Carlos Pereira

TOP NEW CREATIVE“STAR WARS: HUNTERS” BY ZYNGA The competition for IPs remains fierce in the mobile games market.The latest initiative comes from Zynga, with the Star Wars franchise. 🌌🎖️The game is a hero shooter focusing on player versus player (PvP) combat, featuring 3D stylized art and a core gaming experience. ⚔️The game includes various Star Wars characters, allowing players to engage in strategic team-based multiplayer battles.It features multiple game modes and leverages the Star Wars license to create an immersive environment that appeals to fans of the movies and the shooter genre. 🤩Two weeks ago the game began its growth stage and has reached 2.5MM downloads and US$740k in IAP revenue so far. 📈It's no surprise that to achieve this result, the Star Wars IP is central to the UA strategy. 🎯Drawing on a stylized cartoon, the flagship creative video […]

NEW GAME TRENDING SUPERMARKET SIMULATOR (ROUND 2) In April, I published a post about the new trend of supermarket simulators 🛒 in the games industry.There I mentioned that this trend emerged on Steam (by Valve corporation) under the title "Supermarket Simulator", developed by Nokta Games.The trend quickly spread to the mobile market and spawned some hits, such as "Supermarket Manager Simulator" by Polish studio Digital Melody Games. 🇵🇱At that time, the games that took advantage of this trend reached around 35MM downloads and US$512k in IAP revenue.What has happened since then? 🤔Well… some gaming studios have read my post 🤣 and launched their versions of supermarket simulators.And studios that had already developed supermarket simulators, either in a different version to Nokta's game, also took advantage of the trend. 📈(This is the case with "Hypermarket 3D", a Hypercasual simlutator published by […]

SELF-PUBLISHING JOURNEYHYPERCELL The mobile games market is tough, but there are still plenty of opportunities. 💎Just take a look at the game development ecosystem in emerging countries.They are booming! ❤️‍🔥Turkey 🇹🇷, Vietnam 🇻🇳 , South Korea 🇰🇷 , Singapore 🇸🇬, India 🇮🇳, Brazil 🇧🇷, Indonesia 🇮🇩, and Pakistan 🇵🇰 , among others.The governments of these countries have understood that the games industry can be strategic for economic growth. 📈The Turkish government has cut taxes for gaming companies. Brazil has created a new legal framework.Self-publishing is a reality for some game studios in these countries.For this reason, today I'm launching a new section with research on self-publishing studios. 🚀Success cases that can be an inspiration to other studios. 🤩And for my debut, I bring you the case of Hypercell Games. 🏅Based in Latvia 🇱🇻, these guys co-developed SayGames' biggest hit, "Sand […]

TOP SOFT LAUNCHES NEW LEGO GAMES With the challenges of new privacy policies, using IP has been a key UA strategy in mobile games in recent years.IPs endemic to the gaming industry have been performing well, such as “Candy Crush”🍬 and “PUBG”🪂.But there are non-endemic IPs that are well received by the gaming audience, such as soccer (”EA Sports”), board games (”Monopoly GO”), and cartoons (”Pokémon GO”).Now imagine a mobile game with an endemic IP of almost 1.2 billion downloads combined with one of the most iconic brands in kids' culture. 🤯This one is…✨ "LEGO® Hill Climb Adventures" ✨Developed by Fingersoft in partnership with the LEGO Group, "LEGO® Hill Climb" is a 3D version of "Hill Climb Racing".With a well-polished game art. 🎨Moments of competition, like "Hill Climb Racing 2". 🏁But keeping the famous brake-acceleration balance mechanics. 🚗The game also […]

