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Under the Hood: Tilting Point’s Approach to Game Evaluation

8 Oct 2020

By Meric Atesalp

View this blog on Medium


At Tilting Point we think about publishing differently.  We pioneered what we call a “progressive publishing model”, where we deepen our partnership with a game studio over time.  

Since we’re interested in forming long term partnerships, we take our initial game evaluation process very seriously.  We’re looking for high-performing and talented teams with games that are already starting to find traction in the market, and will uniquely benefit from what the team at Tilting Point has to offer. 

Many developers have asked us what we’re looking for when we’re evaluating games, and what’s the best way to get started with Tilting Point.  That’s why we pulled together this quick overview of how our team thinks about evaluating titles, and our approach to Powering Up games.

Data Evaluation

The first step is for the team at Tilting Point to get ‘under the hood’ with a game and understand what makes it tick. And this starts by looking at the data and KPIs.

Developers give us access to data in at least one of three key categories – their game’s analytics platform (mobile measurement partner, Amplitude, Firebase, etc), their app store data from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, or their campaign data from previous UA efforts.

At this phase, we’re trying to estimate the potential of a game to scale by taking advantage of the relevant services that we offer. Like you’d expect, we look closely at metrics like LTV, retention, game rating, ad revenue, past UA campaigns and performance, CPI, player profiles (M-F, age, geography), cost of subscriptions, and more.

KPI’s could differ from genre to genre, but generally speaking we look for:

  • D1 retention: +35% 
  • D7 retention: +10% 
  • Cohorted Purchase conversion rate: +1.5%
  • Excellent ad monetization potential

UA Testing

If the initial data suggests that our team can help scale the game, we move on to an initial UA test, funded by Tilting Point.

We ask the team to provide a couple of creatives, including 2-3 landscapes and square images with limited to no text.  Generally, these should be 1200×628, 1080×1080 or similar aspect ratios.  We’re also looking for 2-3 10 and 30 second videos in a mix of landscape, square, and portrait formats.

We generally spend a few hundred dollars on tests that last about a week. We look at payer profiles and look at lookalikes vs interest, iOS vs Android, male vs. female, and age group.

We then analyze the results of the initial test, gather projected ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) figures, and determine whether to move on to the next phase which is an insertion order (or IO for short) for a short campaign.

First IO

An insertion order is essentially an agreement between Tilting Point and a developer that we’re going to spend a certain amount of money on UA for a game.  For this first IO, we invest a minimum of $10,000 into UA campaigns to determine the viability of the game at scale.

The first IO is an incredibly important step in our progressive publishing process. On average about 35% of the games that we evaluate make it to this phase. During the first IO, Tilting Point is looking to understand three things – (1) whether the game’s UA prospects have longevity, (2) how much it could potentially scale, and (3) what developer needs we can help fill.

When it comes to longevity, the team is considering whether the success we saw in the UA test is repeatable and sustainable.  It’s one thing to do a successful test, but can you repeat the results over the course of a month? In terms of scale, we gradually scale day by day to understand the monthly total scale of a game.

And throughout the process, we’re looking closely at developer needs.  We want to understand what resources a team may lack and see where we can help – whether that’s better targeting, better creatives, ASO, improved ad monetization, or design help.

We’re looking for games that have the potential to reach at least $200k booking per month, which can be achieved by UA but can also be amplified by Tilting Point’s expertise in ASO, ad monetization, Live Ops, organic growth, platform featuring, or other game improvements.

If the IO proves out that a game and studio are a good match with Tilting Point, we can then explore a number of fee-based or revenue sharing models that range from simple funding of the developer’s own UA efforts to a full Live Publishing model. We know every team is different, and we have a number of services and models to help get each team exactly what they need.

Power Up Your Game

If you’re interested in working with the team at Tilting Point, we’d love to hear from you.  Developers who are interested in submitting their games can email us at hello@tiltingpoint.com

 

As Partner Growth Manager at Tilting Point, Meric is responsible for testing and evaluating new game partners. Meric also manages newly signed UA deals and ensures the development of long term partnerships. He’s been working at Tilting Point for the past 3 years in growth marketing and business development positions, before that he studied engineering at Columbia University. Outside of work, he’s an avid gamer and enjoys cooking Turkish food and baking.

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