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18 min read
#Data & Analytics

The Latest Trends for Idle Games – GameAnalytics

Using data from our portfolio of up to 100,000 mobile games, our Director of Customer Operations, Ivan Bravo, kicked off our event with an industry update, sharing the freshest insights and KPIs for the idle category. If you fancy watching the other talks from our event, you can check them out here: The Story of Idle World – Homa Games What we learned: Idle Miner Tycoon and Idle Factory Tycoon – Kolibri Hyper-Casual vs Idle: The Latest Trends in Mobile Games 
UX Review Deep Dive Miniclip's 8 Ball Pool
12 min read
#Game Deconstructions

How Miniclip’s 8 Ball Pool uses Skill & Chance Based Gratification

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Om Tandon, Founder/Games Consultant at UX Reviewer.com. You can find the original version of this post here. Launched way back in 2010 on mobile, 8 Ball pool has been a consistent performer on top-grossing charts in US and UK app stores. Whilst it did show signs of ageing and slowing down, losing ground to newly sprung sporting rivals like Golf Clash a year back, the relatively recent addition of new features has uplifted the core and meta loops of this iron horse. 8 Ball pool has made up for the age gap and continues to be a dominant force in the sports arcade category. Game design and UX wise, 8 Ball Pool is a game of excesses – a melting pot of skill and chance based gratification that is apparent in every aspect...
10 min read
#Marketing & Publishing

Apple Arcade: What This Really Means For Mobile Game Developers (Updated)

Editors note: We originally published this earlier this year when Apple Arcade was originally announced. As promised, we’ve updated this post with the latest info about Apple Arcade (latest update October 11th 2019). Updated text will be in italics.   A lot has happened since we last reported on Apple Arcade – the launch has finally happened, games have been confirmed, and we’ve had a taste of what’s to come. To keep you guys up-to-date with what’s going on, here are a few things that have come to light since April 2019, and what this means for mobile game developers. Here’s what we cover (feel free to skip to something in particular, if you’d like): Will Apple Arcade be an industry shake up? What we know about Apple Arcade so far What this means for developers Some useful resources Will Apple...
Mario Kart Cover
7 min read
#Game Deconstructions

Mario Kart Tour – What It Can Learn From QQ Speed And PopKart Mobile

Editor’s Note: this post was originally published by Kalle Heikkinen, Chief Game Analyst – China. With over 400 games analyzed under his belt, Kalle has a solid understanding of what works and what doesn’t in the mobile game market. You could argue that Casual Racing has not been one of the sexiest spaces to follow on mobile in the West, particularly grossing-wise. Engines are revving up though, thanks to Mario Kart Tour drifting into the market last month. While making bets on MK’s success, it’s good to remember that adaptations of the genre have been able to find success in other markets. Casual Racing’s current market share in the US. The section on the left shows the subgenre’s market share in the overall market, while on the right you can see different games’ market share inside Casual Racing. Already in...
7 min read
#Game Deconstructions

5 Awesome Indie Games Released in September

This month, the focus across the internet seems to be on colorful and vibrant games, all full of humor in order to distract us humans from the noise happening outside the world of video games. And with the release of Apple Arcade, there have been tons of new titles on mobile, as well as a bundle of awesome console games to keep us distracted. I’ve been having a great time exploring the new games through Apple Arcade, as well as the new releases on the Apple Store. I’ve also turned my attention back to my Nintendo Switch as well this month, so there is definitely a lot to cover in this post. But as always, I’ve cherry-picked my top 5 favorite indie games from September, and took the time to explain what the developers did so well. 1. Untitled Goose...
7 min read
#Marketing & Publishing

China’s Approval Process: Getting Your Game The Green Light

Our friends at JoyPac recently wrote us some tips about how to get your game published in China. In this second installment, JoyPac’s Falko Böcker looks at the details of China’s ever-evolving process for granting publishing licenses. Publishing games in China is a complicated business. The State Administration of Press & Publication (SAPP) decides who can get a license to publish games, and their approach is very much ‘quality over quantity’. They’re limiting the number of developers who can publish games in their territory, and they’ll only greenlight games of a high standard that they see as healthy entertainment for Chinese gamers. The rules have changed recently, and are likely to keep changing in the future. So we’re going to run through what it takes to get a license, and explain how we go about navigating this tricky process. So...
10 min read
#Ads & Monetization

