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TwimlerFrom hobbyist to thriving gaming studioCase study1unity3d.com/ads unity3d.com/analytics
The facts in briefThe challengeAs a programmer and avidcasual game player, MajidKhosravi was confident he couldcreate a game that playerswould enjoy. However, building aprofitable game that would standout amongst a multitude of wellestablished competitors in themarket would require, not only agame engine, but integrating apatchwork of different solutions,including ads, analytics, and IAP.The solutionThe Unity engine, with itsbuilt-in Ads, Analytics, andIAP functionality, has enabledTwimler to create engaging,addictive match 3 puzzle games,which are profitable, and stilloffer players a way to enjoy thegames without feeling pressuredinto purchasing IAPs.The results Fruit Bump and Jewel Mashgames have achieved over 10million downloads DAU increased from around500K to around 800K in twomonths IAP sales up 70% and Adsrevenue up 60% since startingto use Unity Ads in 2015 ARPDAU increased by 15%2unity3d.com/ads unity3d.com/analyticsHow Twimler staysscrappy and successfulMajid Khosravi had been a gamer his whole adult life.Developing software was just something he did fora living. That is, until he began to develop games inhis own free time back in 2012. With a strong beliefin himself and what he could create, Khosravi usedUnity Pro right from the start to create the kind ofmatch 3 game that he himself loved to play. Then,he published it, added levels and implemented amonetization strategy that—with the help of UnityAds, Analytics, and IAP—players have embraced.His efforts have resulted in 20,000 downloads perday, and a thriving game studio with seven full-timeemployees who love their work.“Using Unity Ads, Analytics & IAP as awhole, we’ve experienced an increase inad revenue of over 60% and IAP salesin our games grew by over 70%.”Majid Khosravi, Founder and CEO
“I needed an engine that made it easy to build agame, gather insight, and create a way to get paid.”Majid Khosravi, Founder and CEOThe challengeThe solutionHow to stand out ina crowded marketCritical insights andrewarded video adsMajid Khosravi founded Twimler in the UK withthe idea of creating a highly accessible match3 puzzle game, which anyone could pick up,play and enjoy whenever they wanted. As aprogrammer and avid casual player, he wantedto create a game that would have just the rightlevel of difficulty to keep it fun and engaging.Easy to understand behavioral dataAfter creating the first hit games, Fruit Bump andJewel Mash, one of Twimler’s goals was to getthe difficulty curve just right. For example, FruitBump, which has 620 levels, was designed with aprecise level of difficulty that rises over time butcontinues to engage players as they progressthrough the game. “If the difficulty curve is toosteep, players can get frustrated and leave. If it’stoo easy, players get bored,” Khosravi says.“Achieving cognitive flow, where gameplaystrikes that perfect balance between difficultyand skill is critical to any game’s success,”Khosravi says.This strategy meant that the main revenuewould have to come from advertising, and notIAPs. He needed to find a way to introduce adsthat players would embrace, and a game enginewith integrated tools for ads, analytics, and IAPsthat would ease development time and friction.“I needed to find a game engine that made iteasy to build the basic game, gather insight sowe could tweak gameplay, and create a way toget paid that naturally fit into the game,” Khosravisays. “Keeping this honest approach would letme stand proudly behind the games and standout in the crowd. This would allow players toplay as much as they wanted, without forcingthem to purchase extra lives to keep playing.”3unity3d.com/ads unity3d.com/analyticsSo Khosravi turned to Unity Analytics and notonly did it offer a range of free, powerful tools toget insight about player behavior—it was alreadybuilt into the Unity Game Engine. “This made iteasy to set up and simple to use with no code orSDK integration,” Khosravi says.“Some of the other analytics tools have powerfulfunctionality, but that’s useless if you’re unable to
“I always loved match 3 games, and with Unity I could putall the things I like into the game, publish it, and eventually,switch careers. Now, my life is way more fun.”Majid Khosravi, Founder and CEOmake sense of it. Unity Analytics, on the otherhand, has a friendly interface and dashboard,which makes it really easy to get specificanswers that are simple to understand whenyou need them most,” Khosravi says.Attracting the right players and earningtheir loyaltyTwimler uses Unity Ads both to attract newplayers—by advertising Fruit Bump and JewelMash in other games in the Unity Ads network—and to generate revenue by showing rewardedvideo ads in their own titles.