 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
The Data explorers visualizes and compares different data.
The Unity Cloud Analytics metric monitor.
Languages and Localization The web interface is only available in English. Localization is not possible, but since there are no notifications, no localization is needed.
Quality of Documentation There is no documentation page, but an integration tutorial is provided when adding a new Unity Cloud Analytics project. It can be found directly on the web interface via https://analytics.cloud.unity3d.com/ . 201
201 https://analytics.cloud.unity3d.com/
Page 43 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
The integration guide on the web interface, with a checklist style menu on the right side.
There is a short FAQ on the Unity Cloud Analytics homepage, which only explains four questions . 202
Maintenance and Support A support request can be sent when logged into the web interface . 203
A forum is maintained specifically for the Unity Cloud Analytics Beta. It can be searched and threads can be marked using “Watch Thread”. The entire forum can be watched as well. Registered users can create new threads and comment on existing threads . 204
Pricing Unity Cloud Analytics is currently in Beta and available for free for users of Unity Free and Unity Pro . 205
Licences and Legal Considerations Any app that uses Unity Cloud Analytics must generate revenue for Unity by displaying advertisements, providing inapp purchases, and/or other forms of monetization from the endusers . 206
The user must provide a privacy policy, which has to be made reasonably accessible to endusers. The user has to secure the endusers consent to this privacy policy, before the collection of data may occur . 207
202 https://unity3d.com/unity/analytics 203 https://analytics.cloud.unity3d.com/support 204 http://forum.unity3d.com/forums/unityanalyticsbeta.81/ 205 https://unity3d.com/unity/analytics 206 https://analytics.cloud.unity3d.com/terms_of_service, under the header “1. UNITY SERVICES”, article 1.5 207 https://analytics.cloud.unity3d.com/terms_of_service, under the header “3. RESPONSIBILITIES”, articles 3.5 and 3.6
Page 44 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Unity has the rights to use your data in an aggregated form for distribution, as well as use unaggregated data for targeting and delivering advertisements to your endusers . 208
Upon Unity’s request, the user has to email Unity a list of all employees and their personal computer machine IDs that have access to Unity Cloud Analytics. The user also has to make sure to send any updates of that list to Unity . 209
The user has to defend and indemnify Unity in case of any claims against them that occur because of the user's app or the user's violation of the terms of service . 210
208 https://analytics.cloud.unity3d.com/terms_of_service, under the header “4. LICENSE & OWNERSHIP”, article “4.2 License to Unity” 209 https://analytics.cloud.unity3d.com/terms_of_service, under the header “5. SECURITY REQUIREMENTS”, article 5.1 210 https://analytics.cloud.unity3d.com/terms_of_service, under the header “12. INDEMNITY”
Page 45 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Upsight http://www.upsight.com/
Description Upsight is a hosted mobile marketing and analytics platform, designed for mobile apps. It uses advanced analytics and marketing tools. It is designed for app developers and businesses.
Key Target Audience and USPs Upsight promotes itself with a very clear key target audience app developers and businesses . It is not specifically designed for mobile games, but instead targets the broader 211
app market. Upsight offers a large amount of features, specifically tailored towards marketing . 212
They also have published several papers, videos, case studies and data sheets which are either directly downloadable or can be requested . 213
Upsight also offers specific solutions that are tailored to your needs , and also provide many 214
different SDKs for many different areas of application . 215
Hardware and Software Requirements Upsight requires no special hardware, as the analysis solution is hosted by Upsight itself . 216
The data collection occurs using the SDKs, and is based on a HTTPGET transfer . 217
Tool Integration and Time Cost The installation process and tool integration could not be tested, since Upsight does not provide demos for academic research purposes. The documentation describes the integration of the different SDKs and also provides a 218
universal checklist . 219
To summarize the installation process of the different SDKs: The user must download the SDK, add it to an existing project, and verify token and secret between app and the settings in the dashboard . After this initial process, the user can start 220
adding placements and content units.
211 http://www.upsight.com/ 212 http://www.upsight.com/marketing 213 http://www.upsight.com/resources/ 214 http://resources.upsight.com/upsightrequestademo 215 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/ 216 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/enterpriseandroid/#thebasics 217 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/datacollectionapi/ 218 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/ 219 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/integrationchecklist/ 220 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/integrationchecklist/#basicintegration
Page 46 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Upsight offers many different SDKs, therefore the preparation time cost depends highly on the chosen solution. Importing the SDKs does not take long however, as they come as either plugins, packages or libraries, that simply have to be added to an existing project . 221 222
After importing the SDK, the user has to create so called “Placements”, which are hooks within an app that can trigger any type of Upsight content. Placements have to be created in the Upsight Marketing Dashboard . 223 224 225
Programming Languages Upsight offers solutions and SDKs for many platforms. The SDK for iOS is written in ObjectiveC, and there exist both a Free edition version and an Enterprise edition version . 226
The SDK for Android also exists in a Free edition version and an Enterprise edition version . 227
The Unity SDK is provided as a plugin, and also exists as a Free edition version and an Enterprise edition version . It is mostly a wrapper for both the iOS SDK and the Android SDK228
. 229
Upsight also offers solutions for JavaScript, PHP and Facebook, as well as direct APIs for Data Collection, Processed Data and Marketing Reporting . 230
Available Data Formats Raw data can be downloaded via a query url. When fetching the data, the url has to be given in a certain format, containing the API key and the needed time frame . The default format in 231
which the data is sent, is html. The available formats are html, text and json . 232
html displays the data in a browser appropriate fashion, containing links to files if available. text only displays the previously mentioned links. json displays the data in a JSONencoded format.
