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Analytics


Josh

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I'm hoping to add analytics to both the editor and the engine API. I need to know how many people are actively using the engine on a week to week basis, and how many of those users are opening the Workshop browser in the editor. There will be an option to opt out of stats collection (a real one, not like Windows 10), and even if you do allow stats to be collected no data will be traceable back to your SteamID or IP address.

 

I've chosen the GameAnalytics.com API for this.

 

This will also be extremely useful to integrate into your games for testing. You can set up an event to send to your GameAnalytics account when a player completes an achievement. We could even add a script that does this that the flowgraph can trigger. If you look at your account and see that although 100 people played your game, only 3 of them were able to find the blue key, that tells you your game has a problem! I think this kind of data will be incredibly useful for you. It basically ensures that you're always running a focus group, without having to sit people down in real life and watch them play. Instead of just getting one person's random opinion, you can objectively see how changes to your game affect playability for all users.

 

This is still in development, but I believe the process will be:

 

1. Create a GameAnalytics.com account.

2. Set your API key in the main script.

3. Start sending events for anything important you want information on such as starting the game, completing a level, or achieving a task.

 

--Public values
Script.eventname="MyEvent"--string "Event Name"

function Script:SendEvent()--in
if type(self.eventname)==string and self.eventname~="" then
	Analytics:SendEvent(self.eventname)
end
end

 

For standalone games, you should give your users an option to disable stats collection. The game launcher will have a global option built in that covers all games.

 

Any thoughts on this?

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@aiaf why? If you are worried about performance you shouldn't. Ideally you'd collect the information I variables and then send when you want, like at the end of the game or level where a second or two won't be noticed.

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