“Unity Ads delivers hot leads who are more likelyto convert and become loyal players becausethey’re already interested in our type of game,”Khosravi says. Once they do become players,Twimler uses Unity Ads to generate revenue bygiving players the option of watching rewardedvideo ads in exchange for in-game currency.By combining Unity’s built-in Analytics and Adsfunctionality, such as setting custom events like‘levels completed’, ‘total session time’ and ‘levelcompletion rate’, Twimler is able to monitor howplayers are progressing. This allows them toalter the design to keep players moving forwardand engaging in a satisfying flow where thechallenge is just right, while making sure the adsare surfaced at the right time to the right player.One way they’ve done this was to measureretention in relation to the intervals in which4unity3d.com/ads unity3d.com/analyticsrewarded video ads were shown. They startedcautiously by showing ads every 10 minutes.They then gradually lowered the interval betweenads—always ensuring that there was no drop-offin retention—until they got down to every twominutes, which proved to be the optimal intervalfor generating ad revenue without affectingretention. This frequency also optimized theperformance of the ads shown, thus increasingrevenue further.The resultsExponential growth ofa loyal player baseSegmentation and targeted offersBy making their games with Unity and usingcritical insights from Unity Analytics to optimizethe Unity Ads experience, Twimler was able todevelop a monetization strategy that didn’t forceplayers to buy IAP extra lives to keep on playing.“When I launched my games with Unity,everything worked the way I wanted it to. Youbuild your game, and then have portability tolaunch on whatever platform you decide—console, Android, iOS, whatever—it’s easy,” saysKhosravi. “And with Unity IAP functionality, it’sreally easy to set up and monitor IAPs acrossmultiple stores.”
”Our Average Revenue Per Daily ActiveUser [ARPDAU] skyrocketed by 15%.”Majid Khosravi, Founder and CEOis off. For example, if it dropped right after weshortened the time between showing ads, thatmeant the interval was too short. I could evenidentify which levels appeared to encourage, ordiscourage, players from going for the one IAPthat Fruit Bump offers.”They’re also able to segment users into ‘payers’and ‘non-payers’, tailoring the experienceaccordingly. For instance, ‘payers’ and ‘nonpayers’ are now offered different IAP specialoffers, with ‘payers’ being presented withpackage deals that allow them, for example, tocustomize their game or progress faster. The‘Non-payer’ offers, on the other hand, focus onthings like limited-time, high-value offers tobetter encourage that first purchase.Happy players, happy—and profitable—studio“Insight from Unity Analytics data allowed us touse Unity Ads to keep an honest approach andbuild a loyal player community while boostingrevenue, maintaining strong retention, andkeeping our players happy,” Khosravi said. “Forexample, we saw our daily average users growexponentially from 500,000 to 800,000 sinceJanuary 2016 creating 300,000 new dailyaverage users in just two months,” Khosravisays.Keeping players engaged“Unity Analytics data helped me a great deal indesigning very precise levels of challenge overtime and in creating an in-game difficulty curvethat ensures users play for a long time andreturn often,” says Khosravi. “With SessionLength and Average Revenue Per User’ metrics,combined with its Custom Reports, you can seestraight away if retention drops when something“This is critical when Unity Ads is our key sourceof revenue with 80% generated via rewardedvideo ads and 20% through IAPs, which is justhow we wanted it,” concludes Khosravi. “UsingUnity Ads, Analytics & IAP as a whole, we’veexperienced an increase in ad revenue of over60%, IAP sales in our games grew by over 70%,and most importantly, our Average Revenue PerDaily Active User [ARPDAU] skyrocketed by 15%.”About Unity TechnologiesUnity Technologies is the creator of Unity, a flexible and high-performance end-to-end development platform used to create richinteractive 3D and 2D experiences. Unity’s powerful graphics engine and full-featured editor serve as the foundation to developbeautiful games or apps and easily bring them to multiple platforms: mobile devices, home entertainment systems, personalcomputers, and embedded systems. Unity also offers solutions and services for creating games, boosting productivity, andconnecting with audiences including the Unity Asset Store, Unity Cloud Build, Unity Game Performance Reporting, UnityAnalytics, Unity Ads, and Unity Everyplay. Unity Technologies serves over 1 million monthly active developers including largepublishers, indie studios, students and hobbyists around the globe. For more information, visit: http://unity3d.com/ads orhttp://unity3d.com/analytics.5unity3d.com/ads unity3d.com/analytics
that would ease development time and friction. "I needed to find a game engine that made it . Android, iOS, whatever—it's easy," says Khosravi. "And with Unity IAP functionality, it's . Unity Technologies is the creator of Unity, a flexible and high-performance end-to-end development platform used to create rich .
