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Snacking cover
4 min read
#Game Mechanics

How to Encourage More Snacking and Less Feasting

In early 2021 some clever bods* at a university wrote a research paper about how individual game mechanics affect player attrition (i.e. how many players your game loses over time). It was called ‘Serious Snacking: A Survival Analysis of how Snacking Mechanics Affect Attrition in a Mobile Serious Game’. While that title might make it sound a bit daunting, the paper has some really useful tips on ways to successfully keep people coming back to a game over a long period of time (called ‘snacking’). And luckily, we’ve done the reading so you don’t have to. Why is snacking good? Some games are designed for long single-play sessions (called ‘feasting’). But for most casual and hypercasual games played on mobile devices, short daily interactions with people coming back regularly are going to be most profitable for developers. So the more...
15 min read
#Guides

The Game Devs Guide to Push Notifications and Customer Messaging

This article was originally written by OneSignal. You can it out on their blog here.  Before OneSignal, our company was a mobile game studio called Hiptic Games. Our experiences at Hiptic helped us see the need for a simpler, more reliable, and more powerful messaging platform to improve user engagement. In many ways, we built OneSignal with game developers in mind. The top 25% of mobile games have an average Day 28 retention of just 4% and the cost of acquiring a user that eventually makes a purchase is over $40 USD. Yet, the vast majority of mobile games still don’t implement basic best practices for improving user engagement and retention through messaging. In this guide, we’ll walk through the four main user-engagement channels that every mobile game studio may want to leverage — Push Notifications, In-App Messaging, Email, and SMS — and...
Fast prototype
5 min read
#Guides

The Hypercasual Playbook: Fast Prototyping

This post and report was originally written by Homa Games. You can check out the original here.  Whether you are participating in a jam or just in your daily game creation practice, building a functional, testable prototype ASAP is essential. First, because you want to be able to test your ideas before investing too much time and resources on them. Second, because in the fast-paced, highly competitive Hypercasual world, you don’t want to let the latest trends slip away or see your genius concepts developed by the competition. When it comes to game design, there are elements like core game mechanics and dynamics that need to be there from the beginning, no matter how simple your prototype is. If you are thinking Hypercasual, you also want your games to be satisfying from the start, so the visual part and the...
Voodoo cover
8 min read
#Game Design

Simple Tips to Increase Efficiency in Hyper-Casual Game Development

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by our friends at Voodoo. You can check out the original article here.  How long have you been working in Unity? Are there simple changes that you could make to your work process to get the most out of your iterations? Whether you’re super experienced or just starting out in hyper-casual game development, taking the time to review your processes can be key to staying efficient and producing great results. A team of our in-house Game Developers recently got together to discuss best practices when working on Unity game prototypes. The result? The Voodoo Dev Manual. Filled with simple tips and tricks to help you work as efficiently as possible and speed up your iterations, this brand new resource is now available for all partner studios on our exclusive e-learning platform . The Voodoo Dev Manual...
3 min read
#GameAnalytics Updates

Ad Revenue Data From Applovin MAX Now in GameAnalytics

A while ago, a bunch of you asked us to add Applovin MAX to the mix of ad networks we integrate with. Well, we’re thrilled to announce that we’ve crossed the finish line, and you can finally analyze your ad revenue from Applovin MAX in your GameAnalytics account. There’s now nothing stopping you from making more informed decisions around your monetization strategy. That’s the biggest news in this update. So if you’re struggling to sit still and want to get started right away, then head to our docs here to grab the integration guide and go go go. But if you fancy digging into the details, then read on. What’s new in GameAnalytics Including the news we mentioned above, here’s what’s changed in GameAnalytics and what you can expect to see next time you log in: We’ve added support for...
7 min read
#Live Ops

What to Expect When Your Game Turns Into a Viral Hit

Every game developer hopes to see their game hit the top of the charts. The thrill of seeing people play it on the train, glowing reviews in gaming outlets, and your own section on Twitch. (The increased revenue doesn’t hurt, either.) But nobody really prepares you for success. What happens when you get that surge of new players and become so popular that even non-gamers have heard about you? With great success comes great responsibility. The more players you have, the more pressure you’re under to improve the game, add new content, fix bugs and keep the game alive. It’s a tough gig and one game can easily turn into an entire career. And there are quite a few tasks you’ll need to take care of behind the scenes. What goes on behind the scenes? This isn’t an exhaustive list,...
6 min read
#Guides

