Climbing the Charts: “Train Miner” by Azur

RISING IN THE CHARTS ”TRAIN MINER” BY AZUR In this first wave of Hybridcasual, publishers are focusing on sub-genres. 🔎Idle Arcades (SayGames, Homa, Supercent), Puzzles (Rollic and Voodoo), Runnes (Rollic), Shooters (Homa and Voodoo), Strategy (SayGames and Homa), Life Simulators (Supersonic). And others.However, the giant Azur Games is taking a different path, focusing on games with high polish and depth. 👩‍🎨But with gameplay similar to Hypercasual.This is the case with “Smile Castle”, “SWAT Shooter Police Action FPS”, and “Bunker Wars”.It's no coincidence that they've been referring to their games not as Hybridcasual, but as Hybridcore.In recent weeks, we've seen “Train Miner: Idle Railway Game” blow up to the top of the charts. 📈Developed by FLEXUS, “Train Miner” uses classical tap-and-hold mechanics (e.g. “Helix Jump”), but with Clicker elements and a level system similar to Idle Arcade.This mix has created an […]

Carlos Pereira September 2

Journal

Time Blast: Will it revive the Rest of the Genre?

It is no secret that puzzle games dominate a significant share of the mobile gaming market. Over the last decade, the puzzle market has become fiercely competitive, with various subgenres vying to capture the attention of puzzle players. While Match-3 remains the dominant force in this competition, we've seen other subgenres like Merge taking the second place, while others, like Tile Match, showed potential but ultimately fell short. Merge surpassed Blast last year and looks like “Pair” which mainly has Physical Match and Tile Match will do the same at the end of this year. That said, the second spot in the puzzle market remained largely uncontested until recently. Before Merge games took over the second spot, Blast games were the Pepsi to Match-3's Coca-Cola. There was a significant gap between Match-3 and Blast, with Blast holding a solid second […]

Ahmetcan Demirel September 2

Journal

Dynamics Of Gaming Deals

We partnered with my favorite analytical platform, InvestGame, to analyze the trends in video game investments over the past five years and created an internal presentation for The Games Fund. I decided to share this report with the community and held a seminar earlier this year in Belgrade, Serbia. Now, I’m excited to present this updated and enhanced analysis to you, which I believe will be useful for gaming company founders and investors to reflect on investment dynamics and their underlying causes.The key takeaway is that the real challenge lies not in securing the initial round of funding but in achieving full funding and successfully delivering the product. While competition for promising early-stage startups remains intense, many struggle to secure follow-on rounds. Early-stage investors are a part of the ecosystem and should work in sync with larger partners. Saying so, […]

Ilia Eremeev September 2

Journal

Mobile Gaming Investment Challenges

Before diving into this week’s piece, I wanted to ask if you know anyone considering starting a startup. If so, please encourage them to contact me on LinkedIn or submit a pitch through our website. We’re eager to connect with gaming and consumer startup founders. 🫶 Here’s this week’s piece. I recently saw a LinkedIn post from Miska Katkoff, in which he shared an insightful timeline chart by Eric Kress. The chart, copied and pasted below, details the mobile games industry's YOY growth in the past ten years, highlighting revenue trends and the significant impact of Apple’s IDFA changes. This, combined with a conversation I had with a US entrepreneur about VC investments in mobile gaming, inspired me to share my perspective on why mobile gaming has become a challenging space for investors. Let's discuss why mobile gaming studios have […]

Joakim Achren September 2

Journal

Breakdown of the State of Gaming Report

It's Time, Let me break down the new AppsFlyer’s state of Gaming app marketing report for y'all: 💸 App developers spent $12.2B on user acquisition in the U.S., which is ~40% of the $29B in global ad spend.💎 Tired of match 3-games? I guess most aren’t. Match games DOMINATE mobile - $8.65B in ad spend. Trailing behind - strategy ($4.57B), RPG ($3.84B), Casino ($2.72B) and Simulation ($2.03B)🍏 In 2023, CPI cost fell 17% on iOS and rose 48% on Android. If you’re promoting your iOS game, things just got interesting.🥇 Hybrid is WINNING - mid-cores are incorporating IAA to make up for the loss of IAP. Hypercasual. Hypercasual is turning from IAA into IAP because of ATT.Result: 43% of games used a hybrid monetization model - up from 36% in 2023.🛒 In-App Purchases - 5% will use IAP. But from […]

Adam Smart September 2

Journal

What do you do for a living?

