Forum Discussion

KevinJardine's avatar
KevinJardine
Member
5 months ago

Key to successful games?

I've been looking at a number of Horizon Worlds worlds/experiences/games and have been using "likes" as a proxy for success to get an idea for what successful games look like. And I am finding it hard to draw conclusions.

One thing I notice is that many games that have a lot of likes have been around for a while or are connected to creators that have been around for a while. Even new games that won prizes in the last mobile contest often don't have a lot of likes.

I am also still puzzled as to what algorithm Meta uses to promote worlds, other than games that have a lot of likes/players, get more promotion, leading to more likes/players. As a result there are a few games that get a lot of promotion and have a huge number of likes and many games that seem to get little promotion and so of course have few likes.

For my own games, I notice that once a month or so for a day or two the impression count goes up and then drops down again to a very small number. Is this a sign that Meta randomly chooses a few low-like or low-player games to promote and gives them a brief chance?

I attended the workshop on Monday on social media promotion. The presenters were excellent but I found that there were gaps in the methodology presented. For example, TikTok and Instagram do not seem to allow you to attach clickable links to your videos (TikTok makes exceptions for larger accounts, which I don't have of course). One theory I have is that many successful Horizon Worlds creators have mastered the secret sauce for world promotion, but I don't know.

Any thoughts on what makes a successful game? I don't mean this post to be a whine against Meta. It is more questions about what is to me a mysterious and rather opaque system.

 

Metrics
MHCP Program

6 Replies

  • sunriser's avatar
    sunriser
    Member
    5 months ago

    I liked this post for the algo :) keen to see what Meta responds with too!

  • Ben.SH's avatar
    Ben.SH
    Community Manager
    5 months ago

    We recently released an article about How Worlds discovery works. You'll find information about the various surfaces users find worlds in, the facets the algorithm uses, and some initial steps you can take to help improve those factors. Some big initial first steps start with customizing your world thumbnail using A/B Testing, honing your world title and description, and making sure the first moments the user experiences in your world are engaging and keep them from immediately bouncing.

    • KevinJardine's avatar
      KevinJardine
      Member
      5 months ago

      Do you know what is considered a good clickthrough rate? So far as I can tell, my Galactic Treasure Hunt game has decent metrics for the visitors it attracts. The problem is that there are very few visitors. I am wondering if I can work to improve the clickthrough rate.

  • LNATIONDEV's avatar
    LNATIONDEV
    Partner
    5 months ago

    I’ve run a series of experiments to gauge interest scheduling events at various times of day, promoting them with over $160 in Facebook ads. In two days, only one unknown user joined the world. The concept itself has potential it's nice writing code that 'just' works transparently on all devices, but it's clear the current user base simply isn’t there, neither on Quest nor mobile/web.

    I suspect they'll continue pushing the mobile platform over the next few years, but if that doesn't gain traction, this software is likely headed for abandonment. Meta are a business at the end of the day and this is not the 'core' business just a 'cool experiment'. They will lose the hardware battle with apple, the moment they drop pro and make that device affordable. That’s why I’m pivoting to Unity, Unreal, and the immersive web. At least with those, I retain control of the source if worlds ever does just disappear.

    The Desktop World Editor has been a useful introduction into VR development for me, so it's not been a pointless week.

    • KevinJardine's avatar
      KevinJardine
      Member
      5 months ago

      Hmm. I started with WebXR, moved to Unity XR and am currently working in Horizon Worlds. Although I'm currently averaging only 10 players / per day, that is still similar to or better than what I had before and the Horizon Worlds tools enable me to develop much faster and with way more fun. So I plan to stick around for a while yet.

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