3 Things You Need To Know When Using Licensed IPs In Mobile Games

Editor’s Note: this post was originally published by Joel Julkunen, Head of Game Analysis at GameRefinery. In his role, he leads GameRefinery’s analytics department and has a major role in developing algorithms and statistical models used in the company.  Third-party brands and IPs have solidified their place in the mobile games industry, often providing (or at least promising) that crucial extra boost for your title. In the US, a whopping 30% of top 100 grossing games are currently based on a 3rd party IP, and when zooming out to the top 200, the figure holds at almost 25%. In other words, IPs play a significant role in mobile game revenue generation and based on the variety of IP types utilized, there are license owners all across the board joining the party. US top 200 grossing IP utilization from the GameRefinery...
7 min read
#Game Deconstructions

Key Lessons From Developing Roller Splat – Voodoo & Neon Play

In this post, we’re looking at Roller Splat from Neon Play, and why it works so well (now achieving over 49 million downloads worldwide). Before we do that, we first want to say a big congratulations to the whole Neon Play team. They’ve published a few games with us at Voodoo now and we’re so proud of them – they do a fantastic job. We think Roller Splat is really interesting. That’s because it reflects the kind of studio Neon Play is and its mindset, which is why we’ve decided to focus on it today. The secret to Neon Play’s success Obviously the market for games like Roller Splat is a difficult one. It’s very hard to produce a single prototype, churn it out and have it succeed. But Neon Play succeed because they keep prototyping until it works. If...
7 min read
#Data & Analytics

5 Key Takeaways From Our H1 2019 Mobile Benchmarks Report

If you haven’t seen the news, then let me be the first to tell you that we’ve recently released our latest — and biggest to date — mobile benchmarks report. Now covering 1.2 billion monthly active players across nearly 100k games, we’ve highlighted the key trends and insights from H1 2019, so that you can see how your title truly compares to the rest of the industry. Short on time? Not a problem. In this post, we’ve summarised the key takeaways from this study, and what this means for mobile game developers around the globe. Don’t forget to download yourself a free copy here for later 👇 How to read our graphs We’re packing a whole lot of data into one report, with analysis that covers both seasonal trends and breakdowns by genre. So, to keep things simple, we presented...
7 min read
#Game Deconstructions

Top 5 Indie Games Released In August

Another month has passed, and loads of new games have found their way onto the app store. New releases seem to be popping up left and right, giving me plenty of games to dip my fingers in. It’s been so much fun playing a large variety of games last month, especially when there have been quite a few releases in many different genres. So, for this post, I’ve cherry-picked my top 5 favorite indie games, and explained why each of them is so special. Let’s get to it! 1. Yokai Dungeon Developer: Gionathan Pesaresi Launch date: August 5th, 2019 Price: Free, with in-app purchases Available on: iOS, Android Recently published by Neutronized, Yokai Dungeon is an adorable pixel art dungeon crawler that tells a tale of a lantern festival gone wrong. In the game, lightning strikes an important shrine, which...
Cultural difference mobile game China blog
7 min read
#Marketing & Publishing

Common Cultural Differences When Publishing Games In China

Just in case you haven’t noticed, China is massive. It’s now the largest single-language market on the planet – three times bigger than the US. To put that into perspective, China has 242 million iOS devices, which is pretty much the same number of the total mobile phones in the US. That should mean it’s rich pickings for game developers. But it’s not that simple. Because the way we market games in the West looks very different in China. Here at JoyPac, we combine the open and communicative style of western game publishers with the specialized know-how needed to be successful in Asia. And in this post, we’re going to help you navigate the potentially lucrative Chinese market, and avoid the potential pitfalls by telling you a bit about some of the cultural differences you need to be aware of...
7 min read
#Game Design

4 Steps When Using Music To Support Game Narrative

Psst… This blog belongs to a series of blog posts, all about music in gaming. And in case you missed it, you can find our last one here: Using Music As A Core Mechanic. If I asked you to hum the theme tune to a game right now, which one would you pick? Super Mario Bros? Zelda? Even casual gamers could probably come up with something (probably Tetris). My point is that you could do it – that’s because music in games plays an important role in creating atmosphere and supporting the narrative. And mobile games are no different. A good theme tune can improve players’ experiences by setting the mood and making it memorable. Let’s have a look at a couple of games which are really nailing the music. Oxenfree is a great example of well-executed music in gaming....
5 min read
#Game Design

A Voodoo Guide To Game Design: Keep Things Simple

At Voodoo, we firmly believe that simple is best when it comes to designing hyper-casual games. So in this post, we’re going to look at why that’s true, and how to make it happen. Before we get to that, we just want to take a moment to quickly go over what our market is, and what that means for the way you design games for us. The guy on the train Who are our players? The answer is: everyone. Yes, some of them are hardcore Apex Legends gamers. But most of them are just normal people going about their days, from 77-year-old grandmothers, to seven-year-old kids. Essentially, people that play our games on their smartphones, on the go. Take a look at this picture. It’s a good example of the kind of people you should be thinking of when you’re...