EVERYTHING IS A GAMING COMPANY YOUTUBE ROLLS OUT IN-APP GAMES Netflix, New York Times, Shopee, Spotify, Instagram, LinkedIn.What do all these companies have in common? 🤔Maybe your answer wasn't that, but these companies have the development of games as a business expansion strategy in common. 🎮📊And recently we had a new player.After an eight-month trial with selected users, YouTube has expanded its new "Playables" in-app games feature to more US, UK, Canadian, and Australian users.The platform now offers over 75 games. 😲In my opinion, the streaming giant's initiative may be more assertive than other companies' attempts.Firstly, the titles available are very popular IPs.Check it out (AppMagic figures since 2015). 👇🐦 Angry Birds by Rovio Entertainment Corporation (1.5bi downloads and US$1.27bi IAP revenue).🎭 Tomb of the Mask by Playgendary (507MM downloads and US$21MM IAP revenue).❓ Trivia Crack by etermax (430MM downloads […]

DECONSTRUCTION ”SCREW JAM” BY ROLLIC First-party data.This is the secret of Cost Center 🔜 GamesCom Asiato offering one of the most powerful BI tools on the market. 💪Track the resources used in your game. Optimize its monetization. Balance the level performance. 📈Follow the example of Amanotes and Lihuhu and quickly improve your game's metrics with Cost Center. 💰Call my friend Yi Ting Ho. She'll show you a demo. 😉By the way, today I bring you a deconstruction of one of the most successful games of the year.🌟 “Screw Jam” published by Rollic 🌟Developed by Quok Games, "Screw" has achieved almost US$15MM in IAP revenue and more than 6MM downloads (data by AppMagic).Certainly one of Hybridcasual's success cases. 👏That's why I did a level-by-level study of the game, up to level 50. 😎

VICTORY OF HYBRIDCASUAL! Is Homa's IPO coming? Konvoy's latest report has brought incredible news to the Hyper & Hybridcasual game development ecosystem.🥳 🎉 🎊 Homa is a potential IPO candidate! 🎊 🎉 🥳Founded in 2018, its big hit will come in the second half of 2019."Sky Roller" 🛼 brought new mechanics to the fiercely Runner market.The player didn't move a character horizontally across the screen but opened and closed the legs of a roller skater.According to AppMagic, "Sky" reached a peak of 19MM downloads per month in December 2019 (Hyper's Golden Age). 🪙👀It’s one of Homa's biggest hits with around 200MM downloads so far.Next, the French publisher 🇫🇷 released new big hits such as "Merge Master" 🦖 (2021 - 130MM) and "Attack Hole" 🕳️ (2022 - 100MM).And pioneered in the Idle Arcades with “Harvest It!” 🧑‍🌾 and “Craft Island” 🪵🪓.According […]

NEW GAME TRENDING SUPERMARKET SIMULATOR The game market is highly dynamic.Despite the hardware classification, we constantly see big hits on PC 🖥️ and console 🎮 influencing mobile games 📱, and vice versa.In addition to the influence of non-endemic factors, such as those coming from social media.This is the case with the recent trend for supermarket simulators.Developed by Nokta Games and released as early access on February 20, “Supermarket Simulator” jumped into the top games on Steam (Valve corporation) in the first week of March, reaching quickly 10k reviews (today there are 27k)."Supermarket Simulator" is just what the name says.A complete supermarket management simulator, covering everything from ordinary actions such as filling shelves with products to pricing.However, what was just another global short-term trend has become a mega regional trend. 🇧🇷👀There's a reason for that.At the end of March, one of […]

TRACKING RELEASES & TRANSFERS# 2 HALF OF APRIL, 2024 Hi Hyper and Hybrid Fanatics! 🤩📲Today I bring you another edition of our long-awaited…💫 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬 & 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐬 💫I bring you the main launches and transfers from the Hybrid & Hypercasual market in the second fortnight of April.I highlight 4️⃣ titles.✅ “Now Genuine Encounters” by Voodoo“Real Connections, No Gimmicks”This is the first line in the AppStore description of the new app from Hypercasual giant Voodoo. 😲Those who follow my posts know this is at least the third non-gaming app from a big French publisher. 🇫🇷Let me repeat my analysis.This portfolio diversification towards non-gaming apps is probably related to the growing IAP revenue in this market, which has even recently overtaken mobile games. 💰👈For me, Voodoo's strategy is to use its Hypercasual UA machine for non-gaming apps.As well as applying their game […]