At some point, when making a multiplayer game, players need to find one another. You need some way to either match players with similar skills or just fill out the lobby. Especially if in mobile games. That’s where a matchmaker comes in.

What is a matchmaker?

A matchmaker is a script or third-party tool that decides which players go into a lobby together. It’s like a good host at a formal dinner. The players ask the matchmaker for a seat, and the matchmaker figures out who they should sit next to, and then leads them to the best table – filled with similar people.

Exactly what criteria the matchmaker uses is up to you – the developer. But typically, you want players of similar skill to play with one another. That’s the main point of the matchmaker: to make the matches fair and equal. You could just shove players into the first available lobby, but it probably won’t be a good match and you’ll just get one player curb-stomping everyone else.

There are generally two ways matchmaking can work:

1. Server browsers. You show a list of servers to the players and they choose which to join. This doesn’t need a matchmaker.
2. Playlists. Players ask to join a specific mode, like deathmatch or capture the flag, and the matchmaker puts them into a lobby that matches their skills and preferences or makes a new one.

Depending on your game, you might decide to show this lobby to the players. Maybe let players talk before the match and change the settings. Other times you might keep that hidden and just launch the match once it’s ready.

What criteria should I use?

Depending on your game, you’ll have different priorities. A competitive game, like Dota 2 or Overwatch, needs fair and balanced matches. That’s why those games have ranking systems. Don’t match bronze players with diamond, for example. This is particularly important in mobile sports games, like Tennis Clash. But a casual mobile game like Hole.io might be far more concerned about short queue times.

There are three main areas you’ll want to balance. Bear in mind, you’ll probably need to compromise on one of the three. The more criteria you add, the longer it’s going to take to find the perfect match.

1. The player’s skill. How are you going to judge a player’s skill? A common way is to just use the Elo rating system, but you can always come up with your own way to rank players.
2. The player’s latency. How fast is the player’s connection to the server? If there’s a big difference between the players, the person with the fastest connection is going to have a major advantage. You probably want to group players with similar latency together.
3. The queue wait time. How long are players willing to wait before they join a match? A few seconds? A minute? Depending on your game, this can vary wildly. As a general rule of thumb: the longer the match will last, the more willing people are to wait to make sure it’s good.

Source: Among Us

These are the three basic areas you’ll want to consider when fine-tuning your matchmaker. But it should also handle a few other aspects:

• How will it stop players from joining a lobby with someone they’ve blocked?
• Do you have crossplay in your game?
• Will you let players join an ongoing match?
• When should it stop searching and just launch a new lobby?

There aren’t any right or wrong answers here. You just need to decide which is your main priority and how long you’re willing to wait for the ideal scenario before the matchmaker broadens the search.

Matchmaking differences on different devices

Theoretically, there isn’t a difference. The third-party tools you’ll use and the way the matchmaker works are identical. But practically, you’ll have different priorities than a game on console or PC.

For example, mobile players aren’t likely to wait very long. So you’ll want to prioritize queue times above everything else. Seconds, not minutes. That also means, you probably don’t want to connect players to a lobby and let them chat while they wait. Just pop them in the match and let them loose.

Source: Activision-Blizzard

You’ll also need to think about latency problems. Quite a few players are unlikely to have a good connection – they might even be travelling as they play. So make sure you don’t group up those hardcore players at home with the more casual players, sitting on a train and going through tunnels every five minutes.

Which matchmaker should I choose?

There are plenty of options to pick from. Every major tech company has their own matchmaker you could use. Valve has their Steam Matchmaking & Lobbies, Microsoft Azure has PlayFab, Amazon has FlexMatch, and Google has Open Match. Even Unity has its own matchmaker and there are also other options like EdgeGap, Photon or AccelByte.

Which one you decide to use will often be tied into which company you decide to go with for the servers themselves. However, you could always build a custom matchmaker yourself and plug it in if you don’t want to get tied into any specific provider.

As for quality, there isn’t really a bad choice here and it depends on how you set it up. Make sure you look for a matchmaker that lets you adjust your settings and prioritize the three criterias we described earlier.

Keep experimenting to find the right balance

The important thing is to keep track of whether your players are waiting for a match or not. GameAnalytics can help you keep track of whether people are dropping out before they enter a match, and then adjust your settings until you find the right balance.

It can also help to ask players after the match whether they enjoyed the match and their fellow players. This can help make sure the matchmaker is doing its job correctly. Bear in mind, even if a player gets defeated, they might have found the game fun if the game was a close call.

What exactly should you be focusing on this year? What are the trends that will really impact your development? We’ve dug through the most popular trends and brought together the topics you should keep an eye on in 2024.

1. Learn about AI and Machine Learning

With the release of Google’s Gemini, we’re seeing AI continue to explode. It won’t be long before it’s a common tool that we all use day to day. Getting to grips with how it works is going to be essential, particularly in gaming.

At the same time, we’re seeing hyper-casual games shift to richer and deeper experiences – becoming hybrid-casual. In fact, the number of hyper-casual games dropped by 18%, while hybrid-casual grew by 13%, according to Sensor Tower.

By their nature, hybrid-casual games have a longer development cycle than hyper-casual games. Using AI and machine learning can really speed up this process. You can get the rich, deep experience necessary in a similar amount of time.

AI can help in multiple areas

• Speeding up your development process isn’t just about getting AI to help you code your game. You can use it throughout the cycle:
• Ideation. Get AI to help you come up with ideas and ask it to pull out common trends in mobile gaming.
• Creation. You can generate assets, like 3D models or soundtracks, or use it to create mood boards for your in-house artists.
• Dynamic content. AI can make your NPCs more realistic by automatically responding to the player. This way, you don’t need to write thousands of lines of dialogue to add characters to your game.
• Experimentation. A machine learning algorithm can run through your game thousands of times in a few days. So you can test your gameplay, challenges and ad placements to make sure that they’re perfect.

The more data you have, the more efficient your AI model will become. Data fuels the algorithm. The best way to improve your machine learning and AI models is to feed them more data and let them run.

If you need to collect vast amounts of data from multiple sources, look at our DataSuite package. With that, you can bring all your data together to perfect your monetization models and gameplay.

2. Consider a brand partnership

Newzoo states, “To win the hearts of gaming fans, brands will move toward IP crossovers, social media and streamer partnerships.”

We’ve already seen this happening. Fortnite has partnered with brands like Gucci, Marvel, and Netflix. Roblox has partnered with Spotify and Samsung. Overwatch even partnered with McDonalds.

Clearly, brands are looking to tap into the gaming market. It could be cosmetics in your game, in-game billboards that function as product placement, or even entire DLCs.

These partnerships can be a useful alternative to traditional ad models. You can get a new source of income for your title, attract new players, and keep your game fresh.

In fact, on average, IP or brand collaborations boost a game’s Daily Active Users (DAU) by 11% in the first seven days of a launch.

3. Explore augmented and virtual reality

Back in June, Apple announced its Vision Pro headset. Rumours are flying that it’ll launch in early 2024. However, Apple isn’t the only one entering this space – there are plenty of other brands hot at their heels. It’s a revolution in technology to rival the advent of the smartphone, with analysts predicting that there’ll be 6.9 billion AR and VR users by 2028, growing to about $58 billion. Meanwhile, the Augmented Reality Gaming Market Report believes AR alone will grow around 30% year on year.

Whichever way you look at it, the market is set to explode. Not only with players, but with brands. Companies are looking to partner with studios to create experiences for their customers that offer them more value.

While we’re best known for providing KPIs and insights to mobile game developers, we’re also compatible with games in virtual and augmented reality. Check out how we helped HyperVR or VRMonkey.

4. Pump more resources into your Live Ops

As we said before, hyper-casual games are dropping in downloads by 18% each year, while hybrid-casual games are growing by 13%. There’s a marked shift in the industry to move to deeper games, which offer more value to players and increase playtime and engagement.

