Engagement & Retention project | Ludo King

About the product?

Ludo King is a virtual, free-board game. This platform as per their tagline is tapping into childhood by reviving the popular game. It can be played SOLO (with Computer), with family/friends offline and online. Along with Ludo, another popular game similar to this format but with different rules is Snakes and Ladder which is also supported on this platform.

Features -

Note - I have limited the analysis to the main Ludo game only. (No snakes and ladder)

​

How to play -

​

I am using their description from the app store

​

Click the button ☝️ to land on the website

​

​

​

Ratings on play store and app store -

(using the screenshot from the web)

​

​

The user base who have rated is 10M and a total of 1 Billion downloads. That shows the user base for this app. (taken on 21-06-2024)

According to Gamemaker's website, Ludo King is the 6th highest download game worldwide. (From April 14 to April 20, 2024). Gives the idea that it is still own of the popular game download overall.

​

And in terms of years of download and revenue -

Platform download - Mostly on Android - 956M Vs 38M in iOS

​

​

​

​

The source of the database can be accessed here (Click)

​

Core Value Prop

For Ludo King, their main objective is to provide a platform to play ludo for entertainment. It does not matter if it is a solo user present offline, or a group of users, this app serves as a platform for them to engage and play. It does this by -

• Providing a platform to play and engage in real-time via emojis, chat, voice note
• Organise tournaments to provide immersive stake experience and real money rewards
• Season pass to hook player with a new inventory of collectables like skin, dice, playground, music & even emojis enhancing the gaming experience.

How does the app make sure that the core value prop is experienced repeatedly?

The game is played for entertainment. If along with entertainment, users are given rewards it becomes lucrative, right? Ludo King has been tapping the rewards with platform current & actual rewards to make this a next-level experience. The idea is to keep it simple yet have some surprise elements as the user progresses into the game.

The first thing is to make sure the user plays the game & keeps playing it. It can be with a CPU or another player offline and online. To make this habit & keep experiencing the value prop, they (HOOKs) -

• Customization on the game forms - Keep involving the game forms so that users constantly get new game forms and hence hocked with the product.
• User stats quantification - User can always check their progress on the app. How many games were played, how many won, what led you to lose and others. Also, there is a level assigned to each player as they progress in the game.
• Customization - Everything can be personalized as per user inside the app. Based on level progress, some on in-app current which can be only earned by playing and winning, and some directly through money.
• Adding buddies - Players can add friends directly from their Facebook or they can add buddies in games as well. One can track and update their friend request and play with them creating a private room for an immersive personal experience.

​

​

Who is an active user?

A user who achieves the core value prop -
In this case - a user who plays at least two games in a week is an active user

Engagement framework

​

The natural frequency of the product -

​

Casual User -

• Plays at least 1 or 2 games in 1 week
• can play offline also
  

Core User -

• Plays at least 3 games in 2-3 days
• Can play tournament
  

Power User -

• Plays at least 1 game daily
• Plays offline also
• Can play tournaments and participate in seasons
• Participate in games via talking to a friend
• Has made at least one customization - dice, board, music or others

​

Understanding user segmentation behaviour on the app

​

User Discussion 🧗‍♂️

​

Engagement -

​

How did you land at Ludo King? What is the best feature that you like?

Babu Rao - Through word of mouth. I really like the feature of engaging with other friends online and playing ludo

Shayam - Friends. I like the feature of playing with anyone in my family face-to-face. Since they are already aware of the game rules, it is easy to pick.

Raju - Post through Instagram and Twitter (now X). Since everyone in the family can get onboarded & friends who are sitting away from you can come for a low-commitment, low-brainer game.

What are the features that you value the most?

Babu Rao - Low internet required while playing online, Low space taken by app on phone

Shayam - can play & engage with people online; send emojis; low app purchase

Raju - Play with friends online who are not physically present, rank with the world

How frequently do you use it?

Babu Rao - 10+ times weekly

Shayam - 4-5 games in a week(when in office or college); 2-3 games over the weekend; 7 games in a week

Raju - Install and play and then delete; 1-2 games in a week

​

Which feature do they least value, why?

Babu Rao - Computer play

Shayam - Option to play 5,6 players

Raju - Customize a game where you can't follow the traditional game

​

Retention

What will make you/made you leave X?