I will admit... this is one of the perks I enjoy about being a game dev

Willem Delventhal September 2

Journal

Things TRUE gamers don’t care about:

Some game developers learn these the hard way…Don't get me wrong,DLCs, customization, etc., are all great...But they are not what truly matters!Here are 5 key elements that shouldn't matter:1. Early Access↱ Driven by mostly ‘’Fear of Missing Out’’,↱ Most of these are just money-grabbing.2. Micro-Transactions↱ Pay extra on top of what you just paid,↱ Just to fast-travel in the game? No, thank you.3. Release Date↱ Buggy gameplay mechanics rushed story,↱ Tons of technical issues, including login issues,↱ Because of profit promises for upper management?↱ We don’t deserve this, we can wait.4. Character Customization↱ Sure, diversity is great, but tons of cosmetics,↱ Details on eye lid colors and eyelashes? No…5. DLC Promise↱ Why do I pay for a promise that should have,↱ Been in the original game in the first place?Here are 5 that should be the ''focus'':1. Gameplay First↳ An […]

Gökhan Üzmez September 1

Journal

Which setting should you choose for your mobile game?

Here is the download and revenue distribution among the top 10 settings: Top 3 settings by revenue:1. Fantasy• $26B• 56.5% of total revenue• YoY growth: +5%2. Real Life• $7B• 14.9% of total revenue• YoY growth: +16% 💰3. Military• $4B• 9.5% of total revenue• YoY growth: -4%But revenue isn't the full story.Here's the downloads distribution:Top 3 settings by downloads:1. Real Life• 9.9B downloads• 37.2% of total downloads• YoY growth: +15%2. Sports• 6B downloads• 22.7% of total downloads• YoY growth: -1%3. Fantasy• 5.6B downloads• 21.1% of total downloads• YoY growth: +24% 💹Notable trends:• Fantasy leads the way in both engagement and earnings. A 24% YoY download growth and a 56.5% revenue share prove its dominance.• Real Life settings are booming, with a 15% rise in downloads and a strong 16% boost in revenue.• Horror and Historical settings are struggling, with double-digit declines […]

Anton Slashcev September 1

Journal

Mobile Games Now: All About Commercialization & ROAS! 🚀💸

Mobile games market is full-on invested in on #Commercialization; and the sentiment on it is strong -- this is the current phase we're living! 🚀💯 Everything is all about:- #Distribution & #Marketability; #Creatives, #UA channel, etc. approaches and mixes on largest scale ever we've seen. 🎯- Misleading Creatives, with the approach having white lie tie-ins to the #Product (e.g., FTUE is continuation of Misleading #Ads). 🙈- #ROAS, ROAS & ROAS, incl. test bedding #monetization as early as possible due engagement-monetization tie-ins. 💸- Games evolving within Creative trends, e.g., some games literally change each quarter/half what their FTUE is about. 📈- Fast-following own games or competitors is faster than ever. 🏃‍♂️- Mixed gameplays through fast follow-ons on top games, starting from single devs to large publishers. 🙊- #VCs and #investors investing on mass appeal distribution-first #gamestudios. 👼- Games scaling to 300, […]

Antti Kananen September 1

Journal

A cool design resource: Combo Chart

I was looking at the stats on an Elden Ring enemy and discovered a cool design resource: a combo chart, basically a State Diagram of enemy movesets ⚔ State Diagrams are a game design staple. We use them for all kinds of things, from showcasing a games skill progression to mapping out the growable plants in a gardening system to displaying a games hub world and which levels the player can access when. (I'm curious, what else have you seen them used for?) They're a great tool for visually mapping out a complex system and getting a gut check on how it will work. Additionally, they're excellent for communicating between team members, making it extremely clear what needs to be created. 🗺 All that said, I've never seen one used to document the movements, and even more so how the […]

Willem Delventhal September 1

Journal

I have a dream for the game industry

I have a dream for the game industry, where we not only fix what ails us but use our example to inspire other industries besides. And I guarantee we can do it, together. 🫂 We've now been faced with going on the worst three years the game industry has ever known. Companies hired like crazy during the 2020 boon, knowingly bringing on too many team members they probably wouldn't be able to support as the pandemic ended. And as a result, we've seen more layoffs in a more condensed period than literally ever before. But! The thing about the game industry is... the people who work here are wonderful. Outcast dorks come together to celebrate something we love, together. We are kind and energetic. We love to share our weird hobbies and get fascinated by the art of our fellows. […]

Willem Delventhal August 31

Journal

Incentivized Advertising For F2P Gaming UA: 101

Here is the link to the original article. Once dismissed as a cheap trick to game App Store rankings, incentivized advertising has transformed into one of the most sophisticated and data-driven strategies in modern user acquisition. Today, it’s not just about installs—it’s about aligning user intent with long-term growth, turning low-intent browsers into high-value players. Incentivized or rewarded advertising, as people like to rebrand it, has had a bad rap ever since Apple (and Techcrunch) went after early mobile f2p UA innovator Tapjoy in 2011. Incentivized advertising was blamed for sullying the App Store and making the App Store Top Charts something advertisers could buy to enter, not only gain a position because a game was popular. I was at Tapjoy in 2011, and it wasn’t that we were necessarily selling “App Store rankings” to our advertising partners, but it was a happy […]

Paul Bowen August 31

Journal

Login to enjoy full advantages

Go Premium!

Enjoy the full advantage of the premium access.

Stop following

Cancel subscription