🛠️ Digging deeper with Gossip Harbor! Loving this 1+1 offer from Micro Fun! It’s a great way to keep players engaged and progressing in the event while providing more value. Simple yet effective design for rewarding gameplay.
Game development isn't just about coding. It's about beating the ultimate bosses in life and business.Here’s the breakdown of difficulty tiers:🔴 S+ Tier: Final bosses: Peak challenges• Securing funding.• Balancing team burnout.• Delivering on tight deadlines.The pressure here is immense.🟠 S Tier: Legendary: Honing the essentials• Art, animation, bizdev, game design, legal, • Game/level/sound design, localization, QA • Marketing, production, tech art, narrative This is where games become unforgettable.🟡 A Tier: Advanced: Nailing the details• Ensuring ladders are climbable.• Making doors open smoothly.• Polishing online multiplayer.Here, details shape the experience.🟢 B Tier: High Difficulty: Building core• Configurable gamepads.• Performance optimization.• Creating effective tutorials. This is where ideas begin to take form.🔵 C Tier: Hard: Good Ideas🟣 D Tier: Easy: IdeasGame dev mirrors life and business.Success hides in the small things.It’s easy to dream. Hard to execute.
How deep you usually go for defining your game’s unique selling points (USPs) and value propositions (value props)? Do you just play a competitor game quickly and scratch the surface of this layer, or do you go deeply in breaking down your competitor games? This article focuses on discussing USPs and value props for games and why they matter — as well as giving an example exercise (one way among many) on defining USPs more better, if you haven’t ever done it thoroughly (which you should always do). Why USPs and Value Props Matter In today’s industry, where competition is fierce and player expectations are ever-evolving, the importance of USPs and value propos cannot be overstated. USPs and value props aren’t just marketing buzzwords — they are the DNA of your game’s success. They guide development, attract the right players, […]
Written by our partner InvestGame. 2024 was a year of recovery and strategic recalibration for the gaming industry. After years of pandemic-related challenges and shifting market dynamics, the sector is gradually finding its footing. As demand for gaming fell post-COVID, many public companies struggled to demonstrate positive organic revenue growth (i.e. growth excluding revenue from recently acquired companies), often missing analyst expectations. Rising interest rates and broader macroeconomic uncertainty further affected valuations for publicly traded gaming firms, making company stock less attractive currency for new acquisitions. This led sellers of acquisition targets to prefer cash over buyers’ illiquid, risky, and typically depreciating stocks. Meanwhile, debt raised during the pandemic to finance acquisitions has become more expensive to service. Coupled with weaker organic performance, these factors tightened debt covenants and led numerous public strategic players to announce strategic reviews, lay off […]
Top Casual Games LiveOps Strategy Based on Playliner research, here’s what’s working for the top titles: 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗽𝗼𝗹𝘆 𝗚𝗼 • $92M/month revenue, 3M downloads • Focus: Co-op activities • Supporting features: Collection, passes, mini-games, task-based rewards 𝗚𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗲𝘀 • $41M/month revenue, 4M downloads • Focus: Expeditions & Adventures • Supporting features: PvP, tournaments, win streaks, passes 𝗥𝗼𝘆𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 • $120M/month revenue, 4M downloads • Focus: Tournaments • Supporting features: Co-op, mini-games, collections, gacha 𝗖𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 • $53M/month revenue, 2.8M downloads • Focus: Task-based rewards • Supporting features: Tournaments, passes, win streaks 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘆 𝗖𝗿𝘂𝘀𝗵 • $86M/month revenue, 7.7M downloads • Focus: Win streaks • Supporting features: Mini-games, tournaments, task-based rewards 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 • $35M/month revenue, 6.5M downloads • Focus: Expeditions & mini-games • Supporting features: Co-op (Regata), passes, tournaments 𝗚𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗽 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗼𝗿 • $23M/month revenue, 2M downloads • Focus: Mini-games & decoration events • Supporting […]
If new game alerts were paid in 2024, I’d be writing this on my private jet, thanks to color sort puzzles. What do you mean you don’t get new game alerts?If you’re competing in this market, Which by now, I assume you are because you’re still readingit’s about time to subscribe to AppMagic.Competitors keep those new puzzle games coming,In fact, as you read this, another color-sort game Has been probably released for testing.As the majority stayed in the “Color” lane in 2024,How much will they scale in 2025? Let’s see who’s really going to take off.
