Understanding Player Engagement Through Heatmaps

Introduction

Retaining and satisfying players is crucial for the success of a game. If players are unable to find enjoyment in a game, they are likely to seek alternatives. In this article, we delve into the use of heatmaps as an underutilized but valuable tool in game development. Azur Games lead analyst, Alexey Platonov, explores how heatmaps can provide a visual representation of player engagement, identify problem areas, and facilitate necessary improvements. Let’s explore how this tool can enhance the gaming experience.

The Power of Heatmaps

Although heatmaps are an intriguing and useful analytical tool, they are surprisingly not widely used by leading PC and console game developers, especially in the context of mobile games. Heatmaps provide a visual representation of player actions and coordinates, such as pathways on a map, points of user interaction, sniper positions, and challenging trajectories. While hyper-casual games focus more on UI/UX analysis, heatmaps shine in mid-core projects. These heatmaps can help identify potential improvements in level design, enhancing metrics, and saving developers both time and testing expenses.

How Heatmaps Work

We receive analytical events from the game, which include the player’s coordinates at specific points in time and their corresponding actions. This information is then overlaid onto a level map, usually a standard screenshot from Unity or Unreal Engine, to examine user movements and event frequency across different areas. Here’s an example illustrating the most popular spots where players use a winch in an off-road simulator game:

Realizing the Potential of Heatmaps: Our Experience

Our first foray into heatmap usage occurred approximately 2.5 years ago with our mid-core online PvP shooter, World War Heroes. When a new map was introduced, we noticed a significant win rate advantage for one side during testing with a small group of players. This prompted us to verify our findings using heatmaps. We were particularly interested in understanding player movement, popular kill zones, close combat locations, and sniper positions. The heatmaps confirmed some assumptions, such as sniper rifle kills concentrated around certain houses. These heatmaps not only uncovered problem areas but also validated level designers’ assumptions and hypotheses.

However, not all issues are immediately apparent from raw numbers alone. An analyst’s role is to not only gather these stats but also come up with solutions and identify underlying problems that may elude others. Heatmaps served as an experiment to uncover potential oversights by us or the game designers. For example, we discovered that players frequently died in a narrow spot, which was not evident from the data alone. Additionally, we found that team A had a higher win rate due to concentration of activity and kills around a bottleneck near team B’s house. These insights allowed us to make level design adjustments and improve game balance.

Heatmaps in Off Road: Enhancing Gameplay

One of our mid-core projects, Off Road – an off-road driving simulator featuring manual gear shifting and differential locks – greatly benefited from heatmaps. During initial analytics, we observed a high player drop-off during the tutorial phase. Using traditional funnel analytics, we could not determine a clear reason for this behavior. To gain more insights, we incorporated heatmaps into our analysis.

The heatmaps quickly revealed that players were encountering difficulties due to checkpoints being poorly placed on the map. Many players were heading in the wrong direction, getting stuck, and ultimately quitting the game. This highlighted a level design issue that was leading players astray. By following the player routes captured in the heatmaps, we were able to understand the problem from the player’s perspective. For instance, the heatmap revealed that 24% of players drove straight towards a checkpoint, got stuck, and left the game out of frustration.

To resolve this issue, we proposed potential solutions such as obscuring the checkpoint with a mountain or placing signs to guide players. Implementing even a minor adjustment to the tutorial based on heatmap insights increased the Day One retention rate by three percentage points. Interestingly, further complex enhancements were still required to improve the game. Therefore, we continue to use heatmaps regularly to ensure ongoing improvements in player experience.

Conclusion

Heatmaps provide game developers with a powerful visual tool to understand player engagement and identify areas for improvement. While not every project may benefit from this method, analysts can utilize heatmaps to find opportunities for growth and address less-obvious issues. By combining data with creative insights, level designers and developers can enhance gameplay and ensure player satisfaction. Heatmaps are a valuable addition to the game development toolkit, enabling the creation of the best possible gaming experience for players.