Analyzing mechanics in 2D platformer creatives

13.08.21

When a new client comes to us, we have to immerse ourselves in their product as much as possible. You need to understand your target audience in order to produce creatives that will bring paying users. One of the elements of this process is a competitor analysis. We study which creatives competitors are using for purchasing and analyze why they will perform. We use the Apptica service to collect data.

Despite the fact that the game for which we did our analysis is a 2D platformer, we also consider other games from the "Action" genre in the list of competitors, since their mechanics are easily adaptable and somewhat similar.

Let's analyze each video separately, and then present the general conclusions.

Galaxy Attack Alien Shooter 1

A very dynamic creative, in which there is even a feeling that this is not real gameplay, but a well-done fake ad. But in any case, the mechanics of the gameplay with the active upgrade of weapons and the ever-increasing complexity do not allow you to break away from creativity.

Galaxy Attack Alien Shooter 2

This is a similar creative, but less dynamic and more like real gameplay. Interestingly, despite the lack of dynamics, the indicators of this creative are not much worse than the previous one. We'll remember this for later, and move on to the next creative.

Auto Hero 1

Here we have another game, but with completely similar mechanics in two creatives: gameplay + upgrade. An interesting addition is the choice of weapons right at the moment of the upgrade.

Auto Hero 2

We can see here similar mechanics, but in a different location.

Archero 1

Archero is already an established brand, so they can afford some trendy misleads. We see them driving traffic to "tower" creatives, one of the top misleading approaches today.

Archero 2

This is a very interesting and non-standard creative from Archero. It combines various mechanics. It can even be assumed that this is a cut from several different creatives that Archero has already produced.

Moreover, the 45-second length suggests that with such a mix of mechanics, the length no longer plays such a role, and despite the slightly longer runtime, the creative has excellent retention rates.

Arcade Hunter Sword 1

Here we see gameplay mechanics that just show the game, and in the second scene, a boss fight. In essence, this is a mechanic of increasing the difficulty of the game. Let's mark is as a potentially-working mechanic.

Arcade Hunter Sword 2

And finally we have standard fake ad mechanics with a "first attempt fail". With this interesting rewind format, you can use it in any creatives where you need to show several attempts.

Conclusions

1. Obviously, the mechanic with gameplay and weapon upgrades in it work on different projects, which means that this mechanic must be used in the first pack of creatives. You can make several creatives with such mechanics at once, for example, a variation of the first creative in our selection and an option with a choice of weapons when upgrading, as in creatives 3 and 4.

2. You can also make 1 creative with gameplay mechanics, where we show the initial levels and then more difficult ones, for example, a boss fight. You can make two creatives, one sequential, the other with a split-screen, where you can show the game in parallel at the beginner and advanced levels.

3. If the product is no longer new and has gained enough positive ratings, you can try popular fake ad mechanics such as "tower" or "tower defense". Here you can add multiple attempts and a "rewind fail". These are two more creatives in the pack. If the project is still young, we do not recommend overusing fake ads — at the start, this approach can lead to irrelevant traffic and low ratings in the store.

Thus, we got a set of 6 creatives based on competitor analytics. We also usually do 2-3 creatives in a pack, which are based on approaches tested by the client — we take the best videos and make variations of them, hoping to get even higher rates.

We still have 1-2 creatives for a pack of 10. Here we add some unique approaches that have not been tested by the client and which we have not seen from competitors. This is done in a brainstorm format and is often meta-gameplay. Light, fake ads based on real gameplay.

We will continue to share our analytics. In the near future we will post a few more articles on this topic. Subscribe to stay informed!

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