Monetization Series: Economy, IAP, Personas, and LiveOps

Part 1: The Basics In-game monetisation is a vital part of the mobile games ecosystem. Today, I’m going to start off with the general basics and things you should all know before going into more complex topics over the next 5 days. Monetisation for mobile games can be easily broken down into two main categories: Free to Play and Premium. Very simply, Free to Play allows you to download games for free to your device but has “micro-transactions” or advertisements which allow developers to make money after the fact, whereas, Premium you pay an upfront fee to play the game. Traditionally this was a one-time fee which allowed you to play the game without subsequent transactions. However that has changed over the last few years. Free to Play is 99% of the industry, so I’ll stick to that for now. […]

John Wright June 17

Journal

ENTERTAIN YOUR PLAYERS WITH EVENTS!

What to keep your live service game fresh? ENTERTAIN YOUR PLAYERS WITH EVENTS!An event is a time-limited experience that boosts engagement and monetization.Here are 4 components of an event: ☝️1. Theme.Drawn from in-game elements, cultural events, media trends, or business collaborations.2. Progression.Refer to the mechanics through which players gain value from the event.3. PromotionUtilizes communication channels, influencers, or partners to extend the reach. 4. Monetization.Involves special content either with the event theme, its progression, or both.Anything else, Sergei? ✋Define the purpose of the event.Engage top players with social features.Build anticipation with timed mechanics.Hope this helps!Please repost! ♻️ Appreciate it.I really want to help many thrive in gaming for a fulfilling, positive, and real life.And with that → positive, real results.

Sergei Vasiuk June 17

Journal

Self-Publishing Journey: Hypercell Story

SELF-PUBLISHING JOURNEYHYPERCELL The mobile games market is tough, but there are still plenty of opportunities. 💎Just take a look at the game development ecosystem in emerging countries.They are booming! ❤️‍🔥Turkey 🇹🇷, Vietnam 🇻🇳 , South Korea 🇰🇷 , Singapore 🇸🇬, India 🇮🇳, Brazil 🇧🇷, Indonesia 🇮🇩, and Pakistan 🇵🇰 , among others.The governments of these countries have understood that the games industry can be strategic for economic growth. 📈The Turkish government has cut taxes for gaming companies. Brazil has created a new legal framework.Self-publishing is a reality for some game studios in these countries.For this reason, today I'm launching a new section with research on self-publishing studios. 🚀Success cases that can be an inspiration to other studios. 🤩And for my debut, I bring you the case of Hypercell Games. 🏅Based in Latvia 🇱🇻, these guys co-developed SayGames' biggest hit, "Sand […]

Carlos Pereira June 14

Journal

Idle Lumber Empire Game Template

Idle Lumber Empire - Trash Tycoon Template Breakdown 🌲💰 The Idle Lumber Empire from NoPowerup Games led by Hưng Đặng Quang , Hieu Le , Ngo Duc Hiep , Anh Nguyễn, Thành Lê Tiến , Dinh Nguyễn Tiến , Ngoc Tu Pham , Quynh Vuong and many others , published under Game Veterans template has become a widely used framework for developing successful idle games, with simple innovations in theme and gameplay enabling the creation of new hit games. One notable example inspired by Idle Lumber Empire is Trash Tycoon from Funcell Games led by Abhishek Malpani,Aayush Agarwal , Shaurya Veer Kajaria , Tushar Prajapati , Dhawal Tamakuwala , Amit Malpani , Umang Patel and many more published by Supersonic from Unity which has been executed masterfully and is now scaling impressively. Trash Tycoon boasts remarkable playtimes and generates between […]

Vamsi Penmetsa June 13

Journal

Why Players Are Jumping The Ship

Most likely you are one of them. To understand why players abandon games before completion, we must understand player behavior and market trends. The main reasons behind this trend: 1. The Challenge FactorDifficulty spikes and frustrating gameplay elements often deter players from going further.2. Engagement ShortfallsGames that fail to consistently engage players with exciting content or mechanics often face high abandonment rates.3. Shiny ObjectPlayers ' preferences constantly evolve with the era of new games and genres being launched.4. The Time DilemmaModern lifestyles allow limited gaming time. Consequently, games that demand significant time investment risk being abandoned for shorter, more accessible experiences.5. Financial AspectsGiven the rising costs of games coupled with economic uncertainties, players may prefer free-to-play games or those sold at discounted prices.

Ali Farha June 12

Journal

Supermarket Simulator Mobile: Why is it so popular?

