Content of a Diagnostic Data Report

In this article I present a standardized sample of a diagnostic data report.

In the report each segment of the report contains description of our observations, ideal state and/or proposition of change.

The report contains data collected from a given time segment
(e.g. 1 month), comparison with the previous report and proposals for changes for the next report.

Report is divided into 2 parts:

• Infographic report
• Visualization in the editor

Here is the list of a general content of a report.

Trends

• MAU (Monthly Active Users)
• DAU (Daily Active Users)
• New Players
• Average Screen Time
• New Unique Players
• Monthly Retention
• Weekly Retention
• New Player Retention
• Comparison with previous time segments and reports
• Players Location

General Comparison of Levels

• How many times each level has been started?
• What’s the percentage of completion of each level?
• What’s the average completion time of each level?
• How many times players have died/failed a level?
• At which stage of the level players have been dying/failing?
• Those players that have not completed the level, at what stage have they failed?

Data on Each Level

• What events have been taking place on each stage of a level?
• What’s players activity on each stage of a level?
• What’s the difficulty on each stage of a level?

Tutorial

• How many players have completed, skipped or left the tutorial before completing?
• Those players who have left the tutorial, at what stage of tutorial did they decided to leave?
• How much time have players dedicated to each step of the tutorial?
• At what stage of tutorial players leave the game?

Players Game Mode Preferences

• Singleplayer / Multiplayer
• Single mission / Skirmish / Campaign / Sandbox
• Difficulty: Easy / Normal / Hard

Player Segmentation

• Players to whom the game is too easy/too difficult
• Skill Level
• Playtime
• Casual Players / Dedicated Players

Gameplay Balance

• How each level compares to each other?
• How do Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty levels compare with eachother?
• How many attempts were needed for each level to be completed?

Players Death

• What caused player to die/fail on each level?
• How dangerous is each enemy to the players?
• At what minute/stage of a level has each player died?
• How players death compares in each difficulty level?
• Where players have died in each level?

Players Game Quit

• What players did before leaving the game
• At which stage of each level do players quit the game?
• At what game mode players quit the game?
• During which level players quit the game?

Session Lenght

• Average Session/Game Lenght
• Comparison with previous report

Units, Weapons, Vehicle Data

• How every Unit / Weapon / Vehicle compares with eachother?
• What is the effectiveness of each unit?
• How often is each weapon used by players?
• How is each weapon used on every level?
• What’s the availability of each weapon and it’s ammo?

Economy Data

• How players use resources at each stage of the game?
• How many resources do player have at each stage of the game?
• How many resources players need at each stage of the game to win or loose?
• How configuration of resource sources and drainers affects game’s economy?
• Economy glitches

Settings

• Video Quality

• Screen Resolution

• Gameplay Settings
  • Example of A/B Test:
    “In A/B tests, half of the players had Aim Assist turned on by default and the other half had Aim Assist turned off by default. The purpose of the test was to check players’ preferences regarding Aim Assist.”

• Audio
• Controls

Other

• Glitches
• Bugs
• UI/UX: Statistics on use of each window and button

Summary

• Observations
• Comparison with Previous State
• Ideal State
• Suggestion/Plan for improvement:
• Plan for next report

Visualization of the data in editor

• Player death position + cause of death
• Player use of items/powers/skills etc.
• Player registered position
• Events
• UI with data information
• Heatmaps