Client Company Overview

Industry: Gaming

Markets: USA / Global
Launch Year: Yet to be Launched

Please keep the client anonymous and in client overview draft content sharing that the client was from Gaming industry getting a gaming app developed from scratch.

DevOps Key Challenges

• Lack of User Engagement: The legacy app required two users to be online simultaneously, leading to low user engagement and high churn rates.
• Limited Feature Set: The initial version lacked engaging features, interactive gameplay elements, rewards, and social features.
• Monetization Issues: The app struggled with effective monetization due to limited in-app purchase options and inadequate advertisement integration.
• Technical Challenges: Developing real-time video recording and streaming features, integrating third-party services for analytics, advertisements, and crash reporting, and ensuring a seamless user experience posed significant technical challenges.
• User Onboarding: The onboarding process needed optimization to ensure new users could easily understand and engage with the app’s core functionalities.

Solution We Suggested

To address the challenges, we conducted an in-depth analysis of user behaviour, industry trends, and competitive apps. The goal was to identify key areas of improvement that would drive user engagement and retention. Based on the findings, we proposed several features and enhancements to make the gameplay more interactive and rewarding.

DevOps Solution

Containerization and Orchestration with AWS ECS:

• AWS ECS with Fargate: Deployed backend microservices in containers on serverless platforms. This eliminated the need for manual intervention and allowed efficient management of resources.
• Service Auto-Scaling: Implemented auto-scaling to dynamically adjust resources, providing significant cost savings and ensuring optimal performance during peak traffic periods.

Security Enhancements:

• IAM Roles and Policies: Enforced least privilege access control using IAM roles for ECS tasks. This secured sensitive data within a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) and eliminated the use of static credentials.
• VPC and Security Groups: Deployed ECS within a secure VPC framework, utilising tailored security groups to control inbound and outbound traffic, enhancing the overall security posture.
• AWS Certificate Manager and WAF: Implemented SSL termination processes at important endpoints and protected HTTP/HTTPS traffic from common web vulnerabilities like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS).

High Availability and Fault Tolerance:

• Multi-AZ Deployment: Deployed ECS tasks across multiple Availability Zones (AZs) within each AWS region to ensure high availability and fault tolerance.
• Cross-Zone Load Balancing: Implemented cross-zone load balancing with Application load balancer to evenly distribute traffic and enhance application resilience, ensuring a seamless gaming experience for users globally.

Monitoring and Logging:

• CloudWatch Integration: Integrated CloudWatch logs and events with ECS to monitor failures, issues, and deployments. This facilitated rapid debugging and resolution of issues, ensuring minimal downtime.
• Continuous Monitoring: Set up continuous monitoring of system performance and user interactions to proactively address potential bottlenecks and optimise performance.

Cost Management:

• AWS Cost Explorer: Utilised AWS Cost Explorer to manage and optimise spending. Auto-scaling policies were fine-tuned to ensure resources were utilised efficiently without compromising performance.
• TCO Analysis: Conducted a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis, evaluating infrastructure, operational, labour, security, training, and support costs to implement strategies for ongoing cost optimization.

 

Additional AWS Services:

• Amazon RDS (MySQL) and DocumentDB: Deployed in a multi-AZ environment to ensure high availability and data redundancy. These services supported both relational and non-relational data storage needs of the application.
• Amazon ElastiCache (Redis): Utilised to cache frequently accessed data, thereby greatly enhancing application performance. Redis was also employed to manage socket connections to backend services.
• Amazon S3: Utilised for storing application data, user-uploaded files, and static assets, ensuring high durability and availability.
• AWS Lambda: Implemented serverless functions to perform specific tasks without managing servers, enabling a flexible and scalable backend architecture.
• AWS CloudFront: Deployed as a content delivery network (CDN) to cache static content and reduce latency, enhancing the user experience.

Tech Stack Used

• Compute and Containerization:
  • AWS ECS with Fargate

• Networking and Security:
  • Amazon VPC
  • Security Groups
  • Network ACLs
  • AWS IAM
  • AWS Certificate Manager
  • AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall)

• Auto-Scaling and Load Balancing:
  • Application Load Balancer (ALB)
  • Auto-Scaling Groups

• Storage and Databases:
  • Amazon RDS (MySQL)
  • Amazon S3
  • Amazon DocumentDB
  • Amazon ElastiCache (Redis)

• Monitoring and Logging:
  • Amazon CloudWatch
  • AWS X-Ray
  • AWS CloudTrail
  • AWS Config

• Cost Management:
  • AWS Cost Explorer
  • AWS Trusted Advisor
  • AWS Budgets

• High Availability and Disaster Recovery:
  • Multi-AZ Deployment
  • AWS Backup

• Additional Services:
  • AWS Lambda
  • AWS CloudFront
  • AWS SNS (Simple Notification Service)
  • AWS SES (Simple Email Service)
  • AWS Parameter Store

The Results

• Enhanced User Engagement: 
  • The introduction of video-based gameplay and interactive power-ups significantly increased user interaction within the app. Players found the new features like – Power-ups such as Second Chance, Breather, Cherry Bomb, and Thunder to be engaging and strategically beneficial, leading to prolonged app usage.
  • By adding elements like trophies, rewards multipliers based on the tier category users belonged to, and a player ranking system, users would be more motivated to stay active and progress in the game. The competitive environment fostered by these features would result in higher retention rates.

• Ways to Increase User Base: The referral module effectively incentivized existing users to invite their friends, expanding the user base. Promotional events during festivals also contributed to user base expansion.
• Successful Monetization: The integration of in-app purchases and Google Admob advertisements created multiple revenue streams. Users were willing to spend on power-ups and other in-game items, contributing to the app’s financial success.
• Streamlined User Experience: The improved onboarding process, leveraging multiple login options and a user-friendly interface, ensured a seamless user experience. Positive user feedback and higher ratings on the App Store were achieved.
• Real-Time Features: The use of technologies like Google WebRTC and Socket.io enabled real-time interactions, enhancing the overall gameplay experience.
• Robust Backend Support: The implementation of a scalable backend using NodeJS, NestJS, and AWS Amplify ensured that the app could handle increased user traffic and data processing without compromising performance.
• Comprehensive Analytics and Monitoring: The integration of Firebase Crashlytics and Google Analytics provided valuable insights into user behavior and app performance, allowing for continuous improvement and optimization.