<p>Each case study provides an in-depth look at the specific project we completed for our clients, including the challenges we faced and the solutions we implemented. They also highlight the results of our work, such as increased revenue, improved player engagement, and higher player satisfaction. It can be seen as a portfolio of our experience in the video game industry and can be used as a reference for potential clients who are considering working with us.</p>

Case studies

<p>Biomes is a mobile game for children that encourages them to learn while having fun. Evenly Cooler Games, an indie game developer and publisher based in Dublin, Ireland, is behind Biomes. They reached out to create the world of Biomes as well as a set of publishing materials such as concept art, Facebook covers, LinkedIn posts, email templates, and a game site.</p><h2>The process</h2><p>It took a long time and several sprints (Agile Scrum iterations) to establish how Biomes will look. Matching the goal of Evenly Cooler with the final concept arts required an effective project management process.</p><h3>Storytelling</h3><p>What is the background to Biomes? We worked hard to come up with terms and adjectives to describe Biomes. It is an ever-changing universe brimming with wonderful games for kids to play and learn in. Biomes is a place where children can imagine themselves in their favorite worlds.</p><h3>Looking for an art direction</h3><p>We produced numerous sketches to establish an art direction. Different angles and compositions were explored to determine what their target audience loves and wants to engage with Biomes&#39; game and content.</p><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/5mejnh68joe9/rkTBhkJWeDfkArHvBO5Y8/7b4e3411f1cccbf66da61367df3b7e23/sketch1_logo.jpg" width="1200" height="630" alt="sketch1 logo" /><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/5mejnh68joe9/6pIM6KnGn3bnWPifg4Za2B/c02fd4b8559e99eedd1af00dfe3a804e/sketch2_logo.jpg" width="1200" height="630" alt="sketch2 logo" /><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/5mejnh68joe9/6D7iKsV4Mx954bu2jAkk7z/93c3ef5c63de420b3e30620695b803bd/sketch3_logo.jpg" width="1200" height="630" alt="sketch3 logo" /><p>Sketching is a quick illustration that focuses on generic shapes and proportions. This allowed us to iterate efficiently and save time before considering colors and finishing the final artwork.</p><h3>Choosing the perfect colors</h3><p>Because Biomes contains different biomes, it took considerable effort to find the right colors. Some biomes, for example, might be gloomy, while others can be vibrant. The color keys are used to create the overall look and feel of the scene.</p><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/5mejnh68joe9/5oIa1Jdk58Jq4BUuatUF9K/573bf7c9c0f54e1b79d3cdd77d4ab8d7/color_key_mushroom_biome_logo.jpg" width="1200" height="630" alt="color key mushroom biome logo" /><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/5mejnh68joe9/1BLhFzJ37oPRzAKM82IlrD/9868e94277632c7076f1fb2784b70f40/sketch_to_color_key_logo.jpg" width="1200" height="630" alt="sketch to color key logo" /><h2>Creating characters to embrace diversity</h2><p>Evenly Cooler&#39;s core value of diversity must be represented in their game. That is why we took the time to determine the appropriate sizes and curves for a baseline. Then we made a wide range of characters with unique personalities, genders, ethnicities, and disabilities.</p><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/5mejnh68joe9/6GtLqYZ2jpKX8lYr1SQPo7/d0250ec38b644bac131b221726b6baac/research_logo.jpg" width="1200" height="630" alt="research logo" /><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/5mejnh68joe9/1LweNguv5nTGC4H0xqSAyq/4c86a109d183efdaa9c4b0cae3d54ea7/header_no_Logo.jpg" width="1200" height="630" alt="header no Logo" /><h2>Production of publishing materials</h2><p>We started creating mockups and UI elements for the website after the concept art was nearly complete. We used the same methodology as for concept art - Agile Scrum - which allowed us to iterate fast on web design wireframes, mockups, and web development. On request, the website is hosted on servers powered by renewable and carbon-free electricity.</p><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/5mejnh68joe9/4esvbEN9sVr3Jslv0awOmX/abde469ae609705b86b1716787ab2315/header_no_chars.jpg" width="1200" height="630" alt="header no chars" /><p>Other assets, such as Facebook covers and graphics, were made to enhance the page profile and posts. Evenly Cooler now can compose emails by themselves thanks to the creation of an email template.</p>

Biomes header

From visions to illustrations, this case study describes how we proceeded to deliver the right concept arts and publishing materials to Evenly Cooler Games.