Live Ops has become the standard way to monetize your game in this new era of mobile gaming. Over 90% of the world’s top games are supporting their titles using this approach. On top of that, 97% of revenue from the top games come from this strategy.

This means that developers need to keep providing support and updates for their games, long after they’ve launched. It’s about building a community, releasing regular content, and keeping your core players engaged and happy.

If you want to make sure that your Live Ops are pulling their weight, it’s useful to run tests and gather data on what’s working. We can help by letting you run AB tests, giving real-time data, and adjusting gameplay parameters on the fly. Check out our Live Ops page for more details.

5. Consider making a web store

In December 2023, a jury decided that Google had an illegal monopoly with its Play Store. It’s yet another example of how lawmakers and judges are attempting to loosen the hold that platforms have over the stores they run.

Right now, Google and Apple alike take a hefty commission from every purchase made through their stores. And they are quite restrictive on what is and isn’t allowed. Recent legislation, like the Digital Markets Act in the EU, has forced these gatekeepers to allow developers to push people towards their own web stores, cutting out these fees.

This is particularly important, considering how difficult it is to acquire new users. Casual games are hit hard by these fees, considering how little they earn from each download.

By creating your own web store, you skip the commission and can encourage players to stick to your own ecosystem of games. You can even offer VIP bonuses for loyal players who use your own store. This compliments the natural shift we’re seeing towards more hybrid-casual games, giving publishers and developers an opportunity to create deeper experiences and relationships with their players.

6. Explore more non-disruptive advertising routes

As the mobile gaming industry shifts towards hybrid-casual, it’s important to focus on keeping players for longer. It’s all about retention. One of the top reasons that players abandon a game is if there are too many ads that interrupt the gameplay. It ruins the fun. Instead, developers need to focus on other forms of advertising to supplement their revenue streams, such as:

• Rewarded ads. People actually find rewarded ads enhance their experience. According to Google Admob, 50% of players said they’d be less satisfied if the developer removed the rewarded ads.
• Native advertising. By partnering with brands and putting ads as an element in the game, such as on in-game billboards – you not only have a familiar, unintrusive spot for ads, but one that can actually make your game more immersive.
• Audio ads. Audio can play in the background, while people continue playing. They don’t disrupt the gameplay. Done well, they can have up to 39% better retention compared to video ads, according to a YouGov study.

7. Let players collect characters

There’s a reason games like Pokemon are so popular. People quite simply love to collect and hoard things. This is why character collection is one of the most popular meta features among the top games.

Allowing your players to collect characters opens up multiple possibilities. They can be in-app purchases, part of your battle pass or VIP subscription service, or even a rewarded ad. Monetizing this collection is a great way to make sure that you’re adding value for your players and giving them incentives to stay.

8. Think about going into the action genre

In 2023, action was the only genre that grew in both revenue (9%) and downloads (13%). These are games that are more high-octane and exciting than your typical hyper-casual genre, and borrow from the rogue-like genre. Games like Survivor.io that throw hordes of enemies at you while you level up your gear.

If you’re not keen on making an action title, it’s worth considering simulation games instead. These have now overtaken the puzzle genre – pinching their number three slot.

9. Be data-driven

Whether you’re creating your own web store, using AI in your development, or looking at non-disruptive advertising routes, data will be central to your strategy. With GameAnalytics, you can get cost-effective, sophisticated and in-depth data that can help inform your decisions and make sure you’re setting yourself on the right path for 2024.

As we enter the new year, the anticipation is high for the unfolding trends that are about to redefine how we create and play games—from AI seamlessly crafting entire game worlds to the ongoing rise of mobile gaming popularity, where developers refine strategies to extend engagement and enhance monetization, alongside their focus on diversity and sustainability.

AI keeps revolutionizing development dynamics

Traditionally, creating expansive open-world games with stunning graphics required large teams and significant time investments. But lately, AI is becoming a leader in a new era where even smaller studios and indie developers gain access to tools enabling the next generation of artwork. That includes the creation of entire worlds through procedural techniques, dynamic dialogue generation, or even players’ live avatar integration within the game.

These AI technologies are currently in their early stages, but the trajectory is clear – they will mature, become more efficient, and more cost-effective. A prime example is MidJourney, which launched just in mid-2022 and has undergone a remarkable evolution in a little over a year.

In 2024, we anticipate a surge in diverse AI-driven tools, followed by a learning curve of testing and optimization. Ultimately, as engines and open-source projects incorporate the best AI solutions, we can expect a standardization that propels game development into a realm of unprecedented possibilities.

Interconnected worlds with cross-platform play

In the realm of augmented and virtual reality, the expected launch of Apple Vision Pro in early 2024 is about to make waves. There are also speculations about the potential release of Apple Glass in 2025. Just as AI reshapes the software landscape of gaming, wearable technology is set to revolutionize the hardware dimension, paving the way for the metaverse.

For players, the impact will be revolutionary, especially as the metaverse opens doors to a more interconnected and immersive gaming experience. Players will be able to seamlessly transition between devices and environments, blurring the lines between virtual and real-world interactions. The gaming experience becomes more fluid, adaptive, and personalized, offering players flexibility and engagement like never before. In this light, developers will need to adopt a more holistic approach, considering various platforms and immersive environments during the design and development phases.

Such democratization of access will allow a broader spectrum of players to enjoy the interconnected and immersive gaming experience the metaverse offers, enhancing inclusivity and the overall gaming experience.

While mostly known for providing analytics to mobile games, GameAnalytics is also compatible with VR. Recently, we empowered studios like VRMonkey and HyperVR to build unforgettable immersive experiences.

The evolution of cross-platform gaming

However, the cross-platform experiences we just described are more than a one-size-fits-all strategy – especially when it comes to hyper-casual games. While simpler titles may synchronize game progression saves across platforms, “the devil” lies in mobile studios expanding their footprint to consoles and PCs. Homa Games venturing into the console realm or some of the top Steam games that recently came from Roblox experiences are great examples of this cross-platform expansion trend gaining momentum. As mobile studios broaden their horizons to include other devices, we witness a paradigm shift in accessibility and engagement. On top of this, such a move will also call for exploring new revenue streams.

NOTE: The convergence extends both ways, as seen with Ubisoft’s upcoming release, Assassin’s Creed Jade, exclusively for mobile, signaling a reciprocal blending of platforms.

Mobile gaming will thrive with these changes

According to Statistica, mobile gaming still does and will continue rising. The company predicts we’ll see a 10% increase in revenue in 2024. It’s only natural as smartphones are convenient and accessible, opening up gaming to a vast audience. Wearable technology and cross and multi-platform play will boost this even further.

But there will be challenges. With new devices and opportunities, developers will have to (re)consider their assumptions around playtime, successful mechanics, and game design choices. They’ll need to research and dig into the data to ensure they’re quickly learning what works and what doesn’t.

Catering to their needs, we designed GameAnalytics to empower developers in their games and app creation journey no matter the circumstances. Compatible with mobile, PC, console, and VR/AR, our analytics help you understand players’ behavior patterns, spot design errors, and optimize your game to boost engagement.

The rise of independent app stores

In May 2023, we saw the Digital Markets Act come into force in the European Union. In simple terms, it restricts what the ‘gatekeepers’ like Google and Apple can do. For example, they must allow “application stores to be accessed by means other than the core platform services.” This means that such platforms can’t anymore stop publishers from redirecting players to their own web stores. It gives publishers way more control over their monetization strategies while avoiding paying a cut to the platforms.

Microsoft is already working on its own store, and other publishers won’t be far behind, especially with services like Xsolla making it extremely easy to build a whitelabel payment experience for your game. It won’t be long before it becomes standard practice to sell in-app purchases and subscriptions through your own store.

PS: We are constantly improving our offerings and launching our mobile gaming ranking data, improved market insights, and accurate performance benchmarks soon. Stay tuned!