📣 When should you implement banner ads in your game? 📣 💡 To have Banner ads account for a significant amount of your ad revenue you need the following:- Long session lengths 📏 - Uninterrupted gameplay ❗ - A refresh rate that is optimized for your game or App Long session lengths allow you to increase the amount of impressions or IMP/DAU you show to your users. Generally, a banner IMP/DAU of 80-120 is what you should aim for if you’d like to earn a meaningful contribution to your user LTV. ☀ A big factor that helps increase the banner IMP/DAU is showing the same banner placement for as much of the user session as possible. Every time a user moves between menus and the banner placement changes, the mediation needs to reload the banner creatives, reducing the total amount of […]

Felix Braberg June 10

Journal

Remote Work + Agile = Bliss

Remote Work + Agile = Bliss 🤩 Remote and agile do not have to be compared on a one-dimensional sliding scale, where you sacrifice some of one to have more of the other.Remote <——————————————> AgileThe opposite is true. They should be considered two complementary dimensions, where more of one enables more of the other.If you look at the four quadrants below (bottom-up and left to right):1️⃣ Not Remote & Not Agile - How traditional organizations think. Everyone micromanaged in the same location 👎2️⃣ Not Remote & Agile - How traditional Agilists think. We need to have co-located teams for maximum agility.3️⃣ Remote & Not Agile - How traditional companies tried to do remote. It doesn’t work. Now enforcing RTO.4️⃣ Remote & Agile - How high-performing teams work best. Bliss ⭐️Remote enables Agile & Agile enables Remote. ⭐️ Remote and distributed […]

Jon Leslie June 10

Journal

Knowing Your Game Is Half the Battle

But the other half? Understanding the genres. To simplify, here's a list: 1. MMORPGs2. Puzzle Games3. Hybrid Games4. Sports Games5. Shooter Games6. Fighting Games7. Platform Games8. Simulation Games9. Dance/Rhythm Games10. Survival Horror Games11. Action Adventure Games12. Role Playing Games (RPGs)13. Turn Based Strategy Games14. Real Time Strategy (RTS) GamesThis list is by no means exhaustive or strict. Each genre can overlap and bleed into another. The only limit is the imagination of the game developers.

Ali Farha June 10

Journal

Pro Or Against The Humour In The Work Environment?

In the hustle and bustle of today’s work environment, fostering friendly communication and maintaining a positive atmosphere is absolutely crucial. When colleagues interact with warmth and respect, it not only enhances individual well-being but also fosters a collaborative and efficient work structure. A workplace where laughter is welcomed and jokes are shared creates an environment where creativity and innovation can flourish. We spend a significant portion of our lives at work; feeling comfortable and human in this space is essential. Being afraid to laugh or make a light-hearted comment only builds walls between us. We must remember that we are all human, and a little humor goes a long way in building strong, trusting relationships.We should aim to cultivate a work culture where friendliness is seen as a strength, not a weakness. By creating spaces where everyone feels valued, heard, […]

Elizaveta Savenkova June 10

Journal

Game Matchmaker Cheat Sheet

Game Matchmaker cheat sheet with components that can be used for MM design! ⚖🎮 Use it to find a personalized approach that suits your game! 🌟Some explanations:— Couple of parts are simplified for the sake of brevity— Several parts from PvP block can be used in PvE, but with lesser impact— Analytics present here only as a reminder to not forget about it. And also because it will be difficult to fit it on one page.— Some terms may not be very clearly defined (I tried to do my best here)📚In terms of genres, there are some differences:— For premium games it is important to be ready for big number of people. And with bunch of MM systems from the start.— For f2p and GaaS games it may be scaled through game live ops after the release, if the audience […]

Sergei Zenkin June 10

Journal

Top Soft Launches: New LEGO Games on the Horizon

TOP SOFT LAUNCHES NEW LEGO GAMES With the challenges of new privacy policies, using IP has been a key UA strategy in mobile games in recent years.IPs endemic to the gaming industry have been performing well, such as “Candy Crush”🍬 and “PUBG”🪂.But there are non-endemic IPs that are well received by the gaming audience, such as soccer (”EA Sports”), board games (”Monopoly GO”), and cartoons (”Pokémon GO”).Now imagine a mobile game with an endemic IP of almost 1.2 billion downloads combined with one of the most iconic brands in kids' culture. 🤯This one is…✨ "LEGO® Hill Climb Adventures" ✨Developed by Fingersoft in partnership with the LEGO Group, "LEGO® Hill Climb" is a 3D version of "Hill Climb Racing".With a well-polished game art. 🎨Moments of competition, like "Hill Climb Racing 2". 🏁But keeping the famous brake-acceleration balance mechanics. 🚗The game also […]

Carlos Pereira June 10

Journal

Iteration over Innovation? Case: Makeover Match

Making games is hard. As player expectations rise and market conditions become more challenging, creating a successful game and maintaining that success is becoming increasingly difficult. It looks like these are not enough to stop Tactile, the Danish studio behind smash hit Lily’s Garden, from working on a new title since they launched their latest game Makeover Match in March 2023. Although the Tactile team has several titles under their portfolio, the well-known swapping mechanic is not very common among their games. Especially with their two most recent titles Lily’s Garden and Penny & Flo, Tactile has been a stronghold for story-driven puzzle games with the collapse mechanic. Releasing a match-3 game with the swapping mechanic is certainly a demonstration of their eagerness to take on a new challenge. However, quite counterintuitively, the strongest aspect of Makeover Match is the […]

Ahmetcan Demirel June 10

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