Babu Rao - No way to cheat, No one to play with, found better alternatives

Raju - Sometimes feels like the dice are rigged, there are fewer options to play, Boring, No time

Have you thought about leaving X? Why?

Shayam - If my friends are away, no incentive to play; Better games to entertain

Describe a feature for which you'll leave this product

Babu Rao - The home screen is too messy, and makes me feel lost

Shayam - Time taking, need a short version of the game

Raju - Too frequent ads, every feature requires money

​

​

​

​

Engagement 💯

• Goal - Increase the playing time of the players
• Success Metric -
• • Get players to customize their playing gadget - dice, screen, emojis and other customization
  • Signup for tournaments & season pass
• Problem Statement - Since this game is based on luck, people would get bored of the gameplay eventually
• Solution - If we incentivize the user to stay more on the product, they will get habituated around it. Right now, the user flow for Ludo King looks like this -

​

​

​

The solution implemented is -

• Inhouse currency - The more you play the more you get
• Rank & Leaderboard - As per games played & won; the user gets a rank
• Access - Access to seasonal passes & rooms are eligible at certain levels

​

Metrics to track

• Average number of payments done by the user in a month - Gives an idea of the power user and the consumption pattern
• No features that a user opts for with voice call, skin, dice, or board customization - Gives an idea of which feature gains more traction & where the Instagramis user spending the alternative currency
• Daily Average user (DAU)/Monthly Average user (MAU) - Gives an idea about how many users are active in a day vs in a month period
• No of different time of games played - old, classic, snakes and ladder

​

Engagement Campaigns 😼

Campaign 1 -

• Segmentation: Casual
• Goal: To increase the time spent on collecting more coins, gems
• Pitch: When a causal user lands on the screen, show them a campaign for a daily spin option to the landing page as shown below

​

• Offer - The objective is to let them understand the value proposition of the alternative currency and the things that can be achieved with it. Also to make the spin more attractive, ask the user to connect to Facebook for a 5X reward.

• Frequency and timing - Every time a causal user logs in. And it should be the ONE OF FIRST SCREEN THAT PLAYER SEE ON LOGIN (instead of up-selling screens)

Also, a message could be displayed to show "WITH THESE COINS/GEMS TO THE STORE TO PURCHASE" before landing on the home screen.

• Success metrics - # Players who won the in-house currency and used them to customize.

Campaign 2 -

• Segmentation: Casual & Core
• Goal: To increase their daily frequency of coming on the app
• Pitch: Whenever these users come to the dashboard, throw them their daily progress with in-house currency based on their number of login days. Rewards could be coins, gems, unique boards, unique emojis, or unique dice that they can show off to the other users. Also, the objective is to give users an understanding of the platform currency.

​

​the

​

The daily reward screen will look like this - in terms of design

​

• Offer: Since the objective of this engagement campaign is to get users addicted to the product, logging in for 15 days will make them a habit of logging. Also, a Successscreen to train the user where to spend can be given as well.

​

• Frequency and timing - Every time a causal/core user logs in. And it should be the ONE OF FIRST SCREEN THAT PLAYER SEE ON LOGIN (instead of up-selling screens)

• Success metric - # of users who have completed the entire journey of 15 days.

Campaign 3 -

• Segmentation: Core/Power
• Goal: To make their daily gameplay duration rewarding (targeting frequency & depth)
• Pitch: If player have logged in continuously for more than 2-3 hours, they must have completed few milestone. Now to make the milestone rewards, one needs to reward those users. It can be done by putting milestones as they complete games & associating rewards with them as shown below

​

​

Note - This image is borrowed from Poker game, but the inspiration remains the same.

​

• Offer: Create some daily challenges as per the login objective. After complete reward them with platform currency.

• Frequency and timing: Daily rewards can be put at the size of the home screen once a player completes one game. It should constantly show them what is the update and where they stand right now in terms of their achievement. Let's say that the user has played 2 games of the 7 games, and after the ending of the 3rd game the triggers come to the screen.
  Push notifications can be triggered to complete the challenge to receive rewards.
  

