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 in the past few years as one of the main resources for ensuring game quality, maximizing success, understanding player behavior and enhancing the quality of the player experience. It has led to a paradigm shift in the development and design strategies of digital games, bringing data-driven intelligence practices into the fray for informing decision making at operational, tactical and strategic levels.

Game Analytics – Maximizing the Value of Player Data is the first book on the topic of game analytics; the process of discovering and communicating patterns in data towards evaluating and driving action, improving performance and solving problems in game development and game research. Written by over 50 international experts from industry and research, it covers a comprehensive range of topics across more than 30 chapters, providing an in-depth discussion of game analytics and its practical applications.

Topics covered 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 state-of-the-art volume is an essential source of reference for game developers and researchers.

The book is the result of collaboration between more than 80 people across the games industry and games academia. At a whopping 800 pages with over 200 illustration it is a beast of a volume! We hope it will prove a valuable addition to the growing field of game analytics and business intelligence in game development. The book is published by Springer and can be ordered here across hardcover and e-book formats or from Amazon here.

•  The first book on game telemetry, game metrics and game analytics
• Numerous case studies from industry and research showing which analytical techniques to use in which situations
• Essential reading for developers, researchers and students on the current industry-wide adoption of data-driven methods for game development
• 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 the 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.

Edited by Magy Seif El-Nasr, Anders Drachen and Alessandro Canossa.

Endorsements

“This is an astonishingly good book. It contains 800 pages of edited papers grouped into 34 chapters, focused on the data collected and analyzed by video game vendors for the purpose of improving video game player experience. … The chapters are well written and well referenced with abundant high-quality graphics. … This book will definitely be of interest to anyone involved in game analytics. It may very well become the standard desk reference for the discipline for the foreseeable future.” J. M. Artz, Computing Reviews

“Every game analyst has to start somewhere, and this book is as good a place as any to begin.  The book is informative, broad in perspectives, and accessible on introductory and complex topics alike.  […] the book contains really useful and practical information.  When you are starting from zero, this amount of information isn’t a detraction but an opportunity to learn.” Roy Hwang, Director of Data Intelligence at Arkadium, on Gamasutra.

“Oh, go on. Do it. If you’re working in this area, or nearby, you need to check this book out. Find a bit of budget, or a well stocked library, and do it.” Heather Stark, Insight Analysis