/ seh·fos / · the p is silent
The numbers underneath the game
I'm Stavros Kylakos. Psephos is my independent game data practice. I work with studios on the numbers underneath their games. What players do, what the economy does, what any of it is worth, and what to do about it.
The work
I've done this as head of data with a team around me, and as the only data person in the room. Most of it happened with designers and PMs, and the work that starts as a one-off analysis usually ends up as something the studio keeps using.
Games are the specialism, though the methods travel. I take on smaller projects outside games when the problem is interesting.
King · Square Enix · Jagex · Big Viking Games · Two Desperados · Lighthouse Games
At Two Desperados, ARPPU rose 45% over 15 months: an LTV model picked which UA campaigns to back, and feature changes were sized up front and A/B tested before they shipped. At Big Viking Games, spender churn fell 53% once content planning moved onto the data.
The name
Athens, 5th century BC. You voted by dropping one into a jar. Someone tipped it out at the end and counted. That was the whole system.
The word never really went away.
Nobody sat down and renamed anything. It just kept up with what people were doing. There's even a field called psephology, the study of elections. Pebble science, if you translate it flatly.
Counting people to understand what they want. The pebbles are just players now.
Get in touch
I like talking about games and the numbers underneath them. A question you're stuck on, a model you'd like a second pair of eyes on, a post you disagreed with, or just comparing notes over a coffee if you're ever in Athens. Email is the best way to reach me.