Creating new worlds for Biomes

<p>Century: Age of Ashes was developed and published by Playwing. Their marketing team hired us in order to speed up the website for Century: Age of Ashes. In this case study, we will explain technical metrics at a high level for a broad audience and non-tech savvy people. We will describe how we narrow down problems in order to effectively address them.</p><h2>Why is the speed of a Game site so important?</h2><p>Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has a strong influence on website performance. The faster your game site is, the better for SEO. Google ranks websites based on technical measures such as server responses, graphics rendering times, and algorithm execution times. These metrics should be below specified thresholds for Google to compare webpages.</p><p>In a world where mobile is king for consuming content, mobile SEO must be on equal level with, if not better than desktop. The difficulty is that mobile devices have lower specifications than desktop PCs. Games are popular for showing graphics content in 1080p, 4k, or even 8k definition, such as videos, concept arts, and clips. Over 3G or 4G networks, such resources take time to load.</p><h2>Identify the bottlenecks</h2><p>First, we need to identify bottlenecks: resources that take a long time to load. There are several online tools available to help with this. PageSpeed Insights is a well-known example. By submitting a website, it will provide a global performance score and information. The initial problems are usually unoptimized videos and images. The most typical solutions include re-encoding videos and resizing images to fit a website.</p><p>Then we go further into the source code to find inefficient algorithms. This part is determined by a variety of factors, including technology, frameworks, plugins, and many others.</p><h2>Fix, Test, Analyze. Do it again and again.</h2><p>The steps are straightforward. A quick fix sometimes can produce better outcomes than a longer and more complicated fix. For example, we noticed that the video took some time to load and play, therefore our attention has been drawn to that particular element.</p><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/5mejnh68joe9/6baoh8CfeZERrG38TUf3Ng/08d3eb4e50f5949c46ddfaa2b4c916d8/slow-vs-fast.png" width="1200" height="630" alt="Slow vs. Fast" /><p>We can notice in the first sequence that the video appears 4 seconds after the website loads. In the second sequence, this is what we get after re-encoding the video with the appropriate codecs and file format. The video starts to play right in the first second, we reduced page loading by 3 seconds and prevent user frustration.We also addressed some more technical issues, such as unoptimized algorithms and plugin loading, which were slowing down the website.</p><h2>Results</h2><p>Organic traffic has grown by 45% few months after this work.We also decreased the number of frustrated users as the load time was reduced from 4 seconds to 1 second.</p>

Century AoA Key Art

In a world where mobile is king for consuming content, performance is key. This case study is on how we speed up Century: Age of Ashes game site for mobile, tablet and desktop.

Speed up a game site, performance matters

<p>Playwing is an independent game developer and publisher that was established in 2017. Their publishing team reached out to scale the website for Century: Age of Ashes globally across the EMEA, NA, LatAm, and APAC regions. The earlier website was primarily in English, which was a smart strategy for quickly attracting an international audience rather than a global one in multiple regions.</p><h2>Improve existing workflow with automation</h2><h3>Separate roles, smooth process</h3><p>In this process, we considered all the many responsibilities involved in translations. It enabled us to see the big picture of what we were going to accomplish. We also analyzed all the design and technical steps required to complete this mission.</p><h3>Improve translators efficiency</h3><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/5mejnh68joe9/6Hxia8R5Y65fW3RtAKueCh/6407e7f06876a8761dbbb4c145cf3ece/translations.jpg" width="1200" height="630" alt="Translations" /><p>Since English is the main language of Century: Age of Ashes, all translations are based on the English version of the text.</p><p>Translators are the main users of the localization system. They are physically located across all regions and time zones. The APAC region’s day typically ends when the EMEA region begins to work, while the NA and LatAm regions are still sleeping. Because the translation tasks are independent, they can run smoothly. If a translation is needed quickly, an on-call rotation with the vendors must be implemented.</p><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/5mejnh68joe9/7xiERfzBEzH1CWJX2S6TDg/c7888660f05db5f3693bbc2e37bfb1fc/translation-workflow.png" width="1200" height="630" alt="Translation workflow" /><p>To ensure that all translation operations run well, a workflow has been defined. When a new translation is published, all other languages are labeled as “needs updating”. When a new text must be translated, translators will be informed. A release schedule may be set to automatically send the new translation at a specific time, avoiding having partially translated content on the game site and allowing for a global update at once.</p><h3>Automate Customer Support tickets for different languages</h3><p>Customer support is an essential part of the player experience for a Game as a Service, including periodic content drops. Support tickets are sent through a specific form on the game site. Because the game site is localized and marketed to a global audience, players usually send comments in their native language. Typically, game publishers and developers have their own support ticket management solutions. We connected the game site with their technologies, allowing Playwing to keep their efficient workflows and pipelines.</p><h2>User interface and SEO adaptation</h2><h3>SEO localized</h3><p>The following problem was telling Google that the game site had various translated versions of the same page. Except for the blog articles that remained in English - Google needs to know that as well. Everything needs to load fast because <a href="https://kangurus.com/case-studies/performance-matters">performance matters in SEO</a>.</p><h3>6 characters in Chinese, 24 characters in Russian</h3><img src="//images.ctfassets.net/5mejnh68joe9/4R1U7X4HjU8HGa1O1PVxrP/0e119fc73edb581822c4df826a816128/bugfix-design-locales.png" width="1200" height="630" alt="Bugfix design locales" /><p>When it comes to fitting text into a small box, design limitations are always a challenge. It’s indeed tricky to find the right balance between translators and designers. Can they rewrite the text shorter and keep it compelling? Tradeoffs might sometimes be made while bearing in mind that content is king.</p><p>For right-to-left (RTL) languages, such as Hebrew or Arabic in the MENA region, the design composition would need to be significantly adjusted.</p>

Century AoA

Behind the scene of scaling Playwing’s Century: Age of Ashes game site across Americas, Asia and Europe. This case study is about the process to localize the game site.

Latest
Case studies

Creating new worlds for Biomes

Speed up a game site, performance matters

Scaling a game site globally from 1 to 9 languages

LatestCase studies

Creating new worlds for Biomes

Speed up a game site, performance matters

Scaling a game site globally from 1 to 9 languages

Latest
Case studies