You’ve poured thousands of hours into the creation of your game from start to finish. Long nights spent storyboarding gameplay, coding, and creating art, but one question remains. What if no one sees your game? Upptic’s Creative Director Ava Savitsky is tasked with ensuring that clients can rest easily knowing that won’t be an issue. She sat down to answer some of the most pressing questions relating to the creative process.

Chapters / Q&A:

If this article doesn’t have the answers you’re looking for, or you’d like to discuss creative further, let’s talk!

Question: What creative experiments have failed?

Nine out of ten creatives will inevitably fail, which can be a scary number at face value, but within that failure there is always an opportunity to learn. It’s important to be a little less precious with the creative process, and learn to be okay with creatives not performing. Creatives that fail will still give you key data and insights into what works and what doesn’t for your game. Oftentimes clients that find the most success with creatives are the clients who are able to establish trust in the process, and allow for more experimentation. We have however, found creative trends across games that seem to consistently underperform. Fake or misleading gameplay, along with skit style UGC content have historically underperformed in our experience. We would suggest leaning more towards low-fi UGC content, which not only historically performs better, but is also less expensive to produce. 

 

Question: How do you balance creative playbooks with fresh ideas?

While we certainly are often inspired by creative concepts that perform well, it is still important to step out of your comfort zone and try out new creative ideas and strategies. The team at Upptic is always creating and refining our playbook for different genres. Having that playbook is imperative. In addition to the playbook though, we’re saving a chunk of our production cycles towards iterations and testing. On top of that, we make sure to carve out room for those big swings, the new ideas and wildcard concepts that oftentimes fail. Occasionally though, you’ll find a diamond in the rough by taking those big swings, leading to a creative that really succeeds and ends up becoming a top performer. 

 

Question: How do you balance data and intuition?

The short answer here is that there needs to be focus on both data and intuition. The creative team at Upptic looks at the data that comes in and makes decisions based on said data, but the team is also naturally very intuitive. Many times it’s this intuition that sparks new ideas, and it’s important to always leave space for that, “creative magic” even if the data may suggest otherwise. 

 

Question: How does AI fit into creative work?

Opinions on AI range from, “this is the best thing that’s ever happened,” to “I loathe AI and would never use it.” So how do we at Upptic balance those strong opinions related to AI? Much like the varying opinions regarding AI in the world, the team at Upptic also has varying opinions. First and foremost, the use of any AI elements within creatives is always left to the clients discretion. There are clients on both ends of the spectrum, and Upptic always caters to what the clients think is best relating to AI usage. For the team, it is used more than anything as a tool, not a replacement. We rarely see AI in final deliverables for creatives, and when we do it has already been discussed thoroughly with the client to ensure alignment.

 

Question: What’s the difference in creative cycles across platforms? (TikTok vs. Others)

TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, the list goes on and can feel daunting for someone who is trying to appeal to audiences across all platforms. Knowing the differences in what content performs well on what platforms is incredibly important. A video that goes viral on TikTok may get little to no traction on Facebook, potentially wasting an otherwise very strong creative. TikTok is the main differentiator here, requiring a much higher volume of creative, or “shots on goal,” as it chews through them quickly. This is different compared to rewarded video networks and SDK networks, where you may have the same top performer for several months, or even most of the year. Meta and Google are the middle ground here, not requiring as much creative refresh as TikTok, but more so than rewarded video/SDK networks. At the end of the day, unique pacing for each platform is vital.

 

Question: Is UGC fatiguing?

Creative content is always changing and evolving, old trends die out and new ones replace them. Upptic believes while UGC is certainly changing, it is here to stay. We have seen the user burnout on influencer content in general, along with a distaste for AI UGC. While the influencer content burnout is real, human UGC still consistently outperforms its AI counterpart. UGC that we see that works very well and has been performing well for a while is over-the-shoulder content. This can be as simple as just hands playing the game, and showing the gameplay. This content specifically does well given that it’s very authentic, with the user simply seeing the actual gameplay, so they’ll know exactly what they’re getting. 

 

Question: Does polish matter in performance?

Not always! Low-fi, unpolished creatives will often outperform the more polished creatives. We’ve seen creatives that look like screenshots, or taken straight from your notes app perform really well in part because those don’t look like typical ads and can come off more authentic. Upptic’s team consists of people who really excel with the more polished side of creatives, and others who like to experiment more with the wild card creatives, including unpolished ones. 

 

Question: What about localization – Does translation work?

Translating english creatives into other languages, even utilizing subtitles, has not been able to gain much traction for the team. We have found much better results in working with creators in the localized countries where they’re able to make content incorporating native nuances, especially with humor. Without this, there are things that simply will get lost in translation.

 

Creative Director Ava Savitsky along with the creative team at Upptic are passionate about their work, and continue to push boundaries, take risks and study results. Creative performance is complex and nuanced, but the team at Upptic works diligently to create tried and true methods in order to maximize outreach and ensure that your game reaches its target audience. 

Collaborate with Upptic to enhance your creative performance and grow your game. Book a demo with Upptic today.

See All