Journal

Today, no successful companies are emerging in Finland's games industry. As a local investor in Helsinki, Finland, there aren't many new startups I can confidently invest in or see the potential for growth. From my perspective, Finland has lost momentum.Things were different in the 2010s. Ten years ago, Supercell had just been acquired by SoftBank. Rovio was a significant developer with Angry Birds, and we had companies like Small Giant Games with Empires and Puzzles. The mobile studio Seriously emerged with its Best Fiends franchise, followed by Reworks with Redecor. These companies reached several hundred million exits. Now, there aren't any contenders for that milestone.Why has this situation occurred? It's not unique to Finland; it could happen anywhere with specific intentions made before, during, and after a certain period. I believe three factors are essential: the market, leadership, and bootstrapping.Firstly, […]

I led a multi-million dollar game studio. 11 directors. 150+ employees. 2 beautiful years.1 crucial lesson I learned about retaining top talent though was:The people you surround yourself with are what will make the company run.Strong leadership in a game studio that's competitive.Is the heart & soul of the job.It's such a competitive industry.Which requires collaborative culture.One must provide their team with freedom.Freedom to lead within their departments.Departments that help foster responsibility and long-term commitment.The steering wheel is held by great mentors & partners.Ones who lead, not just manage.As we did at Blizzard during my stay there.We gave our employees autonomy to execute their own vision.And this led to stronger team loyalty and productivity.Next time you're looking at your team ask yourself.Am I allowing them to lead autonomously?

Think the gaming industry is just for nerds?🔴 NO!Half of the world’s population are gamers!The passion is already in YOU.Conventional wisdom favors these degrees:• Computer Animation• Computer Science• Sound Production• Media Design• Digital Arts🟢 Here’s a green path to your passion:Product Design ➡️ UX/UI Designer↳ Designs intuitive, user-friendly interfaces.Fashion Design ➡️ 2D/3D Artist↳ Designs character outfits and skins.Architecture ➡️ Level Designer↳ Creates engaging, realistic game levels.Economics ➡️ Game Monetization↳ Creates in-game economies and pricing.Sociology ➡️ Community Manager↳ Builds rapport within player communities.History ➡️ Narrative Designer↳ Crafts historically accurate game stories.What was your degree before gaming?I’ll start with myself: 🌞Computer Science → Java Developer → Project Manager → Wargaming.

Today I officially joined Kwalee a year ago. During those 365 days I’ve achieved a lot, including some really wonderful career highlights, and I just feel so fortunate to do what I love in business. Before I share some of those highlights I would like to say thank you to all of my team who helped me a long the way, the partners and studios and obviously the Kwalee executive leadership team for their guidance. A few highlights:- Met 100’s of developers, tested 1000’s of games and signed 10+ incredible studios that were working with right now to bring killer games to market.- Tested dozens of internal game concepts across different studios and brought to market some great prospects (the best are yet to come!)- Started writing articles using my experience in the industry to help those learning about UA, […]

How to Make a Game Feel Juicy? It's all about small details and adding extra touches that engage players and make every action satisfying.1. Vibrant Colors- Use bright, contrasting colors for key elements.- Highlight interactions with color shifts (e.g., character jumps, hits).- Reward player actions with color feedback (progress bars, health indicators).2. Smooth Animations- Add squash and stretch effects to your characters to give life to movement- Use exaggerated animations for hits, jumps, and impacts.- Make sure transitions between states (walking to running, idle to active) are fluid and snappy.3. Visual Effects (VFX)- Add particle effects to show impact (explosions, dust, sparks).- Use trails and glows to emphasize speed or power.- Flash the screen briefly when something critical happens (a player loses health or scores a goal).4. Camera Shake- Use subtle camera shakes for explosions, heavy impacts, or crashes.- A […]

I compared 11 Best Publishers with 7 Q&A, on a journey to hybrid casual. You may have questions, I have the answers:✦ What is a hybrid casual in a nutshell?↳ Easy Access to the game (Hypercasual)↳ Core Game Mechanic (Casual + Hypercasual)↳ High Retention (Midcore)↳ Complex Monetization (Casual + Midcore)✦ Why is it a thing for Hyper Casual Publishers?↳ Rise on User Acquisition costs, ↳ Can’t make profit on high quantity of players,↳ Can’t come up with enough new ideas anymore.✦ How can we measure this change?↳ We can’t. But we can estimate byChecking In-App Purchases per new user.✦ Is this a list of successful publishers?↳ Absolutely not, they are all fantastic companies.✦ How did you put this data together?↳ Using AppMagic Analytics and formulas.↳ Check it out! https://lnkd.in/das_wrJm✦ Some publishers not listed, they aren’t good?↳ They are fantastic! Just […]

Live-ops events in mobile games have evolved beyond just engaging gameplay; they are now key revenue drivers for developers. A significant way games monetize during these events is through special offers that help players advance and increase their chances of winning. Whether it's exclusive event-specific bundles or integrated reward packs from regular offers, these in-game purchases incentivize players to keep progressing through time-limited challenges. In this article, we explore examples from various games and studios to showcase how these offers are implemented to balance gameplay progression with monetization. "Adventure Island Merge" by FlyBird The Insect Catching Contest event incentivizes players to complete the challenge faster by offering special packs. The screenshot on the right shows the available event-specific offers where players can purchase tools like "mowers" to speed up their progress, with bundles ranging from 10 to 35 tools. These […]

Startups are already raising money for Telegram-based games 🤔 Last week, I wrote about the phenomenal success of Hamster Kombat, which hit 110 million MAU and made Telegram one of the biggest platforms for play-to-earn games. Today, while looking through the deals for an upcoming InvestGame report we are preparing, I came across several investments targeting Telegram-based games — something I hadn’t noticed until recently! While some startups like PlaysOut and Animoca’s Gamee raised funds to publish multi-genre games for their Telegram mini-apps, others clearly took more inspiration from the recent success of Notcoin and Hamster Kombat.  🐹For example, Anomaly raised $1.45M in May’24 for ‘play-to-airdrop’ games, while Akedo secured funding for its ‘tap-to-earn’ game Akedog — both heavily influenced by Notcoin and Hamster Kombat.Some of the investors in these rounds are Yuga Labs, Kenetic Capital, 4399 Games, Mozaik Capital, […]

19 Pieces of Advice for Beginning Game Developers (I wish someone had told me these 10 years ago)1. Don't start with your big "dream game"—begin small and build up. 2. Finish your projects; any released game is better than an abandoned one. 3. Build long-term relationships; you never know where your peers will be in 10 years. 4. Your first game will be bad—that's okay. 5. Never deceive partners, colleagues, or players; trust is hard to rebuild. 6. Don't aim for quick cash; focus on creating lasting value. 7. Learn the technical basics—even if you're not a programmer. 8. Respect every discipline; games are a team effort. 9. Players aren't fools; they'll notice if you cut corners. 10. Sometimes, even great games fail; don't take it personally. 11. Keep playing games for fun; remember why you started. 12. Find your […]