By The Numbers: Week 1

So... Assassin's been out for just over a week, and we've gathered some very interesting usage data based on its first few days out in the wild.

See, there's this handy tool called Flurry -- not to be confused with Furry -- that iPhone developers can embed in their apps. Flurry tracks how many people have fired up Assassin on the iPhone, including how many are launching it for the first time, and what geographic regions they belong to. For all of you conspiracy theorists out there, there is no need to worry... we can't use Flurry to access your personal data (as far as we know.. yet... bwahahaHAHAH!).

Let's look at some graphs from Week 1... 'cause who doesn't love graphs? Keep in mind these stats don't track Facebook App usage, which by the way, GET IT if you haven't done so yet =)

Fig. one-point-oh: 3,688 New Users Week 1

So here's a bit of good news! It seems like our new user numbers were steady all week. Let's hope this keeps up, as most iPhone app downloads drop sharply after their first few days on the market. We're counting on the fact that Assassin is a social app so people will want their friends to download it and play along. *cough* spread the word! *cough*

Fig. one-point-one: 9,939 Sessions Week 1

This is the number of times Assassin has been launched, regardless of the number of users. So we have, let's see, carry the 1... just under 3 sessions per download (2.7 to be exact). Not too shabby, but we could probably do better.

Fig. one-point-two: Regional Usage

As you can see from the graph above, North Americans and Europeans have the biggest urge to stalk others with their camera phones. Latin American numbers seem low... maybe it's time to start thinking about a Spanish localization? "Policía? Ayuda! Alguien me quiere asesinar con su teléfono!"

Oh, and WAKE UP, ANTARCTICA!!

We've also been studying usage stats tracked on our internal servers, for example how many games have been created versus how many have actually been started, and it seems that most people are getting stuck in the "game invite" process. Although quite a few games have been created, we'd like to see more games actually get started. We're working on ways of making it easier for you to invite your friends to play along... more details on this soon.

Problems Registering?

We have isolated reports of people not receiving their account activation e-mails. We suspect there are some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that are automatically blocking our e-mails, and we're still trying to figure out why... we're not Nigerian and we don't have $1.5MM to offer you, we promise!

If you are experiencing this problem, send an e-mail to assassin@longtailstudios.com from the same e-mail address you entered as your username, and we will manually activate your account.

Pop the Cristal!

I can't believe I forgot to post this on Monday =)

Assassin Facebook and iPhone: BFFs at Last!

Remember that pesky bug we reported a couple of days ago? You know, the one that would make the user database cry every time someone tried to link their Assassin iPhone account to their Facebook app? We're happy to report that *crossing fingers* another bug bites the dust.

Code ninja Dom has made some updates to the server code, Jean-Christophe in QA has given it the thumbs up, and we have re-added the ability to merge your existing iPhone and Facebook accounts.

In order to link your accounts:

1. Open the Facebook application (http://apps.facebook.com/assassinfb)
1. Select Account, then Link Your Account
3. Enter the e-mail address of the iPhone account you would like to link to your Facebook account.

That's it! You should be good to go. Don't forget to contact us at assassin@longtailstudios.com if you run into any problems.

Assassin Public Bug Database Coming Soon

Hello assassins!

My name is Jay and I've been working on Assassin for the last month or so from the Quebec City office and I just wanted to talk to you about one of the things we're going to be bringing to you all very shortly.

Everyone that works on our Social Apps team believes in the power and openness of using social networking - not just for promoting, but for listening to you, our players. We're all about keeping an open and clear line of communication between us so that you can always come to us and let us know what you think about our games, your criticisms, feature requests and ideas.

Because we believe in being open, we're going to be opening a public bug database for Assassin in the day or two. The idea behind doing this is to make sure that you get a bug-free, fun experience and that if you do find a bug, you can submit it directly to us with all the info we need and we'll stomp it dead as fast as possible.

I'll be posting a link along with some simple instructions for how to use the bug database when it goes live... and if you aren't sure how to use it, just let us know by leaving a comment here on the blog and we'll help you out with everything.

I'd say more, but I see one of my targets across the street... >:D

The Hunt Begins

"Assassin's Journal, March 9th, 2009"... sorry, looks like someone saw the Watchmen this past weekend.

If you ended up here, you've more than likely picked up Assassin for Facebook or iPhone. Congratulations, and thanks for supporting us!

As you may quickly come to realize, Assassin relies on a cirlce of friends all playing together. We suggest that you find other players who you see regularly... this could be in your office, school, neighborhood, or city.

Chances are most of your friends don't have an iPhone... yet :) In that case, you can invite them to install the Assassin App for Facebook (by visiting http://apps.facebook.com/assassinfb/) so they can play along.

Please help us make Assassin better. If you'd like to report any bugs or suggest features for our product updates, please e-mail assassin@longtailstudios.com, or use the Contact Us box on this page.

The dev team will pop up here occasionally to let you know what we've been up to, and also to keep you updated on any improvements to Assassin.

So, what are you waiting for? Spread the word and get all your friends to pick up Assassin. It's FREE!

Oh, and watch your back... looks like someone is tailing you...