Forget the about screen, add a more games panel

Peter Vullings's picture
Peter Vullings
Tue, 30/06/2009 - 19:14

The latest update to our cool puzzle game Sheepish was recently accepted by Apple, and the first stats are in.
 
Amongst the changes that went through in this iteration is a 'More Games Panel' (MGP) that replaces the 'About' button on the home screen.  The MGP is loaded dynamically from the server when it is accessed and shows details about our latest games and happenings.
 

 

 
Here are some interesting stats from our first week or so:

  • 320 unique users ran the game
  • 80 of those accessed the MGP (a wopping 25%)
  •       38 of those clicked to view Rune Mage, our upcoming game (almost 50%)
  •       20 clicked to go to our website and forums (25%)
  •       1 minute is the average time spent on the MGP
  • Only 14 people clicked the old about button (obviously hadn't updated yet)
  •       4 seconds is the average time spent on the about screen!

If you think about it, not all of the 320 users who ran the game had updated to the latest version, so an even higher percentage of people actually clicked to view the MGP.  Only time will tell whether this is a trend, or because the MGP is new :)
 
Conclusion?
Forget the 'About' screen - add some functionallity which is useful to the user, and a little interactive, like a 'More Games Panel'.  Notify the player when it has been updated to draw thier attention to it - and make sure it contains useful information and links (to support forums, for example) so that the player doesn't write it off as just another annoying sales gimmick.
 


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