Subscription-based models reaching their momentum

The growing popularity of hybrid-casual gameplaybrings a shift to the gaming industry. While deeper, more engaging games are required, the higher development costs pose a challenge. Although players are willing to pay for their games more than in the past, their budgets are limited. In this light, subscription-based models have emerged as a strategic solution.

Services like Netflix Games Subscription, Apple Arcade, and Xbox Game Pass offer a curated selection of high-quality games under a single subscription, providing players with access to a diverse gaming portfolio. From a game developer’s perspective, these services act much like a publisher without any more upside from the initial publishing deal. Outside of these all-you-can-eat models, it is also possible to build your own subscription into your game’s business model using recurring payments as a supplementary revenue stream to in-app purchases and ads. Typical examples of benefits offered in an in-game subscription are turning off advertising, exclusive access to features and levels as well as discounts on in-app purchases effectively increasing upsell, as subscribers spend up to 40% more after subscribing. Or tap into up-and-coming services like Multiscription, which offers an integrated cross-publisher subscription tool allowing you to add your game to a broad selection of games making it more likely for players to convert and retain. This trend aligns with broader industry patterns of the upward trajectory of subscriptions across various sectors, Zuora reports.

For hyper-casual publishers, embracing this model presents an opportunity to bundle their games, encouraging players to remain engaged within their ecosystem for an extended duration.

DEI will remain the area of emphasis

While the gaming industry has made strides in introducing more diverse characters and narratives, the underlying issues persist. At the Game Developers Conference (GDC) last year, Anita Sarkeesian, the executive director of Feminist Frequency, highlighted the broken nature of DEI practices. According to Sarkeesian, the problem lies not in the failure of DEI but in its intended functionality:

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are framed as attempts to transform workplace environments into a space that is welcoming for all people, especially those historically underrepresented,” said Sarkeesian, the executive director of Feminist Frequency. “I’m not here to tell you that DEI is broken. I’m here to tell you that DEI is working as intended and that that’s the problem.”

Additionally, recent events, such as awards overlooking women and the industry’s setbacks at GDC, highlights gaps in recognizing and fostering diversity. The acknowledgment of these issues serves as a catalyst for the ongoing transformation within the gaming landscape.

As the industry grapples with these challenges, we anticipate to witness a push for meaningful change in 2024.

Environmental commitments and the gaming revolution

Game developers and players increasingly acknowledge the substantial energy consumption associated with gaming, particularly in powering servers and computers.

Towards the end of 2023, Xbox has taken strides by committing to support developers in monitoring and reducing their energy usage. Initiatives like these, featuring tools that provide insights into a game’s power consumption, show a positive trajectory in fostering sustainability within the industry.

As the industry becomes more conscious of its environmental footprint, these efforts by major players like Xbox may pave the way for similar initiatives across different gaming platforms.

Stay ahead of the curve with sophisticated data solutions

Closely following the trends from the past years and accompanying thousands of gaming studios and indie game developers on their journeys, we are compelled to emphasize the importance of data-driven game development.

As we advance in our commitment towards analytics excellence and further democratization of data, our roadmap for 2024 includes ongoing enhancements and refinements to the GameAnalytics tool. If you wish to speak to us about how we can empower you on your game development journey, you can contact us via email and book a demo.

In the meantime, you can read about our solutions here:

• GameAnalytics data solution – affordable game analytics for studios of all sizes
• GameAnalytics Pro – in-depth analytics tool
• DataSuite – all the gaming data you need

There’s a common misconception that cybercriminals only target big business. But small businesses are actually three times more likely to be a target than larger companies. From the hacker’s perspective, it’s easy pickings. Small businesses have less security and fewer safeguards in place to protect themselves.

But protecting yourself isn’t necessarily hard. Not if you’re aware of the techniques hackers use. So, with data breaches becoming increasingly common in the news, we thought we’d give a little advice about how to protect yourself.

How do hackers attack game developers?

It’s not just your game that hackers might target. They could target your business and infrastructure, too. That’s why it’s important to think about how your game, backend systems, and internal tools link all together – especially if you’re making a multiplayer game.

For example, if you’re a small developer, you might decide to host your multiplayer matches on your own servers. But if those are the same servers where you store your player database, filled with usernames and passwords, you’re making it easy to find that data.

Social engineering is the biggest threat

Research from CS Hub found that social engineering is the number one business threat. This is just a fancy way of saying that the easiest way to hack someone is to trick the people themselves – your players or your employees. In other words, if you want to break into a vault, it’s far easier to get the manager to open the door for you than to drill your way in.

Hackers will go to extreme lengths to trick you. It might be as simple as an email that looks like it’s from one of your tools. Or it might be complicated. For example, they might look at your CEO’s Facebook page, hack their daughter’s account, and send a message from her asking for information that could help them guess a password.

Eventually, they could end up being able to send emails directly from the CEO’s personal account. Would you question an email from your boss telling you to send you an access code? Probably not. But you should.

Exploiting your game

Hackers can either look at your game code directly, try to inject code, or just generate random inputs until they strike lucky. This is usually fine in a single-player game, where spawning in an item doesn’t matter. But in a multiplayer game, where there might be real-world value to those items – it can be a serious problem.

Admin commands are particularly juicy for hackers. If you’re running an MMO, those admins might have tools to block players, reset passwords, or see people’s real names. Having those commands could help them trick a player or even blackmail them.

Targeting your infrastructure

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is where a hacker will send thousands – if not millions – of commands at your servers in a hope to overload them and make them crash.

At the very least, it can be irritating. Your game falls down and you lose revenue. But hackers might also use it to blackmail you by holding your game hostage.

They could target your file storage, your databases, your employee’s laptops, your emails – everything around your game.

Protecting your game from hackers

Most security experts tout one rule: Zero trust. Approach everything with scepticism. Do that, and you’re far less likely to succumb to trickery.

Teach staff and players about social engineering

Education is key. If people know the techniques hackers might use, they often think twice before giving away valuable information. They question whether that email is legitimate or whether they should really be giving that code they were texted to the person on the other end of the phone.

Obviously, it’s far easier to teach your staff. But you want to educate players, too. If you have an in-game chat function, remind players that you’ll never ask them for their password. Or to never tell anybody the two-factor authentication code you just sent.

Source: The Sun / Epic Games

Check through another medium

Now that your people are familiar with the types of attack, they will hopefully avoid giving out sensitive information. But what if your CEO really does need that access code?

Simple. Check using another communication tool. Give them a ring or set up a video call. That way, you’ve got proof it’s actually them asking for the information.

Make sure every layer of encryption is strong

It’s all well and good to have super strong encryption on your player database. But it’s all for nothing if someone’s email is just “password123”. There’s a reason “the weakest link” is a common phrase.

Keep everything up to date

As tempting as it is to hit “remind me later” whenever you get a popup for an update, just update it. Whether it’s your operating system, your game engine, or some third-party plug-in you’re using. Make sure everything is up to date.

Test your game for exploits

Try breaking your own game. Think like a hacker and see if you can summon items, use admin commands or launch services. Generate random inputs and try to inject code into every text box you have.

You can even offer rewards to players if they find bugs. Sure, most of those might not have any serious ramifications. But some might.

Hide sensitive code from the client-side image

Put blockers in place to stop hackers from directly seeing the code that’s requesting information. And make sure the data itself is encrypted. For example, if you need to call on a player database to get their name, don’t call it directly from the player’s image. Otherwise, the hacker could find out what service you’re calling and even get the IP address of the database.

Instead, call the server-side image and get it to do the heavy lifting. It can then encrypt the specific data and send it back to the player. Even if they break the encryption, they don’t get access to the database itself.

Keep your data safe with DataSuite

If you’re collecting and storing analytics data from lots of different sources, you probably want a data warehouse. With DataSuite, we host and keep all that data secure on our servers. And we never share it with any third-parties, so you have total control over it. Read more about DataSuite and see if it’ll work for you.