🚀 Onboarding done right! Archero 2, the sequel to the popular Archero game by Habby, has a fantastic 3-day offer for new players. It's clever because it tackles retention right from the start—once you buy the pack, you’re motivated to log in daily to claim the rewards you’ve already paid for. This helps bring players back during the critical first few days, setting strong engagement habits early on. What’s even better? The twist! They’ve added three pricing tiers, offering better rewards as you move up, ensuring value at every level. It’s a smart mix of monetization and retention.
20 metrics all game devs should hold close. (there are more, but I’ll keep it simple)First, remember 3 core pillars:1. New Players ↳ How you acquire your audience.2. Active Players ↳ How you retain your audience.3. Paying Players ↳ How you monetize your audience.Second, there’s no one-size-fits-all set ofmetrics, but here's the truth:20% of your game’s metrics drive80% of your game’s performance.Here are the 20 most important metrics:📊 Acquisition Metrics• New Daily or Monthly Active Users• CPA (Cost Per Install/Login/Battle)• Fraud Share: Invalid ad metrics• New Players Retention Rate• New Players Churn Rate• K-Factor: Viral growth📊 Retention Metrics• Daily/Monthly Active Users• 1, 7, 30 Day Retention• Session Length• Session Count• Churn Rate• Lifetime📊 Monetization metrics• LTV: Revenue over player Lifetime• ARPPU: Revenue Per Paying User• Daily/Monthly Paying Users• Average Transaction Value• ARPU: Revenue per User• Number of Transactions• Payer Retention• […]
90% of Games Fail at Monetization The truth? Monetization Model isn’t about squeezing every dollar - it’s about finding what WORKS for YOUR game.I’ve laid out 6 models with:🟢 The wins.🔴 The pitfalls.But first, focus on these 4 factors:1. Game Genre• Story-heavy? Go premium.• Fast-paced? Free-to-play wins.2. Target Audience• Casuals love “free.”• Hardcore? They’ll pay for the good stuff.3. Game Lifespan• Subscriptions win with long-term play.• Short-term? In-game payments do the job.4. Game Design & Value• Players will pay if it’s worth it.• But don’t pull shady pay-to-win moves.Monetization is NOT just about the money.It’s about building trust, delivering value, and creating something players want to come back to.
I just wrote a piece on why Duolingo succeeds (and where the opportunities are) in language learning apps 🎮📱 I the piece, I'm breaking down what makes Duolingo work, and where new startups can find opportunities:1/ The Power of Game Mechanics- Leaderboards + league system drove 17% more learning time- 3x increase in highly engaged learners- Streak features + rewards keep users coming back- Former Zynga expertise in analytics drives optimization2/ The Reality Check- Most users treat it as a casual game, not serious learning- Example: Friend spent 2 years on Finnish, still struggles with basic conversations- Success metric: Making language learning a daily hobby vs. achieving fluency3/ Market Positioning MatrixTwo key axes to evaluate language learning apps:- Progress (study depth + learning progression)- Engagement (entertainment + stickiness)4/ Where are the opportunities?- "Hardcore" language learning remains untapped- Gap between casual […]
Hola Fam ☃️ Lezgo with hot stuff. Bye, TikTok. Aaand - Already back, lol. Strong reminder: Don't rely heavily on a single UA channel. Smt fun? Game of The Week: Block Blast Block Blast has created the biggest ad revenue game from a simplistic block-blasting mechanic. It's using the Tetris "likeness" to its advantage, but it still has a lot of iteration to differentiate from its predecessor. But don't be fooled, under the surface, there is a lot of hidden stuff that is the secret sauce of the game such as difficulty balancing. More? Here on YouTube & Spotify Mobile Marketing » Magic Sort Analysis: Grand Games’ New Treasure 📈 Paid campaign effect on organic traffic 🤟🏻 Evolution of Stacking Mechanics 👥 Player Segmentation to boost LTV 📱 Mobile Games Marketing Predictions 🇹🇷 Top 10 Turkish Mobile Game Publishers 👾 […]
TikTok went offline on Saturday. The law passed by Congress last year gave TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance until Jan 19 to divest from TikTok or be cut off from U.S. App Stores and hosting services. TikTok said a sale wasn't possible and challenged the law in court, but the Supreme Court rejected it on Friday. Trump on Sunday posted that he'd restore TikTok, first writing "SAVE TIKTOK" and then vowing to issue an executive order on Monday to extend the time before the law takes effect. However, TikTok is already back. After being banned for not even 1 full day, it displays a "Welcome Back" pop-up. More? Marvel Snap is now banned following the TikTok US Ban. Marvel Snap's publisher Nuverse is owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance. Industry's Take? I think TikTok ban is kind of not the […]
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