So I launched Euchre. With mixed success. SUCCESS: I have over 600 registered users within the first two months. FAILURE: Ad Revenue is extremely weak.

So why is my ad revenue so weak? I have a couple theories:

  1. My eCPM sucks
  2. People aren’t playing games

I can’t do much about my eCPM so I really need to focus on getting people playing my game! They download it, open it, open a session, leave and never come back.

Problem 1: They don’t come back

I am not using notifications to let people know 1) other people joined the game they created, 2) the session captain of the game they joined started the game, 3) it is their turn to act within the game. I know! How could I miss that? Alas, I cut it from scope to get out the door sooner.

Problem 2: Slow play is very, very common

I only allow a user to participate in a single session at a time. This limits the options in terms of game play. If the 1-3 other players in your one and only session are busy then you can’t play my game. I need to enable the user to participate multiple simultaneous sessions so that they can play when they want to play. That means bouncing between multiple sessions with other humans or even their local game. The fact of the matter is, people aren’t going to sit down 4 at a time and play my a complete game of Euchre.