Angry Birds

Angry Birds' standard screenshots beat its seasonal ones in a test. Angry Birds tested seasonal screenshots against its standard set, and the standard set did better. The uplift was small.

This ran against the popular belief that seasonal creative wins. The takeaway is to test seasonal creative against the standard set before rolling it out. Quote: "contrary to popular belief that the standard screenshots actually did better".

App Masters▶ 2:03

Angry Birds taught the core mechanic first, then added new birds. It taught the basics first and only then introduced new birds and elements. This is cited as an example of good onboarding.

Players who cannot work out how to play or move around leave immediately, even if the app was featured or the installs were paid. The advice is to focus on the first few minutes of play. Many TouchArcade testers asked for a tutorial on first start.

App Masters▶ 4:13

Angry Birds was its studio's 51st app, not a first-attempt hit. Angry Birds was the maker's 51st app. It is used as an example that hits rarely come from a first attempt.

The same source cites Color Switch as its developer's 41st app and one developer's hit as his fourth. Each app teaches how to launch, work with Apple and Google, get approved and ship updates. Quote: "rarely it's that first hit, it takes a long time."

App Masters▶ 18:50