My last article on LiveOps walked you through the events, their components, and the strategies you need to create them intentionally. But cadence? Cadence looks at something a whole lot less concrete.

Don’t get me wrong — I have actionable steps, clear instructions, and quite a few tips coming your way. It’s just that, underneath all of those tidbits, there’s an ocean of malleability. The waves are swelling and crashing, the wind is changing speed and directions, and you — with a calm sense of confidence — are letting the variables guide you.

So with that image in mind, I’d like to introduce you to cadence. The thing that’ll decide when you implement which events, how you plan your overall strategy, and why you’re adjusting the way you’ll be adjusting.

And yes, there will be plenty of adjusting.

Cadence requires you to be easygoing, astute, and curious. It demands that you observe, ask questions, and learn. And in order for it to give you what you want it to give you, it absolutely needs you to be flexible.

In the land of cadence, there is no certainty. There is no promise, and there is no guarantee. There’s only your game, your events, and your audience. So watch it all very closely.

Proactive Design

With your LiveOps cadence, what you’re always looking to find is the perfect release schedule for the two things that comprise your LiveOps strategy: your game client and your content.

Your Game Client

The application that needs to be installed in order to make sure your players are experiencing the most up-to-date (and high-functioning) version of your game possible, the game client requires its own release schedule. How often will you issue new bug fixes? How frequently will you put out new content that requires tweaks in the client? These are the questions you need to be asking yourself — and before you pick a cadence, make sure you’ve done your research into what other games are doing.

Why is this cadence so integral? Because if you lag on updating your game client, not amending it often enough, the quality of the gameplay you’re offering will undoubtedly go downhill. Rampant bugs and unchanging content will leave your audience frustrated, annoyed, or bored. But, if you go update-crazy and force your players to update their apps too frequently, you might be looking down the barrel at frustration and annoyance all the same.

So what’s a game to do?

I don’t want to overrun you with the “B’ word, but I’m going to say it anyway: like all things LiveOps-related, you’re aiming for b-b-balance here. The right balance. Prioritizing gameplay quality and freshness while being mindful of not overwhelming your players with actions-required. It’s delicate to determine, but when you do?

Nothing short of magic.

Your Content

This one doesn’t require as much of an introduction since, if you followed instructions and took notes on Part I of this series, you’re already well acquainted. What I will say is this: where your game client needs to be installed with active updates, your content — that is, the fresh features, events, and tweaks that don’t require any tweaking in the client — can be delivered to your players through internet connection. Which means to have the latest content at their fingertips, all they need is wifi or cell signal.

Obviously, this gives you the freedom to release content on a more frequent basis, since it requires no intentional action from the players. This is your key to LiveOps: a steady stream of content that is waiting there for your players — ready to surprise them, excite them, and keep them coming back.

So, with all of that said, how often should you be releasing new content? How frequent is too frequent? What’s going on in the backend during every release?

I’ll give you two preliminary answers.

First, pinpointing the correct cadence for any game isn’t a one-and-done effort. You can’t possibly know what your audience wants, when they’ll want it again, and when they’ll be sick of getting it — because your audience doesn’t even have that information yet. So get ready to learn and grow together.

And second? The way you figure out the best cadence schedule for your content is by… implementing the wrong ones first. Try, fix, try, fix — this pattern will be your new best friend.

The Planning

So we know there will be trial and error, but how do you choose the right trial first? How do you know where to start, and how do you know what to take into account when?

The best jumping-off point is getting these factors nailed down:

Three aphorisms to live by

1. Know Thy Capabilities

First thing’s first — it’s one thing to dream up a crowded content calendar with a release cadence that’s bordering on insane, but it’s quite another to be able to actually implement it. Before you let your ambitious plans carry you up into space, you’ve got to make sure you have the support you need to execute.

Do you have the digital tools you need to create the content in the timespan you’ve allotted?

Do you have the horsepower for content production on top of everything else your game needs to function day-to-day?

Do you have the team members on standby the day after release to make sure all bugs are zapped before they become a real problem?

Before you get to drawing up your plans, make sure you know what you can do. That’ll give you a benchmark to start from — and it’ll show you where the gaps that you need to fill in are sitting pretty. And before you ask: no — I’m not saying you’re forever limited by the types of tools, the number of team members, or the amount of time you have. I’m saying you need to take stock of all of that first — and then, once you pinpoint your goals, figure out what needs to change to turn them into reality.

2. Know Thy Audience

The point of developing the perfect cadence isn’t to impress yourself or your team. It’s to impress your audience. And the only way you’ll ever be able to do that is by knowing your audience. How frequently are they playing? What are the other games fighting for their attention, and how often are they releasing their new content? Find out your audience’s expectations, find out their behaviors, and you’ll be closing in on what you need to be doing much faster.

But general expectations and general behaviors aren’t enough. Not really, anyway. If you want to truly carve out your place in the market, you’ve got to step it up. That means looking at which days of the week your audience engages the most, and planning your cadence around them. It means researching the most popular games in different regions and making sure your release cadence is offering your region-specific playerbase the same — if not more — excitement.

Some examples to ask yourself:

The more details you have, the better positioned you’ll be to design a cadence that works. But, like we said: where there’s failure, there’s room to grow. A key way you’ll learn about what your audience desires is by giving them something and observing their reactions. We’ll get into analytics later on, but for now — mental-bookmark it. Observation leads to better execution. Always.

3. Know Thy Game

Just like when it comes to developing content, when it comes to developing your cadence — the strategy lies within. What does that mean? That your game — its framework, its reach, its distinctive traits — will help you dictate your release schedule. Or at the very least point it in a specific direction.

Let’s look at an example: if your game is oriented around skiing the slopes of the biggest mountains, you’ll likely want to tie your content schedule to the Winter Olympics, the X Games, and other notable winter sporting competitions. Not only does this approach make for ‘stickier’ marketing efforts, but it’ll also give you a great way to further connect your audience’s real-world lives to your game (and connect your community to each other).

Another example? The game Marvel Strikeforce planned its cadence with the releases of Marvel movies in mind, so they can cross-promote and lean into the momentum of an already-excited audience.

While holiday content (like Christmas & Easter) is always great, going the extra mile and finding unique places for your cadence to distinguish itself in a real-world context can lead to some pretty fantastic results. For the big guys and for the smaller ones.

You’re The Captain ⛵

The final tip for cadence design I’ll leave you with is this: you’re the captain. You’re the mastermind orchestrating the symphony, and you’re responsible for making sure you’re actively taking your audience’s needs into account. At every checkpoint.

In order to do that sufficiently, you must be mindful of two distinctly important variables:

Event Intensity

The degree of engagement (marked by effort) required by the players for any ex