It’s amazing to think that it has only been 50 years since the release of Pong, the first-ever rudimentary game. Now, modern games offer detailed and immersive open worlds that are getting harder to differentiate from reality.
Thanks to advancing technology, the game industry is progressing exponentially, and the evolution of this form of entertainment is coming on at lightning speeds. Now, developers are able to put artificial intelligence to work. It can scour big data to identify all the key trends and help studios create the exact games that people want to play.
Understanding Player Behaviour
One of the most important components to coming up with a game that’s going to be successful in today’s cutthroat market is understanding player behaviour. Nowadays, studios can collect a vast amount of data from in-game metrics. These track everything from player movements to interactions and choices. By analysing all this information, game designers can think about how to optimise their games during the construction phase.
This type of analysis is particularly useful in markets where players are faced with an endless amount of choice. Online slots players, for instance, have thousands of games to choose from so developers need to get it right the first time if they want to find success with players. Buzz Casino is a good example of a casino that’s used data analysis to discover the top games that people want to play. It has a featured game section at the top with titles that it knows will attract a lot of players, such as Blue Wizard and Adventures Beyond Wonderland Live.
Balancing and Fine-Tuning Gameplay
Analysing data in the game development process can lead to games having a better chance of success upon release. However, there may be aspects of a title that need fine-tuning for it to maximise its potential. This is especially true with online games in competitive markets. Developers often need to assess the data and make improvements after a game has already been released.
Medium notes how some of the data that studios will analyse includes player progression, difficulty spikes, and overall satisfaction levels. This then allows game coders to adjust the mechanics or level design to ensure a challenging game experience that players still find enjoyable.
This form of analysis is most apparent in online card games like Hearthstone and Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. Sometimes cards become too overpowered and need to be nerfed, while others fade out of usage and need to be buffed. This is something that, according to The Guardian, will never end. Thanks to the availability of statistical analysis, developers have been able to turn games like these into viable esports, in which players have to constantly keep up with updates when crafting their decks.
There are numerous other ways in which data analysis is helping to massively improve the world of game development. For example, it can be used to personalise games for players and retain them for longer. It can also play a crucial role in the playtesting phase, where player feedback is important. Game designers can then make data-informed decisions and reduce the amount of guesswork involved with game creation.