Posted on June 19, 2009 - by Eric
Making your app “Social”: Social Platform Comparison
UPDATED 6/10/2009!
To see an ongoing discussion head over here at the touch arcade forum
In the world of iPhone app promotion, social networks/forums campaigning and website reviews can only get you so far. This is because the majority of iPhone owners do their app shopping in iTunes or in the devices themselves. Both of these channels are Apple controlled, so you don’t have any way to promote to these kinds of buyers. And while bitching and moaning sometimes works with Apple, it has not proven effective in this case.
One way to tackle this problem is making your app “social”. This means putting community features that increase your app’s “stickiness” while facilitating the ultimate form of promotion, the word-of-mouth effect. An app purchase is more likely to happen if friends/family recommended it and if it happens in the device itself.
A social app has 3 parts to it;
- the app itself should be compatible (e.g. score-based, goal-based, has novelty)
- Stickiness thru value-added features such as achievements, global leaderboards, user leaderboards, etc.
- Word-of mouth enablers such as chatrooms, currently playing, challenges, etc.
Currently, there are a number of third-party social platforms available to developer to make their apps ‘social’;
- from the Aurora Feint developers, OpenFeint
- a venture backed service called Scoreloop
- there’s Geocade, little info on who is behind it is available.
Then there are a couple that have yet to be rolled out;
- Plus+ (plus plus) from ngmoco
- Agon online, in open beta.
We have yet to release an app, so needless to say we haven’t tested any of these yet. But based on their product pages and websites here are the pros and cons from where I am standing.
| Platform | Pros | Cons |
| OpenFeint | Leaderboards Challenges Developer Chatrooms FB and twitter integration cross promotion Cross promotion with popular apps purchase app from within the platform | Not free when 100+ users $0.04 – $0.08 / registered user could incur unnecessary costs if |
| Scoreloop | Free Cross promotion in app store app that you can browse Scoreloop apps Leaderboards Challenges FB and twitter integration Avatars Medals and Coins Analytics Multi-lingual interface | No cross promotions Avatars (reduce app focus) Medals and coins (reduce app focus) Venture funded |
| Geocade | Free Leaderboards Chatrooms Surveys FB and twitter integration Skinnable Ad Revenue share nice 3d globe geolocator | small company No cross promotion Advertisements lack of company information ugly default interface |
| Plus+ | Leaderboards Achievements Challenges FB and twitter integration Slick interface Backed by a solid company | Will not be probably free Not open to all developers Need more information |
| Agon Online | Free Leaderboards Achievements FB and twitter integration the most neutral Easiest to integrate uses google app engine servers | missing features small company No cross promotional features yet |
Here is my take on them;
1. Openfeint = the huge thing with this one is promotion. iPromote feature is very enticing made much more so because popular apps are already using it ,your app could be cross-promoted in them. The big concern is it’s non-free but I do not have any data on how many users do register. But the cost won’t probably accumulate too much. We will probably go with Openfient for RPL.
2. Scoreloop = the avatar, profile, medal and coins are very cool features but it kinda overpowers your app’s branding. It will feel like your app will be a game in the Scoreloop avatar/system instead of the other way around. But it really increases your app’s ‘stickiness’ so could be a good tradeoff. We will try this on a more human-character focused app in the future.
3. Geocade = the website seem like an afterthought and lazily built. The ad revenue share could mean it will be good for a free app.
4. Plus+ = slick and tightly designed but this will not be rolled out for non-ngMoco or small ticket games anytime soon so irrelevant for most developers.
5. Agon online = it looks good but nothing is grabbing me as a developer. Probably at the level of Geocade but that one has ad revenue as an advantage. The most neutral looking and functionality-wise, if you want something that doesnt overpower you app use this one.
We will do a follow up post once we have a 1 month old app in the store. Here is the update!
Any developers with experience willing to chime in? Which one is the best and why?
Here are a few links to help you decide….
Videos:
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[...] sound like a long time compared to the 10 minute setup needed for a simple analytics package. But Cavalcade Games take is that Agon is the easiest social gaming platform to [...]
