In Dragon City we have different squads for feature development and Live Operations. Are there any mistakes you’ve learned from during the years of developing Dragon CIty? What things should other studios developing live operations games try to avoid? We also keep a close eye on retention and monetization at all levels and we regularly run AB tests for both new users and daily users, looking for ways to optimise both the early funnel and the late game user experience.īecause our old loyal players are key, we also pay a lot of attention to Community feedback, making sure we anticipate how our players will perceive any change we’ll make in the game. We monitor early LTV because that’s what allows us to run profitable marketing campaigns which allows us to reinvest. The main strategy is to keep reinvesting to grow the game. What strategies do you employ to attract new players and how do you go about ensuring these strategies don’t alienate your exisiting user base? Being on top of both day to day operations while thinking about long term growth strategy can be a challenge. On a day to day level there’s the logistics of managing such a large team Dragon City employs 40 to 50 people which creates a lot of overhead to: communicate, align everyone, deal with many different profiles and organisational issues. What are some of the biggest challenges faced with live operating Dragon City? Overall, we release 10 new dragons every month & about 5-7 temporary mini games. Subscribe to Pocket Gamer on What are the key considerations that go into planning content and new features?Įnsuring that every single day, there is something new in the game. That’s where having an innovative and cross-channel marketing strategy is super important. To help it stay relevant, it’s crucial to be able to renew its userbase and keep acquiring high quality players. To mitigate against this, we continually invest in improving tech & tools - and more generally the quality of the game, whether it’s bugs or hackers - to make sure we deliver the best possible experience to our players.įinally, there’s the marketing which is vital for tackling the natural downward trend of an older game. Naturally, Dragon City has a lot of tech debt which slows down operations - whether it’s Live Operations settings or new feature development - and eventually causes live issues affecting the players. The third thing is tech and sustainability. Having the right people, a clear vision and the right process is a must have for a performing product. Stagnancy in process can mean stagnancy for the product, so in Dragon City we are always looking at how we can adapt and grow as a team. Socialpoint has invested significant energy over the dragon city these last few years in becoming a high performance team together. You can’t get anywhere without a strong motivated team and with a project as old as Dragon City, you have legacy not just in the product itself but also in the team and way of working. This content depth gives it an edge against newer competitors. As of today Dragon City has nearly 1500 dragons. All with fresh themes and content.Ĭontinually supplying new game content also means an increase to early LTV, which ensures the game can stay relevant and grow in an increasingly competitive market. In Dragon City we cycle through a variety of events from a few days to a few weeks. Starting with the most obvious question first what are the secrets behind Dragon City’s continued popularity since it first launched?įor Dragon City, ensuring durability over lifetime has been a combination of 4 main factors:įirst there’s the live operations content where the focus has been to keep longtime players engaged with desirable premium dragons and an active liveops calendar. To help offer some insight about Dragon City’s longevity and the work that’s required to maintain its popularity, we spoke with Socialpoint’s Lead Game Designer, Payton Orr. In case you weren’t aware, this year is a pretty significant one for many of mobile’s most popular titles, with the likes of Candy Crush Saga, Clash of Clans, and Subway Surfers celebrating their 10 year anniversaries.Īlso joining those decennial celebrations this month is Socialpoint’s epic, social strategy game, Dragon City (although technically it has only been available as an iOS and Android app for the past 9 years, we’re going to give it a pass since it’s had such a massive influence on mobile strategy games during that time).
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