AI is definitely going to change how we work, play and live. But right now, it’s not exactly great at being original. It tends to churn out a lot of generic advice and content. But, while you can’t (yet) plug in a prompt and have it develop a fully functional mobile game, you can use AI to help you come up with ideas and speed up your process. Here are a few ways you can use AI when developing your prototypes.

How should you use AI?

Regardless of whether you’re playing around with Midjourney, ChatGPT or any other AI, there are a few rules to getting the most out of it.

Make your prompts specific

The more detailed and specific you are in your initial prompt, the more useful the response will be. If you’re generic, you’re going to get generic responses. Asking it to come up with a “unique mobile game concept” isn’t going to get you far. Instead, make sure you give it as much information as possible. Write in your prompt like you’re describing a brief. The more you put in, the more helpful the response will be.

Don’t stop at the first response

Using AI is all about refining your prompt and becoming more and more specific until you get to a response that works. When testing the AI, we often needed to add caveats or get it to perform tasks one by one if we wanted to get the best result.

Use multiple AIs

We’ve found that it’s best to give multiple AIs the same prompt. Ask Bard, Bing and ChatGPT the same question, and you’ll get much more varied responses. So mix and match between AI if you want some variety. It can also smooth out some issues we’ve found with certain prompts. What works with one AI might get completely different results with another.

What can you use AI for?

It’s best to use AI when you’re looking for a very specific output that would take a team ages to do themselves. If you try to use it to come up with original ideas or themes, you’ll find that your prompts are too open-ended. Those are best left to real humans. For example, if you just ask it to come up with themes for your mobile game, it’ll likely rehash ideas that are already popular – basically telling you to create games already in the top charts. Not particularly useful. But specific tasks – that’s where AI shines.

1. Brainstorm your concepts

This is an area where AI can excel. Coming up with thousands of ideas in mere seconds. With the right prompting, you can get it to create a huge list of concepts to add to your own ideas. Even so, most of those will be duds (much like in any brainstorm). But that’s fine. You’re just using them for inspiration.

As for the prompt, it’s best to ask it for ideas using a specific mechanic or with a specific theme. For example, “show me a long list of themes for a hyper-casual game that uses swipe mechanics.”

2. Make snippets of lore for your items

If you have thousands of items, it can take up a lot of time writing a paragraph of text for each one. With AI, you can generate these snippets of lore almost instantly.

We asked Bard to create lore snippets for various magical items in a game.

The responses you get won’t be perfect, but they give you a starting point. Edit them and make changes to fit your specific needs, and you’ve saved yourself a ton of time. Similarly, you could use AI to write the backstory for locations, bosses, levels, or even power-ups.

3. Write short descriptions for multiple items

While lore can add flavour to your game, you’ll often find you need to have a few short sentences as hover-over text for every item in your game. Give the AI a list of items you need to describe, and you can speed up that process.

AI can easily put together short descriptions for multiple items at once.

4. Create characters in just a few prompts

By building on multiple prompts, you can develop a whole host of characters to populate your game. For example, you could start by getting the AI to brainstorm a list of twenty Japanese names suitable for an archer. Once you have your name – we’ve chosen Yumi (meaning “bow”) – you can ask for a more detailed description.

With a name in hand, we know have an entire character bible for Yumi the archer.

By telling Bard to use specific headings, we can generate multiple snippets of information that will be vital in making Yumi a rounded character.

5. Write dialogue to sprinkle into your game

There are numerous situations where you might need a short piece of dialogue from your characters, whether that’s when they level up or when they first enter the dungeon. By telling an AI about the character and listing the various situations, you can get it to produce all these snippets at once.

Giving AI a list of headings is a useful way to get multiple results at once.

If you need more, tell the AI exactly how many snippets of dialogue you want. Or maybe you include multiple characters and see how they interact with each other.

6. Help refine your mechanics

If you know what type of game you’re creating, you can get the AI to help with specific tasks. Maybe you need a puzzle for a dungeon or a list of items a shop might sell. For example, imagine you’re making a crafting game. You can feed in your resources and have the AI come up with a list of recipes.

Kickstart the design process by getting AI to come up with some baseline crafting recipes.

7. Refine the writing you already have

It isn’t just generating text that you can use AI to help you with. As we’ve mentioned, AI can be rather generic if you’re too open-ended. So if you want truly original thinking – develop the lore yourself and then get the AI to refine it.

We tell Google Bard to rewrite our description of Yuttgard.

From our – quite bad – description of Yuttgard, Bard has produced something much more enticing. It’s not perfect, but it’s got way more flare than our original and would be ideal if we’re only trying to put together a prototype.

8. Write marketing materials

Scripts for videos. Headlines for banner ads. App store descriptions. These all need words that you might not have time to create yourself. Just remember to give as much information in your prompt as you can.

Even if we don’t use the exact wording, the AI can give us a good starting point for our App Store description.

Use analytics to track your success

Once you’ve made your prototype, you’ll probably want to run some A/B tests to see what’s working with your players, and whether your idea is as rad as it sounds. In which case, try out our A/B testing tool and get all the data you’ll need.

Taking a game from console or PC to mobile is tricky. The controls are far more limited and the screen can easily get cluttered and unreadable. The hardware can’t handle as much physics, especially when that game is a premium title. But the developers at Psyonix did a fantastic job when recreating their Rocket League game into the mobile sensation, Rocket League SideSwipe.

This wasn’t just a copy-and-paste job. Psyonix made some serious changes to the gameplay, design, and mechanics. All for the better. Aside from the obvious theme of rocket-fueled cars, this feels like an entirely different game. In this article, we analyze what exactly those changes are, and what you can learn from them.

Three rules when taking your game from PC to mobile

When making mobile games, you should aim to hit three principles: make them short, satisfying, and simple. When we compared the differences between the two games, we found every change the developers made contributed to one of those rules.

1. Make your game simpler and consider the screen size

There are some key differences and limitations between PC, console, and mobile. But user interface aside, playing on a smaller device is a heck of a lot different to when you have a large screen and controls.

That might mean removing or limiting certain features to make your game work for your mobile version. Or completely rethinking the gameplay itself.

Here’s what you can do.

Understand what limitations you’re working with

You have less CPU power, less space, and less time from your players on mobile. So you need to understand what limitations you have and adjust your game to cater for them.

Psyonix decided to make the game 2D, instead of 3D, for example. Not only did this make it simpler for the player, but this also avoids the massive amount of physics calculations that a 3D game would have. Fewer dimensions, fewer calculations for the device, faster game.

The developers also limited how many players can have in a match. While you can have up to eight players on console or PC, you can only have up to a maximum of six on mobile. This not only makes it quicker to find matches but makes the games less overwhelming and busy.

Build your game to work on a smaller screen

Mobile phones are getting larger, but you’re still comparatively working with a much smaller screen. For example, if the map for Rocket League SideSwipe was any bigger, the player would need to zoom out. Players would struggle to see their own car, with their thumbs blocking most of the action.

2. Keep the session lengths short and snappy

Players don’t have much time when playing on mobile. They could be anywhere. On a bus on their way to work, in a queue at the bank, or even in the bathroom. You don’t always have their full attention for long. So you need to keep your game short and snappy.

Cut out features that don’t add to the mobile experience

On mobile, clutter will cause your players to drop out. Psyonix got around this by cutting out instant replays on their mobile version. This kept the matches shorter and punchier. Because the maps are smaller, it’s also quicker and easier to score a goal. Having instant replays every 20 seconds would just constantly interrupt the match.

Rocket League SideSwipe also removed the chat function and instead replaced this system with stickers. It’s easier and quicker to communicate with your teammates (or mock your enemies).

Test to find the perfect session length

In the original Rocket League, the matches were five minutes long. But in Sideswipe, they’re only a minute and a half on average. This keeps players engaged and decreases any potential dropouts. When we looked at the data from Benchmarks+ (part of our new pro tier), we found that the typical session length for casual games is about 4 – 5 minutes. So for a game like Sideswipe, this is around 2 – 3 matches per session.

