During a special Valentine’s Day session at White Nights Prague ‘18, Josh presented “Mining the Web for Cross-Platform Gems." The talk explored how Kongregate has used its web platform to discover games that have potential for cross-platform success on mobile, PC and console. By looking at hits like AdVenture Capitalist, Realm Grinder and Bit Heroes, the presentation extracts the characteristics and KPIs for cross-platform potential.

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Mining the Web for
Cross-Platform Gems
Josh Larson
CRO, Kongregate
February 14, 2018

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About this Session
The web platform continues to serve as a great testing ground
for game concepts that can then have cross-platform success
on mobile, PC and console. Learn what characteristics and
KPIs the best web game prospects have for growing into
something bigger. This session will draw on Kongregate’s
experience as cross-platform publisher and managing the
Kongregate.com platform.

3. Corporate 3
Kongregate Mission
To nurture the long-term growth and health
of independent developers and player communities

4. Corporate 4
Kongregate Business Overview
Powerful symbiosis between three core competencies
Platform
Products that connect game developers and
their communities
Publishing
Best-in-class marketing, insights, and live
operations
Studios
Talented game developers building
Kongregate’s biggest hits

5. Corporate 55
Kongregate Stats
50 M
Mobile Installs in 2017
> 12 M
Monthly Active Users
45
Games Published
> 115,000
Games Live on Kongregate.com

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Cross-Platform Publishing Experience
Coming Soon 2018

7. Publishing 7
AdVenture Capitalist
Iterate on Web, Launch as Polished Product on Mobile & Beyond
Art, F2P, Polish
Kongregate.com
(August 2014)
Insane retention
Repeat purchasers
iOS & Android … & Beyond
(February 2015)
Over 25 million mobile installs
Also Steam, Facebook, PS4
Successor is AdVenture Communist

8. Publishing 8
Realm Grinder
….
Art, UI, Polish
Kongregate.com
(August 2015)
iOS & Android
(January 2017)
Top 10 grossing title
Great long-term retention
Armor & Steam
(Sep 2016 & Jun 2017)

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Bit Heroes
….
UI, Scaling
Kongregate.com
(September 2016)
iOS & Android
(May 2017)
Charming pixel art & nostalgic gameplay
MMO appeal in engagement & spend
Steam
(Dec 2017)

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Biggest Web Predictor of Cross-Platform Success?
They found THE FUN

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Best signals of a fun game on web
User Rating on Kong Web
3.8 is good, 4.0 is great
Adventure Capitalist 4.2, Realm Grinder 4.3, Bit Heroes 4.5
Kong Team reaction:
“I knew that AdVenture Capitalist was something special when I looked
around the office and realized the entire office was playing it!”
-- Emily Greer, CEO, Kongregate

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Other Key KPIs of Cross-Platform Hopefuls
Strong Long-Term Retention
Translates well to other platforms
Monetization
% Buyer Rate: 1-1.5% is good, over 2% is really good
ARPPU (Lifetime): $40-$80 is good, $100-$200 is really good
(viewing the two together is important context)

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Deeper into retention curve across web games
D1 on web *much* lower than other
platforms … zero friction to load/leave game
Long-term retention on web converges with
mobile/other
Day 30+ retention is the real separator
behind revenue performance on web … and
predictor of success on other platforms
Retention Curve by Revenue Band
(Kongregate.com)

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Deeper into monetization stats across platforms
Most games monetize better on Web and
Steam than Mobile
Varies by game & genre, more competitive
and social titles have higher increases
Ads is a big caveat: can be majority of
revenue on mobile for certain genres …
lesser % on Web, and zero on Steam
Monetization across Platforms (ARPDAU)
Mobile Web Steam
Idle RPG $0.05 $0.08 $0.05
CCG $0.35 $2.30 $1.64
RPG $0.45 $1.60 $0.97
CCG $0.70 $0.80 $0.82

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Where a Publisher can add some Pixie Dust
Art & Polish
Get one chance at first impression with platform editorial
UI
Optimize for smaller screen size and touch control
Monetization
Revisit store, event, content release strategy
In-Game Ads
Consider rewarded video & offerwall for mobile

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Pleasant Surprises from going Cross-Platform
#1: Ads can be a win-win #2: You may attract multi-platform users
#3: Other platforms may consume content … quickly!
AdCap mobile users checked in 5-6 times a day (vs 2.5-3 on web)
Idle game players on Steam utilize second window
An ad network outage one day
led to users complaining they
couldn’t watch ads.
Chart displays daily active users on Kongregate.com only.

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KPI Analysis
Buyer Rate & ARPPU
Long-Term Retention
Benchmark against portfolio
ROI analysis
Evaluating Games
We Play Hundreds of Games
Alignment with Team
We evaluate games, we sign teams
Long term partnership
Good fit between our strengths/gaps
Games We Love
Trust our intuition
Validated by Kong users’

18. 18
Flash Games Nostalgia is real!
Super Fancy Pants Adventure
(PC: Sep 2017; Mobile: Jan 2018; Console: Q2 2018)
Burrito Bison: Launcha Libre
(Mobile: November 2016)
Over 100m gameplays from web franchise
Now premium on to PC/Mobile/Console
Burrito Bison Revenge voted best Kong game ever
Fun F2P successor hit mobile & 11mm+ installs

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Questions?
(also visit blog.kongregate.com)

20. Publishing 20
Thank You