Mastering Retention

Some games are intended to be played over the course of several months, sometimes even years. These games demand new and exciting content - such as new quests - in order to keep players coming back. Designing, testing, and implementing these new quests into your game requires lots of creativity and brain power that often goes unnoticed. This week on Mastering Retention, Tom speaks with former Worl...

So, your new game has taken the world by storm? What do you do next? How do you maintain momentum and how do you replicate your previous success? This week on “Mastering Retention,” Miikka Ahonen Co-founder of Lightheart Entertainment, creator of Mr. Autofire, joins Tom to discuss building and running a company, building successful games, as well as strategies for release and, of course, retention...

If you use social media, odds are you have seen many ads for hyper-casual games. On the surface, these free-to-play games may appear simple and minimalistic, but in reality are intricate, detailed, and have the potential to generate lots of revenue. This week on “Mastering Retention”, Christoph Sachsenhausen (Managing Director at Sunday) joins Tom to discuss the level of detail that goes into crea...

Creating a fun and engaging game is only half the battle. In order to establish your game as one of the most downloaded apps, you must create and properly utilize the many different types of advertisements. This week on “Mastering Retention”, Claire Rozain (UA Team Lead at Rovio) walks Tom through the process of implementing immersive and thoughtful ads/creatives in order to have a positive effect...

Free-to-play is here to stay. For years the video game market has been saturated by free-to-play games. All facets of the gaming industry have had to adapt to this shift in the gaming landscape - as well as many other changes in the way a game economy is designed. This week on “Mastering Retention”, Rudy Saldivar (Lead Product Manager at Robin Games) joins Tom to discuss how game economists and ec...

User acquisition can be achieved in many different ways. Finding the right UA method depends heavily on the goals of both your game and company. On this week’s episode of “Mastering Retention”, Matej Lancaric (User Acquisition & Marketing Consultant) joins Tom to break down some of the ways he has helped companies meet their UA goals and discuss how important brand awareness is when it comes t...

Blockchain technology is all the buzz right now. Could that technology lead to the beginning of the next era of mobile gaming? Anil Das-Gupta (CPO, Co-Founder at First Light Games) joins Tom to discuss how despite the complexity of the integration, there are many exciting possibilities that blockchain technology could usher in. Here are your cheat codes: - 0:47 How did Anil Das-Gupta get into the...

The modern landscape of mobile gaming demands ad monetization to generate revenue for your game studio. A lot of hard work goes into not only creating ads, but every behind-closed-doors decision in regards to the very same ads. This week on the Mastering Retention Podcast, Diego Diaz Perez (Monetization Manager at WEEWOO) takes Tom behind the scenes of ad monetization. Here are your cheat codes: -...

Creating a company from scratch requires a ton of hard work and sacrifice. Maintaining a healthy work/life balance makes it all that more difficult, but it is doable. This week on the Mastering Retention Podcast, Tom speaks with fellow entrepreneur and business owner, Brett Nowak (CEO & Founder of Liquid and Grit), about how they have managed to find a healthy work/life balance in the midst of...

The mobile gaming industry has long been a way for companies to make money off of its users. The emergence of real money gaming allows the players the opportunity to get in on the money making through skilled and/or chance based games. This week on Mastering Retention, Tom speaks with Priyank Badkul (VP of Products and Monetization at Tripledot Studios) about the emerging trends and technology beh...

Well designed features within your game can be the difference between an audience rejecting your game and an audience falling in love with your game. Saravanan Sankar (Game Designer at EA) has spent years working on game features and he joins Tom on this week's episode of "Mastering Retention" to share some deep insights on what works and what falls short of being a good feature for your game. Her...

Coming up with a game concept is hard, but creating that game from scratch and seeing it through all the way to global launch is incredibly difficult. Annelie Biernat (Game Director at Wooga)has done exactly that. She and her team have taken their game "Switchcraft" all the way to the global launch finish line, and she sits down with Tom to share the wealth of knowledge she has gained from doing i...

Data and analytics are incredibly important for the game industry, but understanding and accurately interpreting the data is key to creating and sustaining your game's success. Joni Ruotsalainen (Data Scientist at Metacore) speaks with Tom about his day-to-day role as a data scientist and illustrates how valuable a data scientist can be to any game studio. Here are your cheat codes: - 0:59 How did...

