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System: Successful Games’ Formula

The formula for a successful game isn't magic, it's a system. Hereโ€™s the blueprint: ๐Ÿญ. ๐Ÿ“Š ๐——๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฎ โ€ข Research trends and player behavior โ€ข Analyze competitor strengths and weaknesses โ€ข Gather player feedback and track key metrics ๐Ÿฎ.ย ๐—›๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—ธ โ€ข Grab attention in 5 seconds โ€ข Define your unique selling point (USP) โ€ข Align advertising with what makes your game special ๐Ÿฏ. ๐ŸŽฎ ๐—š๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜† โ€ข Focus on fun and engaging mechanics โ€ข Set clear win/loss conditions โ€ข Create an addictive core loop ๐Ÿฐ. ๐ŸŽจ ๐—ฉ๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜€ โ€ข Establish a distinct art style โ€ข Make your game visually unique โ€ข Add "game juice" for a polished feel ๐Ÿฑ. ๐Ÿ“ˆ ๐—ฃ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป โ€ข Offer upgrades, new skills, and unlockables โ€ข Design a smooth difficulty curve โ€ข Keep players coming back for more ๐Ÿฒ. ๐Ÿ† ๐— ๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ฎ โ€ข Define short-term and long-term goals โ€ข Add non-gameplay rewards […]

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Most Played New Games of 2025

If I donโ€™t play my competitor's games as much as my own, I shouldnโ€™t call myself a game designer. Period. โ— There are over 7500 games published in 2025,87% of them didnโ€™t even get 1k downloads.Actually, only 2% are slowly scaling.You may wonder what is the difference?Those 2% figured out what works.A game developerโ€™s job isnโ€™t just to create,itโ€™s to analyze, adapt, and innovate.That means to:๐ŸŽฏ Identify your real* competitors,๐Ÿ”” Set alerts for new launches, and updates,๐ŸŽฎ Play these games to understand why? *If youโ€™re designing in isolation, youโ€™re guessing.And in this market, guessing is the fastest way to fail.Thatโ€™s why I use AppMagic:โ€”> to track trends,โ€”> to analyze competitors,โ€”> to make data-driven design decisions. Its really not rocket science.You canโ€™t design great games,If you donโ€™t know whatโ€™s already working.Every hit game has a blueprint.Are you studying it ?PS: Yes, […]

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How to Evaluate Game Ideas

36 questions to evaluate your game idea ๐— ๐—”๐—ฅ๐—ž๐—˜๐—ง ๐Ÿ“ˆ 1. How big is your genre? 2. Is the niche growing or declining? 3. Are new devs entering your niche? 4. How could your niche change in the future? ๐—–๐—ข๐— ๐—ฃ๐—˜๐—ง๐—œ๐—ง๐—œ๐—ข๐—ก โš”๏ธ 5. Who are your main competitors? 6. What makes them successful? 7. How does your game stand out? 8. Why did similar games fail? ๐—”๐—จ๐——๐—œ๐—˜๐—ก๐—–๐—˜ ๐ŸŽฏ 9. Who is your audience? 10. What do they value in a game? 11. What do they say about similar games? 12. What desire does your game fulfill? ๐—š๐—”๐— ๐—˜ ๐——๐—˜๐—ฆ๐—œ๐—š๐—ก ๐ŸŽฎ 13. Is your concept unique enough? 14. Does the art style stand out? 15. Whatโ€™s the core gameplay loop? 16. What will keep players coming back? ๐—ฃ๐—œ๐—ง๐—–๐—› & ๐—˜๐—ซ๐—ฃ๐—˜๐—ฅ๐—œ๐—˜๐—ก๐—–๐—˜ ๐ŸŽฌ 17. Can you pitch the idea in one sentence? 18. Can you imagine […]

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Jobs in Mobile Gaming: 22 March

