Next-Gen Puzzle Games: Seven Stars Secures Seed Funding

Backed by Spintop Ventures, Behold Ventures, and Sisu Game Ventures, the studio aims to push mobile gaming boundaries. Seven Stars, a Helsinki-based mobile gaming startup, has secured seed funding to craft the "next generation of puzzle games." Helmed by ex-Tridify CEO Alex Le Bell, the leadership team includes Olli Aurola (former Lute Group executive) as CTO and Markus Tuppurainen (ex-SciPlay creative director) in the same role at Seven Stars. Their roster boasts industry veterans from Rovio, Moon Active, Seriously, Next Games, and Small Giant Games—a powerhouse lineup ready to shake up the genre. The investment round, co-led by Spintop Ventures and Behold Ventures, saw additional backing from Sisu Game Ventures, Failup Ventures, and notable angel investors, including Timo Soininen, former CEO and co-founder of Small Giant Games. The startup also secured EU funding to fuel its R&D efforts. Blending Creativity […]

Gamigion February 25

Journal

Warning! Heavy Game Design Here

Warning ☢️ Heavy Game Design post ahead 😁. Session control mechanics are one of the most important systems in mobile F2P. They control the pace through which the player not only consumes game's content, but also gets rewards. As games scales their content in mid to endgame, players get more and more energy, but they don't have more time during the day dedicated to the game. So what do you do? You still want them to progress by optimal pace, meaning that they would ideally consume all the energy ⚡ from the whole day. As this would take later too much time for the amount of energy consumed, you introduce energy multiplier systems. This enables the player to use the same amount of their time as usual for the core loop, but they are consuming multiples of their energy and […]

Jakub Remiar February 25

Highlights

$3.5B Move for Pokemon GO? Scopely on Niantic’s Gaming Division

Written by our partner InvestGame According to Bloomberg, US-based AR gaming company Niantic, Inc. plans to sell its gaming business, including its flagship title, Pokémon GO. The game development division could be acquired by US-based mobile gaming company Scopely for $3.5B. This deal would significantly shift the AR and location-based gaming market if true. ABOUT NIANTIC Niantic was established as an internal startup at Google in 2010 by John Hanke (previously CEO of Keyhole, which was acquired by Google and became the foundation of Google Earth). In 2015, it spun out as an independent company with backing from Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Nintendo (TYO: 7974), and The Pokémon Company. Today, the company employs almost 1,000 people, with main offices in the US, Japan, and the UK. Since 2015, Niantic has raised over $765m across four funding rounds: in Oct’15, the company […]

Gamigion February 25

Journal

Due Diligence on Games: What Publishers Look For

When a publisher evaluates a game or studio, they’re not just looking at the concept, they’re assessing quality, risk, potential, and long-term viability. So, what does due diligence actually involve? Let’s break it down:🎯 Game Evaluation – What Is The Current State Of The Game?Depending on where the game is in development (MVP vs. Soft Launch), publishers assess:🔹 Marketability – Does it have strong creative potential? How does it perform in test campaigns on Facebook vs. Unity?🔹 Retention & Monetization – Are D1, D7 retention, ARPU, LTV strong enough to outpace CPI and ensure profitability?🔹 Gameplay & UX – Is it polished and meeting genre benchmarks? The product team will find issues, be proactive in addressing them!🔹 Scalability – Can the game grow profitably while covering studio burn and UA costs at higher volumes?🔹 Commercial Viability – What’s the investment […]

John Wright February 25

Journal

This is why I love working with Meta Ads

This is why I love working with Meta Ads✨ Because of the speed to detect winning concepts!!Just look at that beautiful screenshot👇Purple line shows the top performing creative in one of my BAU campaigns on Meta. It held the #1 spot for nearly 30 days, even though I rotated over 10 creatives every week.We couldn’t find anything that outperformed it until February 19th, when we tested a simple, almost ridiculous 15-second video.From that day on, algorithm slashed the spend and reach of my top creative by 90%, reallocating ALL the budget and into these "stupid" videos 😂 And I love this! I love how fast the algorithm tells you that you found the needle in the haystack. In just one day you can detect this and create +50 iterations of the same concept by changing hook, music, transitions and all […]

David Vargas February 25

Journal

Interesting take on a rolling offer from Coin Master

Interesting take on a rolling offer from Coin Master by Moon Active—two lanes side by side! Not sure how it works, but always fun to see new tests and fresh ideas pushing design limits.

Michael Kopelovich February 25

Journal

Farming vs. Hunting: Right Games for Publishers

You may have heard the terms Farming and Hunting before, commonly used in sales strategies. But how do they apply to game publishing? Let’s break it down:🌱 Farming – The “Come to Us” ApproachThis strategy relies on publishers building platforms or portals where developers can submit their games. Companies like Voodoo, Supersonic, and Kwalee have dedicated submission portals to capture inbound leads.🔹 The goal? High quantity over quality.🔹 The BD team reviews submissions daily, selecting games for testing.🔹 Automated campaigns (or manual tests by the growth team) determine potential hits and quality.🔹 The success rate? Roughly 1 in 300-500 hundred games make it through, genre depending.🎯 Hunting – The “Go to Them” ApproachHere, the BD team proactively searches for top-tier games and studios. This is a quality-first approach:🔹 BD teams use LinkedIn, emails, and industry tools to scout promising games.🔹 […]

