Building a scalable infrastructure for games which serve hundreds of millions of people is tough. But with each new game requiring slightly different features building that scalable infrastructure multiple times becomes impossible. In this talk Steven will share how his team works with all of the different game teams to build a shared infrastructure that empowers the game developers without restricting their ability to innovate. - Defining the central technology product - Handling requests from multiple different stakeholders - Managing the big risk - lack of adoption - Keeping the platform lean and agile

1. The technology behind the games
Steve Collins CTO King

2. Graphics Research
Group
Physics for Games Multi-core scripting
for console games
Mobile marketing
Automation
Early-Stage VC Mobile Games
B2B B2B B2B (B2B)2C

3. • Founded in 2003
• Candy Crush Saga released 2012
• IPO in 2014
• Joined Activision Blizzard 2016
• ~2000 employees currently
A brief history of King…
King has offices and
studios in Stockholm,
London, Barcelona,
Malmo, Berlin, San
Francisco, Chicago, New
York, Los Angeles and
Malta.

4. 200+ Games Developed

6. The Games

7. Candy Crush Saga

8. The Progression Map

9. Meta Gameplay
Core Game
(engagement)
Progression Meta
(retention)
Seasonal Content & Events
(re-engagement)

10. Games as a Service

11. The Platform

12. Game Platform

13. Fiction Factory Game Engine

14. Economy Management

15. In app purchases

16. Advertising

17. Live Operations

18. Candy All Stars

19. AB Testing

20. Planning

21. Partner Success
Engineering
Product Management
Inverse Conway!
“Organizations which design systems . . . are constrained to
produce designs which are copies of the communication
structures of these organizations” (Conway 1968)
Ads Services Data Infra
Developer
Platform
Game
Engine

22. Product Portfolio Management
P
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23. Capacity
T
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m
1
T
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2
T
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24. “Customers”
Size

25. Customer Discovery
Internal
External

26. Planning
Principles
1
2
3
4
5
Reduce complexity & fragmentation
Focus on products & features with high impact
potential & high repeatability
Focus on differentiated capabilities
Enable all games to be operable and data driven
Minimize cognitive load

27. OKRs & Product Plans
Corp
Goals
Strategy
Platform
OKRs
Product
Commits
Org OKRs
Cascade Cascade
Sync
Personal
Goals
Product
Roadmaps

28. Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Capacity
???
Prod
A
Prod
B
Prod
C
Prod
D
Prod
E
Prod
F
Cust
1
Cust
2
Cust
3
Obj
X
Obj
Y
Obj
Z
Active Investment Maintain

29. Source: CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=985491

30. Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Capacity
Prod
A
Prod
B
Prod
C
Prod
D
Prod
E
Prod
F
Cust
1
Cust
2
Cust
3
Obj
X
Obj
Y
Obj
Z
Active Investment Maintain
Tech Debt X

31. Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Capacity
Prod
A
Prod
B
Prod
C
Prod
D
Prod
E
Prod
F
Obj
X
Obj
Y
Obj
Z
Active Investment Maintain
Tech Debt X
Maintenance
1
11 2
2
2 3
3
Cust
1
Cust
2
Cust
3

32. Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Capacity
Prod
A
Prod
B
Prod
C
Prod
D
Prod
E
Prod
F
Tech Debt
40%
Maintenance
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
3
Cust
1
Cust
2
Cust
3
Obj
X
Obj
Y
Obj
Z
X
Active Investment Maintain

33. Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Capacity
Prod
A
Prod
B
Prod
C
Prod
D
Prod
E
Prod
F
Tech Debt
40%
Maintenance
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
3
Cust
1
Cust
2
Cust
3
Obj
X
Obj
Y
Obj
Z
X
Product Backlogs
Active Investment Maintain

34. Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Capacity
Prod
A
Prod
B
Prod
C
Prod
D
Prod
E
Prod
F
Tech Debt
40%
Maintenance
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
3
Cust
1
Cust
2
Cust
3
Obj
X
Obj
Y
Obj
Z
X
Product Stream A
Product Stream B
Product Stream C
Active Investment Maintain

35. Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Capacity
Prod
A
Prod
B
Prod
C
Prod
D
Prod
E
Prod
F
Tech Debt
40%
Maintenance
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
3
Cust
1
Cust
2
Cust
3
Obj
X
Obj
Y
Obj
Z
X
Product Stream A
Product Stream B
Product Stream C
1
2
3
X
Z
1
1 1
X
X
Y
Y
Z
2
2
2 3
3
3
Y
Active Investment Maintain

38. Replan Replan Replan
Plan

40. Annual Quarterly Monthly Daily
Strategic
Tactical

41. Familiarity Bias
We have perfect visibility
of customer requirements
Reliance on old networks
Uncommunicated changes
Misalignment in org
Too many channels
{

42. 44
Alignment
King Leadership
strategic investments
& company initiatives
Game Teams
roadmaps, releases,
requirements, projections
Tech Leadership
tech debt, migrations,
new platforms, centralization
Product Areas
dependencies, resourcing
prioritization
Legal Team
compliance,
regional legislation
Platform Partners
capabilities, support,
legislation, requirements

43. Product Management

44. Product Management
> 40 Active Products

45. Account Management

46. Configuring as internal B2B Enterprise delivery
Enterprise Sales
Account Management
Solution Engineering /
Professional Services
Product Management
Engineering
Support
Customer
Success
Engineering
Support
Product Management
Partner Success
Integration Engineering
Engineering

47. B2B vs (B2B)2C

48. Internal
Customers
Observations
1
2
3
4
5
No customer discovery → priorities by alignment
No sales renewal cycle to drive focus on customer
retention → “account” management
No Marketing funnel → emphasis on visibility, adoption
& evangelizing shared platform
Visible OKRs → Potential benefit to aligned
Competition is DIY → set centralisation bar high