For many mobile game creators, particularly smaller studios or indie developers, creating a game from scratch is time consuming.
It’s one thing to have an idea for a game and to build it, but there are also a number of different components to integrate and consider before launch. Monetization integration, attribution and advertising placements are just some of the many components developers need to take care in when implementing to ensure the best result when finally launching to market.
These of course are no quick feat to set up and often take valuable time away from developers that could be better spent in user experience or game concept generation.
Coda’s latest SDK release, v1.4, aims to simplify and speed up a lot of these processes for game creators. The Firebase-integrated SDK houses modules designed to help developers build more games faster. Let’s run through the latest feature releases and see how they can benefit you in creating your next game.
In-Game Features
In-game Currency
In-game currency refers to the currency created in a game that a user can spend in exchange for certain rewards. We’re not referring to in-app purchases or real money being exchanged, but rather symbolic currency in the form of diamonds, coins, jellybeans or whatever the developer creates. This currency can be used by the player to buy more lives, skip levels, acquire new skins, upgrades and more.
Usually a time intensive task to set up in a game, our SDK’s in-game currency module, allows developers to build a connection between in-game currency and shop currency almost immediately.
Rewarded Video Entry Points
For particular categories of mobile games such as hyper-casual or idle games, there are certain in-game events that are expected to offer a rewarded video. A rewarded video is a video that a user opts in to watch in exchange for a reward; often skipping a level, multiplying earnings or earning an extra life.
With the Coda SDK, developers will only need to set the parameters they’d like to use – for example, multiply earning by xyz – and the Coda SDK will automatically implement the rewarded video entry points.
Attribution and Always-on machine learning
When developers install Coda’s SDK they’re automatically integrated with Adjust, which sets up the attribution for all in-game events so that they can better understand their user’s game experience.
“...the data collected from your in-game events is sent to the Coda Platform, where our machine learning helps you to find the best parameters for future A/B testing in your game.”
The data collected from your in-game events is then sent to the Coda Platform, where our always-on machine learning helps to find the best parameters for future A/B testing in your game. For example, our algorithms will analyse data from your in-game events to suggest the best timing for interstitial ads, ultimately improving your user experience and monetization in the long run.
Remote A/B Testing Config
Another handy feature included in version 1.4 of the Coda SDK is the Remote A/B Testing Configs. When you install the SDK, there are a number of pre-made testing configurations that developers can apply in their own games.
A list of the premade configs can be found here and relate mainly to A/B testing advertising, however since the SDK is integrated with Google’s Firebase, the possibilities for A/B testing are really endless. If you’d like to test something in particular whether it be based on design or user behaviour, the Coda team can assist you in setting these tests up.
Monetization Integrations
Monetization is a crucial part of mobile game publishing, ensuring your game remains profitable as it scales. The Coda SDK comes connected with 12 advertising networks, eliminating the tedious task of adding networks one by one.
All developers will need to do is log in to their Coda account and enter their account key. This is a huge benefit for developers, as it allows them to start earning revenue and serving ads immediately in their games.
Honourable Mentions
Some smaller features but definitely worth mentioning are the Consent features, Menu Creation and Game State Management included in the in-game features of Coda’s SDK. Our SDK manages the consent of users at a global level, meaning that every different partner receives the correct and tailored consent preferences of the players. Developers can also implement game menus easily with the SDK, another crucial element in any free-to-play mobile game.
There is also Game State Management, a fundamental component that acts as the game’s memory. For example, when you play five levels and come back the next day to play, you want the game to remember your progress. With Coda’s SDK, all developers will be required to do is to create their levels and this feature can be implemented immediately to – you guessed it – save more time.
Platform Features
Direct Connection to Coda Platform
The second main area of features of the Coda SDK, relates to the direct connection between a game and the Coda Platform itself. Arguably one of the most important features to the SDK, this direct connection allows important events and features of the game to be pulled from the platform as it’s being built. These could include things like IDs, configs for ads and default settings, meaning that developers won’t need to write any keys manually to connect these features and data to the platform.
This is particularly important when it comes to event management in games. Coda’s SDK sends all in-game events to the Coda Platform where the data is analysed and used to optimise the overall game experience. This direct connection reduces the amount of manual work required on the developer side, thus reducing the overall time taken to implement features and user-experience optimizations.
So there you have it - a small SDK that’s packed to the brim with useful features for game developers of all levels. The SDK helps to reduce the overall time taken to create a game by offering the most popular pre-made features needed to create free-to-play mobile games. More importantly, a direct connection to the Coda Platform means that game data is being processed with machine-learning algorithms designed to improve the game’s overall user experience, saving more time and creating a better game in the process: sounds like a win-win scenario.
Sign up to Coda today to submit your game and start using our SDK.
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