Challenges & Goals
The first task we needed to tackle was migrating Jeopardy! from the custom backend structure built by the development team that worked on the project before us. Migration, of course, needed to happen seamlessly & without the slightest friction for players. It was… complicated.
Our main job, though, was to provide updates for the game based on real-time analytics of in-game players’ behavior. The idea was to make design choices, decide on features-to-build, art-to-draw, and so on that would help to increase short-term player retention. We needed to study the title, its players, and the systems Sony used for calculating and analyzing game metrics to do that properly.
We also had to develop and test multiple hypotheses about the best solutions for the issues players face in Jeopardy! and ways to delight and challenge them more.
Value
Within our collaboration with Sony, our team made sure we:
- consistently deliver high-quality updates that have been designed according to players’ in-game behavior and their feedback, both positive (“we want more of these”) and negative (“that particular thing doesn’t make much sense”);
- increase short-term retention and metrics related to it: time spent in-game during a day, number of daily active users, everyday playtime, etc.;
- improve the game by both carefully monitoring data on players’ interactions and checking out reviews, support, and social media.
Last but not least, we’ve fully migrated the backend from one custom solution to the other, on .NET Core. Migration made it possible for us to release updates quicker & without disruptions and prepare the game for smooth further scaling. The migration went without friction: we developed the backend on our side and then rolled it out within a new update.
Solutions & Expertise
We wanted to provide data-driven LiveOps services — to continue integrating an evidence-based approach into Jeopardy! development — which meant we needed to iterate and re-iterate a lot. Our game designers, 2D artists, and developers, for instance, created a lot of tests for onboarding: we wanted the tutorial funnel to be as efficient as possible and, after many cycles of getting feedback from users and reacting to it, we’ve managed to create a process that’s simplistic, fun, and useful for a new player.
Lots of those 26,000 quiz categories have been developed by our team, and we’re pretty proud of that.