We gamers are a fickle bunch. For a lot of mainstream gamers, “Shiny New Toy” syndrome is all too prevalent. However, some of the older and more dedicated players can easily sit down with the same title they’ve been playing for years and still have a blast. Such is the gaming scene. So amidst this, how do you foster loyalty among your gaming audience? And how can you make sure they keep coming back? There are a few things that you can do, and luckily for you, we’ve listed 3 of them below… 1. Pay Attention to Your Audience As a game developer, one of the worst things you can do is overlook valuable feedback from your players. While playing through your game, your players will push the boundaries of all your design choices, and will almost always find something...

Having released 18 successful mobile games in a 7 month period, JoyPac is proving that hyper-casual titles can make it big in Asia. The founding team at JoyPac has decades of experience releasing mobile games across the globe, including throughout Asia. They have first-hand knowledge of the pitfalls that most Western game developers face when trying to break into these markets. That’s why JoyPac was founded on a strong belief of improving transparency, clear communication, and building close partnerships with game developers looking to break into Asia. GameAnalytics helps JoyPac deliver on that promise with uncapped access to global performance data, giving their partners the ability to analyze and optimize their stats – for free. JoyPac’s Western team is based in Copenhagen, which helps them address a lot of the problems that developers often encounter when dealing with publishing partners...

After reaching #1 in Korea’s Top Game Charts in less than 48 hours, Homa Games knew it was just the beginning of what was to come. Despite their recent success in Korea, the studio remains humble as it continues its core mission of helping developers in making their games into the next big hits. Focusing primarily on the hyper-casual market, the studio has published six games that have hit charts globally in the US, Korea, Japan, and China. The foundation of their success is partly due to their core values around transparency, ensuring open communication and respect of all developer intellectual property. Being a product of their successful sister company BidMotion, the Homa Games team is made from experts in user acquisition and monetization. With this industry experience and knowledge, they’re able to help developers achieve the best results possible...

Editor’s Note: this post was originally published by Ben Meakin, Content Marketer at Megacool. With over ten years of experience writing for and about games, Ben has a strong understanding of what games need to do to succeed. Referrals are one of the most cost-effective ways to grow your game, and should play a major role in your marketing strategy. They are a gateway into your game for new players, and, with a little effort, can deliver huge rewards for developers. Yet referrals are an opportunity that are still not widely maximized by game developers. In this post, we’ll take a look at the various ways to implement referrals in mobile games, and some best-in-class examples. In its most basic form, a referral is an Invite Friends button within a game that lets players share a short message to social media...

If you’ve stumbled across this post, then you’re most likely considering publishing your mobile game (congrats!). However, before you dive in and start making money, you’ll need to make an important choice. Self publish, or find a publishing partner? In the past, finding a publisher was almost standard practice due to their expertise in areas like UA & marketing. But now, it has never been easier to self publish, with developers having access to the steam and app stores but also a bunch of online resources and guidelines. However, with this ease comes competition, and as you may be aware, the market has never been more competitive (this is where those nifty Publishers come in handy). So, how do you know what the best option is for your title? To give you a helping hand with this all-important decision, we’ve...

One of the best ways to find out how your title is performing is by taking a long hard look at the retention and engagement of your game. Not only are these great ways for you to measure the playability of your title, but these metrics give developers an early sense of if their game is going to succeed or not. Hugo Peyron, Publishing Expert at Voodoo, even commented on the importance of retention – especially when the they take on new games: “We look for the highest numbers possible. If a game has low retention, we will kill it.” With this thought in the back of our heads, the biggest question developers tend to find themselves asking is: “How can I boost my retention and increase the engagement of my game?” And by looking at key stats from our...

Building a community for your game can be tricky, especially when you’re still working away on the core features of your project. And one of the biggest questions developers ask themselves is ‘how can I get people talking about my game before I’ve even launched it?’. There’s no straight answer to this question, but there is a ton of useful advice out there. To help get your creative juices flowing, we’ve found 3 unique stories where developers went the extra mile to build their community, and what their thought process was when doing so. You’ll want to make sure to primarily use these case studies as inspiration for your own development. Who knows, there may be even better creative routes hiding away in the back of your mind that are more specific to your game. What can I learn at...

Editor’s Note: this post was originally published by Mikael Orpana, Marketing Manager at GameRefinery. With years of Marketing experience under his belt, as well as over two decades of playing games, Mikael has a strong understanding of what the best marketing strategies are within the gaming industry. GameRefinery recently took a look at the mobile game market share, and now as 2018 comes to a close it’s a good time to take a look at how the mobile gaming industry has developed over the past year and shifted publisher market share in the US. The publisher landscape looks much like it did a year ago, but several publishers rose to make a distinct impression. Who made a splash and who couldn’t quite maintain last year’s momentum? Check it out in their infographic below: You can learn more about the GameRefinery platform here. Fancy some...

Editor’s Note: this post was originally published by Chris Zukowski, Creative Director at Return to Adventure Mountain, who also developers games that are bizarre twists on classic genres. You’ll recognise his work in titles such as Return of the Zombie King and Wizard Golf RPG.  Boyfriend Dungeon is an indie game being developed by Kitfox Games about dating luxuriously beautiful weapons and then using them to fight monsters. It was originally announced back in October 2017. On August 15th of 2018, the Kitfox team launched a Kickstarter for the game. The Kickstarter took the internet by storm and went totally viral on social media. The Boyfriend fever even reached as far as general interest magazines like Gentleman’s Quarterly. The game was funded within hours and when the Kickstarter ended 30 days later it earned 4x its initial goal. The team executed...

Back in 2012 when we released the first Fun Run game, we had little idea that the series would pass 100m downloads over the next few years. We came to realise that it’s possible to reach the masses by word-of-mouth, with players sharing Fun Run with other people they thought would also enjoy it. This led to us founding Megacool, to help other games to grow organically through improved content sharing. From that moment on, we’ve immersed ourselves in the world of GIFs and developed some best practices that we hope will help you make GIFs an essential part of your marketing strategy. Let’s start by taking a quick look at why you should choose GIFs over video or images. GIFs + Games = Greatness First, let’s be clear that a GIF is a great format to show what your...

What do we do when we experience something amazing, profound, funny, emotional or just plain weird? We talk about it. We want to share that experience with our friends, so that they can jump right in and see for themselves. This, of course, is word-of-mouth – and it’s one of the most powerful marketing tools out there. Whether you’re making mobile games or selling underpants, the dream scenario is that whoever engages with your product loves it so much that they have to tell their friends all about it. Think about how often you’ve received a personal recommendation for an app, or a book, or a restaurant – and how often you then actually acted on that recommendation. Contrast that with seeing an advert for that same product, and how likely you’d be to act upon whatever call-to-action the ad...

Board games have always celebrated their physical and tactile nature. Reading the rulebook, unpacking the pieces, and setting up the board are all an intrinsic part of playing the board game. However, digital companion apps have also long been part of this ritual. Some games, like 7 Wonders, have a free app that helps players to calculate points at the end of the game. As the game has a limited number of scoring sheets that can run out, and the point calculation process is quite complex, the app was always a welcome helper. Digital board games also had their own place in the hobby, serving as digital recreations of the physical game on phones or PC that are primarily targeted towards solo play, although they tend to have some multiplayer options too. However, for the most part, physical games and...