Value-Oriented Planning & Design April 1st 2015

Table of contents

1. Who?2. What?3. Why?4. How?

Who’s speaking?

Thiéry Adam BFA, MPM & MBA PMP, CSPO, CSM

● Ubisoft Montreal, Lead Designer ● Ludia, Senior Producer ● Trailblazer Games, CEO

Key Formula

Quality User Acquisition Cost

Return on Investment in digital distribution compares quality user acquisition cost vs. their average lifetime value.

Cost Per Click % who convert to spenders//Average

Lifetime Value

Most fail here

Most focus here

Rising cost of loyal user acquisition

Cost of acquiring quality users increases faster than the lifetime value of users.

Source: Fiksu

Failing Big

Over-investing means: ● Less tries at finding

success. ● Losing agility, making

direction changes harder.

Scout Ahead

Generate business intelligence through market research to determine Value.

Plan & design with cost-versus-value in mind.

Process

Identify business

opportunityTest concepts

(Free-to-play) Create leanest product to test

retention

Develop to a full launch

product

Cost

Risk

Concept A/B Testing

Test vs. competition Test vs. alternatives

● Evaluate branding (art, title, theme).

● Clarify target audience. ● Prioritize features

Result: the PROMISE.

Feature Priorities

List all the features in the game and attribute an objective priority category:

1. Essential: Simplest fulfillment of Promise 2. Necessary: Required to launch 3. Obvious: Solves perceivable symptoms in Promise 4. Unobvious: Directly improves Promise 5. Accessory: Improves, but unrelated to Promise

Priorities & Risk Tolerance

Does the risk level exceed the priority level?

1. Essential: Very High (“else: retry”) 2. Necessary: High (“else: purchase”) 3. Obvious:Medium (“else: safe”) 4. Unobvious: Low (“else: skip”) 5. Accessory: None (no “else”)

Invest in the team

Question from a team member? Feedback to give on a task?

● Ask them to estimate the priority. ● Ask them to evaluate the risk. ● Ask additional questions to help them find

the right combination. ● Ask them what they would do knowing that.

Thank you

www.TrailblazerGames.com

tadam@trailblazergames.com