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June 19, 2009
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Shen said:
Having to pay per user that signs up is a pretty risky proposition, especially if you are going to price at the 99 cents level.
You also need to factor piracy rates into the cost. The pirates will be costing you money as they use the service, but not bringing you any money by purchasing your game.
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June 19, 2009
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Eric said:
Yep, i forgot to add that concern in the post. ill update the post. Thanks.
it was a good deal until you factor in the piracy…
if OpenFeint somehow incorporates some kind of protection that stop pirates from registering perhaps by letting developer upload blacklisted uids then that would perhaps work.
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June 19, 2009
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Morten Nielsen said:
You can try AGON in the free Atoms (http://bit.ly/AAsmF) or the free Grolsch game (http://bit.ly/3uqlCk).
AGON is no longer in beta. You can read about AGON here http://developer.agon-online.com and anyone can access the API here: http://devdb.agon-online.com/developer
Other advantages of using AGON are: Very scalable (Google App Engine backbone), Streaming scores, UI focused on the game, Geotagged highscores (http://developer.agon-online.com/2009/06/19/atoms-game-now-on-app-store/), Offline support, Single sign-on, Web integration
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June 20, 2009
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Eric said:
is it out of open beta?
will check out the free games to really check on any unique features because the ones you mentioned are present on the other products.
I will update the post after ive tried them.
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June 20, 2009
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Morten Nielsen said:
Yes it is out of open beta.
We released version 1.1.2 yesterday. You can get it here (sign-up required): http://devdb.agon-online.com/developer/dashboard/downloads
I still feel that the features listed in my previous post are in fact unique to AGON, but feel free dissect that claim
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June 23, 2009
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Elliot Richards said:
This was useful, thanks.
I think a lot of developers are weighing up the various social platforms, I know I am.
Here are my thoughts:
OpenFeint
I’ve played with it on Radio Flare Lite. I don’t know how much customising can be done with this as I hate the chatrooms and lobbies. I think it’s pointless to see empty rooms and just hang around with banal chats with random people. Its leaderboard feature doesn’t seem as slick as Scoreloop or AGON. I don’t have a problem paying for it, but I did think about the piracy issue and this is a nail in the coffin for me. I’m not won over by OpenFeint.
Scoreloop
I like Scoreloop and have played it a lot on Bug Landing, but I get the same impression you had that it overpowers the game because of its various features. It’s ironic that we want more of these online features, but our game has to be front and centre and I’m concerned that the game’s own features could be ignored. Given the choice I’d like to pick and choose which features I’d like to integrate.
AGON
I’ve played with this on Atoms. It’s straightforward, elegant and fast. From a player’s perspective it’s slick and easy and all about scores, with updates to FB and Twitter. I like AGON a lot and I’m leaning towards this for my game, but it needs updates as I can’t seem to invite people from my iPhone address book or Facebook contacts. Perhaps a bug or I’m doing something wrong. Still, this is the most interesting platform for me.
Geocade
I’ve not had a good first impression with this. Presentation, whilst customisable (says Geocade) has yet to impress me in any of the games I’ve seen. Plus the ads are a good idea, but what if I don’t want them? If my customers pay for the game, I don’t want ads. There’s no indication from the Geocode website if I can remove them or how much customising I can do.
Plus+
As you say, closed to the majority of developers so I won’t waste time with this.
Like I said, I’m leaning towards AGON, it’s simplicity is what I like and I get the feeling that I can integrate it into my games without it overpowering them.
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June 23, 2009
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Eric said:
Thanks for sharing that. I actually like AGON online too, my major concern with it is there is not a lot of potential for cross-promotion on it.
Anyway will update the post as soon as my latest email to them with inquiries are answered.
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June 23, 2009
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Morten Nielsen said:
@Elliot Great to hear that you have had a good experience using AGON in Atoms.
With regards to invitations then it works by checking all of your addressbook/Facebook contacts against our servers and return the users already registered on our servers. So it will not show you people that are not using AGON. We are working on an option to invite users not already using AGON to try the game you are currently playing by sending an email or FB notification.
