Deconstructor of Fun

Join us for potentially the MOST IN DEPTH AND TACTICAL discussion on optimizing ad creatives for mobile marketing published ever in the world!  Joining us for that discussion is the former Head of UA for Superscale: Matej Lancaric.  Matej was with Superscale at the time of the recording, but now independent.  Matej talks to us today discussing how to develop a framework for managing...

Welcome to TWIG #84! This week we cover: #1. Twitch gets a new channel for news, exclusives, and more (The Verge) #2. Sony Confirms PS5 Event for June 4 (Gamespot) #3. Mark van Ryswyk On Why The Pandemic Is A Unique Moment To Reach New Consumers (Alist Daily) #4. Interview: Why Scopely and PierPlay spent three years perfecting Scrabble GO (Pocketgamer) Today we are joined by guest host Josh Burns...

The focus of our conversation today will be about how to think about user acquisition during times of crisis or more generally under situations of sudden change. When a change happens e.g., Real money gaming impacting social gaming, recession, a new game mode like Autochess cannibalizes other strategy games or game modes... What do you do? Just wait for data? How can we think about a framework or...

Creatives are the talk of 2020, everyone claiming they are the last lever. But, what does that actually mean for a studio today? What do they need to do? What does the future studio look like? How does the UA teamwork with the creative team and the developer team? How can studios maximise the impact of creatives and identify the biggest opportunities? Lots of questions. But luckily, Steven Chard,...

Welcome to TWIG #83! This week we cover: #1. Ubisoft Sues Apple and Google Over Mobile Rainbow Six Siege Clone (IGN) #2. Ubisoft announces Ubisoft Forward on July 12 (GamesIndustry.biz) #3. Crucible is Amazon’s attempt at a shooter League of Legends (Polygon) Do you have feedback or comments for us? You can reach us on Twitter at: Joseph Kim: @jokim1 (Twitter, Insta) Eric Kress: @ekress Adam Telfe...

In gaming, sandbox creator platforms to become the next ROBLOX have been the talk of investors over the past few years. The latest entry into the space is Manticore with their CORE platform led by ex-Zynga executives Frederic Descamps (CEO) and Jordan Maynard (CCO).   How will Manticore's CORE platform compete against ROBLOX? Who are they targeting? How will developers on CORE make money? &nb...

Welcome to TWIG #82! This week we cover: #1. 10 LEARNINGS FROM 10 YEARS (Supercell Blog) #2. Game of War developer Machine Zone acquired by AppLovin (gamesindustry.biz) #3. Valorant and Twitch build symbiotic relationship of success (Venture Beat) #4. Ubisoft says 11 games sold over 10 million copies each in PS4/Xbox One era (Venture Beat) KEY LINKS: Joe Kim's AppLovin post: I am AppLovin! Behind...

Welcome to TWIG #81! This week we cover: #1. Cloud Gaming: Why It Matters And The Games It Will Create #2. Fortnite ’s “Party Royale” mode ditches the guns, asks players to “chill” #3. 10 Years of Excellence - Deconstruction of Supercell #4. Design + Behavioral Economics = Apple Do you have feedback or comments for us? You can reach us on Twitter at: Joseph Kim: @jokim1 (Twitter, Insta) Eric Kress...

We're joined by Joe Schaeppi who is the CEO of 12trait. 12traits is a different kind of tool to understand your players. It doesn't look that much at what they did. Instead 12traits focuses on understanding the players through deep psychological insights. Why is understanding your players more intimately important? Well, it allows you to create experiences which optimize for healthy long-term enga...

Welcome to TWIG #80! This week we cover: #1. Xbox Game Pass now has over 10 million subscribers #2. SuperEvilMegaCorp Announces “Catalyst Black” #3. Xbox Series X still set to launch on schedule, but games could be delayed Do you have feedback or comments for us? You can reach us on Twitter at: Joseph Kim: @jokim1 Eric Kress: @ekress Adam Telfer: @adamwtelfer Miska Katkoff: @m_katkoff

Two world class industry experts in mobile social casino talk to us today about the latest overview, updates, trends, and predictions for the market. Our guests today include:   Brett Nowak, CEO of market research firm Liquid & Grit (www.liquidandgrit.com). Brett was formerly Lead PM on Zynga Poker at Zynga, and was a Director of Product at Blue Shell Games before starting Liquid & Gr...

Welcome to TWIG #79, apologies we were off last week. This week we cover: #1. Clash of Clans: Bigger, Better Battle Pass #2. Three questions to ask to level up your Battle Pass monetization #3. Travis Scott's Fortnite Event Draws Record Audience #4. Epic gives in to Google and releases Fortnite on the Play Store Do you have feedback or comments for us? You can reach us on Twitter at: Joseph Kim: @...

