Originally posted on Android Developer blog

Posted by Lily Sheringham, Developer Marketing at Google Play

Editor’s note: This is another post in our series featuring tips from developers finding success on Google Play. We recently spoke to games developer Kongregate, to find out how they use Store Listing Experiments successfully. - Ed.

With Store Listing Experiments in the Google Play Developer Console, you can conduct A/B tests on the content of your store listing pages. Test versions of the text and graphics to see which ones perform best, based on install data.

Kongregate increases installs by 45 percent with Store Listing Experiments

Founded in 2006 by brother and sister Jim and Emily Greer, Kongregate is a leading mobile games publisher specializing in free to play games. Kongregate used Store Listing Experiments to test new content for the Global Assault listing page on Google Play. By testing with different audience sizes, they found a new icon that drove 92 percent more installs, while variant screenshots achieved an impressive 14 percent improvement. By picking the icons, screenshots, and text descriptions that were the most sticky with users, Kongregate saw installs increase by 45 percent on the improved page.

Kongregate’s Mike Gordon, VP of Publishing; Peter Eykemans, Senior Producer; and Tammy Levy, Director of Product for Mobile Games, talk about how to successfully optimise mobile game listings with Store Listing Experiments.

Kongregate’s tips for success with Store Listing Experiments

Jeff Gurian, Sr. Director of Marketing at Kongregate also shares his do’s and don’ts on how to use experiments to convert more of your visitors, thereby increasing installs. Check them out below:

Do’s	Don’ts
Do start by testing your game’s icon. Icons can have the greatest impact (positive or negative) on installs — so test early!	Don’t test too many variables at once. It makes it harder to determine what drove results. The more variables you test, the more installs (and time) you’ll need to identify a winner.
Do have a question or objective in mind when designing an experiment. For example, does artwork visualizing gameplay drive more installs than artwork that doesn’t?	Don’t test artwork only. Also test screenshot ordering, videos, and text to find what combinations increase installs.
Do run experiments long enough to achieve statistical significance. How long it takes to get a result can vary due to changes in traffic sources, location of users, and other factors during testing.	Don’t target too small an audience with your experiment variants. The more users you expose to your variants, the more data you collect, the faster you get results!
Do pay attention to the banner, which tells you if your experiment is still “in progress.” When it has collected enough data, the banner will clearly tell you which variant won or if it was a tie.	Don’t interpret a test where the control attribute performs better than variants as a waste. You can still learn valuable lessons from what “didn’t work.” Iterate and try again!

Learn more about how Kongregate optimized their Play Store listing with Store Listing Experiments. Learn more about Google Play products and best practices to help you grow your business globally.

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Posted by, Laurence Moroney, Developer Advocate

Vulkan is the new generation, open standard API for efficient access to graphics and compute on modern GPUs. In this episode of Coffee with a Googler, Laurence meets with Shannon Woods, a Technical Program Manager in Google’s rendering teams to talk about plumbing code from your app down to the GPU!

Historically mobile apps have used Open GL ES to communicate with the GPU, but the hardware and API have evolved separately, impacting efficiency. Vulkan has been designed to organize the graphics space in much the same way as the underlying GPU, so it can be more efficient.

Android will support both Open GL ES and Vulkan, so developers can choose which API is right for them — and with Vulkan, precise control over the commands executed by the GPU allows for great optimization, as well as parallelization of code.

We also learn about the famous Utah Teapot, a standard reference object for 3D modellers, and how it is found in popular culture -- such as showing up in most animated movies. Have you spotted it?

Watch this episode for some great guidance from Shannon on what you need to do as a developer to prepare for Vulkan, and how using could be of benefit to your apps!

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Functions can be thought of as separate programs that are designed to perform
specific tasks. For example, in a program, separate functions can be so designed
to perform specific tasks such as taking input, doing calculation, giving output
etc.

In this article we will be discussing about what functions are and how they
are designed in C++.

Generally, programs have many logically different parts (input, output etc.)
which can be coded separately as function. This makes programs easily manageable
and understandable.

Suppose we have to design an invoice program that takes input, calculates and
at last displays the output. We have two options to do so, we can either program
the whole thing linearly or we can make separate functions for each of the tasks
(input, output etc.), this would make the program far more manageable and upgradeable.
(In the future, if you need to change certain things, you only need to alter
the functions)

In this way if you divide various activities of the program into different
function, then it would be easy for you to code and check each of the function
besides making the program easier to understand and manage.

Have a look at this program:

   //C++ program
   #include<iostream.h>

   int sqr(int x);//declaration of the function

   void main(void)
   {
   int a=9;
   cout<<"square of "<<a<<" is ";
   cout<<sqr(a)<<endl;//function is being called here
   }

   int sqr(int x)//no ;(semicolon) here
   {
   x=x*x;
   return (x);//return keyword is used
   //to return values, in this case
   //the value of x is returned
   }

Few points about the program:

• In C++, it is necessary to declare a function before defining it as we have
  done in the line:
  
  int sqr(int x);//declaration
  of the function

• One function cannot be defined inside another. Therefore sqr(int x) function
  cannot be defined inside main () which itself is a function.

• A function can return any type of values except arrays.
  The value is returned in the line:
  
  return (x);
  
  and the value got accepted and printed in the line:
  cout<<sqr(a);

Now that you understand how to declare and use functions, let me give you a
slightly more complex program:

   //C++ program
   #include<iostream.h>

   //declaration of functions
   int take_input(void);
   void play(void);//it is optional to use the void keyword
   void help(void);
   void quit(void);

   //main program starts from here
   void main(void)
   {
   int choice;
   choice=take_input();//take input

   //perform action as per the value returned
   if(choice==1) play();
   else if(choice==2) help();
   else if(choice==3) quit();
   }

   //functions are defined below
   int take_input()
   {
   int ch=0;
   cout<<" MAIN MENU";
   cout<<endl<<endl;
   cout<<"1> PLAY"<<endl;
   cout<<"2> HELP"<<endl;
   cout<<"3> QUIT"<<endl;
   cout<<endl<<endl;
   cout<<"enter choice and press enter"<<endl;

   while (ch!=1 && ch!=2 && ch!=3)
     {
     cin>>ch;
     }

   return (ch);
   }

   void play(void)
   {
   cout<<"write code for PLAY"<<endl;
   }

   void help(void)
   {
   cout<<"write code for HELP"<<endl;
   }

   void quit(void)
   {
   cout<<"write code for QUIT"<<endl;
   }

This is a simple program to illustrate how the various activities of a program
can be divided into separate functions. Notice how easy it is to understand
the program. Even if the functions play (), help () etc. had 100’s of
lines of code, the program would have been easily understandable.

Hope this helps…

Related Articles:

• 
  

  Destructor
  Functions in Detail

  
  


• 
  

  Introduction
  to Constructor and Destructor functions

  
  


• 
  

  Introduction
  to Function Overloading in C++

  
  

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