Video games are meant to entertain us, but they also have the incredible power to connect people from all over the world. Wouter Schrijvershof (Live Ops Manager at GamePoint) and his team at GamePoint pride themselves on creating meaningful communities within their games. Schrijvershof tells Tom that GamePoint's bingo has developed such a strong sense of community, that players are hosting games/e...

Creating a successful game requires a lot more than a good idea and decent gameplay. It takes a true artist to perfect all the intricacies throughout the menus, marketing materials, and virtual stores. Kristina Miles (Lead UX Designer at Electric Square) is one of those artists. This week on the Mastering Retention Podcast, she sits down with Tom to discuss what all goes into creating a game's des...

In order to effectively advertise your game, you must know your players like the back of your hand. Srikanth Peru (Director of Production & Operations at Bingo Bash) takes Tom inside the world of game operations and illustrates its ever changing nature. Learn some tricks on how to properly identify your target audience! Here are your cheat codes: 1:30 How did Srikanth Peru get into the video g...

Is Blockchain Gaming the next big thing? Khaled Alroumi (Game designer at Illuvium) thinks so! Adopting the Play-To-Earn format, Alroumi and his team are on the verge of creating an open world RPG that exists on Ethereum blockchain. Alroumi joins Tom this week to answer some perplexing questions on blockchain gaming and play-to-earn game economies. Here are your cheat codes: 1:19 How did Khaled Al...

On today's episode of Mastering Retention, Joakim Hoglund (Head of Studio at FunRock) joins Tom to discuss to art of understanding your target audience, localization across cultural boundaries, and so much more! Podcast Highlights Include: 1:29 How did Joakim Hoglund get into the video game industry? 3:54 What titles have you been working on at FunRock studios? 5:38 Catering your game to a specifi...

On today's episode of Mastering Retention, Mat Baker (Game Design Lead at Trailmix) joins Tom to discuss when to know when to pivot your game's approach, how to do so effectively, and so much more! Here are your cheat codes: 1:18 How did Mat Baker get into the video game industry? 6:38 How did Mat start working for Trailmix and what sort of projects have they been working on? 18:47 How to identify...

On today's episode of Mastering Retention, Varia Vakhreeva (User Acquisitions Manager at Sheepyard) joins Tom to discuss user acquisition at every step of the game creation process and navigates listeners through the complicated world of ads and "creatives". Podcast Highlights Include: - 1:04 How did Varia Vakhreeva get into the video game industry? - 4:53 User Acquisition - 9:27 Finding Your Audi...

On today's episode of Mastering Retention, Mladen Dulanovic(Game Lead at Nordeus) joins Tom to discuss problem solving at all levels of production, the value of being prepared, and so much more! Here are your cheat codes: - 0:55 How did Mladen Dulanovic get into the video game industry? - 7:03 How to make a successful game? - 11:44 Solving Problems In Your Game. - 20:45 The Practical Phase - 27:01...

On today's episode of Mastering Retention, Chris Hong (Tech Lead at Metacore) joins Tom to discuss the exciting world of LiveOps and the technology and services used in the process. Podcast Highlights Include: - 0:43 How did Chris Hong get into the video game industry? - 9:24 Defining LiveOps - 11:29 Automated LiveOps - 13:35 What efforts go into executing LiveOps - 14:47 Potential LiveOps Errors...

On today's episode of Mastering Retention, Francesco Fontana (Senior Game Designer at Savage Game Studios) joins Tom to discuss designing a game economy, limited currency, and so much more! Cheat codes: - 1:04 How did Francesco Fontana get started in the gaming industry? - 3:11 Game Economy Design - 6:13 Early Stage Prototype/Soft Launch - 9:15 When should you give up on your game? - 12:24 User Re...

On today's episode of Mastering Retention, Rimmy Spanjer (Managing Director of Games Division at Hyper Hippo Entertainment) joins Tom to continue their dive deep into the world of videogame monetization and first time player conversion. - 1:29 Defining First time conversion - 4:50 Differences between first time conversion and subsequent conversion events - 8:06 Optimizing First time conversion for...

On today's episode of Mastering Retention, Rimmy Spanjer (Managing Director of Games Division at Hyper Hippo Entertainment) joins Tom to dive deep into the world of videogame monetization. - 1:03 How did Rimmy Spanjer get started in the gaming industry? - 4:06 How did Rimmy Spanjer become interested in game economy design? - 6:17 What does “creative director” actually mean? - 8:30 Why is monetizat...