Marvel Puzzle Quest was first launched back in 2013 and has been going strong for over 6 years now grossing over $100M in life of product revenue. Demiurge has had a bit of a roller coaster history and Al has successfully led the studio through both good and challenging times. Find out more about the story behind it all including the most recent re-acquisition of the studio from SEGA and the futur...

Welcome to TWIG #78, apologies we were off last week. This week we cover: #1. Valve: More games are finding success on Steam than ever before #2. PS5 has limited release plans in 2020 #3. Silicon Valley is racing to build the next version of the Internet. Fortnite might get there first. #4. Facebook to Introduce an App for Gaming LINKS: Google Play Updated Developer Policy: "Deceptive Behavior"&nb...

Jori Pearsall now Chief Product Officer at mobile financial access firm Tala has had a stellar career in mobile gaming working at companies like GREE and then most recently leading Product at mobile giant Scopely.  What has Jori learned from his time working in mobile games and free to play? What can he apply from our industry to his new industry? Listen to Jori speak on the biggest lessons h...

Lots of coronavirus talk these days and especially about current impact to gaming, etc.  We wanted to take a slightly different approach to this.  Let's talk deeper, let's talk long-term, let's talk about philosophical implications.   Today Niklas Herriger and I talk about:   #1. Long-term economic impact  #2. Dealmaking & psychology in crisis  #3. What do you do...

At its core, improving marketability means the increase of IPM (installs per 1000 impressions), which in turn leads to decreased CPI (cost per install). In lame man terms: the better your ad and your App Store page performs, the cheaper it is to acquire players. But while the formula is straightforward, increase of marketability doesn't necessarily result in positive effects. In fact, incorrect us...

What do you know about the Latin America gaming market?  Well find out about the key players, specifics of the market, and how to achieve success in LATAM with guest speakers from Jam City, Jairo Nieto and Alejandro Gonzalez , and with Lockwood Publishing's (Avakin Life) Carlos Estigarribia !   Hosts: Joseph Kim @jokim1 Josh Burns Youtube video of the podcast: GameMakers YouTube

AppAnnie recently published a report on The Impact of Coronavirus on the Mobile Economy. In this podcast, we speak to AppAnnie's Lexi Sydow and Amir Ghodrati (again!) to go over key takeaways from their report. In particular we cover: #1. Download impact on games and other key verticals #2. Top games, types of games #3. Biggest winners and losers #4. Differences between China and the US Host: Joe...

Welcome to TWIG 77! This week we cover: #1. Riot Games’ Teamfight Tactics Surpasses 4.5 Million Downloads on Mobile #2. Amazon Pushes Into Making Video Games, Not Just Streaming Their Play #3. Microsoft: Staggered launch would hurt Xbox Series X #4. The Kick-Ass Founding Team Do you want to come on the podcast with us? Do you have feedback or comments for us? You can reach us on Twitter at: Joseph...

Roblox has grown like crazy since its launch in 2006. Today 10 Roblox games have been played over 1 billion times and Adopt Me! has surpassed 4 billion plays. Since the launch of the mobile app, Roblox is also regularly a top 10 grossing mobile game as well. Today we cover: The history of Roblox and how it became successful How Roblox monetizes now and in the future What’s coming up for Roblox The...

Welcome to TWIG 76! This week we cover: Epic Games Publishing Announces Partnerships with gen DESIGN, Playdead, and Remedy Entertainment (Epic Games Website) Declining Cost-Per-Install Should Benefit Mobile Game Companies (Stephens Report) Forte recruits 5 more high-end game studios to make blockchain-based games (GamesBeat) Links: Jeff Cohen of Stephens - hit him up to request access to his resea...

Don’t be fooled: the mobile app economy will implode just like everything else.  Question is, how should games companies operate through the recession or even depression? What should the UA strategies look like for the different types of game portfolios? And what will the market look like when it’s all said and done?  I had lots of questions. Kudos to Eric Seufert and Brian Murphy for sh...

Interview with Damien Yvray, Lead Game Designer at Ubisoft Paris Mobile on Might & Magic Chess Royale!   Overview of Ubisoft’s strategy and efforts in mobile  Might & Magic Chess Royale:      Origin story  What is it and how is it different?   The current auto chess craze and Ubi's approach at attacking the market You can also watch the video intervi...

Welcome to TWIG 75! This week we cover: Mobile studio Scopely nets $200 million for more acquisitions Sony reveals full PS5 hardware specifications Mobile versions of Call of Duty and PUBG driving game revenue at Tencent Hit us up on Twitter or Insta with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at: @jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff