Why do we work in sprints if game development is a marathon?

Full HP Ltd is an international mobile game development company with 40+ employees and offices in Rostov-on-Don and Cyprus. Their portfolio includes 8 games, among them Mad GunZ (a Google Play Editors' choice) и Blocky Cars (a Catappult Editors' choice). Mad GunZ has over 12 million downloads on all platforms, and Blocky Cars has over 32 million.

The company is actively involved in the life of the IT community and is a sponsor of the Sunflower game devs festival.

The Full HP Ltd team translates texts for Blocky Cars and Mad GunZ using Nitro professional online translation service, and agreed to share some of their lifehacks with me:

how to maximize ASO optimization results
how to get on the home page of Google Play
how to monetize children's games
and the benefits of releasing a game on alternative platforms.

Mad GunZ and Blocky Cars are accessible in 12 languages. Tell me about your approach to the localization process.

Our process is as follows: players from Russia are the first to gain early access to the game. After the game has passed certain tests, we expand early access to MULTI-5 countries (English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian) and begin localizing the pages into these languages. For a while the screenshots and page descriptions are displayed in English for all countries. As soon as the game is released globally, we immediately add the standard languages in which all our games are released: besides the MULTI-5, these are Portugese, Arabic, and Asian languages (Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Thai).

Gradually, all the game pages in the store are localized into new languages, since this lets us reach the most users. It is easiest for us to translate these texts using Nitro, since the translations are frequently ready within a few hours.

While the translation is being readied we analyze keywords and select the most relevant keywords for the game, making sure that these words can be organically inserted into the text.

And where do you localize the game itself?

Previously we worked with a translation agency, but due to the time-consuming paperwork involved (an invoice had to be submitted and payment made via bank transfer before the translation work began) the process was quite lengthy. Plus, several terms in the game require explanation—in Mad Gunz, for example, the weapons have highly specialized names, and we needed to explain to the translators exactly what was meant.

For that reason we switched to Nitro completely. Our games don't have all that much text, so this online service suits us both for translating store pages and for localizing the game itself.

The texts are mostly brief: the games are for children, after all, and we don't want to weigh them down with a lot of text. The largest text in the game is the user agreement. When we were featured on Google in Korea we had to translate the user agreement into Korean. The text was long and of a legal nature, and we translated it through the managers at Alconost. We were quite happy with the result; the text was translated quickly and with no issues.

One lifehack we use is this: standard phrases such as "play" and "menu" are used from one game to the next, so we save them in a translation memory. That way, instead of translating them over again each time, we simply use the existing translations.

New texts appear when game designers introduce new content into the game. For example, ten new phrases are created that have to be translated for the next release. We send them off to Nitro and add our comments for the translator. As a rule, no issues arise, but if the translator isn't clear on something we explain via a manager.

You mentioned keyword analysis. Tell me how you work with ASO.

We are constantly rewriting ASO for specific countries if we find it necessary. For example, here is a screenshot with data for Turkey. When it was taken the page had not been localized into Turkish: the screenshots, the description, and everything else was in English. It shows the conversion rate for the page prior to localization of the app page. Only a small number of users were reaching us—15.8% out of 22,000 users who visited our page on the Play Market.

Conversion prior to page localization (Turkey)

As a rule, after page localization conversion of the total number of users who visit the page rises by 3-5%. We translated part of the description and all of the screenshots into Turkish. The phrases on the screenshots are short, and users are drawn primarily to the image. Only a few actually read the description.

Conversion after page localization (Turkey)

And here is what conversion looked like 2-3 weeks after localizing the store page: we saw growth of 18% (100% = 3,614, comprising 15.8% of those who installed the game prior to localization. Growth is calculated based on this number, since the number of visitors to the page also increased). We determined that localized screenshots work, but we need to select the best keywords for Turkey.

The same is true of Vietnam: the conversion coefficient was 18.3%, and it rose to 19.5% in the course of a few weeks. ASO takes a long time to pick up speed. To see how conversion will increase you have to observe and constantly work on keywords and screenshots, and then you'll start seeing results in 2-3 months.

When conducting app store optimization and after regular A/B testing we determined that page conversion for our games in countries such as India, Vietnam, and Malaysia is 5% higher when the text and screenshots are localized.

Can you show me how the conversion rate had changed several months later?

No, because page localization was not the only factor there. In July we were featured, so our numbers rose sharply due to the featuring and the viewers it drew. Mad GunZ was one of Google's top picks for three weeks on the home page. Far more users visited the page than usual, and so the conversion rate differs significantly from the usual numbers. We can only show a brief period, but page localization has quite clearly produced growth. The same is true in any country.

In Germany the effects of page translation were quite noticeable. Our conversion there was actually in the negative (a percentage of less than 50 shows that we are not gaining users).

Conversion prior to page localization (Germany)

When we translated the page into German and selected German keywords instead of English, not only did conversion increase (by 25%), but also the number of visitors to the page.

Conversion rate after page localization into German

Localizing the page, and especially the screenshots, is important. If you don't want to spend a lot of money on translating the description, it's worth at least translating the screenshots and a couple of phrases from the description into the users' native language. That alone is a huge improvement.

Nitro clients sometimes tell me that when you translate only the game's page, while the game itself is in English, users may become frustrated and leave low ratings. Is this something you've encountered?

No, because our game is localized into all these languages except Vietnamese, Turkish, and Hindi, and yet users in these countries have not complained.

Possibly users become frustrated if the game is not localized into the MULTI-5 languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian) and into Russian. These are very popular languages, after all, and if the page is localized into one of them the players expect the game to be in the same language.

We always add these languages, as well as Arabic, Thai, and the languages of Asia, of course, because these make up a large part of the audience we wish to reach.

You say you sometimes review and alter keywords. How often is this required?

ASO most often has to be rewritten in Japan and Korea, because there the audience is very specific and requires a particular approach.

We check our AOS regularly, going through every page. But there are countries where this is unnecessary, such as the USA. We track conversion to make sure it remains at the proper level, but we may conduct A/B testing of new words, icons, or screenshots.

In the USA we have the highest conversion rate of all, and our percentile is above 75.

It is interesting to note that if ASO is working beautifully in the States, and we take these same words and use them in England, Canada, or Australia, the ASO does not work at all. The same is true of Brazil vs. Portugal, and of the Spanish-speaking countries: what works in Spain may not work in Mexico, Argentina, etc.

We frequently conduct A/B testing with Google, which helps considerably to understand the direction we need to take in our description, which icon has drawn the most users to our page, etc.

We use a marketing tool that allows us to see how our game rates for a given keyword query. Using it we can also check our game's chances of appearing based on the desired keyword.

For example, with Blocky Cars it is apparent that, after we optimized the page, conversion rose by 6%, from 19.3% to 25.3%—the equivalent of a 50% increase in the number of users (100% = 3,021—19.3% of those who installed the game prior to localization. Growth is calculated from this number, as the number of page visitors has increased). And the number of users rose from 15,000 to 33,000.

Conversion in Blocky Cars prior to ASO adjustment

Conversion in Blocky Cars after ASO adjustment

Let's talk about profitability. Your games are translated into 12 languages. Was it worth it? Wouldn't the 5 most popular European languages have been enough?

We have many paying users from the countries for which we've translated the game. I can cite our localization into Portugese: the language is not one of the MULTI-5, but players from Brazil are some of the best-paying in our games.

When we released Mad GunZ on an alternative platform, Catappult, at the time of release the game had only been localized into English.

Growth after localization into Portugese. The chart shows featuring and localization into Portugese. Top countries: Brazil, Mexico, Portugal, USA, and Vietnam.

We were featured (the largest jump on the screenshot), after which our numbers dropped back. Since most of the players are from Brazil, it was decided to localize the game and the app page into Portugese. After that the numbers started to climb again.

Here are our five most profitable countries:

The same countries top the charts for both games, and the numbers differ but little.

I see the USA tops the charts.

The USA is always near the top, since it is one of the highest-paying countries.

And then comes Japan.

Yes, Japan and Korea. But with them it is a challenge even to get them to install the game, and to induce them to make a purchase after installing. Considering their specific tastes, it is fairly difficult to arouse their interest.

We have a partner in Japan that places our games on Japanese platforms. There we see a certain number of downloads, but nothing that could compare with Google Play. One of the platforms on which we're present is ONEStore, a Korean platform, and as you can see there aren't many downloads there, either.

What about China? There are usually plenty of downloads at least from China.

In China we have 22 million downloads. There we also work through a partner, because in China you need a license to distribute a game. It is simpler to partner with a publisher. But despite the large quantity of downloads from there, profitability is less than it could be, since the profits are shared with our partner. The publisher has a certain selection of platforms with which it cooperates. In China we are represented on 30 platforms where the publisher distributes us.

In China alone there are 22.6 million downloads—even more than on Google Play!

Have you had to adapt the games themselves or your advertising campaigns to users in Asian countries? What preferential particularities have you noticed among them?

Naturally, Asian players have completely different preferences. When translating into these languages we use different texts than those for users from Europe. For Asia we have to adapt not only the text, but also the visuals: icons, screenshots, videos… For example, in screenshots for Asia the colors must be very vivid, and the text must be placed differently than in European and American versions of the game.

We have tried increasing the intensity and contrast; once we even made an anime-style skin for one the characters. In the end we expended considerable effort, but the result was not as impressive as we had hoped.

We tried replacing standard horizontal screenshots with vertical ones—we had heard that they were better for page conversion in Korea. Vivid colors on vertical screenshots went over well, but the downside was that the game itself was horizontal.

Asia has a very picky audience. Recently we conducted an advertising campaign on iOS for a number of countries, including Japan, and conversion for Japan was the worst of all.

Adaptation is not employed in the game itself, except for a few impermissible elements for Chinese child target audiences. In Mad GunZ we had one particular case: at first launch there is a tutorial, which for the European audience is conducted by a fairy (a bearded character wearing a fairy dress). But in China a man wearing a dress is unacceptable. They see it as unnatural. We gave him pants and a shirt, and he took on the appearance of a mid-level Chinese manager. With Japan and Korea we had no such issues. Mad GunZ is also present in Iran, and for them we also ditched the dress-wearing man-fairy.

Oops! The Chinese didn't care for a bearded fairy wearing a dress. To the right is the adapted version for China.

As far as ASO, we try to use Asian trends in the description. For example, we noticed that for our target audience in Asia the most popular search term for games was "robots." In Blocky Cars we had just introduced robots in the update, so for the European game description we stressed that the game included cars, while in Asian countries we emphasized that the game had robots.

You were featured for three weeks. Was this in the stores for every country? Or how does that work?

It was the Editors' Choice for the Battle Royale category, which particularly included Mad GunZ. Blocky Cars and Mad GunZ were featured worldwide at almost the same time, but in different categories. Mad GunZ was there for three weeks, and Blocky Cars for one week.

What determines whether you're there for three weeks or one? How can you stay there for longer?

It all depends on how often the category changes. Battle Royale was one of the summer categories. The editors selected several categories, such as "Best Arcades," "Battle Royale," etc. The games selected for each category were posted on the home page. These categories change every three weeks.

In the category where Blocky Cars was, the games change every week. That category is called "New and Updated."

What advice would you give to those who would also like to be featured? What helps accomplish that?

Mad GunZ simply caught someone's eye. We try to maintain a certain level of profitability, with minimal bugs (crashes, etc., which prevent the user from enjoying the game), and to produce quality content, and all this led to Mad GunZ being selected.

As for Blocky Cars, here we reached out to the experts: we submitted a request stating that we had a quality game and that we wanted to attract more users by being featured. The requirements were the same: a specific profitability level and minimal bugs. Then Google sent their own requirements, and our technical experts adjusted the game slightly to comply with them.

We also had to add gameplay screenshots with no captions or processing—scenes of how the game actually looked. If a company wants Google to notice them, they should absolutely add at least one or two clean, non-Photoshopped screenshots.

Not long ago I published an interview with Duck Rockets where they talked about how hard it is to create an app for children, since stores tighten their requirements. What can you tell us about that?

Recently stores have greatly stiffened their policies on working with children. Apple in particular prohibits using the installation of other apps on offerwalls, while Google permits using only advertising networks they have accredited.

For us the only real challenge is the requirement that there not be a lot of blood in the game itself and that the screenshots not show people shooting each other. Mad GunZ is a shooter, so we use Photoshop to move the characters a little and get rid of the crosshairs. Everyone knows what's going on regardless, but no blood or violence is shown.

Recently we made new screenshots for the Battle Royale mode. In one screenshot we showed a character—a girl—standing on a shark, wearing knee socks and shorts. And Google chopped that screenshot: they refused to allow it on the marketplace, stating that the clothes "invited sexual actions." But when the designers merged the socks and shorts and made them into pants, they no longer had any issues with it. And yet the character was made of pixels: there was no sexual innuendo whatsoever.

Thank you Full HP Ltd team for sharing their fascinating experience!

Disclaimer: article by Margarita Shvetsova from Nitro, online professional translation service

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I compiled a list of resources for rendering volumetric clouds. I hope folks here find it helpful.

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 08:53 AM PST

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Is Godot worth switching to?

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 10:34 AM PST

The two reasons I chose Unity was the fact that I am a C# developer and it required no effort to use C# as the language of the game engine. The second was Unity has been around for quite awhile, and there are loads of resources online for it. I've been hearing a lot about Godot, and originally assumed it used it's own language for it, and I wasn't interested in learning another language for something that might turn out just to be a hobby. So is it worth at least trying out? I do know now that there is support for other languages, like C#.

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What was the most stupid lighthearted mistake you made in development?

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 11:34 AM PST

I've been thinking today and remembered the time I laughed my ass off because of my stupid mistake about a year ago. I thought it'd be interesting for us to share some funny moments here :D

About a year ago I was going to show off our game for the first time at a big Gaming event, and a few days prior I'd stay up late every night polishing the 2D graphics. I was quite sleep deprived. On the last night prior to the showcase I realized the Innkeeper wasn't polished so I took care of that, he shows up a lot in the game. I was pretty pleased with the result.

The next day, hours away from home with only a build of the game, I watched as the kids played and felt like something was weird about him.

It took me the whole day to realize that he didn't have eyebrows.

TL;DR Didn't realize I didn't add eyebrows to a character 'till I came to a showcase at a huge event

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Will RPG Maker be too limiting for what I'd like to do?

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 07:46 AM PST

Hi everyone,

I'm an aspiring developer. I have graphic design and a bit of animation knowledge, but no experience in programming. A friend recommended RPG Maker as it apparently uses a "simplified" version for people that aren't familiar with coding. I'm more than willing to put in the time to learn the engine, but I'm worried that it might be too limiting, specially for the combat system I'd like the game to have.

To be more specific, I was thinking of a turn-based combat system that resembles Paper Mario TTYD, in which each attack requires a different mechanic from the player's perspective (remember a combination of buttons, let go of the joystick with the right timing, etc.) On the other hand, the enemies' attacks would also require a handful of different mechanics for defense, like a rudimentary sidescrolling "spaceship" game appearing on screen and having to avoid pellets, and an Arkanoid-like game also appearing and you avoid damage by not letting the ball through, etc.

Do you think what I'm describing can be done in RPG Maker, or any visual coding engine for that matter? Can anyone point me in the right direction for my project? I appreciate all suggestions. Thanks in advance.

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Diligent Engine is now available in C!

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 12:01 PM PST

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Is there a guide to better understand how VN's are made?

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 07:26 AM PST

Looking to start a passion project on a VN with my friends. Right now, we have a concept but the next steps seem unclear. Any help is appreciated.

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Is it worthwhile to advertise your game trailer on Reddit?

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 01:05 PM PST

If anyone did it, how did it go? How did you build awareness for game? What did you target, views, wishlist, newsletter signups, etc.

Also how did you write your ad headline? Any examples would be a big help!

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What program would you recommend?

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 08:12 AM PST

I have an older laptop, an Alienware m11x R2 to be specific. It has a quad core i7 chip, 4 gb ram and a 1gb dedicated gpu. I'm just starting in this game development thing and would like to know which program would run well enough on my laptop to start learning how to make games. I'm taking some online free courses for c++, was thinking about c# but seems like c++ is still more useful? Anyways, I want something to mess around with in the evening to get some hands on development time. What program would be good for me with pretty much zero experience using these programs? Would also like a program that won't bring my PC to it's knees when I get far into a project. Thanks for any info you may have, even if it's just "get a new pc!", which is not currently in the cards until I get my tax returns.

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Work In Progress Prototype, Feedback Appreciated

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 09:16 AM PST

Hey, just here to show off a bit of progress on a project I'm working on. I have a few set ideas on what direction to take the project but still under heavy consideration. So far I've just been working on core fundamentals and feature, along with setting out a visual style to stick with.