Developers Assemble – How to Find and Hire a Game Dev Team

Think of your potential team like the Avengers, but with less spandex (although that’s completely up to you). You need a mix of specific skills and people who get on well as you’re likely to be working together very closely, for some time. And you’re also going to be paying them, so you need to make sure they understand your vision and how you want to deliver it. Don’t worry, help is at hand – here’s our advice on how to find the very best game development superheroes. Before you start recruiting The first thing you’ll need to think about is the type of game you’re building. Ask yourself the following four questions: 1. What technology does my game need? This will give you an idea of what you need to look for when it comes to technical expertise in...
8 min read
#Marketing & Publishing

7 Deadly Messaging Sins in Mobile Games (And How to Solve Them)

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by the crew at OneSignal. Check out the original article here.  You know how powerful player messaging can be. It can improve a game’s experience and enrich competition. It can engage new gamers and win back churned players. Although the potential benefits are compelling, there are also examples of messaging channels detracting from the game experience. As a result, many savvy game developers overlook opportunities to enhance their game experience with messaging because they’re afraid of what might go wrong. Getting mobile messaging right takes some skill and thoughtfulness. We pooled our collective knowledge, along with input from leading mobile development studios, to create a list of seven common messaging mistakes in the gaming industry and how you can avoid them. Sin #1: Leading With an Opt-in Request Imagine you’re a bored commuter. You head...
1 min read
#Data & Analytics

Sub-Genre Snapshot: Hyper-Casual Games

We break down the top KPIs that Hyper-Casual developers should be aiming for, and reveal a few of the rising superstars that entered the market in 2020.
CPI or CTR image cover
4 min read
#Ads & Monetization

CPI or CTR? How to Best Measure Your Game’s Marketability

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by Sara De Vries, Content Creator at Coda. You can find the original article here. When it comes to understanding the potential success of your prototype, market testing is the best way to accurately measure a user’s reception to your game. Most rapid market testing is conducted on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, as they allow you to test the marketability of your game in both an economic and efficient way. The types of campaigns or tests on these platforms can range from tracking traffic to engagement, and from them you can calculate important KPIs such as Click-through-rate (CTR) and Cost-per-install (CPI). A CPI or a CTR test are two different types of tests and both have pros and cons worth considering for your particular stage of development. Keep reading...
6 min read
#ASO

How To Optimize Mobile Games for the App Stores

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by TapNation. Make sure to check out their version here. The question of how people find your content is a tale as old as the internet. Having the best story or the most innovative gameplay means very little if no one can find it, never mind play it. Which is why ASO (App Store Optimization) is so important. It plays a crucial role when publishing your game. And it isn’t as time-consuming or complicated as you may think. At TapNation, we help make sure new players find your hyper-casual games by using the best ASO techniques and most effective marketing strategies. If you have great intuitive gameplay, we want to make sure everyone in the world is playing it. But if you’re just looking for some simple advice to get you started, well...
Homa games cover
7 min read
#Game Deconstructions

Arcade Idle: A New Hyper-Casual Genre Enters the Game

In the last few years, the Hyper-casual genre has established itself as one of the fastest-growing game categories on the app stores, not only in the number of downloads but also in the quantity, variety, and originality of new products. Beginning as a subgenre of casual, Hyper-casual has consolidated as a category in its own right and started accommodating subcategories like ultra-casual, idle, mergers, and so on. Some of these subgenres have become classics, but we can see a new genre emerge in the Hyper-casual scene from time to time. Constant testing and iteration lead to permanent game upgrading and improvement, translating into new, different games and hybrid genres. This was the case for Farm Land, developed by studio LolTap: Homa Games’ latest release and member of the new Arcade Idle category. The process began in late 2020 with the...
7 min read
#Game Deconstructions

How Game Worthy Hit a 66-Minute Average Playtime With City Takeover

Editors note: This article was written by the publishing team at Voodoo. You can check out the original version here.  How do you take a strategy-based, connect & conquer style game, and transform it into a successful hyper-casual hit? Game Worthy, a Vancouver-based studio composed of programmer Kaue and game artist Fred, managed to do just this with their latest game, City Takeover. Hitting outstanding KPIs and entering the top 100 iOS US immediately upon its release, this game is nonetheless very different from other games in the genre. It demands a bit more thought, concentration, and strategy… in other words, it’s more difficult than your typical hyper-casual game. Read on to find out how Game Worthy, teaming up with Voodoo, managed to transform one of their favorite childhood games into a hyper-casual hit. Ideation & inspiration Here at Voodoo, we...