Pocket Gems is the creator of Episode, a leading interactive storytelling game where players shape their own stories through choices. With a wide variety of genres such as romance, drama, and adventure, Episode has dominated the market for over 10 years.
To continue attracting new players who would love the game, Pocket Gems set out to refresh Episode’s visual identity on the app store. Their goal was to create new screenshots that would better introduce the game to potential players, making it instantly clear why Episode is the perfect fit for them.
Episode’s screenshots
After years of optimizing creative assets through A/B testing, the Episode team faced a new challenge: crafting fresh screenshots and icons that could outperform their best-performing visuals.
The task wasn’t just about change — it was about finding a way to better connect with the right audience while maintaining or even improving conversion rates.
When major publishers A/B test new concepts, a variation is typically considered successful if it performs on par with the control (default version). Variations that match the control’s performance often have a strong potential to boost conversions, particularly among returning users, once implemented in the app store.
In this case, however, we achieved a notable increase in conversion rates across all user types with our refreshed screenshots.
SplitMetrics Agency created a strategic A/B testing plan that brought together a series of hypotheses focused on refreshing Episode’s creative assets. The plan included recommendations for new art styles and design elements for both screenshots and icons.
With SplitMetrics Optimize, the client accessed detailed behavior metrics that provided valuable insights into user interactions and engagement patterns. Leveraging these insights, Episode successfully tested and implemented updated creative assets that resonated with their audience.
I find SplitMetrics’ behavior metrics tool helpful in understanding precisely when our audience tends to bounce. The tool also allows us to analyze the engagement performance of each variation in detail.
The testing process led to significant improvements in conversion rates across various updates. Here’s a breakdown of the key results:
Icon Update (April 23)
An icon update led to the following results:
iOS: +3% CR increase from overall downloads.
Android: +12% CR increase from new users.
The results of an experiment done with SplitMetrics Optimize, with the Variation B winning over the Variation A
Screenshot Update (May 31)
A screenshot update had the following outcome:
iOS: +10% CR increase from overall downloads.
The results of an experiment done with SplitMetrics Optimize, with the Variation B winning over the Variation A
This case highlights how even mature apps with significant market recognition can unlock new growth opportunities through targeted A/B testing strategies.
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