@Eric Email should be in your inbox.
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July 2, 2009
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Raphael Weiner said:
Hey guys, I’m with the Scoreloop team and thought I’d drop a line.
@Eric I know I already said it – but thanks again for starting this thread.
@Elliot You’re right, it’s definitely paramount that developers retain control of the look and feel of their games. And in the same vein, that the social platform doesn’t overpower the game’s unique design. One thing that it seems was overlooked is that Scoreloop is fully customizable (This will become more apparent in several of the games that will be hitting the App Store later this week). As for the avatars overpowering your game – you’re right again. The avatars are something we’ve introduced since your Scoreloop account can be used across all Scoreloop enabled games. Should they be able to be personalized to have the same look as the game? Yes – but again this overlooks an important aspect of Scoreloop which is cross-promotion and game discovery.
There’s definitely a need for more comparisons of the various platforms, especially as we’re all making improvement after improvement. As one developer just put it – This space is really heating up
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July 2, 2009
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Eric said:
@Raphael – its not so much as the look of the scoreloop as it is the mindshare scoreloop gets from a user of the app. Unlike say an XBLA game, iphone apps are smaller in scope and hence it just occupy a small part of their thoughts while playing. So, when they submit a score… lo, behold a system of avatars, customization, coins and rewards. Its just supposed to be something to post and share scores in the server, fb or twitter and maybe keep track of friends.
Might I suggest having the option to just use the features outside the avatar / coin system. Of course, a button to invite users to participate in the avatar/coin system is there for your end.
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July 2, 2009
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Raphael Weiner said:
@Eric Thanks for the suggestion, and I like your concept of comparing mindshare in terms of the scope of an iPhone app vs. an XBLA game.
I think most people can agree that in the end it should be up to the players to decide which features they use, and which they don’t; Some want to play socially, while others want to play alone. So that’s I’m not sure it’s fair when you say “Its just supposed to be something to post and share scores in the server, fb or twitter and maybe keep track of friends”.
Mobile social gaming isn’t supposed to be anything more or less than what the player wants. And ultimately, this is the direction that Scoreloop is heading.
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July 2, 2009
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Eric said:
True that. But there is the concern that when they submit the score and checking out the leaderboards instead of playing again, they get distracted and do stuff in scoreloop which flips the whole thing around. Our apps are now basically gateway s to the scoreloop system.
I would reckon that my suggestion would make it less intrusive at the same time make the whole thing more flexible. It can also make scoreloop more developer friendly since the system will just have a reasonably sized button on the side for players willing to dive into the avatar/coins system (which i think is a cool idea in of itself, by the way).
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July 2, 2009
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Raphael Weiner said:
Eric, a valid concern indeed – and one that we’ve already addressed in the most recent version of the SDK. The button you’re referring to can now be disabled so that scores are submitted automatically.
We’ve got (figuratively) huge ears over here, and I think that’s something developers are realizing very quickly. If you’ve got a suggestion, we’re here to listen. We can’t promise you’re going to see it tomorrow, but I speak to developers every day who are shocked by the fact that they’re going to see their requests in the next release of the SDK.
And thanks for the avatar/coin system compliment. I’m really looking forward to checking out RPL myself (Even if it’s not Scoreloop enabled
)
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July 3, 2009
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Eric said:
Yes, i find it quite refreshing that you guys (and Agon) are so transparent and agile. Good startups let the customers guide them and not the other way around. In that respect, you guys got it right.
Personally I am rooting for both scoreloop and Agon to grow and be the dominant players in this space. OF, PLus+ feels too opaque and i dunno, snobbish? God knows we have enough of that from Apple.
RPL is just a warm-up game, its the 1st time we have ever done a mobile game, 1st time on an Apple platform and 1st time in Unity3d engine. Our next one, project Slow is the 1st time using cocos2d so even that is a warmup exercise. Project RPM, Project Toptop, Project ??? and Project Finger are all slated within the year. We will make it a point to use scoreloop in one of these games.