Sarah Impey

If you’re a mobile game developer, you want the press to talk about your game. It’s free advertising, and who wouldn’t want that? Creating a press kit is how you make it easy for the press to talk about your game, and to show it in its most positive light. If you previously thought ‘press kit’ was something you asked your dry cleaners to do after a football game, this blog’s for you. Here’s a quick introduction to press kits – how to create them and put them to use. What is a press kit? It’s a collection of text and visuals that gives a journalist or website everything they need to write about your game. You’re basically saying to them: “Oh, you want a game to write about? Well, you won’t need any research to write about my game...

In the last two parts of this series, we’ve explored which casual games sauntered to the top charts and how social games united people across platforms. Now, which other genre could possibly give these a run for their money? If you guessed trivia – the headline was probably a giveaway – you win a brand-new, all-inclusive holiday to the Isle of Analysis. On your left, you’ll see the tiny village of Facts and Figures, while on the right we’ve got three titans, battling for the summit of Mt Saint Quiz. All aboard, it’s time to learn some trivia. How did lockdown affect trivia games? People seem to love filling time with trivia games. While it might be short bursts of eight minutes, they log on often. Just over 5 sessions a day on average, working out to about half an...

As people have been trapped at home, unable to visit friends, it’s unsurprising that social games dominated the charts and headlines. But it’s not just direct interaction that’s made these games popular. Multiplayer games that are as satisfying to watch as they are to play have been the real successes this year. It’s a positive feedback loop. People play multiplayer games to hang out with their friends. This makes the game more popular, so streamers jump onto it. Those seeking community in times of loneliness watch the streamers and chat with one another. They then start playing the game, too. The game becomes more popular, and so on and so forth. And when the game is playable from any device? Well, this cycle is even more likely. How did lockdown affect multiplayer games? We can see the success in the...

This year, we’ve seen more narrative and story entering the hyper-casual genre, a deluge of social hidden-role games, and a resurgence in the classics. The headlines are rammed with examples of games exploding onto the scene and dominating our collective attention. But there have been a few quieter successes, too. Games that have been gathering players and doing particularly well at keeping idle thumbs busy. Over the course of this three-part series, we’ll look at these less-talked-about games and what we can learn from them. How has lockdown affected gaming? Before we launch into the games themselves, it’s worth mentioning why we’re focusing on casual games. Our CEO, Ioana, explained in a talk recently that it’s been a strange year for the industry. (Though, not particularly surprising.) At the start of the lockdown, playtime shot up 62% and players spent...

If you had a chance to read part 1 of our licensed IP series, you should be pretty familiar with the basics when it comes to licensed IPs (if you’re not, we recommend navigating back to part 1 before reading on). With the fundamentals of IP law out of the way, we can start reaching out to IP holders. It’s actually pretty straightforward, though you should probably make sure you’ve got a lawyer to check over any contracts. So, what do you need to do first? Find the right fit Before you rush off and start hitting up every huge franchise for a chance to use their IP, you’ll want to make sure you’re the right fit. There are three questions to ask yourself: Do my mechanics work with this IP? If you’re making a racing game, will it really...

There are a lot of reasons to use a licensed IP. You could have made a game and now want to reskin and update it to reach a new audience, like Reigns: Game of Thrones or the new Angry Birds: Star Wars. You might be making a music game and need the rights to use a few songs, like Guitar Hero. Or perhaps you just want to include a single character in your brawler, like Super Smash Bros. Whenever you’re using another creator’s content, you’ll need permission. A license. But what are the pros and cons of doing that? Does it really help? The short answer is: maybe. But it’s a lot of work. We can’t get into all the nitty-gritty here, but we can cover the basics and give you a few tips to make sure you don’t fall...

It’s easy to think of collectibles as frivolous add-ons to mobile games, and games in general. But when you get them right, collectibles can make your game more enjoyable, more sustainable, and more lucrative. Here’s a rundown of the key things to consider when you integrate collectibles into your game. What do we mean by collectibles? There are many different ways you can use the term. But let’s go with this as a general definition: Any bits of content that aren’t essential to progression through your game. That’s pretty broad. But it needs to be. Collectibles can include any of these things (and many more): Cosmetic items, like skins Heroes and characters Upgrades and power-ups Resources Achievements Informative items that expand your game’s lore Playful items that bring an amusing surprise In this blog, we’ve covered a few reasons why...

Subtitles might be one of the last things you think of. But they shouldn’t be – because they really do matter. Here are our thoughts on why, and some tips to help you get them right the first time. Subtitles are a must in today’s mobile games. And not just for gamers with hearing impairments. They’re important for lots of other ‘life’ reasons – people use them if they’re playing a game on public transport, because they have crappy speakers, if they’re trying not to disturb flatmates/children/significant others, and so on. While the numbers for mobile games aren’t really available yet, it’s clear that people playing on consoles are using subtitles – when Ubisoft tracked subtitle use on Assassin’s Creed: Origins, they found that 60% of players play with these switched on. And this is for a game that most...

Playable ads have become more and more popular in the last couple of years. According to eMarketer, 28% of ad agency professionals in the US think playable ads are the most effective format out there. So what makes a great playable? And what steps should you take when making your own? We look at that, and more, in this blog. But before we dig in, let’s go over the basics. Playable ads – the basics Playable ads are exactly what they sound like – adverts you can play. Similar to free demos, they let you try out an app or game before you commit to downloading it, rather than just watching a video or looking at an image. What makes a great playable ad Playable ads are generally only a minute or so long. And if you’ve done any research...

A couple of months ago, we had the pleasure of attending Google’s GameCamp, which was filled to the brim with gamedev content delivered from the best and brightest in mobile gaming. While there, Elif Büyükcan, the Business Intelligence Director at Rovio Entertainment, shared with us how they’ve been using rewarded ads in their games. We’re here to report on their story, and what you can learn from them. Elif’s main message was this:  “Getting your monetization model right is incredibly important. It takes a lot of time, thought and testing. You need to be constantly measuring, learning and adapting. This makes machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) your best friends.” And today, we’ll go through everything we learned from their talk (specifically about machine learning), including: The process Rovio use to hone their monetization models, a case study of...

Welcome back to our series on what we can learn from the best games of 2019. And how the big trend has been simplicity. So far we’ve focused on storytelling and choices in games. But for this post, I’ll be going over my top three favorite titles of 2019 (which are more casual games), and what we can learn from them. In the wrong place? Head back to part one, or skip ahead to part three. 4. Grindstone Developer: Capybara Games Release date: 19th September 2019 Available on: iOS Price: Free with Apple Arcade Genre: Casual | Puzzle game A puzzle game with a twist In Grindstone, you draw a line through coloured enemies who sit in a grid. Doing this gets you gems. It’s similar to games like Candy Crush. But it’s so much more. First, you’re a mad...

It goes without saying that to make your mobile game successful you’ve got to have great visuals. They don’t necessarily need to be super sophisticated or complicated – but they’ve got to look good. So once you’ve sorted out your gorgeous gameplay, you might be tempted to sit back and relax. But there’s something else you shouldn’t forget – the sound. We’ve already talked about the importance of getting music right (and how to use it as a core mechanic). So in this post, we turn our attention to sound effects, and how simply adding these can make a real difference to gameplay. Are sound effects really that important? Yes. Sound effects are crucial for adding atmosphere and building emotion. If your player is walking through a scary, damp cave, for example, some dripping water sounds or distant footsteps can...