What was the culture like at Zynga during the Facebook canvas era?

The culture was incredibly fun and competitive, with a strong sense of camaraderie. Teams worked long hours not out of obligation but because they enjoyed the work and each other. This led to strong friendships and a desire to spend free time together, a sign of a successful culture.

What is 'Co-opetition' as used at Zynga?

Co-opetition describes the blend of collaboration and competition within Zynga's studios. Teams competed to create the best features and achieve high KPls, but they also shared everything openly to avoid mistakes and learn from each other, ultimately driving collective success.

Was the success of early Zynga games more about game design or platform optimization?

Scott believes it was more about optimization for the Facebook platform and understanding human social behavior. They spent as much time optimizing channels and features for sharing as they did on game design, as social interaction was key to retention.

How did Zynga's approach change when transitioning to mobile gaming?

The transition was difficult as they lost the benefits of the Facebook platform, like easy cross-promotion and a captive audience. Mobile required more upfront design confidence, longer release cycles, and a greater focus on retention and monetization due to higher acquisition costs.

What are the key differences in LiveOps between web (Facebook) and mobile gaming?

On web, with low acquisition costs and easy user acquisition, focus was less on long-term retention. On mobile, with high acquisition costs, the focus shifted dramatically to day 30, day 90, and day 365 retention, requiring a much deeper understanding of player engagement.

How has data analytics and experimentation evolved in game development?

Initially, analysis was manual, involving spreadsheets and pivot tables that took days. Now, machines handle much of the data processing, providing near real-time results for experiments, allowing teams to focus on harder problems like personalization and player segmentation.

What is Zynga's philosophy on failure in game development?

Zynga now celebrates failures as learning opportunities, recognizing that making mobile games and live ops is inherently difficult. They focus on mitigating risk, testing early, and understanding why things fail, making those who fail and learn 'more heroic' than before.

What are the core tenets of Zynga's culture?

Key tenets include a love for games, a hypothesis-driven approach, teamwork through collaboration, intellectual honesty, and a culture of learning. Success is measured by product success and the lessons learned from both wins and failures.

What excites Scott about the future of mobile gaming?

Scott is excited about the evolution to cross-platform play, the continued emergence of diverse and groundbreaking experiences, and the potential of hyper-casual games as gateways into gaming. He sees a long, evolving path for mobile gaming.

What are the main challenges in creating cross-platform games?

Key challenges include control schemes that work across different platforms, maintaining a rich experience on mobile comparable to console, and adapting purchasing behaviors and progression mechanics. Each transition requires careful experimentation and learning.

How should game development teams be structured for live ops?

While structures can vary by genre, teams are leaning towards being smaller and more generalized, focusing on live ops. It's crucial to balance live ops with opportunities for new development to prevent burnout and foster creativity, ensuring a mix of challenges and fulfilling work.

What is the next evolution of LiveOps?

The next evolution is personalization. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, games will tailor experiences to individual players based on their playstyle, history, and preferences, making the game feel special and ensuring players feel celebrated, not punished.

What is essential advice for new game studios?

Focus on satisfying your core audience first before expanding. Be explicit about your hypothesis (retention vs. monetization first), maintain scope, have a post-launch roadmap, and expect things to go wrong, learning from those inevitable issues.

How Zynga Built a Multi-Billion Dollar CULTURE of Failure, Freedom, and Competition

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Gaming4 min read76 min video

Mar 3, 2023|2,405 views|48|7

Zynga Mobile Gaming Live Ops Game Development a16z Andreessen Horowitz Mobile Game Dev

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Key Moments

TL;DR

Zynga's CPO on building a billion-dollar culture through failure, freedom, and competition.

Key Insights

Zynga fostered a "coopetition" culture with intense internal competition and shared learning.

Early Zynga success on Facebook leaned heavily on platform optimization and social engineering, not just game design.

The transition to mobile necessitated a shift from rapid iteration to more upfront design and a focus on long-term retention.

Live Ops evolved into a sophisticated practice, emphasizing continuous engagement through events, personalization, and data-driven insights.

Failure is celebrated as a learning opportunity, moving from fear-based launches to mitigated risks and iterative improvements.

The future of live ops lies in deep personalization, tailoring experiences to individual player behavior and preferences.

THE ROOTS OF ZYNGA SUCCESS: COMPETITION AND COMMUNITY

Scott Koenigsberg, Zynga's Chief Product Officer, reflects on the company's formative years, highlighting a unique culture of "coopetition." This environment fostered intense, yet friendly, competition among game teams, pushing them to outperform each other in metrics like viral growth and revenue. This competitive spirit was coupled with an unprecedented level of transparency and shared learning, where teams openly shared their successes and failures. This collaborative approach, combined with a genuine enjoyment of working together, led to strong friendships and a powerful sense of community, even extending to employees choosing to spend their free time together socially.

EARLY WEB GAMES: SOCIAL ENGINEERING OVER COMPLEX DESIGN

During Zynga's early days on the Facebook platform, success was less about intricate game design and more about optimizing for the social nature of the platform. Koenigsberg explains that many players didn't consider themselves 'gamers' but were drawn to the social experiences. Features that encouraged interaction, like visiting friends' farms or cities to offer help, were crucial for retention. The team spent significant time optimizing the user interface, driving virality through social invites, and understanding the human psychology that made these games engaging, often applying principles from real-world commerce like new customer discounts and Black Friday sales.

THE EVOLUTION TO MOBILE: A PARADIGM SHIFT

The transition from web-based Facebook games to the mobile platform presented significant challenges. Zynga lost the ability to iterate rapidly and pull back changes quickly. Mobile required more upfront design, a greater focus on long-term player retention (day 30, day 90, day 365), and a careful approach to user acquisition due to higher costs. The controlled environment of Facebook was replaced by the complexities of app stores, longer release cycles, and the need for robust telemetry and new monetization strategies within a more limited ecosystem. Social features also had to be re-engineered for the mobile context.

THE BIRTH AND GROWTH OF LIVE OPERATIONS

The concept of Live Operations (Live Ops) emerged organically from the need to keep players engaged on perpetually running games. Zynga established a cadence of weekly events and quarterly "bold beats," ensuring players consistently experienced new content and felt the game was alive. This approach was crucial because the low switching costs on mobile meant players could easily move to a new game if they perceived one was stagnant. Great Live Ops became the key to sustained player engagement, which in turn, was the foundation for monetization, shifting the industry's focus from initial acquisition to long-term player value.

EMBRACING FAILURE AS A LEARNING MECHANISM

Zynga's culture evolved to embrace failure not as a setback, but as an invaluable learning opportunity. Instead of penalizing unsuccessful launches, the company began to celebrate mitigated risks and the insights gained from experiments that didn't pan out. This shift encouraged teams to take calculated risks and explore new ideas, knowing that the failure itself would provide crucial data for future success. This cultural change is exemplified by the shift from rigid launch metrics to a focus on understanding player motivations and iterating based on feedback, fostering intellectual honesty and a more empowered development environment.

THE FUTURE OF GAMING: PERSONALIZATION AND CROSS-PLATFORM PLAY

Looking ahead, Koenigsberg sees significant growth in personalization within live ops, moving beyond one-size-fits-all experiences to tailor content and engagement to individual player behavior and preferences. The industry is also advancing towards seamless cross-platform play, allowing players to engage with games across multiple devices. While challenges remain in control schemes and preserving experience parity, Zynga is actively developing its cross-platform capabilities. The core philosophy of understanding player psychology, applying learnings from other's successes, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and adaptation will continue to drive innovation.

Mentioned in This Episode

●Software & Apps

●Companies

●Concepts

●People Referenced

Common Questions

Scott initially approached Zynga with a business idea to increase revenue for Mafia Wars. He focused on product and merchandising principles, having no prior game-making experience. His initial success led to him becoming the first Revenue PM at Zynga.

Topics

LiveOps Zynga User Acquisition Player Retention Social Gaming Data Analytics Cross-Platform

Mentioned in this video

personScott Koenigsberg

Chief Product Officer at Zynga, with nearly 14 years of experience overseeing game teams, product development, and marketing.

conceptBe Your Own CEO

Another cultural tenet at Zynga, empowering employees to take ownership of their work.

conceptLiveOps

A term referring to the ongoing operation and development of live games, including events, updates, and player engagement strategies. Scott discusses its evolution from web to mobile.

mediaCityVille

A popular Zynga game on Facebook that had a significant monthly active user count.

mediaMafia Wars

A game developed by Zynga, mentioned as one of Scott's previous titles and an early focus for his revenue optimization efforts.

softwareGoToMeeting

An online conferencing software Scott appeared in a commercial for early in his career, highlighting the importance of reading contracts.

companyTake-Two

The parent company that Zynga is now a part of, providing console experience to aid in cross-platform development.

companyZynga

A company Scott has worked at for nearly 14 years, overseeing game teams, product development, and marketing. Known for titles like Farmville, Mafia Wars, and Words with Friends.

mediaGod of War

A game Scott recently finished playing, highlighting the lack of effective recommendation engines for cross-platform game discovery.

personMark Pincus

Known for coining the term 'escape velocity' at Zynga, signifying rapid, large-scale growth. Also known Scott for a while.

conceptZynga Speed

A cultural concept at Zynga that aimed for rapid execution and performance.

conceptBattle Pass

A recurring monetization and engagement mechanic in games, discussed as an evolution of older quest systems.

softwareRobo PM

An early attempt at Zynga to automate Product Manager tasks, which initially caused concern but ultimately showed the value of human insight in data analysis.

conceptPogo Sticker Book

An early example of a collection mechanic used in games to drive engagement, predating modern game design.

mediaFarmVille

A popular game developed by Zynga, mentioned as one of Scott's previous titles and an example of long-term live operations success.

mediaWords with Friends

A game developed by Zynga, mentioned as one of Scott's previous titles. Also discussed as a classic game with players who prefer the original experience.

conceptEscape Velocity

A phrase coined by Mark Pincus at Zynga, representing the concept of going big and moving very fast in business.

personEa