Author profile
Joakim Achren
"Joakim Achrén is the CEO of Next Games. He specializes in mobile entertainment, metrics development for player acquisition, engagement and monetization and big data architectures.
6 min read
#Game Design
A Beginner’s Dilemma: To Start With Casual Games or Mid-Core Games?
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on LevelUp by Joakim Achrén, the Founder and CEO of Elite Game Developers, a Helsinki-based company that helps gaming entrepreneurs in starting their first games company. One of the earliest and most important decisions founders face when starting a games company is the level of complexity of their first game: should it be casual or mid-core? As an angel investor, every week I get to take a look at pitches from founders and I see them struggling with the same problems over and over again. So, how does one decide where to start and which approach will bring the most successful long-term? Here’s what I’ve learned through my experiences creating a games company and going through countless pitches since. The economics of mobile game ventures After hearing the pitch for a game, I...
7 min read
#Game Design
Four Benefits of Hyper-Casual Games for the Gaming Industry
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on LevelUp by Joakim Achrén, the Founder and CEO of Elite Game Developers (a Helsinki-based company that helps gaming entrepreneurs in starting their first games company). You can find the original version of the post here. No, this is not an article about how the hyper-casual market has peaked. This isn’t an article about how poorly hyper-casual games generate value for advertisers who buy ad inventory. And this isn’t an article about how crowded the market of hyper-casual games already is and how big studios are cloning and fast-following all the successful hyper-casual incarnations. No, this is an article about why hyper-casual has positively impacted the gaming industry and why its approach to development should be emulated by other genres. 1. Fast shipping speeds up the learning curve This past fall, I’ve been...
12 min read
#Game Design
Don’t make me think – Applied to game design
No matter how big and smart our brains are, we humans are still lazy when it comes to thinking. Joakim Achrén, CEO at My Next Games company, is here to illustrate how embracing the inherent laziness of players can actually improve your games. And we will be adding some metric sauce here and there
9 min read
#Data & Analytics
Combatting Churn: 10 Reasons Why Players Quit Your Game
Joakim Achrén, CEO at My Next Games company game and former Director of analytics at Supercell, has more tips to share in this second guest post. Joakim rates the top ten reasons for which players tend to quit social games and also offers solutions to avoid each specific scenario.
6 min read
#Data & Analytics
7 Tips To Prevent Your Game From Failing
This new guest post features Joakim Achrén, CEO at My Next Games company and former Director of analytics at Supercell. Joakim will share some of his hard-earned tips for ensuring a healthy and promising development process for your game.