A snow biome

So I've chosen 3 different areas/biomes so far, including snow, wood and desert seen here:

https://i.redd.it/ghenw1d0uxe41.gif

The gameplay so far consists of fast paced shooting, with reliable enough AI to compete against each other and assist the player:

An older GIF showcasing an extreme combat scenario

What I want to work on is a massive variety of weapons to choose from, all with individual satisfaction of use. So far there is a pistol, pump shotgun, double barreled shotgun, assault rifle and a flamethrower:

Flamethrower seen here

I want each weapon to portray extreme effects of its use, to capture a hyperactive/hyperviolent playstyle, such as the two shotguns sharing similarities but are also on different ends of an extreme:

https://i.redd.it/04ud3kh8vxe41.gif

Both shotguns can deal devestation through different ranges, with the double barrel being choice for higher damage at the cost of exposing yourself in more dangerous situations.

Vehicles are also something I've worked on, but I'm unsure of their use in a bigger picture.

https://i.redd.it/klwp1yewvxe41.gif

https://i.redd.it/xe82di9yvxe41.gif

lol, AI isn't smart enough just yet

I also have a much longer video demonstrating pretty much the gist of the current project on youtube, you can check here if you'd like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgjnl27Tg2k

Any feedback is highly appreciated and noted.

I also post updates on my Twitter, if you're interested: https://twitter.com/heavymaterial

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How do you get players to test your game before releasing it on Steam?

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 10:15 AM PST

I heard Steam reviews are really important.

That being said, at the beginning you polish your game, fix bugs, and work on the title prior releasing it.

There is an early access feature on Steam, but you expose yourself to the rating system as well which will still impact your real release date.

As title says how do you guys get players to actually play your game before releasing it on Steam?

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XNA lighting/shading?

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 08:26 AM PST

I've seen a few tutorials out there explaining how to make fairly simple lighting systems. It looks to me like most of these tutorials use some sort of mask in the shape of the light source. I'm wondering if coding the intensity of each pixel is actually realistic. Math-wise I know how to do this using some trig and coordinate geometry, but is that going to significantly lower the draw speed?

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I wanted to share my implementation of a lava gun - I call the Vulcanator - for my new game. Made in Unity using only a particle system and couple coroutines for winding up and down!

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 11:19 AM PST

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Finding entry level jobs while still in school

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 11:16 AM PST

I'm a student finishing up my BS degree but as an atypical student with a family finding a job quickly is of utmost importance. After this quarter I'll only need one class(an upper division writing course) in Spring to graduate come June, but I really need to be working before then to pay bills.

How would I go about applying for game dev jobs while still in school? What should I put on my resume if I haven't technically graduated yet? Any tips for finding entry level gameplay/systems/AI programming or similar design jobs? Any tangentially related jobs I should look for to get my foot in the door(and a paycheck)?

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Generating Perfect Normal Maps for Unity (and Other Programs)

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 12:00 AM PST

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Level design breakdown of a side mission from The Division 2

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 05:37 AM PST

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Insect Kingdom - Game kickstarter

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 01:02 PM PST

Hello fellow devs and those interested, i was told that i could shamelessly promote my work in here so im sorry if that is not the case...

I put out a kickstarter to fund my game project i have been working on for 8 months now:
INSECT KINGDOM - 3rd person Insect Survival Multiplayer.

I will let the kickstarter speak for itself, i just hope you like what you see and if you really do, please support it, i put my absolute everything into this, for the sake of gaming and insects as they dont recieve justice, respect or recognition they really should be getting..

Kickstarter link:
Kickstarter

Take care all!

https://preview.redd.it/stu64tjl0ze41.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9a9cf4a1b8e57608f27ed785eee056293c9e37e8

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New Videogame Developer in Youtube. I'll show you all my experience in this amazing WORLD

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 12:53 PM PST

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Anybody need help with sound design/music?

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 06:51 AM PST

Independent producer and audio engineer here, no real experience designing audio for games but would really like to give it a shot. No matter the genre. PM me if i can help! :)

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Adopting in-game advertising as an alternate revenue stream (PC/Desktop)

Posted: 04 Feb 2020 12:30 PM PST

To preface this, we're making an online sci-fi game set in a near-earth timeline, with hooks to the real world in the story - which nicely lets having real-world ads in the game make sense. We're envisioning billboards and smaller ads strategically placed in the hubs and populated zones of the overworld.

As a part of looking into alternative revenue sources moving away from the standard monetization model, we've encountered programmatic ad placements as a potential revenue stream which will help offset costs elsewhere to reduce the burden on the monetizing part of the player-base.

Has anyone here got experience using this in the wild? And alternatively, if done tastefully and non-intrusively, would this detract from the player's experience? Any other comments?

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Why do we work in sprints if game development is a marathon?

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