This can vary from game to game. So make sure to test what session length works best for your players by watching your retention and drop rate.

3. Make your players feel epic

Your players will naturally spend less time in casual mobile games, so you want to make sure they have a great experience when they do. That way, they’ll keep coming back.

Replace inactive players with bots

Drop rate on mobile is much higher, as players could leave for any reason – lost signal, got a phone call, or reached their bus stop. If your game is online, consider adding bots to replace inactive players, so as not to interrupt the game for everyone else. This is what Psyonix did, and it works fantastically.

Cater for all types of players

With mobile, you’ll find yourself with a lot more casual players. Having an offline option, difficulty levels, or a top-tier matchmaker to pit them against players in their own skill range can make sure your game stays fun for everyone.

To cater for more ambitious players, introduce leagues, training arenas, and competitions. Just remember not to overcomplicate any of these – you’ll need to strike a balance between customization and options, and simplicity.

Make the game rewarding wherever you can

When playing on a console for a couple of hours, overexaggerated sounds, graphics and notifications can get annoying. But this is crucial for shorter sessions on mobile. You need constant feedback and rewards to keep your players satisfied.

Psyonix did this in their mobile version. In SideSwipe, the graphics are a lot more exaggerated when you hit the ball and score. There’s a lot more excitement and colors. Whereas in the console game, it’s less so.

Use data to perfect your monetization models

There are plenty of monetization models you can adopt for your mobile version, and there’s no ‘one size fits all’ strategy when it comes to your mobile game. It’ll take a lot of testing and tweaking to strike the right balance of fun for your players, and a healthy ROI.

Rocket League SideSwipe is a completely free-to-play game, where players earn items, skins and cosmetics through levelling up. Nothing more. The mobile version helps Psyonix reach new players for their console version, where they make money through their Rocket Pass subscription, in-game purchases, physical merchandise, sponsorships, and DLC.

In a 2022 interview on GamesIndustry.biz, Psyonix co-studio head Phil Piliero, said:

We’ve seen significant growth in territories outside our core playerbase, especially in international markets where mobile is the primary platform for gaming. This has allowed us to reach new audiences in addition to our console and PC players, and gives these players their first experience within the Rocket League franchise.

What Psyonix did may not be the best route for your own title. You’ll need data to find out what’s best for your games. And a lot of it. Our free tool can help you answer all of your major analytics questions. And if you’re looking for something more advanced, then our DataSuite products can help you out. Get started today, or speak with our team on how we can help you.

Out of all the many mobile industry benchmarks, it’s important to keep player retention rates top of mind. Retention allows marketers to understand when, and perhaps why, a user leaves their game — which gives you the ability to slow the rate down and keep your users around.

In this article, we’ll cover the basics of mobile game retention rates and some of the secrets game marketing pros deploy to reduce churn, as well as look at how you can learn from your retention metrics.

What’s The Point of Retention Rate?

Retention rates are a key indicator of game growth and its health. Not only does a game with better retention likely mean players enjoy using it, but good retention also means it can generate revenue quickly. In the meantime, low retention means rapid user churn, lower user reviews, and a lessened likelihood of conversion.

Retention rates are a useful tool for understanding why users disengage from games. Combined with a cohort analysis, retention rates can help marketers pinpoint if there’s an area in your game that causes churn. These are all key reasons why marketers keep an eye on retention along with other key metrics.

What Is a Good Retention Rate?

By what criteria should we compare whether retention is good or bad? Though you might have internal benchmarks for this, GameAnalytics provides industry comparison as a part of their Pro offering.

In the player retention report from 2019, GameAnalytics found out that the top-performing titles have a retention rate of 40% for Day 1, 15% for Day 7, and 6.5% for Day 28. Be mindful that these rates are for the best games — some genres have retention as low as 1.5% by Day 28. And this is by no means a rare occurrence.

It’s also worth noting that benchmarks for retention change depending on your game or app category. Generally, travel apps have vastly different use cases versus a music app, for instance. As such, benchmark retention with a degree of caution.

Should Marketers Focus on Retention?

For most marketers, keeping an eye on retention is vital. But how high of a priority should it be for you? Amongst user acquisition, in-app conversion, and monetization metrics, retention might not be a marketer’s primary issue, especially if you try to apply paid user acquisition as a remedy.

After all, most churn is likely to occur when a user finds they no longer desire to play the game. Players might churn through forgetting, boredom, or (in small part) frustration from a lack of fulfillment of their needs.

As such, marketers need to identify not just where users churn, but why. In such cases where:

• The game is enjoyable, but users haven’t gotten past the tutorial.
• New functions are released.
• Offers for in-game purchases go live.

Paid re-engagement campaigns to boost retention are a great tool. However, if players are switching off because of boredom or lack of ongoing features, you may want to turn to organic methods that require more cross-collaboration within your company, such as making good use of loyalty programs that provide differentiated benefits to VIP players, or elements that grant levels and badges when certain goals are achieved.

With these tools, you can increase long-term interest by allowing players to reenter the game independently without continuous paid marketing actions, reducing the cost as well.

Going Organic to Find Retention Boosts

There’s more in a marketer’s toolbox than you might realize. In addition to advertising, it is important to expand the inflow of organic users through owned channels.

The retention of users who install organically is often higher than that of users who come through paid media. As such, channels like SEO, ASO, and other owned channel management need to be given some attention.

SEO, for example, is often viewed solely as an acquisition strategy. But if you make it a priority to study retention and learn about your long-term users, you might find the keywords that lapsed users may be searching for outside of your app, if they’re looking for an alternative. By creating content that targets such keywords you might be able to get users back by helping them discover features they may have missed.

Collaborate, Communicate, Convert

The real secret to improving retention is that your marketing organization, which is placed at the forefront of dealing with players, needs to play a key role in digesting external feedback from them and effectively conveying that feedback to product teams. This relationship can result in better retention, allowing the metrics related to your success to flourish.

In the process, a marketer’s communication and collaboration skills become core competencies. Understanding different points of view and communicating well is fundamental, especially as marketing and product teams move closer together. None of this happens automatically, and it requires a lot of skill. But ultimately, it is possible to make vast improvements to retention rates by working cross-functionally to get things done.

Partnering up with a social media influencer can bring in hordes of new players. There are thousands of influencers out there who rack up billions of hours of consumers’ time (a recent YouGov survey showed us that Q3 2019, the number of hours of live gaming content watched has more than doubled, from 3.8 billion hours to 9.0 billion in Q2 2021). GWI’s latest report estimates that 84% of gamers use YouTube for gaming content and news.

And with new laws around privacy and advertising affecting UA campaigns, now might be a good time to look at alternative ways to get exposure for your titles and bring new players to your game. But which influencers should you work with? And how do you find them? Here’s what we know.

Figure out your objectives

Depending on your budget and preference, there are a few ways to find the right partner. The first is to buddy up with an agency that works with influencers. This can be a much easier and simpler process than doing it yourself, but it comes with setbacks. Or, you can go about it yourself. This can be a longer and more tedious process, but it can reap more results (and save a cent or two in finders fees).

Before we dive into the how, when, and why, you’ll need to get a few things in order:

• Perfect your pitch: This should be short, simple, and sweet. You’ll want to include a catchy and descriptive title, a short description of your game, and any trailers and imagery. You don’t need to oversell here – let your work speak for itself. You can even use AI to lend a hand here. Just make sure to personalize it and use the suggestion as a guide (rather than just copy and paste).

• Define your audience: There are thousands of influencers, all covering different genres and games. Define who your target audience is (age, gender, likes), and you’ll have an easier job of vetting who you should work with.
• Figure out your budget: This’ll help you decide how many influencers you can work with, how long you want your campaigns to run, and whether or not you can afford to work with an agency.

