Last month was one of the biggest months this year for indie gaming releases on all platforms. With the larger AAA titles coming out towards the end of 2019, July was prime time for indie game launches. It’s been an absolute joy to play all of these games. But for this post, I’ve cherry-picked my top 5 favorite indie games released in July, and gone into detail about exactly why they’re so special. We have puzzle platformers, cute rhythm games, stunning exploration games, and more to share with you. So without further ado, let’s dig in. 1. Total Party Kill Developer: Jussi Simpanen Launch date: July 3rd, 2019 Price: Free, with in-app purchases Available on: iOS, Android, PC In short, Total Party Kill is a puzzle platformer that gives you three different characters to control. A swordsman that can hit...

Editor’s Note: this post was originally published by Wilhelm Voutilainen, Senior Game Analyst at GameRefinery. As a Senior Analyst, Wilhelm knows the ins and outs of game feature data in western markets, specifically on PvP games. PvP is often the key feature that defines mid-core games. For example, in shooters, RPGs, and strategy games, one of the most addictive elements is built around the possibility to show off who has the best aim, most cunning strategies, and strongest characters. But when you think about casual games, PvP is probably not the first feature that comes to mind. Considering this traditional view, could PvP be effectively implemented into lighter games such as casual Match3s, adventure, and customization games? In this blog post, our friends at GameRefinery take a closer look at PvP-mode examples in casual games of various types to shed more...

After the launch of one of their biggest games, I spoke with Vincent Hart de Keating, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Homa Games, to learn how they improved their now biggest hit, Tiny Cars, and key lessons they learned on the way.  Thanks for chatting with us today. Before we get started, can you give us a bit of background on Homa? What do you guys do? Sure thing. At Homa Games, we consider ourselves experts when it comes to mobile game publishing, especially within the hyper-casual space. We actually only started about a year ago (mid-2018) as a fairly small team. But in the space of just a few months, our team grew, with new members in game design, data analysis, motion design, and mobile development (making the ultimate A-team for publishing). Since then, we’ve managed to publish over...

Editor’s note: This post was orginally written by Om Tandon (Founder/Games Consultant at UX Reviewer.com) and Abhimanyu Kumar (Mobile Games Consultant) on Deconstructor of Fun. The State of Social Casino When breaking up the mobile gaming market according to Game Refinery’s taxonomy, the “Casino” (aka Social Casino) category is the third largest by revenue – and it has steadily been growing over 2018. Category revenue grew by +24% YoY, and the “Slots” sub-genre contributed to ~70% of this growth. “Slots” generate anything between an average of 70-80% of real world casino revenues, and the same engagement behaviour is mirrored in the Social Casino space. “Slots” are the largest revenue generating sub-genre of the Casino category, occupying a 78% share. Read more about our thoughts around this category and its future in our 2019 Casino category prediction post. * Ad revenues...

Why study social casino games? There’s a huge amount that any developer can learn from social casino games. The casino genre has some of the most avid and engaged types of players, and developers have therefore built many sophisticated meta game features in order to support the success of these types of titles This means you can find a much greater array of unique rewards, challenges or even enhanced purchasing options that provide an important distinction and added value to the players that dedicate a lot of their time to these types of games. People don’t play for real money here, so these features are crucial in order to keep them engaged. So, that’s why we’ve written this post – to showcase some of the most innovative ways to complement your core game and keep your players engaged. We look...

Editor’s Note: this post was originally published by Terry Cavanagh, indie game designer currently working on Dicey Dungeons. To stay up to date with what Terry is currently working on, your can find him on Twitter, or follow his other projects on his website here.  For the past month or so, I’ve been tackling one of the biggest technical problems in my new game, Dicey Dungeons – improving the enemy AI enough for the final release of the game. It’s been pretty interesting, and lots of it was new to me, so I thought I’d write a little bit about it. First up, a sort of disclaimer: I’m not a computer scientist – I’m just one of those people who learned enough about programming to make video games, and then stopped learning anything I didn’t have to learn. I can usually muddle...