John Wright February 25

Journal

Future Principles and DNA for Sustainable Games

Given the industry’s hardships and recent dynamics on all fronts from macro to micro, I’m giving here a shot on listing down principles and DNA for building sustainable games for the future — over which I think the industry would benefit on making bets vs. repeating what has driven to us where we are today. So, buckle up! It’s going to be a bumpy and insightful ride all together when you’re reading this article. As a special mention, before jumping straight to things, it should be noted that I’m keeping these principles and points on high-level, as I’ve extensively covered each of these topics already in my blog. For diving further to these mentioned points, I highly recommend checking my posts. Principles and DNA of Sustainable Games In the rapidly evolving landscape of game development, creating long-term sustainable games requires […]

Antti Kananen February 24

Highlights

Meta’s $50M for Mobile: Creator Fun for Devs

Meta has launched a $50 million Creator Fund for developers building games for its online virtual space Horizon Worlds. Meta said it will pay devs monthly based on factors such as engagement, retention, and in-world purchases. As part of this initiative, Meta is also introducing its first creator competition of the year. The first will be a $1m mobile-focused contest, which is set to start on Tuesday, March 11th. Moreover, the company said that Meta Horizon Creator Program members can increase earnings through in-world purchases, which will expand to 18 more countries on Monday, February 24th. Meta has also released the Horizon Worlds desktop editor in early access. It supports new features, including custom model import for building worlds, TypeScript support for complex game logic, and mobile optimisation tools. In the US, it also features generative AI tools such as […]

Gamigion February 24

Highlights

Unity in 2024: 5,000 Layoffs at cost of $214m

Unity made a bold, high-stakes move in 2024, trimming its ranks to 4,987 full-timers—a dramatic cut costing $214M. In a sweeping reorganization, the game engine and ads powerhouse shuttered 23 offices, shrinking its global presence from 57 locations in 2023 to just 34 by year’s end. The cost breakdown? $15M in revenue expenses, $48M in R&D, $58M in sales and marketing, and $93M in general and admin—plus an extra $53M in restructuring charges. This follows earlier plans to slice 25% of the workforce in Q1, building on the near 1,800 employee drop from 2023 and a steeper decline from 2022’s 7,703 staff. Yet, even amid cost-cutting and a leaner footprint, Unity isn’t standing still. Despite revenue softness in its Chinese market and an accumulated deficit now at $3.7B, key customer contributions are on the rise, and the company holds $1.5B […]

Gamigion February 24

Analysis

Casual Games LiveOps in Q1 2025

Casual Games LiveOps in Q1 2025 1️⃣ Luck-Based Cooking Mechanics • Dice rolls for ingredients (Family Farm Adventure, Seaside Escape) • Adds gambling excitement to cooking 2️⃣ PvP Sprint Tournaments • 1v1 battles feel more achievable • Short (1-hour) duration boosts urgency 3️⃣ New Mini-Game Variations • Arcade mechanics like Block Blast (Royal Kingdom) • Adds skill-based engagement 4️⃣ Social Co-Op Enhancements • Coin Master: Social reward multipliers in Plinko • Monopoly Go: Solo or team progress options 5️⃣ Point Multipliers Everywhere • Top 10 games use them to extend playtime • Loss aversion increases resource spending 6️⃣ Temporary Subscriptions • 7-day passes (Merge Mansion) • Daily rewards boost retention & monetization 7️⃣ Rise of Short-Term Events • 1-2 hour challenges (tournaments, mini-games) • Quick to start, easy to understand 8️⃣ Live Ops Calendar Compression • More frequent, shorter events […]

Anton Slashcev February 24

Journal

The Economics of Match Events

Nearly all economic activity in match-based or “saga”-based metas follows the fundamental relationship: Revenuei=Gold Sinki=Attemptsi⋅Gold Sink Per AttemptiRevenuei=Gold Sinki=Attemptsi⋅Gold Sink Per Attempti where, ∙∙ RevenueiRevenuei is the revenue for the iith player.∙∙ AttemptsiAttemptsi is the number of attempts made by the iith player.∙∙ Gold Sink Per AttemptiGold Sink Per Attempti is the average of gold spent per attempt by the iith player. Holding Gold Sink Per AttemptGold Sink Per Attempt constant, an increase in AttemptsAttempts leads to higher RevenueRevenue. Similarly, increasing the Gold Sink Per AttemptGold Sink Per Attempt while holding AttemptsAttempts constant also raises RevenueRevenue. Many innovations in match economies operate within this framework. For instance, a “super light ball” mechanic increases AttemptsAttempts but reduces the Gold Sink Per AttemptGold Sink Per Attempt. Events follow the same structure. Basic Match Model At the aggregate level, revenue across all players is:Revenue=∑i(Attemptsi⋅Gold Sink Per Attempti)Revenue=∑i(Attemptsi⋅Gold Sink Per Attempti) Event Uplift Events affect revenue by shifting the number of attempts or the gold sink […]

Phillip Black February 24

Journal

Login to enjoy full advantages

Go Premium!

Enjoy the full advantage of the premium access.

Stop following

Cancel subscription