Overview
Developing a successful game in today's market is a challenging endeavor. Thousands of titles are published yearly, all competing for players' time and attention. Game analytics has emerged as a way to ensure game quality, maximize success, understand player behavior and enhance the quality of the player experience, leading to a paradigm shift in the development and design strategies of digital games and introducing data-driven intelligence practices to inform decision-making at operational, tactical and strategic levels. This is the first book on the topic of game analytics -- the process of discovering and communicating patterns in data toward evaluating and driving action, improving performance and solving problems in game development and game research. Written by more than 50 international experts from industry and research, it covers a comprehensive range of topics across 30+ chapters. Topics include monetization strategies, design of telemetry systems, analytics for iterative production, game data mining and big data in game development, spatial analytics, visualization and reporting of analysis, player behavior analysis, quantitative user testing and game user research. This volume is an essential reference for game developers and researchers.\xa0It covers: Thorough introduction to game analytics, covering analytics applied to data on players, processes and performance throughout the game lifecycle; In-depth coverage and advice on setting up analytics systems and developing good practices for integrating analytics in game-development and management; Contributions by leading researchers and experienced professionals from industry, including Ubisoft, Sony, EA, Bioware, Square Enix, THQ, Volition, and PlayableGames; Interviews with experienced industry professionals on how they use analytics to create hit games.