This is a story all about how Roamer Games found a theme for Civ Royale. Validating a concept in the development phase of a game is a powerful way to head development in a specific direction. A/B testing a theme, game concept or art style early on gives data-backed confidence to decision-making. This is exactly what Roamer Games did with their recently released hit game Civ Royale before locking in on the theme of the game. How exactly did they end up choosing the medieval theme you see in the game today? Let’s dive in.
Theme test
Initially the question for this upcoming civilization strategy game was about which theme to go with. Based on competitor research and market analysis, the team had narrowed down to four different possible themes for the upcoming title; medieval, animal, space, and mafia. Roamer Games decided to utilize Geeklab for this purpose to find out which theme would perform better among their audience.
Test setup
To begin testing which theme was most appealing and impactful, the product pages were built from scratch on Geeklab. Four different variants were included in the test reflecting each theme through the screenshots and the icon. Each variant was then paired with an ad on Facebook, that drove traffic to that specific product page. Generative AI was used in the making of the ads, as well as the game itself. Roamer Games also successfully utilized Geeklab’s feature to include a link to their Discord in order to gather test users.
Winning theme
The test ran over the course of 9 days. After the conclusion of the A/B test, one variant was found the winner – the medieval theme. The variant featuring medieval elements garnered a higher click-through rate compared to the other three themes. Users were not only more likely to click on the medieval-themed product page, but they also exhibited higher conversion rates, indicating a greater interest in downloading and playing the game.
Roamer Games found a theme for Civ Royale
Before Roamer Games decided on a theme for Civ Royale, they decided to put it to test. Initially they had in mind that the mafia theme will be a clear winner. However, in the end it was outperformed by all other variants, therefore it could be ruled out as the theme of the game.
Roamer Games also dug deeper into audience insights with the help of a survey to get qualitative data. This data revealed that the audience preferred a more realistic or historically accurate approach instead of a fantasy game.
This is a textbook example of why concept validation is important, intuition and data-backed evidence isn’t always aligned. Combining them can yield better results. Deep diving into audience insights early on in the process usually helps make the most out of the development process.