Editor’s Note: this post was originally published by Om Tandon, Director of User Experience at Digit. With over 14 years experience, Om specializes in UX design, UI design and User Interaction, has previously worked at Gameloft and June Software, and is also a guest writer at Deconstructor of Fun.  No code. No game engine. No scripting. Next Generation Game UX Prototypes and prototyping skills are here! If you have been reading or following this article series since last year, you are in for a treat! (Previous articles in this series can be found here and here.) To recap: Necessity indeed is the mother of invention, and methodology behind this series was born with: LACK of dev. capacity & time for UX prototyping. The NEED & DESIRE for pushing the boundaries of existing UX tools. Prototypes are the bedrock of usability testing way early in pre-production to gather valuable make-or-break user feedback....

This past year has been excellent for the mobile games industry. In all directions, the sector seems to be expanding, catering to over 2 billion users worldwide and generating well over $100 billion this year alone. But what makes a mobile game particularly great? And what trends can we see from the best games published this year? In no particular order, we take a look at what we think are the best games of 2018 that any developer can take inspiration from. 1. Alto’s Odyssey Developer: Snowman (dubbed Team Alto) Launch date: 21st February 2018 iOS, 25th July 2018 Android Price: $0.99 Available on: iOS, Android Awards won: Apple Design Award for Outstanding Design and Innovation Alto’s Odyssey is the follow-up title to the critically acclaimed Alto’s Adventure, an endless runner snowboard game developed by Snowman. If you’re not familiar with...

Editors Note – this post was originally published by Terry Karavoulias. Working as a director in web, Terry has little to no experience in designing or programming video games, but does have a heck of a lot of YouTube tutorials, and a ton of motivation. Last year during my Christmas break, I had an itch to start a new side project. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to work on, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be another website. I manage a web development team by trade, so I needed something different and challenging. While enjoying the time off, I was playing with my Nintendo Switch and downloaded Blossom Tales. If you’re not familiar with the game, it’s an indie title that can best be described as Zelda: A Link to the Past, but with slightly less charm. Blossom Tales reminded me...

Located within the Copenhagen branch of GameAnalytics is our GameHub, where anyone can come and use the space in order to develop and grow their games. One such group are the developers of Beasts of Burden, who have just started their kickstarter campaign… Thanks for chatting with me today. Can you shed a light on what Beasts of Burden is? Gladly. So, in short, Beasts of Burden – bob – is a game-driven approach to establishing better habits, overcoming stress, and improving feelings of well-being. We’ve based this game on 30 years of research into stress management, and it provides bite-sized and fun activities proven to build a resilient mindset. All of which is delivered by powerful A.I. within one central app. Here’s a nifty video we put together to build a better picture of what it’s about: And how...

After the launch of one of their biggest games, I spoke with Sung-Ku Kim, Director of Studio Q at BitMango, to understand more about the history of the company, and key lessons the studio learned on their path to success.  Before we dig into the details, are you able to give us some background into how BitMango started? BitMango has had an interesting journey actually. We originally started out as a subsidiary of a company called Datawave, which was mainly focused on keyword search ads. The CEO of Datawave, Kisup Lee, was inspired by the gaming industry, and so looked to invest in it. And that’s where BitMango came in. To enter such a competitive market, we really had to maximize our data analysis capabilities and use key metrics to monitor the performance of our games  – which was our...

Deciding how to visually represent your mobile game is arguably the most exciting stage in your app’s development. But it can also be one of the greatest challenges. Balancing breathtaking visuals or charming aesthetic features with practical and seamless navigation is something not all developers have been able to easily achieve. Essentially, a good design style needs to draw users in to an engaging world through great aesthetics and unique visuals, while also supporting the overall user experience. An amazing hand illustrated backdrop by a talented artist is all well and good. However, if it doesn’t match up with your game’s core functionality, it’s not worth the investment. Whether you’re developing hyper-casual or hard-core games, finding the right design involves an appreciation of your genre’s limitations, a practical understanding of user experiences and most of all, a flare for creativity....