Programming Interfaces to Third Party Applications (API) Upsight offers APIs for Data Collection, accessing Processed Data and Marketing Reporting. Upsight’s SDKs use these APIs but provide wrapper classes and helper functions . 233 234
221 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/unity/#overview 222 https://nexus.playhaven.com/nexus/content/sites/androidsite/com.playhaven.android/playhavenapi/2.2.6/playhavenapi/ide.html 223 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/unity/#overview 224 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/android/#step1addupsightsdktotheproject 225 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/ios/#gettingstarted 226 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/ 227 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/ 228 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/ 229 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/enterpriseunity/#thebasics 230 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/ 231 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/downloadingrawdatafiles/#downloadingfilesusingabrowser 232 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/downloadingrawdatafiles/#overview 233 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/enterpriseandroid/#thebasics
Page 47 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
It also provides Click Tracking for Facebook, using either PHP or Javascript. 235
Presentation and User Interface The presentation of data and the dashboard user interface could not be tested, since Upsight does not provide demos for academic research purposes. However, there are some screenshots as well as a video on Upsight’s website, but it is 236
unclear how accurate or up to date these are . 237
Languages and Localization The product itself is only available in english. Upsight uses language as a target and languages can specifically be targeted by promotions. Therefore specific localizations can be created for preferred languages by the end users238 239
.
Quality of Documentation The documentation is publicly available via http://help.upsight.com/. It is grouped into several themespecific guides, such as an API & SDK Reference or a Data Mine guide. All documentation about Upsight is found on this page and its subpages. It consists of a large amount of pages, which themselves consist of many topics. A menu in the sidebar shows the user where they are currently at. The search bar that can be found in the top right corner of each page is useful when searching for a specific topic, considering the vast amount of pages. The documentation articles are segmented into small topics, that consist of color coded tips, tables, code highlighting and images . 240
234 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/enterpriseios/#thebasics 235 http://help.upsight.com/apisdkreference/enterprisefacebooksdks/#clicktracking 236 https://youtu.be/191knLLPE1U 237 http://www.upsight.com/marketing/userexplorer 238 http://www.upsight.com/marketing/campaigns/#localization 239 http://help.upsight.com/publish/targeting/#language 240 http://help.upsight.com/
Page 48 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
A screenshot of the iOS documentation. The menu, that highlights the current menu item, is visible on the left. The “Getting
Started” topic is supported with color coding and code highlighting.
Maintenance and Support Upsight support can be accessed via https://support.upsight.com/home. Requests can be made here, and logged in users can also check the progress on their previous requests. If not yet registered, anonymous requests can be made as well via https://support.upsight.com/anonymous_requests/new note that “anonymous request” in this context means, that the request is not connected with any user account, but an email adress has to be given nonetheless . 241
Other than the anonymous request, all support areas can only be accessed when logged in.
Pricing Upsight offers a Free edition, that is for free but has limited features. An unlimited number of apps is possible, but events are only possible for less than 50.000 MAU. It offers customizable dashboard metrics as well as analysis tools like the funnel tool. It also allows inapp and push notification campaigns, but is missing more advanced analysis and marketing tools . 242
The Enterprise edition contains all features, such as data mining, A/B testing and dedicated support. 243
There are no prices listed however a demo can be requested, after which contact with Upsight is possible for further inquiries. The demo is specifically tailored to your mobile app and a custom solution will be prepared by Upsight . 244
241 https://support.upsight.com/anonymous_requests/new 242 http://www.upsight.com/pricing/ 243 http://www.upsight.com/pricing/ 244 http://resources.upsight.com/upsightrequestademo
Page 49 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Licences and Legal Considerations Upsight may use your product data in an aggregated and anonymized form for their business purposes . 245 246
Upsight may also use your organization’s name and logo in selfpromotional materials without compensation, and they may share a case study on their website about your organization’s use of Upsight . 247
245 http://www.upsight.com/pricing/termsofservice, under the header “Analytics Services” 246 http://www.upsight.com/pricing/privacypolicy/ 247 http://www.upsight.com/pricing/termsofservice, under the header “Marketing”
Page 50 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Other Noteworthy Tools
Flurry Analytics (part of the Yahoo Mobile Developer Suite) https://developer.yahoo.com/analytics/ Flurry has been integrated into the Yahoo Mobile Developer Suite. It is available for iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, and mobile web . 248
It can be used to benchmark metrics like session length and retention against other Flurry clients . 249
The Flurry Analytics dashboard.