Using an agency to find influencers

If you’re short on time, pairing up with an agency could be a good way to go. They can save you a lot of hassle and cut out a lot of the legwork.

Five agencies to consider:

• Matchmade: They specialize in YouTube and Instagram, and cater for all gaming platforms.
• Game Influencer: They can can help secure Let’s Play videos, integrated ads into their content, product placement, and pre-rolls.
• Disobey: They have over 15K creators connected on their Twitter, and work with studios like SEGA, Raw Fury, and NVIDIA.
• Pocket Whale: These guys specialize on YouTube, Twitch, Instagram and Snapchat.
• The Handbook: This tool acts much more like a directory which you can sign up to. It costs around £70p/mo, and has a long list of influencers you can reach out to.

What can an agency help with?

• Cut out a lot of the admin. If you’re doing it yourself, you need to be organized. So that’s research, spreadsheets, and time you could better spend on your game.
• They’re the experts. They can help you find the right partner, perfect your pitch, even advise on when is best to reach out to an influencer (so you avoid conflicting with other game launches and events, to increase your chance of being accepted).
• They have a foot in the door. It’s not a complete cold outreach. They work with these influencers every day and have built a relationship with them, so you’ll likely get much better and faster results than doing it yourself.
• They can scale with your game and budget. These agencies can work with and scale with your success. They can tap into their network of influencers to create campaigns of different sizes and scopes, depending on your needs and budget, which they can adapt over time easily.
• They can help optimize your ROI. Influencer agencies have tools and dashboard to track campaign performance, and can make adjustments to optimize your return on investment (ROI). A good agency should also be sharing insights and their recommendations to increase performance (from creatives, pitches, through to picking the right partner).

What are the drawbacks of using an agency?

• They might not focus on your niche. There are plenty of genres and sub-genres (especially within mobile gaming). If you’re building a puzzle idle mobile game with a ‘dog plumbers in space’ theme, well that’s a very specific game you have there. And some of these agencies might not have contacts that specialize in that area.
• They might not have the influencer you want. There are thousands of influencers out there. If you have a specific influencer in mind, they might not be connected with any agency – they could be handling their sponsorships and partnerships themselves. So you could lose out on the perfect match. Take The Frustrated Gamer for example. When looking on their YouTube channel, they direct any business enquiries to their personal email. And although they might also be working with some agencies, they could easily be a missed opportunity. Or the agency might be charging you for something you could find yourself.

• It costs money. Depending on what the agency’s model is, it could cost you a pretty penny working with one. Some usually charge a flat rate for every video, where others can take a commission on top of your results.
• No guarantee of getting sponsored. The influencer still needs to accept the job. And there’s no guarantee that they will. So you could be paying with no actual outcome (depending on their model).
• Lack of control. When working with an agency, you might have less control over which influencers you end up picking, the creative direction of your campaign, and the timing and scheduling of content. You could also have to give up some control over your overall messaging, which might not be ideal.
• Room for error. They say don’t shoot the messenger. But in this scenario, if your agency partner miscommunicates something about your game, gets the pitch wrong, or even isn’t as convincing as you would be when reaching out, well it can affect your campaigns, or even chances of getting picked.

How to search for influencers yourself

Finding influencers for your games isn’t necessarily rocket science. It just takes some time, patience, and a good pitch. When looking, you want to make sure you reach out to as many as possible, with different ranges of popularity and niches. The more popular they are, the harder they’ll be to convince (and the more they’ll probably cost). So have a large, focused list of who to target. Here are a few things you can do:

Cast a wide net

It’s tempting to go for the best influencers out there. Afterall, why wouldn’t you want PewDiePie raving about your game? But micro-influencers (smaller, and sometimes are more specialized) can be just as effective, and even have higher engagement rates. Take Retromation – he has around 200k subscribers and specializes in rogue-like games. But he regularly gets over 25% of his subscribers watching his videos. Meanwhile, a star like PewDiePie has over 100 million subs, but only around 5% watch regularly. (And most of his content isn’t actually gaming.)

Also, the more popular an influencer is, the more competition you’ll be fighting against to grab their attention. So reaching out to a range of influencers will give you the best chance of landing a few partners to work with.

Search for similar games

Use key terms like “gameplay”, “review”, “let’s play” or “guides” while searching for your competitor’s games on social channels. If you find any gamers making content around those similar titles, chances are they’ll like and cover yours, too.

Look at your direct competitors

You can see who your competitors or similar studios have partnered up with by heading to their social media accounts, saving you from starting your search from scratch.

Check that they’re the real deal

You want to make sure whoever you partner up with has real followers and high engagement rates. Influencer marketing tools like HypeAuditor and BuzzSumo can help you do a background check, and find out what their engagement is like.

Keep an organized list

Your outreach should reach triple digits. So you’ll need an organized excel spreadsheet (or any other organizational tool), to keep track of who you’ve contacted, what the status is, how large that influencer is, and what you’ve secured.

Plan ahead and give yourself time

Whatever route you go down, make sure you give yourself plenty of planning time. Ideally, you’ll want to reach out to agencies or influencers a few weeks before you launch your game. That way, you should have perfected your creatives and game, and give yourself enough time to reach out and schedule your game into a creator’s calendar.

Everyone wants hype around their game. Get the players excited and let the word spread naturally. But sometimes, building hype can backfire. When developers overpromise and don’t deliver, it can damage their relationship with their audience.

In this article, we explore what problems can arise if you overhype your game. And our top tips for building hype safely.

Good games can struggle with bad hype

Even with the best game in the world, if it doesn’t meet the hype, you will have a bad time. Take Cyberpunk 2077, objectively a fun RPG.

Unfortunately, Cyberpunk didn’t meet the expectations the developers set. They’d promised a world where every single NPC would have their own schedule and live out their lives. This was nowhere near the level of complexity the game ended up offering. Instead, the NPCs were just like any other open-world game. Similarly, other promised feature had to be dropped due to design restrictions.

Bugs and overhype aside, Cyberpunk wasn’t a bad game. It currently has 7/10 on Metacritic from the players, and it has won plenty of awards. But in context, its reputation was severely tarnished because they arguably released too early and without everything they’d promised. Had they been more upfront – saying that they were releasing a beta first or that they’d release certain mechanics and features later – they might not have received the same backlash.

It’s possible to recover

Just because a game gets off to a bad start, doesn’t mean that it can’t become a beloved game. No Man’s Sky is perhaps the best example of this phenomenon.

No Man’s Sky failed to deliver on many of the promises it made. In fact, The Internet Historian talked about this on his channel. He even created a handy table of all the features they promised, whether it was available at launch, and whether they eventually released it. Ringed planets, crash freighters to explore, factions with different attributes – all of these were promised, but missing at launch.

Now, the developers have listened to their players. They’ve released update after update, rolling out these mechanics over time. The game has evolved significantly, with the developers even releasing features they’d never promised in the first place.

By staying active, taking on feedback and engaging with their community, Hello Games has really turned No Man’s Sky around. They’ve rebuilt their reputation, and the ratings show the change. When it launched, it was getting mainly 4 or 5 out of 10 from users on metacritic. Now, it’s getting 9s and 10s, with phrases like “this game finally delivers on the original hype”, “the game runs really well now” and “deserves a second chance.”

Sadly, many people are unaware of the changes that Hello Games has made. So its reputation is still sullied by its lacklustre launch. Had they been a bit more clear and upfront at the start, No Man’s Sky would likely be a household name.

How do you avoid overpromises?

We’ve looked at the damage that you can cause by overpromising, but what should developers do? Clearly, building hype is still a useful tool.

1. Be clear about your roadmap or give regular updates

If you’re upfront about what features you’re going to release and in what order, you’ll make it much easier for your players to digest any setbacks or dropped features. (Or if things are taking longer than you expected.)

That doesn’t mean that you have to release every surprise and reveal all your plans. But explaining what’s on your list and what’s going to be available at launch, and what’s coming later down the line, means that players don’t get disappointed.

