2 Years of LessonsJosh Kermond, Executive Producer @ BHG

July 31, 2017

Overview1. History of BHG & DomiNations2. 3 Phases of Events3. Event Advice

History of Big Huge Games 2.0● Team background: Civ, Rise of Nations, FrontierVille● 2013: Baltimore Studio Apocalypse and new studio● “Big bets on innovative mechanics in proven genres”● Biggest successes have been set in human history● Clear vision for a F2P mobile strategy game about

World History

History of DomiNations● Began in April 2013 with 10 people● 1 solid year of prototyping + 8 months of development● 6 months of Soft Launch (October – March)● Worldwide launch: April, 2015● Asia launch: August, 2015● China Launch: Next Month, 2017 (fingers-crossed!)

Event Phases of DomiNationsPhase 1 - Development to Soft Launch to Asia Launch

Phase 2 - Building Events and Tools

Phase 3 - Running repeatable, revenue generating Events!

Phase 12013 - 2015

“Automatic” Events● Timed Goals● Leagues

“Events” 1.0

“Automatic” Events1. Pointless timers2. Meaningless or non-existent rewards3. Drive little to no engagement

Server issues

Server issues

Server issues

Server issues

“Events” 1.0● Wildlife Wednesday● Stags Unleashed

“We ran Stag Unleashed event injecting an additional 120M crowns into the economy.”

~120,000,000 crowns were given from stags compared to ~10,000,000 the weekend prior.

Stability is Key● Don’t run events if your players can’t participate or

won’t “feel” the benefits.

Server Outage

Server Outage

Oil Boom!

Revenue Decline

“Events” 1.0

Crown “Sales”● Not a discounted price● 5-30% bonus crowns

included with each purchase

● Higher the price point, the bigger the bonus

Phase 22016 - Stability & Events

Live Events in DomiNations● Client Updates● Config Events● Crown Sales● Event System Events

Config Event Setup1. Design/Product comes up with an idea2. Game data changes pushed to version control3. Game config files built and QA’d4. Updated on cloud -> clients5. In-game & social messaging6. Review performance and repeat

General Blitz Details1. Castle upgrades discounted 50%2. General upgrades to level 20 discounted 25%

General Blitz Results

General Blitz Results

General Blitz Results

Town Defense Details

Town Defense Results

TD1 TD2

Event System● Rewards for specific behaviors

○ Destroy Towers○ Kill Defenders○ Win Stars

● Rewards and Difficulty Scales● Unique Top tier Rewards ● Server driven, admin tool

Event System Phases1. Preview

a. 2 Days2. Event

a. 7 Days3. Claim Period

a. 2 Days

Preview Period

Preview Period

Preview Period

Preview Period is Important

Events are “Sales”

Mark of the Assassin Performance

Mark of the Assassin Performance

Generic Event System Results1. Engages players2. Controlled way to introduce overpowered

units/buildings 3. Error prone! Plenty of mistakes with tools 4. Hard to balance, even with game data

Phase 32017 - Refine, Expand, Automate

Surfacing Improvements

Surfacing Improvements

Surfacing Improvements

Items SalesTroops & Building Sales

Event System troops that Are purchasable for USD

C.E.S.P.E.R. & SA.L.P.E.R.● Config Event System Processor and Error Reporter● SAles Processor and Error Reporter

C.E.S.P.E.R.

C.E.S.P.E.R.

Summer for the Ages● Everything On!● Announced and runs all at once

○ Goes from last week through September

● Push players through the ages, ahead of the next Age update!

Event Advice

Event Advice*1. Build to your team’s and game’s strengths2. Identify pain points, build tools and automation to fix3. Consider the long term, but keep iterating forward4. 6 months of content at launch!5. Look at market leaders, when you launch in 6 months

that will be the new standard

*Once you’ve got a stable game.

Thanks!

Questions?