Adding multiplayer elements to your mobile game is a straight-up win-win situation. It creates a sense of community, brings a competitive edge, and gives your players a reason to come back. Taking all that on might feel intimidating. But today, building quality mobile multiplayer is easier than you might think. But how exactly do you make your mobile game multiplayer? What steps do you need to take? And what do you need to consider? We will cover in this two-part article that will help set you on the path to mobile multiplayer glory. This first part will look at the broad concepts and overarching considerations. And next time, we’ll dive into the tech and techniques for part two. Yes, your game is suitable for multiplayer We appreciate there are different types of games. But multiplayer isn’t purely about competition and...

Editor’s note: This article was originally written by the brilliant minds at Voodoo. They’ve agreed to share the story with us here, but head over to their blog if you want to see the original.  Run of Life is the brand new hit game developed by Tarek Mongy, a solo-dev based in Cairo. Transforming the popular stacking trend into a super relatable concept, the team hit over 20 million views on TikTok, generating a huge number of organic installs even before the game was officially launched. We sat down with Tarek and Jill, Publishing Manager at Voodoo, to take a closer look at the game as well as their tips on how to come up with viral and mass-market ideas for your next prototype. Ideation Fundamentals Your ideation process is key to creating hot prototypes. The more you prototype, the more...

Editor’s note: This story was so great, we pinched it from Voodoo. You can find the original on their site, here. (Don’t worry, they gave the go-ahead to share it.) Slice it All! is the brand new hit game by the Serbia-based studio Tummy Games. The game hit number 1 in the iOS games charts in 35 different countries across the world, including the United States, just weeks after its release. Tummy Games teamed up with Voodoo over two years ago, and this is our second hit game together! One of our top innovation techniques is ‘change the toy, keep the rules’, and they managed to bring this to life by combining a niche hyper-casual mechanic from two years ago with a contemporary social media trend. Let’s take a look at how Slice it All! went from prototype to worldwide hit,...

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by our friends at Voodoo. You can check out the original article here.  How long have you been working in Unity? Are there simple changes that you could make to your work process to get the most out of your iterations? Whether you’re super experienced or just starting out in hyper-casual game development, taking the time to review your processes can be key to staying efficient and producing great results. A team of our in-house Game Developers recently got together to discuss best practices when working on Unity game prototypes. The result? The Voodoo Dev Manual. Filled with simple tips and tricks to help you work as efficiently as possible and speed up your iterations, this brand new resource is now available for all partner studios on our exclusive e-learning platform . The Voodoo Dev Manual...

We break down the top KPIs that Hyper-Casual developers should be aiming for, and reveal a few of the rising superstars that entered the market in 2020.

In the last few years, the Hyper-casual genre has established itself as one of the fastest-growing game categories on the app stores, not only in the number of downloads but also in the quantity, variety, and originality of new products. Beginning as a subgenre of casual, Hyper-casual has consolidated as a category in its own right and started accommodating subcategories like ultra-casual, idle, mergers, and so on. Some of these subgenres have become classics, but we can see a new genre emerge in the Hyper-casual scene from time to time. Constant testing and iteration lead to permanent game upgrading and improvement, translating into new, different games and hybrid genres. This was the case for Farm Land, developed by studio LolTap: Homa Games’ latest release and member of the new Arcade Idle category. The process began in late 2020 with the...

Games have a great deal to learn from the likes of architecture, town planning, and even the layout of theme parks. That’s especially true when it comes to level design. A 3D adventure game, for example, is a space designed to be moved through; just as is the case with a city centre or a Disney resort. Head to Walt Disney World in Florida, and Space Mountain stands out from its surroundings, visible from multiple vantage points. That’s entirely deliberate. Its vertical height contrasts sharply with its environment, drawing the visitor’s eye. And yet most of the park’s paths to Space Mountain are indirect, taking looping, curving routes. The idea is that visitors are never told where to go. Instead, Space Mountain’s constant presence gently pulls people towards it. Those winding paths, meanwhile, give a sense of exploration and discovery....

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by Voodoo. You can read the original on their blog here.  The brand new Voodoo Art Manual is now available for all partner studios on our Publishing Platform. It contains a concrete and practical guide on how to create effective and engaging game art in hyper-casual. We know that many of the studios we work with don’t always have dedicated game artists in their teams, and that it is often created by developers using the help of existing tools on Unity. Art, however, is an essential element of your game. It makes or breaks both the clarity of your gameplay and the user’s experience. Without effective art, the success of your game lies in the balance. The Voodoo Art Manual was created to maximize your chances of success in the prototyping phase. Whether you’re an experienced...

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by Théophile Tabary, Publishing Manager at Voodoo. You can read the original here.  As Publishing Managers at Voodoo, we often receive questions on current and future trends in hyper-casual. Trends can be difficult to navigate for studios and developers; sometimes you want to be following trends, and sometimes you want to be creating new ones. We’re here to give you some guidance on how to approach trends when creating hyper-casual games, and how to stay ahead of the game in 2021. What are trends in the hyper-casual market? The first thing to remember is that there are several different types of trends in hyper-casual. Each type contributes to the market in a slightly different way, and it is helpful to define which category your ideas or prototype fit into in the ideation and...

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by Om Tandon, Innovation & UX Design Manager at Eaton. You can read the original version here. Match 3 metamorphosis is real but doesn’t new territory often comes with new rules? Let’s dive deeper into where the game is afoot in these uncharted waters. This multi-part analytical series is laser-focused on what some of these new rules might be. The last analysis in this series looked at some historical data coupled with powerful tectonic forces of maturing player behavior and deepening game design that has changed the lay of the land dividing the Match 3 landscape between Classic and Meta, ruled by the King’s and Playrix’s of the world. Yes, we are standing at a fork in the road folks but the real question is what does the road ahead looks like? This evolution is far from over for both Classic & Meta Match 3! What...

Editor’s note: This article is written in collaboration by Om Tandon of UXreviewer and Lisa Brunette, founder & owner of Brunette Games, a narrative design and storytelling powerhouse working with development teams at publishers and studios such as Jam City, Redemption Games, Uken Games, etc., on blockbuster top-100 grossing casual games: Sweet Escapes, Lily’s Garden, Matchington Mansion, & many others. You can find the original article on LinkedIn. But without further ado, let’s get started: How is modern-day storytelling in casual games evolving? What data & UX-driven trends are emerging in the narrative of blockbuster casual games? Let’s find out. Size of the Pie: Casual Puzzle Games Source: Deconstructor of Fun Casual games are the second-largest genre on mobile after strategy games. They generated a revenue of a whopping $8.1Bn in 2019, the lion’s share of which was raked in by the Match 3...

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...