Larian Games, the creator of the Baldur’s Gate series, actually opted against having a roadmap for their title. It seems like the third instalment in the series is a lot more complicated than they expected. And although they give regular updates on their Steam and social channels, they opt to avoid promising specific dates – most likely to avoid disappointment.

2. Set expectations, then exceed them

It’s better to set realistic expectations and then release with more features than you promised than the other way around. In both cases, the game is exactly the same. But the perception of that game is completely different based on the expectations that you set.

So hold back some surprises and let them discover them when the game actually comes out. It’s better to surprise than disappoint.

3. Be honest about your limitations

It’s tempting to over-egg new mechanics or features in your game and go ham on the marketing. But if it’s a truly innovative idea, it’s very likely you’re going to have bugs or it won’t live up to the hype.

When releasing new features, let the gameplay speak for itself. Don’t try to ‘sell’ it. Show it in action and give the facts straight. Don’t push the ideas hard. If it’s really that good, you won’t need to say anything at all.

On the flip side, be honest with what people can’t do. If you’re making an open world, make a developer diary and have someone ask the challenging questions. “Will I be able to speak to every NPC?” “No, but we’ve added dialogue options for hundreds of characters that you’ll meet randomly. But no, not everyone.”

4. Don’t make promises you can’t keep

Deadlines, features, downloadable content, your pricing model. Whatever you’re talking about, only talk about it once you’re sure that it’s final.

This is particularly important for aspects of your game that might have bigger business considerations. Maybe you fun the game through a battle pass or maybe you have it be a one-time purchase. It’s much better to say that you haven’t decided yet, but you’re considering X or Y, than doing a complete U-Turn.

5. Admit mistakes early

If you do need to change your mind or limit the scope of your game, tell your players as early as possible. Apologize, explain your reasons, and tell people how you might compensate them for it. Maybe that’s offering a refund for preorders or that you’ll be releasing a different feature instead.

However you break the news, make sure you’re honest and upfront with your players. Otherwise, you’ll lose their trust and their loyalty.

Stay in the loop

If you find advice like this helpful and want to see more of it, then make sure that you sign up to our newsletter. And if you want to see the impact of your design decisions, try out our free analytics tool.

Every company will experience a slump at some point in their history. Platforms change. Demographics shift. The world moves forward. The trick is to find your footing and adapt to the changes.

Zynga is no different. They’ve had their ups and downs, but they’ve found a way to jump the hurdles set out in front of them. They learnt their lessons and changed up their model. It’s a journey that many studios might find themselves on, so we thought we’d dive into what they did and how they came out the other side as one of the most successful mobile gaming companies in the world.

Zynga’s story started well

In 2007, Mark Pincus founded Zynga. They launched their first game on Facebook: Zynga Poker. It was a huge success that set the stage for Zynga. The funding flowed in, they developed more titles on Facebook, like FarmVille, Mafia Wars and Cafe World, and they became one of the fastest-growing internet companies ever. A viral hit.

As it was well over a decade ago, you might not be familiar with the fervour that surrounded Zynga games. So let’s put it in perspective. CityVille managed to hit 26 million daily users in just 12 days. Five of their games were making $1 million a day. And, at their peak, they had 300 million monthly active users.

They were a big deal. And this was before they even went public.

Then the trouble began

In 2012, Facebook changed how their navigation worked. They began prioritising newer apps, and older games slipped down the list into obscurity. Over the next couple of years, Zynga lost nearly half its quarterly revenue – dropping from $322 million a quarter to $153 million in 2014.

This was, of course, rather a shock. They stayed like this for around four years as they began to acquire a few studios and switch from making Facebook to mobile games.

The skyrocket back to the top

In 2015, Zynga hired Frank Gibeau as their CEO. It took a few years to get the ball rolling, but over time they shifted their business over to mobile development. Then, in 2021, they’d smashed $720 million a quarter.

Speaking with The Big Interview in 2019, Gibeau explained the struggle they’d had. They’d acquired companies, but had the wrong incentive schemes for hitting targets. They’d not structured these studios very well.

“Investors didn’t trust us with their money,” Gibeau said. “It seemed like kind of a mess … a lot of clean-up-in-aisle-three kind of stuff.”

But with Gibeau’s interventions, they were back on top with games like Empires & Puzzles, Toy Blast and FarmVille 3 in their portfolio. But how did they get there? What had spurred their resurgence?

How did they do it?

A huge key to their success was through their acquisitions. They’d bought many creative and productive studios. Clearly, sorting out their structure went a long way towards their success.

But we’ve seen that there are essentially four elements that have helped their resurgence.

1. Acquisitions: Get in good talent

Over the next few years, Zynga acquired six notable studios. With these acquisitions, they were able to add games like Merge Dragons!, Golf Rival and Toon Blast to their portfolio. But they didn’t just focus on studios, they also bought companies like Chartboost, a monetization platform.

“We’re going to continue to be on offence [looking for] great companies, great cultures, great teams that we can bring into Zynga,” Gibeau told TechCrunch in 2021. “When we started, nobody was picking up our phone calls. Now, when we call, we are a bit of a destination of choice for a lot of developers out there.”

Getting in the right talent and finding those hits has gone a long way to helping their success. And those acquisitions came at exactly the right time. The changes to Apple’s privacy policies could have really hurt Zynga, but because they were bringing all these studios together, they could share data across their portfolio. The changes were actually a good opportunity for them.

It’s a lesson even smaller studios can learn from. The more you can combine resources and join forces with other studios, the more you can both benefit.

2. Partnerships: Developing popular IPs

There are plenty of games that Zynga produces that are their own IP. But they don’t shy away from teaming up with popular brands, either. They have titles like Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells, Wizard of Oz Magic Match, and Game of Throne Slots Casino.

From a design perspective, these games are all varied and conquer territory that the original IP could never have entered on their own. Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells earnt around $135 million by 2021.

“We’re combining some big licences with existing franchises that will grow the company,” Gibeau said, according to PocketGamer in 2018. “They will be familiar, but with new ways to play. They’re mobile from the ground up and will mix proven, better and new features.”

This is clearly a key part of their strategy, on top of acquisitions. And it’s advice that all studios should look to follow. Even if the loyalties do affect your margins.

“Licences are really efficient at enabling you to build a global audience quickly, and they also have great staying power,” Gibeau added. “Yes, there might be some pushback on gross margins, but they also lower your risk.”

3. Social elements: Let people play together

When you look through the list of games Zynga owns, it’s clear that social is still at its core. Not surprising, considering they started by making Facebook games. But you can still see that trend in titles like Words with Friends 2, Bluff Plus, and Tiny Royale.

Zynga’s general manager in Turkey, Buğra Koç, spoke to PocketGamer about Bluff Plus specifically. And it was clear that social was a core part of the experience for them.

“One of the game’s biggest features is its enriched, online social experience that was crucial to enhancing multiplayer gameplay,” he said. “It was very important for us to implement strong social mechanics to the game as well as smooth and fun gameplay.”

It’s a similar story with almost all their games. And it isn’t just in the core mechanics; they are constantly adding other ways to make their games more social. For example, they’ve added guild-like clubs into games like Words with Friends 2 and Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells. They even released ReVamp, the first multiplayer social deception game for Snapchat.

4. Updates: Keep the content regular

The large part of Zynga’s revenue comes from in-app purchases and currency. Not unusual for a mobile game publisher, but that means that they need to keep releasing content for their games.

They focus a lot on keeping a game alive, rather than simply moving on to the next project. They call these ‘forever franchises’ – and they’re key for the company.

But how do you keep those franchises alive forever? Content. That’s why they’ve done in-game events that tie into movie releases or are linked to social movements like Pride Month. The latest of these is a partnership with Lucasfilm Games to release new characters and maps for Star Wars: Hunters, which is coming to the Switch and mobile later this year.

