Building video games has never been a simple task. You can have a brilliant idea for a game, but without the right skills, tools and resources, it can be near-impossible to tackle by yourself. Especially if we consider something as complicated and new as virtual reality. Not that this stopped Sergio Hidalgo. Being a one-man studio, Sergio managed to produce, release, and publish two successful VR titles. His first title, Dreadhalls, sold up to 250,000 units worldwide, and hit over 60,000 concurrent viewers on Twitch. (For comparison, Team Fortress 2’s highest was around 80,000.) While Cosmodread has had approximately 25,000 players on Steam alone. So to get his advice and learn his secrets, we sat down to hear his story and journey as a solo-game developer. Here’s what he had to say. 1. You don’t have to have it all...

We recently spoke with Janzen Madsen, founder at Splitting Point Studios, to get his perspective on how to develop a hit on Roblox. Splitting Point has created multiple experiences, including Field Trip Z which this year alone saw more than 45M unique players. Janzen is intimately familiar with what makes a Roblox experience a success. Roblox is an absolutely massive platform, with over 32 million experiences and 52 million active users. But making a game there is unlike making a game anywhere else. It’s much faster paced, the audience is much younger, and it’s much more tricky to design. The typical principles you might expect are quite different. 1. Don’t make it like a mobile game “Often, developers coming from the mobile gaming industry will assume that they can replicate their success by rebuilding their games on Roblox. This just...

Obsessed with making games that people will remember for a lifetime, Halfbrick decided to convert their hit title, Fruit Ninja, into a VR game. It was a natural evolution – people apparently really enjoy slicing fruit and swinging swords. After that success, they created Fruit Ninja VR 2 – adding more features and exploration to the game. “Making a game for VR is very, very different,” said Liam Potter, one of the lead gameplay programmers on Fruit Ninja VR 2. “There are a lot of things you need to take into account that you just don’t for console or mobile.” With that in mind, let’s dive into those challenges and see what Liam advises. Show players the play space early In a VR experience, it’s incredibly difficult to make sure that players are looking where you want. Gamers notoriously fail...

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, you’ve probably heard of Roblox. It’s a gaming platform with over 30 million games – which they call experiences – 52 million daily active users (DAU) and 12 million creators at the time of writing. One of the keys to its success is that it makes it exceptionally easy to create and release games on its platform. We spoke with Tae Kim and Eric Park, co-founders of Trihex Studios and the minds behind Redcliff City – one of the most popular titles on Roblox which has, this year alone, amassed a community of more than 40 million unique players. During our conversation, we asked them what mobile developers could learn from Roblox and how they could make the move over to the platform. Here’s their advice. First up,...

TapNation helps nurture over 80 studios to develop hit games. Data is crucial when working on any genre. But particularly when you’re making a hypercasual game. TapNation helps studios all over the world to develop and improve their games. But to do that, they need accurate data. Fast. That’s where DataSuite comes in: it’s a collection of our services to help you bring all your data together and easily plug it into your other systems. We spoke with TapNation’s VP of engineering, Kamel Haddad, to see how that works. And what they use DataSuite for. Tell us a little about TapNation and yourself Sure thing. We are TapNation. We’re a publisher based in Paris and have taken around 80 different studios worldwide under our wing. Over the last few years, we’ve had around 19 hit titles, counting over 500 million...

Over our last couple of blogs around data warehouses, we’ve explained how they let you analyze data from across your portfolio and look at what insights you can gather from them. Now, we’ll dive into how to build a data warehouse. What steps do you need to take and what resources will you need? To figure this out, we’ve rounded up the costs, steps, and tools we think you’ll need to get started. Please note, that we haven’t included the cost of running an engineering department (which you’ll need), which can end up being a lot of $$$. What do I need to get started? Before you start, you’ll need to ensure you have the right people. You’ll likely need a software or data engineer, and perhaps an architect or DevOps engineer. You’ll also need to budget for tools like...

Editor’s note: This article was written by the clever minds at HyperBid.  Hello there. I’m Ahmet, the business director here at HyperBid. Aside from the obvious ups and downs last year, we also had some big changes in how the monetization industry works. From new models improving revenue for developers to changes on how we can collect data. So I thought it’d be useful to summarise the four big changes we’ll see in 2022. 1. The waterfall model will take a step back There are two models you can use when selling the advertising space in your game. Either you use waterfall, which methodically runs through a set list defined by you, until you get an ad bid above your defined floor price. Or you can use in-app header bidding, where you programmatically scan through every bid for the best...

A few weeks ago, we went over what backends are, what you can do with them, and what kinds of monetization strategies are possible when using a backend-as-a-service. This time, we want to take this topic a step further. Now, we’ll chat about everything else your backend can do, and how to get your monetization right. Let’s dive back in. Quick recap from our last blog You can check it out if you missed our last article (or just want to brush up on your reading). But here’s the TL;DR breakdown: Your backend can handle all kinds of monetization types, including: Hard and soft currencies. Cosmetics. Loot boxes. Upgrades. Season passes and battle passes. Subscriptions. Opt-in events. DLC. And your backend matters here. They provide the ecosystem that lets your monetization both function and thrive. We’ve gone into a lot...

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,...

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...

That’s a fairly obvious statement. Lavish visuals and meticulous game design are nothing without the likes of quality code and robust AI. But there’s another layer that sits behind everything else that’s equally important – particularly in the era of games as live entities. Simply put, you absolutely need a quality backend for any connected game to thrive. That’s true whether you have online multiplayer to consider, a connected user community to serve, or the likes of seasonal events and updates to consider. Equally, an intuitive backend can both accelerate and optimize your game development workflows, making the likes of achievements and social integration, leaderboard implementation, or in-game currency creation a trivial task. If any of those factors are part of your game, a backend is arguably as important as your chosen engine. Can I make my own backend? It...

Editors note: This article was originally crafted by Sarah D. Vries, Content Creator at Coda Game. You can find the original piece here.  The hyper-casual gaming industry is constantly evolving, requiring developers to be on top of trends and the latest gaming practices to remain competitive. Like honing any craft, it’s a constant work in progress and many studios often end up making common mistakes that can easily be avoided. Thankfully at Coda, we’ve had extensive experience working with developers and studios of all sizes. From our experience, we’ve compiled a list of the top five common mistakes that hyper-casual developers make and how best to avoid them when creating your next game. 1. Getting the difficulty of levels wrong Hyper-casual games are known for their simple nature and the ability for gamers of any level to play. One common...