Now that Buildbox 3 release is getting closer and closer, I would like to know if the 'publisher ready' approach is still in place and that we will have ways to use Buildbox 3 for the top 10 publishers in the market. This mainly means custom SDK integration (some of them are only available as unity assets like Voodoo sauce so a direct collaboration with Buildbox and these publishers will be needed) and industry standard SDKs (like Appsflyer or others). And if they can be added, will we be able to not only add them with the basic setup but will we be able to add them within Buildbox (not afterwards in Xcode or Android Studio) in order to trigger certain events in specific places, including gameplay events? And on the other hand, will we be able to build our games with something that works similar to procedural generation of levels in Unity? Or how will BB3 resolve randomization and level creation for hyper casual games that depend on endless gameplay with level progression? Will we be able to use smart assets like prefabs for example? I remember Nik saying that this would have been part of beta 3 but that wasn't the case. And I think it is not the case either with beta 4. Hope we can get an official reply to this since I'm feeling that after a year of development the advertised hyper casual engine still is not able to really step up in this regard, but maybe I'm just missing all the important stuff so please correct me if I'm wrong.
While there is no current ETA on the Collaboration with these publishers, things are moving forward in this regard. As far as SDKs its possible now to add anything with the ad integrator. As far as everything else, we will have to wait and see (wouldn't want to ruin any surprises) But just so you know, we are well aware of how much the progression/infinite levels are important and it is not something that would be neglected
Just a heads up, but analytics and trackings SDKs are NOT the same thing as ad networks. Are you saying that we can implement them the same way already? How is it possible to add two SDKs with the same custom hook? Let's say I add Appodeal like I always do and want to add Appsflyer as well. How would I do that? Buildbox doesn't create variants of custom hook header files or something similar. And maybe you didn't read well, but publishers want to track in game events. Like Level progress, coins collected, or how many fever states the player triggers. I definitely know that this is NOT possible in BB2 but you and the dev team (including Trey) has stated that all that stuff is coming in Buildbox 3 to be publisher ready. Can you get us some feedback on this?
I did read what you said. But as you have stated, you don't want any false hope. We don't want to give it to you either so until we are close to finishing it, its best not to make the promise that something will happen. While I can assure you that the team have been making sure that it's "publisher ready" and that the team is in constant talks with the publishers to have what they can't. It is still best not to, in your words, "give you false hope" so let's just leave things as a surprise to avoid you thinking that "false hope" will come into play
Correct Christoph, the Ad Integrator can not be used for Publisher private SDKs because of exactly what you have mentioned, but also because this is simply the incorrect file to use and will not work if code for private SDKs and event hooks are placed there. Most publishers will demand that you implement Appsflyer, and currently, even with BB3, you still have to integrate with GA for Appsflyer to work properly. You do not add these to the Ad Integrator and if you do they will not work. In fact, none of the integration code for private SDKs can reside in the Ad Integrator, this is not where any of it belongs. It must be implemented into the AppDelegate files for any of the integration to work. Ad Integrator, today, is not designed to handle Publisher SDKs and the hooks necessary to trigger events for these SDKs. Currently using the existing method to integrate Appsflyer, using Game Analytics (GA), doesn't give true data, and publishers are and have been complaining that the data provided from BB games is not accurate. As a developer you can see the inaccuracies yourself by simply comparing the data received from AppsFlyer or GA to your iTunes data. The data doesn't match, but this is usually only evident if you have a large audience & sessions. There really needs to be a better Event system built within BB, a similar method used by Unity, once BB can properly track custom events that the developer or publisher can setup, then it is fairly easy to incorporate the publisher SDK demands. Getting a private SDK to interface with BB isn't really the issue, the issue is that once interfaced there is no proper Event handler for you to track events therefor making the private SDK interface worthless. Make sense? Once BB has a proper Event handler then adding these events/hooks is easy, it is not complicated. Personally I would like to see an Analytic plugin, much like Unity, that the developer can enable or disable. This plugin would give us the tools necessary to work with publishers. And if the plugin is interfaced properly there would be minimal coding necessary once you export from BB.
Thanks for that. I think Buildbox should hire you because you clearly know how this could be resolved. One thing to add is that itunesconnect and any other analytics never will match is because of a) itunes only shows opt-ins and b) time zone differences mess with the numbers. GA is working very accurate with Buildbox 2. Absolutely no problems there. FB is working as well very good. Again the difference between the two is caused by time zones. Publishers who have complaint about that probably had tested a game without good implementation of GA's or FB's SDK. What is the current method of using Appsflyer through GA? I didn't know about that one. Can't you just implement Appsflyer directly and call it when the game gets opened?
My understanding of the data not matching was the UA data doesn't match, even when the timezone difference applied, once it rolls in iTunes will be different then what BB feeds to GA or AppsFlyer. Opt-in would make sense but the issue is in reverse, iTunes data will normally show more users than AppsFlyer and GA, once the timezone lag users roll in. At least this is how I understood it from a couple publishers and when I started comparing closely I was able to see that there was usually a 5 to 10% difference between iTunes and GA, especially if it was a great day for downloads. In my opinion, the key to BB3 handling different publishers SDKs isn't the ability to load these SDK's, that is easy. The key element is a great Event Handler/hooks, built within the software. This would allow us to trigger events based on what the publisher requests. Its all about the Event Handler. You can use GA and Appsflyer at the same time. Most publishers during a retention test will use AppsFlyer and will want it setup using their account. You won't be able to see the data. But if you also bring in GA, then you can see basically the exact same data as it happens that the publisher is looking at. Make sense?
Yes and no, I think you are missing the key point of why to use Appsflyer. GA is used for user behavior metrics (analytics). While Appsflyer is mainly used to analyze funnels of UA (tracking). I completely agree with this.
Yes, I know, but the only real method you can view some of the matching data is using this method since you can not access the appsFlyer account they are using. At least it is the only way I have found to come close to seeing what they are seeing as they see it. But you are right, they are looking at much more than you can really see in GA. I agree.