​

• Success metric - # of users who completed the daily challenge over a week, month

​

Campaign 4 -

• Segmentation: Casual/Core/Power
• Goal: To nudge people to join their friends online (targeting depth)
• Pitch/Campaign: Since people prefer playing with other friends more, we can include a notification ping to other friends who came online today. The idea is to give users an idea that was among me buddy list that was playing today. This notification can be triggered immediately after a user logs in to the home screen. Then if the user clicks on it, it shows the status of their respective friends with an option to write something or Poke with a customizable emoji. The screens are shown below.

​

​

• Offer: A poke score can be maintained for every user. And the same can be added to their daily task. Each day, they will poke one user and an in-platform currency of 1000 will be sent to them.

• Frequency & Time: The sender will send whenever they land on the user page. The receiver will get a notification for the same if they have enabled it. If not, then once they open the app they will get to see this as a notification.

​

The messages that the user can be sent will be from a pre-defined section and the response for them will be shown to the user.

​

• Success metrics: There are two success metrics here -
• • Total number of pokes/comments done in a day
  • The total number of poke responded

​

Campaign 5 -

• Segmentation: Casual/Core/Power
• Goal: To introduce emojis to the computer, not with the objective of turning the table in the favour but just to make the game more engaging
• Pitch/Content: Lots of users complained about the dice being biased. To check that, an interaction with the computer along with the user can be done. This is just to make the user let go of the frustration that they have if they are not getting the predictable outcome. This can be down while on the game itself

​

• Offer: For every 3 emojis on the game, the player will get 1% of the pot-size in-house currency. This is a maximum of 5% of the total pot size.
• Frequency/Timing: In the game, while playing user can send unlimited emojis. After the game ends, show them the status of how many emojis they have used. How many have been sent to other players, How many to the computer
• Success metric: No of players who were able to send more than 3 emojis & how much earnings they have got through emojis

​

​

​

Retention 🙋
A large

Understanding

Ludo King has been very popular game yet it also undergoes a lot of churn.

As per Amplitude - a product analytics and event tracking company Day 1 retention of the game was over 55 percent, and Day 7 retention was over 25 percent. Day 1 retention by calendar dates is 43 percent, while Day 1 retention by 24-hour window is only 32 percent.

If we draw a curve, it almost dies out on day 15. N Day retention means % users who return to the app on N day after first install on day 0. Whereas rolling retention implies % of a new audience that comes to the specified day or any day after day 0.

N-day retention is useful from unbounded as it gives a better picture of active users. Whereas the rolled retention gives a cumulative picture of active users.

​

​

​

So it's clear that for causal gaming apps like LudoKing which is luck based game, retention will start on day 1 itself. Hence we need to bifurcate the day 1 download rates in 24 hours and the calendar date uninstall

​the

​

Although both curve flattens out together but there is a visible difference from day 1 when churn is higher for by calendar dates. But with each passing day, the calendar retention retention bypasses the 24-hour window.

Note - I have used similar game data which was available online instead of LudoKing to reach to calculate the retention curve. Source (Click)

​

Features that drive retention -

• Peers/Buddies - Since peers play, it creates FOMO. Especially if they play and post on social media it has a ripple effect for others to come back
• Talk & Chat Feature - According to ICPs and user interviews, game becomes immersive if they get to engage with friends and play along the way. Since this game requires minimum mind engagement, they play while doing some other work like boring lectures, doing some monotonous tasks and talking for catchup
• Daily rewards - Incentive user to come back to collect their daily rewards in the form of in-house currency
• Low learning curve - The app has a low learning curve and can be played with people who are not so tech-friendly like old age people who are familiar with the concept
• App Size - I guess the app size is very small and the game does not require a huge amount of data to run. In India, still majority of people rely on mobile data & this game is often played while travelling.
• Less Gore while killing - People mentioned that nowadays all games have become a representation of violence. Though this game also involves killing opponents the way it is done is fun and less dangerous.

