We are thrilled to introduce the newest addition to our Sandsoft Games family, Albert Camps, our dynamic Sr. Product Manager with a wealth of experience in the gaming industry! ????????️
Albert is set to be a pivotal member of our team, bringing a fresh perspective and a wealth of knowledge to help us level up our games.
We asked Albert, what were some of the things that convinced him to join Sandsoft, and a few questions on product management.
“The challenge of working on a different market, understanding better a new audience, and being able to work in top notch game experiences with different teams and companies, to share what I know and learn from them. – was Albert’s reply. – And also to be part of a team that has a vision for 2030. That really catched my eye.”
Can you describe the process of ideation and concept development for a new gaming product, and how do you ensure it aligns with market trends and player preferences?
“At the core of it there’s market knowledge – what is already available – and then creativity – what we can picture. Ensuring that our learnings from both are aligned, possible, and actually will end up in a successful game is not an easy task. And that’s why we go through different stages of user research and iteration to clarify what works and what doesn’t so we increase in each new step our chances of landing a success.”
What methodologies and tools do you use for user research and player feedback collection , and how do these insights influence the development and refinement of your gaming products?
“I’ve been using player profiling from an analytical point of view for collecting user data and then matching this information with rounds of PlaytestCloud that have allowed me and the team to better understand the pain points and opportunities from multiple perspectives and in different stages of the user journey. For example for finding usability improvements on the FTUE allowed us to bring small changes that brought big improvements in the onboarding.
With insights gained and ideas generated from and after these user research tests, we enrich the development roadmap with items pertaining to the ‘we don’t know that we don’t know’ with a good ROI ratio.”
How do you balance the need for monetization with player satisfaction and fairness, especially in games that offer in-app purchases or microtransactions?
“Depending on the game there’s different strategies to be used, but it is indeed a complicated problem, since we want to achieve the highest business success, simply limiting all the purchases is usually not a wise strategy.
To start, the key driver here is player satisfaction so focusing on users getting value out of their transaction, which can mean a specific unit they were wanting, a specific benefit in the game, or simply a boost of more resources during a period of time.
Then for fairness, if possible applying a diminishing returns strategy, where spending always brings benefit, but in a less than linear way, so high spenders and low spenders don’t drift apart so much. A way to monitor this closely would be to check how retention of the game is faring.”
With the emergence of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and other immersive technologies, how do you envision these technologies impacting the future of gaming product development?
“While I have a hard time seeing them to impact ‘mobile game development’, they obviously offer a lot of new opportunities that will be shaping the future as they become more integrated and more and more games are developed for these technologies.
That being said, immersive tech is struggling despite heavy investment, and it will take addressing key accessibility issues before either VR or AR becomes mainstream.”
What are some of the best things that keep you in the gaming industry?
“The amount of data and information about user behaviour in general, and that matched with creativity. Creating worlds that transport people and lift them up.
And that also means how this industry is full of passionate people which is a truly amazing thing.”
What are some of your hobbies?
“I love spending time in nature, be it trekking, camping or even climbing sometimes. Also I’ve been practicing handstands for the last few years, and I love it.”