Another way they keep releasing new content and games is to run regular hackathons. These encourage developers to come up with new ideas and prototypes in as little as four days. Often, those ideas can end up being incorporated into their other titles or could get spun out into their own games.

Bring it all together

Looking at Zynga’s success, it’s clear that we can all learn from them. When the going was tough, they stuck it out and adapted their model. They focus on bringing in the best developers, teaming up with popular brands, making sure their games are as social as possible, and regularly releasing content.

These are all tips and tricks that any studio should look to replicate. Perhaps not on the scale of Zynga. But partnerships, social mechanics, and content are all areas that are achievable – even small scale.

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In tennis, a golden set is where you win a set without losing a single point. And that’s exactly what Wildlife Studios managed to do with Tennis Clash. It was the most downloaded mobile games in 78 countries when it launched. It’s got an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 on the app stores. And it’s had over 50 million downloads on Google Play alone.

So let’s look at exactly what we can learn from Tennis Clash.

Make your game simple to play, difficult to master

We all know the rules of tennis. Tennis Clash manages to translate those rules into straightforward controls. Swipe to hit the ball, tap to move. The further you swipe, the harder you hit. And which direction you swipe in decides which direction you hit the ball. All very simple.

Just like real tennis, it becomes about tactics and split-second decisions. Where is your opponent? How hard should you hit this one? Where should you reposition yourself? Getting it right – hitting the ball just where you planned – that’s why it’s satisfying.

But how about short? In real-life tennis, you typically have games, sets and matches. Four points win a game. Six games win a set. Two sets win the match. (Usually.) That’s too long for a mobile game, so Tennis Clash simplifies the scoring system. First to hit seven points wins the match.

Tennis Clash is a great reminder to developers everywhere that you don’t need to overcomplicate your core loop. Two simple controls and a simple points system are all you need. Instead, encourage your players to master those simple controls by either getting them to compete against each other or against harder and harder bots.

Give your players a reason to revisit old content

There are two main ways that Tennis Clash encourages players to progress. The first is an RPG-like system. Players can get better gear – like rackets, string and shoes – which directly affect their character’s abilities. The better your character’s stats, the more likely they’ll succeed in doing what you wanted to do. You can upgrade your gear by spending coins. Pretty simple.

The second way is through their tours. In other games, these would be your worlds or your levels. Interestingly, unlike most games – players must bet coins on each match. The more matches you win, the harder the tours you can enter. And the more coins you have to bet upfront.

Because you can spend these coins on upgrading your gear, this creates a great dilemma for their players. Can you actually afford to upgrade your gear now? What if you lose your next match? Will you be left penniless, needing to start from tour one once again?

This means that there’s a practical reason to revisit older tours. Either you’ve spent all your coins or you don’t fancy taking the risk. For other games, this can be a very useful system to have players revisit older maps and levels – adding more replayability to your game.

Use ads to mitigate losses and amplify wins

Because players must bet coins to enter a match, they’ve also created themselves an opportunity to show rewarded ads in a very natural way. If a player loses a match, they can watch an ad to recoup their lost coins. But if they win a match, they can watch an ad to double their winnings.

This makes it far more likely that players will actually want to watch these ads. There are tangible benefits, and it doesn’t feel like the ads are being forced on them.

Consider how else Tennis Clash could have added ads. They could’ve had it so that there was an ad after every match and that players earnt coins after each win. The outcome would’ve been exactly the same. But by framing it as a bet – and only allowing players to get a rewarded ad a certain number of times a day – they reframe the context. Players are actually relieved to see an ad, rather than getting frustrated.

If you’re finding that players are getting frustrated by your ads, it’s worth asking yourself whether you can reframe the context. Can you use them to mitigate losses and amplify wins?

Partner regularly to keep your game current

Tennis Clash has regularly been in gaming news for its partnerships ever since it launched. They’ve teamed up with the Fédération Française de Tennis, the US Open, World TeamTennis, The Laver cup, WTA and ATP, and the Billie Jean King Cup.

These partnerships were simple tournaments, with the winners often getting in-game rewards and kudos on Wildlife Studio’s website. And they solidified Tennis Clash as the official tennis game. This was particularly important during the pandemic when tennis matches were being cancelled because it allowed fans to still participate in the event.

It wasn’t just tennis organizations that they’ve partnered up with. They even worked with Gucci to bring style and outfits into the game. A sponsorship that helped the Gucci brand stay current while giving Tennis Clash more content to keep their players entertained.

Regularly partnering has helped to keep Tennis Clash in the spotlight. And it’s a lesson that mobile developers all over should remember. The best way to keep your players around is to keep giving them something new. But that something new doesn’t need to be too complicated. A simple tournament, sponsored by a brand they love and respect, can hit that sweet spot.

Play to your demographics

Wildlife Studio regularly updates Tennis Clash with seasonal content. Valentine’s Day, Christmas, April Fool’s Day, Mother’s Day, Lunar New Year. Most of these are – like their partnerships – open tournaments that players must buy tickets to enter. Another useful revenue stream.

But they also make sure to think about their players. Two notable events were their Tax Day event and their Celebrate Diversity event. Clearly, Wildlife Studio had spotted that their demographic was young, entrepreneurial and liberal. And that inspired them to create these events.

Of course, this is only speculation. But a Tax Day event is an extremely specific event to host. One that they must have been sure would be successful. Otherwise, why would they have spent the time creating it?

It’s a lesson all developers should learn. What other interests do you players have? How old are they? What level of education do they have? For example, if you discover that most of your players enjoy reading, perhaps you host a World Book Day event. Are you getting a lot of Scottish players? Maybe you celebrate Robert Burns’ birthday.

The more you can tailor your events and updates to your specific audience, the more they’ll feel a cultural connection with your game.

Use analytics to discover what makes your players tick

Information is power. The more you know, the more you can improve and iterate on your game. So if you’d learn about what works and what doesn’t, try out our free analytics tool.

First of all, let’s face it, AI is not great at everything yet. But game designers, artists, and producers have adopted it rapidly because there are things it does really well. Concepting, storyboarding, and ideation are prime examples here. We’ve been doing our own exploring, and wanted to share with you the cases that have worked well for us.

We’re using examples from PicFinder, so you can explore and get inspired by each use case, starting directly from this article.

Environment concept art

Getting ideas for new games, concepts, worlds, and environments can be a time consuming concept. You can search for images, which can take hours. Or you can create them, which will take even longer. But 2D gen AI tools make environment ideation extremely fast, so you can explore many versions of a concept and storyboard your way into a crystal clear design.

Some examples of game environments with different formats.

Action games

Robot battle – tall scene

Large battlefield – wide scene

Casual games

Green garden scene – portrait format

Castle interior scene – tall format

Character concept art

Generating new characters prevents many teams from accelerating their release pipeline. Generating character assets is also essential for monetization and engagement, as players can unlock new characters through progression or payment. GenAI makes character iteration a lot faster, for a few different genres.

Fashion, makeover, and decoration games

Fashion makeover outfits – tall format

Portrait with eye makeup – portrait format

Cozy living room – square format

Cute, cozy, casual games

Explorer bear

Girl next door

Royal cat

What we learned along the way

1. Prompts matter a lot

Using longer prompts is better. But also thinking of prompts like a Google Image Search description more than how you would describe the item in real life seems to work well. Words like “high definition” or “perfect features” help get better quality art in general.

2. Starting from an image saves a lot of time

Many genAI tools allow you to upload an image and will then create new versions in that format. This can help a lot with initial iteration, especially if you’re looking for a very particular type of art. For fashion outfits or makeovers starting from an existing outfit image will help.

3. Different image formats generate different results

Searching for a character in tall format might generate a full-body image while in square format would create a portrait. The format changes the results a lot, so exploring with the exact format you need can help get closer to what you need faster.

How can we help?

If you’d like us to share more genAI resources, drop us a note to let us know. GenAI is on everyone’s minds and we love being a resource on anything that helps you make better games.