Category
Game Design
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
Purple Jam Interview: Lessons from making an Audio-only Game
Ahead of the release of their newest title, Pitch Black, I spoke to the developers at Purple Jam to learn how they’ve gone about creating an audio-only game, and what they have learned along the way. Thanks for joining me today. Before we get started, would you be able to give us a bit of background on your team? Sure thing. So, Purple Jam consists of three audio specialists turned game developers. We first met each other last September when we were powering through our Masters’ at the University of Derby. But it wasn’t until we reassessed our lives did we decide to join forces and create the game of all games – Pitch Black: A Dusklight Story. In a flash of inspiration, Harry Cooper (commonly known as ‘The Mastermind’), had the idea of creating a binaural based audio game....
9 min read
#Game Design
Five Mistakes to Avoid When Making A F2P Game
Back at PGC Helsinki 2019 in October, we had the pleasure of seeing quite a few interesting talks. But among all the sessions we attended, there was one that particularly stood out – where Priyank Badkul from Huuuge Games shared the five key mistakes mobile game developers should avoid after deciding to pursue their F2P game idea. Priyank is a Product Owner of Coffee Break Games at Huuuge Games – a division that focuses on Classic Games such as Chess, Checkers, Dominoes and many more. He has been making games for the last 14 years. He produced the first official Formula One mobile game and Bingo Bash – the all-time highest-grossing bingo game. If you weren’t there in Helsinki for the conference, here’s Priyank to bring you up to speed: I’ve worked on some very successful mobile games. But I’ve...
0 min read
#Game Design
Making a Hit Idle Game – Eight Lessons from Kolibri Games
In October, we held our second Making Hit Casual Games event, focusing on idle games (aka ‘clicker’ games). We wanted to know what made Kolibri Games’ Idle Miner Tycoon so successful. So we invited Kolibri’s Director of Business Development, Nate Barker, to tell our audience what lessons they learned from making their debut hit – and how they put them to use in developing their next big game, Idle Factory Tycoon. If you couldn’t be there in person, here’s Nate to fill you in on all the idle games wisdom you missed: So what is an idle game? There are lots of different ways to answer this question. But here’s our answer: An idle game is a spreadsheet with an interface. It’s not a very fun-sounding description, but it’s accurate. The mathematics behind idle games are mostly similar. You start...
7 min read
#Game Design
Bam, Splat, Kapow: How to use Sound Effects to bring your Mobile Game to Life
It goes without saying that to make your mobile game successful you’ve got to have great visuals. They don’t necessarily need to be super sophisticated or complicated – but they’ve got to look good. So once you’ve sorted out your gorgeous gameplay, you might be tempted to sit back and relax. But there’s something else you shouldn’t forget – the sound. We’ve already talked about the importance of getting music right (and how to use it as a core mechanic). So in this post, we turn our attention to sound effects, and how simply adding these can make a real difference to gameplay. Are sound effects really that important? Yes. Sound effects are crucial for adding atmosphere and building emotion. If your player is walking through a scary, damp cave, for example, some dripping water sounds or distant footsteps can...
6 min read
#Game Design
Making Hit Idle Games Event – Homa Games, Kolibri & GameAnalytics
It’s been a couple of months since our first event back in June, but the Arcade R(E)volution is back, and this time we focused on the idle genre. Accompanied by publishing giants, Homa Games, and Idle experts, Kolibri, we presented an evening full of insights, stats, stories, advice, and lessons. All on how to create hit idle games. If you made it that evening, brilliant! Thanks so much for coming. And if you sadly missed it, no worries. We recorded the entire evening, saved the decks, and put together some key takeaways. So you can get the low-down on what’s happening in the idle world, all of which you can find below. But before you dig in, we just wanted to share some information with you about the Arcade R(E)volution, and when you can expect to find the next one…...
22 min read
#Game Deconstructions
What we learned: Idle Miner Tycoon and Idle Factory Tycoon – Kolibri
Having created one of the most popular idle games on the market, Idle Miner Tycoon, Kolibri shared with us their latest game, and how they built on what they learned from their first title to create their next big hit, Idle Factory Tycoon. And if you fancy watching the other talks from our event, you can check them out here: The Latest Trends for Idle Games – GameAnalytics The Story of Idle World – Homa Games Hyper-Casual vs Idle: The Latest Trends in Mobile Games
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...
8 min read
#Game Deconstructions
Prototype Phases For A Hit Casual Game – Purple Diver
Here at Voodoo Games we recently launched Purple Diver, which we developed with Viatcheslav Tarasov (the developer behind Ragdoll Archer, Truck Traffic Control, and Snake Loves numbers). And we’re pleased to say it quickly jumped to the top of the charts, now having around 15M downloads worldwide. So in this post, we’re going to talk you through how the game came into being and what we learned from making it. (If you’re new to hyper-casual games, make sure to check out our 3 snackability tips for making hit games). Why we love Purple Diver For us, one of the best things about Purple Diver is its monetization potential – in a game like this we can show a lot of ads. We know this can be irritating for some players, but we think the nature of the game and the...
7 min read
#ASO
Finding Our Hyper-Casual Niche – Lessons From Platonic Games
In June 2019, GameAnalytics hosted a mobile gaming event to talk about casual gaming, which we called ‘The Arcade (R)Evolution: Making Hit Casual Games‘. Valeria Castro of Platonic games somewhat stole the show with her presentation – speaking with wit and passion about how to find a niche in the world of hyper-casual gaming. If you couldn’t make our last event, don’t worry. Here’s Valeria to fill you in on what you missed (and here’s the video of her talk): We’re Platonic Games – a 10-person dev team from Madrid. You might know us if you’ve ever played Kawaii Kitchen, Happy Hop or Sailor Cats. As you can probably guess from those titles, we make super-cute, hyper-casual games. And there’s one question we get asked a lot. Can we actually compete against the big developers? In reality, no. We can’t....
17 min read
#ASO
How We Found A Hyper-Casual Niche – Platonic Games
During this event, Valeria from Platonic Games took to the stage, and showed us just how exactly her small-time studio tackled the competitive market by finding their niche in Kawaii mobile games. If you fancy watching the other talks from this event, you can find them here: The Latest Trends for Hyper-Casual Games – GameAnalytics Hyper-casual in a Hyper-competitive Market – Voodoo
6 min read
#Game Design
How To Create “Hyper-Snackable” Casual Games
With more games on the market than ever before, there is little doubt that developers need to be increasingly innovative when designing the next hit hyper-casual title. There are however a few simple game design aspects to consider that can increase your likelihood of success. A concept that we’ve been discussing with Voodoo partners to help address this with actionable steps is the notion of “snackability”. Many casual gamers often only play mobile games when they’re out and about, commuting, queuing, or simply have a couple of spare minutes waiting for the microwave to finish. When we consider the broadest demographic of gamers, the majority of players prefer games that they can easily pick up and put down without feeling overly committed, but with enough excitement to keep them coming back for more. This is where ‘snackable’ games come in....