ยป 886 Jobs in Mobile Gaming This Week! ๐Ÿ‘‰๐Ÿป Data from Gamigion.com/jobs ๐Ÿ•บ๐Ÿป Dev ๐Ÿ’ป Art ๐ŸŽจ Product ๐Ÿ“ฑ Marketing ๐ŸŽฏ Business ๐Ÿ’ฐ Data ๐Ÿ“ˆ QA โš’๏ธ We support Gaming Recruitment ๐ŸŒฟ Here's the State of Recruitment Survey, an opportunity to share your experience! More? You can win a Nintendo Switch Lite, Meta Quest 3, or vouchers! Let's give it a shot ๐ŸคŸ๐Ÿป ๐Ÿ’ป Dev Unity Client Engineer - Scopely ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง Associate Technical Product Manager - Star Trek Fleet Command Scopely ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ช Platform Account Engineer Scopely ๐Ÿ‡ฒ๐Ÿ‡ฝ Senior Software Engineer I Zynga ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Senior Manager, Engineering Zynga ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Senior Software Engineer- Unity Zynga ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Principal Software Engineer I Zynga ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ณ Senior Director of Engineering - ZMGT Zynga ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Senior UI Engineer - Echtra Games Zynga ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Senior Software Engineer (Client) - Words With Friends Zynga ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ Gameplay Technical Director - […]

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New Match-3: Block Genre?

Is Block ๐ŸŸฅ the new Match3? Block Blast by Hungry Studio continues to scale past 1,2 Million downloads a day ๐Ÿค‘ its the 11th most downloaded App on all of the stores and 2nd most downloaded game after Garena FF for last month. On the other side Color Block Jam by Rollic did $12 Mil. in IAP ๐Ÿ’ฐ revenue last month. We have already covered Block Blast on two & a half gamers podcast in January, but since then it has aggressively grown its active users by nearly 40% ๐Ÿ˜ฑ. And the giant market appeal of this core gameplay (which stems from Tetris) is starting to be very obvious. In June it should comfortably hit 500 Mil. lifetime downloads ๐Ÿ†.Interestingly, the next game in the genre charts based on downloads is Color Block Jam, which is still heavily monetized by […]

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45 New Puzzle Games

I gathered 45 New Puzzle Games you need to be aware of! Save and use for your game ideations and design. We have been watching the market carefully.Every ideation matters, it could be a hit.If you are not using AppMagic by now,Most likely, you are behind.Start the conversation.Data is your future.

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Soft-launch Sonar #8

Soft-launch Sonar #8 ๐Ÿ“ก is back with 12 brand new soft-launched games with no particular filter. There are games from a lot of big players in the market such as Metacore, Supercent, Supercell, Homa, Century Games, Spyke Games, tap4fun, MY.GAMES. Come check out what we caught this time ๐Ÿ˜Ž. Metacore is continuing the innovation in the merge genre, with level based merge boards, now with the 2nd game. New shots in the Match3 battlefield with MY.GAMES "Wizard" based game and Century Games's farming game. They are really pushing hard into casual, this is the 8th or 9th game as we lost count now ๐Ÿ˜…. On the other and Spyke Games is again surfing the trend, trying to do an IAP driven Block Blast game. Homa is iterating on Tripledot Studios's Nut Sort. Supercell announced a new "Boat game" ๐Ÿšข, seems […]

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Alternative App Store… for Cars?

Since recently, I tried many different cars. Not because I like to switch cars but because during the COVID period, I frequently visited Jeju Island, where renting a car was essential due to the limited public transportation. This gave me the chance to drive a variety of models in Korea from the Hyundai Kona Electric to the Kia EV6, and even the lesser-known Renault SM3 Electric. Also after a few (unfortunate) accidents where I was always the victim (100%! ๐Ÿ˜…), I even got to experience higher range models like the Porsche, Range Rover, Benz etc. while my car was being repaired. But despite testing so many different cars, one thing remained constant: I never used the built-in navigation or media system. Most in-car navigation systems were outdated and inconvenient. I also couldn't access my media except using my phone (who […]

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4 Pain Points in Game Economy

If you address 4 pain points in game economy, you get higher retention, and eventually a profitable game: High retention isnโ€™t about more content (shocker! ๐Ÿ˜ )Itโ€™s about a well balanced and fine tuned,in Game Economy, keeping players engaged. ๐Ÿ’ฐ โš–๏ธ Constantly rewarding the playersis an ancient (!) form of game economy. At first, everyoneโ€™s rich, but soon,nothing is worth playing for.Because your players are drowning in currency,but starving for excitement! Here are my 4 suggestions to get better:โœฆ Pain Point 1Excessive in game currency leading to inflationSolution:โ†ณ Currency sinks to maintain balance.(We are Warriors, Whiteout Survival)โœฆ Pain Point 2Repetitive currency farming gameplay loopSolution:โ†ณ Diversify gameplay with dynamicevents, quests, and challenges.(Royal Match, Monopoly Go)โœฆ Pain Point 3Pure cosmetic rewards, lack impact.Solution:โ†ณ Rewards like new skills or access to unique areas,providing tangible benefits in to core gameplay(Color Block Jam, Match Factory!)โœฆ Pain Point 4Unbalanced in-game […]

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Mo.coโ€™s Exclusive Launch Strategy Works!

