“Master a Game Launch Like a Fruit Ninja” Recap

Madison Annibale, Customer Support Lead at Halfbrick, didn’t hold anything back during the “Master a Game Launch Like a Fruit Ninja” webinar with our Chief Product and Market Officer, Janice Le.

You can watch the full episode now on demand. In the meantime, here are some of the highlights:

1. Enlist everyone, company-wide, for internal app testing.

“Three weeks before our Fruit Ninja 2 soft launch, everyone pitched in to test the new app—from our receptionist to our CEO. We did Google Hangouts and had live play sessions so it was easy to collect all the feedback.” – Madison Annibale, Customer Support Lead, Halfbrick

2. Restrict your soft launch to one or two time zones.

“We limit our soft launches to Australia, since that’s where we’re based, so we can address all support issues in real-time—in just a few time zones—instead of having to be available for the whole world right away.” – Madison Annibale

3. Rely on FAQs for basic questions, but don’t forget to translate.

“You can save maybe 100 tickets a day by having the right FAQs uploaded when your app launches. You just need to make sure they’re translated into as many languages as possible.” – Madison Annibale

4. Cultivate a loyal group of player advocates to help test your app.

“We also rely on a small group of enthusiastic players that we’ve gotten to know over the years. They report bugs and even have access to our programmers. They’re eager to help and be involved.” – Madison Annibale

5. Play your own game and know it inside-out.

“It’s not enough to just have a list of instructions in front of you when you’re trying to help users solve issues, you have to play your own game and know all of the nuances. You have to be able to visualize where they’ve gotten stuck.” – Madison Annibale

Learn more about Halfbrick’s Madison Annibale, including how she survived a heart malfunction, why she chose to study video games in college, and what she’d like to design for post-transplant patients in the future. Read her Mobile Revolutionary profile.