PLAN MOBILE GAME PRODUCTION WITH ADVANCED DEVICE RESEARCH GUY ULMER Platform Technology Specialist PLARIUM 

WHO WE ARE — PLARIUM GLOBAL We’re one of the world’s fastest growing developers of mobile, social and web-based games with over 250M registrations and 3M DAU. • Founded in 2009 • HQ in Israel • 8 Offices & Studios We’re home to some of the best talent in the social and mobile Gaming industry. Over 1200 professionals in eight offices and development studios across Europe and United States. 

WHAT I DO — • Interface between internal studios & platform holders • Drive innovation through adaptation of new technology • Internal Evangelist of new tech • Doing Research. Let the R&D guys deal with the D • Background in the EDA industry (Cadence Design Systems) PLATFORM TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST 

AN OCEAN OF ANDROID DEVICES • Around 15,000 devices (Google Play) • Which devices should we target? • Which ones do we test on? • My first research project at Plarium • Need the right tools 

LIFE IS (SOMETIMES) EASIER ON iOS • Smaller device fragmentation • Newer devices > Older devices • FAST adaption of new OS • Quite powerful • Can always complain about aspect ratios 

HOW DO WE MEASURE ALL OF THAT? • Internal data If you actually collect that data Skewed towards your current player base • Publicly available data OpenSignal reports (RIP) Unity Analytics hardware stats (RIP) Android Distribution Dashboards • Top 10 devices = 15% of the market DEVICE FRAGMENTATION 

WHAT IS COMMON TO ALL OF THESE? Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge LG G5 LG V20 HTC 10 Motorola Moto Z Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (USA) LG Q8 BlackBerry DTEK60 ZTE Axon 7 Motorola Moto Z Force Samsung Galaxy S7 Active HP Elite x3 Samsung Galaxy S7 (USA) Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (USA) LG G4 Pro • 1440P resolution • 4 GB RAM • Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset • Adreno 530 GPU • (Samsung is “special”) • Android 6 Marshmallow 

THE SOC APPROACH • Android devices are dominantly based on ARM architecture (~98%) • A handful of hardware manufacturers (Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek, Huawei, Nvidia, Imagination Technologies…) • Laws of combinatorics: Different screen size, RAM size, OS version. • Still easier than 15,000 devices (System-on-a-Chip) 

GPU MARKET FRAGMENTATION • 10 models = around 80% of the market • These are 2015 numbers. Changes over time • Picking up 10 distinct phones with these GPUs, means your QA can cover a large percent of the market • But which device should I target? • Lowest common denominator • Benchmark websites to the rescue 

OS MARKET FRAGMENTATION • Look no further: official numbers from Android’s own distribution dashboard • Sanity check: do these numbers represent your actual target market? • That’s nice, but my game will be released next year. How can I predict that? • “He who controls the past, commands the future” – Kane • Historical cached copies & basic spreadsheet manipulation skills 

GOOGLE PLAY CONSOLE: DEVICE CATALOG • Lets you see all(?) of the supported Android devices, with detailed hardware info • Lets you exclude your game from devices you don’t want to support • Found a serious OpenGL bug in Nexus 9? Better remove Nexus 9 until it’s fixed • Lets you filter devices based on specs like RAM, Screen density, SoC and more • Found a serious OpenGL bug in Nexus 9? It might also affect other Tegra K1 devices… 

EVEN BETTER WITH DEVICE CATALOG • Technical question: “Should I support devices with <1GB RAM?” • Marketing question: “What percent of my player base is using devices with <1GB RAM?” • Even better question: “How is my game rated amongst devices with <1GB RAM?” • What we really want to know: “What revenue % is coming from devices with <1GB RAM?” • Device catalog gives you the answer to all of these, & more. It’s awesome. USE IT. • Remember: market changes over time • Also Remember: this data is self-skewed 

SCREEN SIZE FRAGMENTATION • Still a problem • Found issues with some of the sources • Official numbers from Android dashboard, but without actual resolution statistics • Also no aspect ratio statistics • Just wait for display cutouts… 

TEST IN PRODUCTION WITH ANDROID VITALS • Android Vitals helps you track potential issues “in the wild” • It’s a great tool on its own • Recently helped us track rise of new issues in already released and “stable” games • But in the context of device targeting, it can be used in conjunction with the Device Catalog • “Close the loop” • Should I fix or should I exclude? • This isn’t a recommendation to test in production 

THANK YOU TAKE THE WORLD http://company.plarium.com/career/ 

QUESTIONS?