So this time I decided to collect some analytics to try to find out more about the way LDJAM voters played my game.
Number of sessions: 41
I had 34 votes at the time I did the analysis. These 41 sessions came from 34 different IP addresses.
Number of plays per session:
min: 1
avg: 1.24
max: 9
The histogram shows the frequency of the number of plays. More that 30 visitors played the game a single time.
Well, 4 users didn’t event start a game (the only recorded event is “quit”, that is fired when the visitor leaves the page).
All this means that most players just play once, vote, and go to the next game.
Game length (time)
min: 15 secs
avg: 1min 52secs
max: 3min 58sec
Well, my game was designed to be played in quick sessions, so this feels about right. I didn’t want to bore people too much
Session length (time)
Avg: 5min 46
Min: 15sec
Max: 46min 23
(OK, someone had the game tab open for more than 1 hour, but they played for 10 minutes and probably left the tab open while they did something else, and only closed it much later.)
The 46min session included 9 plays spaced throughout the full timespan. One visitor played for 15secs and gave up. I guess you can’t please everyone.
Scores:
High: 14290,
Avg: 6095
Low: 200(*)
Only 17 visitors played until they lost all the energy – others quit mid-play – so I only have recorded scores for those.
(*) – The lowest score was, in fact 0, but I decided to ignore because it might not have been a real try.
Conclusion:
My interpretation is that LD participants are focused in their mission to rate as many games as possible in order to get their own games rated, and don’t spend much time in each game. They optimize their time by playing once, voting, and moving on to the next one. This was more or less what I expected, and I even tried to design the gameplay around that: something easy to understand and start playing and that wouldn’t require a long play session to enjoy.
Still I was hoping to get at least a second try from most players (I think I almost never rate a game before playing twice, to avoid scoring on a first impression). I’d say it’s my game’s fault for not looking too pretty or just not being interesting, except I don’t think my results were that bad. In fact I’m fairly happy with them. I got:
#333 Overall 3.41
#59 Fun 3.87
It was my best overall result ever. Same goes for theĀ fun category. So I guess that’s just the way it is: you typically get a “Jupi Plays”-like run through your game (great videos, btw) and probably only the top games overall are able to grab player’s attention for a longer time. So many games to play, and so little time 
Big thanks to all those who played, and especially to whoever played 9 times!
Next time I’ll try to record my own playing/judging habits as well.
Anyone else with analytics data to share and compare?
My game: Kick it hard!