Play Games Player Analytics (Google Play Developer Console) https://play.google.com/apps/publish/ The Google Play Developer Console started offering a new service at the beginning of May “Player Analytics”. It offers basic game analytics services to games published in the Play Store . It is also designed to work closely together with Google's other services, like the 250
Google Play Game Services . 251
Not much is known yet about the tool, since it is fairly new. No free access to it exists either, a onetime fee of 25$ has to be paid to gain access to the Google Play Developer Console . 252
A chart showing the target and actual revenues of a game.
248 https://developer.yahoo.com/analytics/ 249 https://developer.yahoo.com/analytics/ 250 http://androiddevelopers.blogspot.co.at/2015/03/powergreatgamingwithnewanalytics.html 251 https://developer.android.com/google/playservices/games.html 252 https://play.google.com/apps/publish/signup/
Page 51 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Heap https://heapanalytics.com/ Heap is very similar to appsee it tracks and records all user interaction . It is specifically 253
designed for iOS and Web applications and can be integrated with just a short code snippet254
. It offers many typical features, such as funnels and retention grids, and also adverts its virtually zero performance overhead . 255
Line chart of daily signups per plan.
Katana (NinjaMetrics) http://www.ninjametrics.com/ A social analytics engine with strong focus on users and user groups, their interaction, as well as their value and influence . It offers libraries for iOS, Android, Unity, PHP, Java, and 256
JavaScript . 257
253 https://heapanalytics.com/features/datacapture 254 https://heapanalytics.com/docs/installation 255 https://heapanalytics.com/features/datacapture 256 http://www.ninjametrics.com/ 257 https://developer.ninjametrics.com/
Page 52 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Katana’s dashboard.
Piwik http://piwik.org/ Piwik is a highly customizable open source web analytics solution . It focuses on 258
extensibility and features a marketplace for extensions and themes . Piwik also promotes 259
data ownership and offers a selfhosting solution. Numerous communitydeveloped plugins 260
offer easy integration to the most common web frameworks.
Piwik’s dashboard.
258 http://piwik.org/ 259 http://plugins.piwik.org/ 260 http://piwik.org/integrate/
Page 53 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Conclusio The tools presented in this paper reveal the great variety present in today’s quickly expanding game analytics tools market. Although the main ingredients seem to be laid out (thanks to the pioneer’s work in the field of web and business analytics), there are a lot of blank pages left in the game analytics cookbook. appsee focuses on detailed user monitoring and session recording, making it very attractive for user experience analysts. Countly covers the most common use cases and offers a great variety of platforms, enabling integration of many devices. It also features selfhosting and is open source. deltaDNA is the biggest and most modular of all solutions, offering analysation of products on a big scale. GameAnalytics relies on its excellent report customisability and its cost free availability. Localytics focuses mainly on mobile marketing and attribution, but also incorporates many analytics features. mixpanel offers unique notification features, including SMS and email notifications for the end users. Unity Cloud Analytics is tied exclusively to Unity accounts. Since it is still in beta we can only recommend it for smallscale or research projects. Upsight is another big player in the mobile marketing and analytics market, designed for large businesses that require custom tailored solutions. The market shows an overall strong emphasis on mobile applications, especially on targeted ad campaigning. The biggest issue at the moment seems to be that of data ownership, as all the presented hosted tools reserve the rights to access, analyse and use aggregated and anonymized data as the tool provider sees fit. Although we both strongly recommend usage of game analytics tools, since they offer great potential benefit for small implementation effort, we can not agree on a single point in the development cycle to integrate game analytics. While one of us states that integration should happen from the very beginning of the development phase, to minimize the threat of missing valuable metrics, the other one would recommend implementing at the end of the development phase, as it’s done quickly and avoids losing focus at the beginning of the development cycle. Game analytics still have a lot of potential and we are looking forward to the further development of the industry.
Page 54 of 55
Game Analytics Tools Maria Hejlek & Daniel Mahlberg
Abbreviations F2P Free 2 (to) Play
PaaS Platform as a Service
SaaS Software as a Service
DAU Daily Active Users
MAU Monthly Active Users
USP Unique Selling Proposition, Unique Selling Point
LTV LoanToValue
(Amazon) S3 Simple Storage Service (Amazon Cloud Storage Service)
Sources http://www.deltadna.com/ http://docs.deltadna.com/ http://www.gameanalytics.com/ https://guides.gameanalytics.com/content/sdk http://support.gameanalytics.com/hc/enus/ http://www.upsight.com/ http://help.upsight.com/ https://developers.google.com/games/services/ https://developer.android.com/google/playservices/games.html https://www.appsee.com/ https://www.appsee.com/docs https://developer.yahoo.com/ https://count.ly/ http://resources.count.ly/ https://heapanalytics.com/ http://www.localytics.com/ http://docs.localytics.com/ https://mixpanel.com/ http://www.ninjametrics.com/ http://piwik.org/ https://unity3d.com/unity/analytics https://analytics.cloud.unity3d.com/
Page 55 of 55