Marketing via game beta key distribution and merchandise
Introduction:
Modern quality assurance for game development makes use of the "early adopters". A lot of gamers are willing to test unfinished games in beta status to be able to play the game earlier than others. They are typically fans of the game or the developer and are one of the main target groups of game merchandise.
We want to support game developers by giving customers the opportunity to order beta keys and merchandise for special games, and be able to pay with Bitcoin. A beta key gives its owner the access to download and test a game in beta status. Therefore, we have chosen the domain E-Commerce.
The Customers:
Customers are gamers and game development professionals.
The result (service or product) of our process:
The merchandise plus an optional, approved valid beta key for a game in beta process
is shipped to the customer.
How do I participate:
User:
1. Start the process
2. Select games you want to betatest and merchandise
3. Enter your address, email address & payment information
4. Receive payment mail
5. Receive beta key mail if approved & shipping information
6. Receive order
The other participants simulate the users, participation is placing an order.
Developer:
1. Decide approval of games for the users
Ressources participating in the process:
Humans:
Customer, developer
Computers:
Order website, developer portal,
Logistics system, financial system, beta key system
What are the most important activities in the process?
Game choosing, availability checking, approval, key generation, key sending, merchandise shipping.
Which technology shall be applied to innovate the process?
Workflow management, business process engineering, digital technologies.
Which exception shall be handled in the process?
Payment not successful.
(Rejection of the beta key because it is invalid (not unique, expiration, game does not exist anymore, etc.).
Rejection of duplicate email.)
Which task is performed by group members with a certain strategy to resolve who is doing the task?
For the project it is necessary to develop a strategy to choose an approver for every process instance. Our current plan is to decide the approver based on the provider of the selected betakey.
Which are the three Key Process Indicators (KPIs) that you will monitor for your process?
Beta key rejection rate:
This KPI will measure how many of the sent requests were denied. This will give a clear indication of the efficiency of our process.
Merchandise income per game:
Every game has different merchandise, and therefore, it is important to monitor the income in relation to the relevant game.
Average purchase value per order:
How much does a customer buy in average with one order?
How will your customers be identified in your process?
Customers will be identified via their email address.
Which tasks are performed by our workflow?
We have the order website where the user selects his orders. To start the workflow, a customer has to select a game, for which he wants merchandise and a beta key. Afterwards, the developer must check if a beta key for the selected game is available and approve it in the developer portal. It notifies the customer of an approval or rejection. The user pays over the financial system and then, the beta key system generates a key and sends it (if approved) to the customer. The merchandise is shipped to the customer which is controlled by the logistics system.
Technology Stack
Workflow management system: Camunda
Order Website, developer portal: (Choose Game, Approve Keydistribution): Angular/React
Financial System, logistic system: TypeScript/Python
Beta key system (Check Availabilty & Update Statistic): Java
2 databases: Firebase or local DB