Supercell mo.coโ€™s Exclusive Launch Strategy Is Working โ€“ Hereโ€™s Why ๐Ÿ‘‡๐Ÿป mo.co by Supercell is out globally, but is it? You canโ€™t play unless youโ€™ve received an invite. This growth hack is a masterclass in product marketing and might just be a groundbreaking way to launch a game globally while reaching a massive audience. Before diving into the growth strategy, letโ€™s first break down just how polished the experience is, given its invite-only launch. For the TL;DR, check out my video below ๐ŸคŸ๐Ÿป monetisation_polished.pdf From day one, the game has all key monetization elements in place. However, instead of following the traditional monetization model of dungeon crawlers, where items, wearables, and cosmetics often provide power, mo.co separates cosmetics from gear. This approach aligns its monetization closer to Fortnite rather than conventional freemium mobile games, let alone dungeon crawlers. The monetization […]

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Indian Hybridcasual Studio Qila Games Raises $1M

Qila Games Secures $1M to Disrupt Indiaโ€™s Hybridcasual Gaming Scene Bengaluru-based Qila Games has raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to supercharge its mission of redefining hybrid-casual gaming in India. The round was led by Chimera VC, with support from Visceral Capital, Atrium Angels, Ventatana Ventures, 91 Ventures, Untitled Ventures, and a cohort of angel investors. Founded in 2024 by industry veterans Dhananjai Hari and Neeraj Mishra, Qila is setting its sights on the sweet spot between casual and midcore gaming. Hari, now CEO, brings his experience from launching Dream Cricket at Dream Game Studios, while Mishra draws from his eight-year stint at Zynga, where he led game design in India. With this funding, Qila will build original IPs, expand its game lineup, and sharpen its tech and design edgeโ€”all with a laser focus on delivering socially driven, culturally resonant […]

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Gossip Harborโ€™s Live Ops Strategy

Gossip Harborโ€™s Live Ops Strategy Gossip Harbor is a masterclass in Live Ops execution. In 2024 alone: โ€ข 20 new events โ€ข 5 new offers โ€ข Significant revenue growth ๐ŸŽฏ ๐—˜๐—ฉ๐—˜๐—ก๐—ง ๐—–๐—”๐—ง๐—˜๐—š๐—ข๐—ฅ๐—œ๐—˜๐—ฆ โ€ข WEEKLY EVENTS โ€“ Short bursts (1-3 days) on specific weekdays โ€ข MID-TERM EVENTS โ€“ Rotating events lasting 4-7 days โ€ข LONG-TERM EVENTS โ€“ Spanning 2+ weeks, often back-to-back โ€ข HOLIDAY EVENTS โ€“ One-day themed specials โ€ข SHORT-TERM EVENTS โ€“ Quick engagement boosters (30 min - 1 hr) ๐ŸŽฎ ๐—ช๐—˜๐—˜๐—ž๐—Ÿ๐—ฌ ๐—˜๐—ฉ๐—˜๐—ก๐—ง๐—ฆ โ€“ ๐—˜๐—ก๐—š๐—”๐—š๐—˜๐— ๐—˜๐—ก๐—ง ๐——๐—ฅ๐—œ๐—ฉ๐—˜๐—ฅ๐—ฆ โ€ข Samโ€™s Road Trip โ€“ Collect wheels from orders for rewards โ€ข Pinata Party โ€“ Merge bats to reach max level and earn prizes โ€ข Coconutโ€™s Sky Journey โ€“ Merge balloons for increasing rewards โ€ข Oliviaโ€™s Lollipop Hunt โ€“ Merge lollipops to max level for bonuses โ€ข Zivaโ€™s Goldrush & Beat The Heat Wipeout […]

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