​

Top reason for churn

• Advertisement - According to blogs, ads drive 70% of the business. (LINK) Though this is a business driver, it is irritating and causes a lot of noise on the home screen & in the game. More rational and organic way ways need to be introduced to push ads as well as engagement. Although the app has been able to figure out some measures like watching videos to get this skin, more rationalization needs to be done.
• No friends online - In user interviews, most of the users mentioned that this game is more interesting when they play with their friends and engage with them with emojis or chat with them
• Found better alternatives to get entertained - Since this game is redundant after 3-4 games, people mentioned that they shift to other forms of entertainment like reels. Some user also said that there is very limited things they can do on the app. Since the variety in the game is missing they eventually get in search of other apps.
• Dice is biased - Many users have said that they feel the dice is biased and not in their control. However, this false sense of control comes when they play physically because both places occurrence of numbers in dice is completely random.
• The home screen is too busy - Users of this app are from multiple age groups. Hence few of them had a viewpoint that there are too many things on the home page which makes the user confused and mentally overwhelmed.
• Time taking - Sometimes users feel that the game takes a huge amount of time and while playing online people just get away from the game once they know that they will lose. Though they understand that nothing can be done for it.

​

Negative Actions -

• Deleting Facebook link
• Removing profile picture
• Large decrease in the inhouse coins in one day
• A large number of game drop outs Vs total number of completed games during 1st few games
• Deleting all friends
• No login/playing as a guest for a long time
• Multiple skins are available but no customization is done
• Not claiming the rewards

​

​

Campaigns -

• Segmentation of the user type- casual/core/power
• Pitch/Content - Introduce a system to tip the computer between the game. The idea is to humanize the dice to make it feel like someone is rolling the dice for the player. Also with an objective to increase the SKIN IN THE GAME

​

​

• Offer - The player can tip a maximum of 5% of the total pot size in one go or in multiple lots

• Frequency and timing - It can only be done while playing in the game. The stats of the game can be displayed once the game is over for how much tip is given
• Success metric - # tips given/ total games completed
  Since the idea is to make the in-game experience fun, this feature's end goal is to check how many have given tips and stayed on the game till the end.

Segmentation 2 -

• Segmentation of user type - Casual/Core
• Pitch/content - a Facebook trigger for the people directly showing an ad who was online recently on Facebook feed. Since user who has connected their Facebook accounts will have login history which can be lopped in with friends

​

• Offer - Personalize ping cards showing how many games they have won or lost. Also, a button to engage & challenge them which redirects them to the app.

​

​

• Frequency & Timing - It can be randomly added to the home page infinite scroll which comes after 2-3 scroll. This would be personalized for each user based on their peer update.
• Success metric - Total number of people who engaged with the post; # of people who challenged; # of Facebook poke

​

Campaign 3 -

• Segmentation of user - Core/Power
• Success- Create a different level of the game. Here, the dice would be attributed certain characteristics based on the level of the player. And the higher the level, the better the feature dice will evolve. The idea is to evolve the traditional game to new dynamics with a bit of skill in it. So that players who have adopted the product will get more nuances in playing.

​

​

​

These attributes can evolve with the features that players engage with most.

• Offer - Note that only segregated players are also to match with the same level player to give an even field
• Frequency and timing - Players who want to go for the advanced level will be given a patch to download. This won't the attached to the basic app as this will increase the size of the app. Now once the user downloads it, initially all will be given attributes from 0. As and when they progress in the game, the efficiency of the dice increases.
• Success metrics - # of people downloading the patch

Campaign 4

• Segmentation of user - Casual
• Pitch/Content - To engage users for shorter time, customization of games at various stages can be done. Suppose the game could start at the middle where you have 2 pins to home & opponent has 1 to pin.

​

​

​

Suppose your game starts directly from this section. Now you along with your user have one objective to finish the game. This will take less time.

• Offer - This would be in the campaign section where user can go to the custom level and play as per their level
• Frequency - Available on the home screen & can be accessed all the time
• Success metrics - # of campaign opt/total games players; this ratio should increase

Campaign 5 -

• Segmentation of user type - Casual/ Core/ Power
• Pitch/Content - Even though ad drives 70% revenue of the app, yet the return path data is $0.01 for android. (Source - Click to view). So it's high time to rationalise the ad after implementing the game improvement. Ads can be shown below in picture and while loading for the game. But it should stop randomly popping. Picture in Picture ad can be implemented. Example - ​

​

This ad is auto-run and will keep playing in a loop.

​

​

This will reduce the screen transfer also.

• Offer - People will tend to have better gaming experience
• Frequency and timing - show the ads when people are building their dice, selecting their avatar, and emojis, and doing their customization or at the home page with the autoplay feature
• Success metrics - # people who successfully stay on the app after the ad has ended.

​

​

​

Thanks for reading!

Meanwhile after finishing (me)

​

​