two & a half gamers

Hello & welcome everyone. This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session #5. Let’s dive in. Youtube: https://youtu.be/9lMdZqLlvvM Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej Lančarič What is the point of releasing a new game or app to a restricted audience market in advance of a full launch? Soft launch stages I like to divide the soft launch into three stages: Technical, Retention, Monetization. Each stage serves a different purpose and different KPIs are measured. While in the Technical stage, we are mostly focusing on data health, crash rate, and tracking in general, in the Retention stage we measure D1, D3, D7 Retention, FTUE, tutorial completion rate, and much more. Game developers are obsessed with achieving the highest D1 retention numbers they can, but D1 is not the holy grail. I’ve seen games with D1 retention at roughly 25% still being able to generate many millions of Euros in revenue per month. The result was primarily driven by excellent D60 retention, which was 6-8%. Therefore, it is absolutely crucial to focus on the ratio between D1, D3, and D7. The monetization stage is where the fun starts. Measuring ARPU, conversion to payment, and Dx ROAS requires running purchase (ROAS) oriented campaigns: AEO/VO on Facebook or tCPA/tROAS on Google Ads. Listen in to learn more! Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me / lancaric.me

Hello & welcome everyone. This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session #4. Let’s dive in. Youtube: https://youtu.be/ivPbZqA62VA Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej Lančarič Soft Launching a Mobile Game Ad Mon Perspective What prompted me to want to talk about this is a Statisa article Mobile Game ad spend is expected to grow to $130bn by 2025. That’s up 300% from $32 bn in 2020 With this amount of money being pumped into UA its safe to say Mobile ad revenue will only grow and be a larger part of your overall revenue for mobile games I wanted to provide a how to guide for what you as a mobile game dev should think about when soft launching and global launching your next mobile game First Ask Think of all mobile games generas on a spectrum from hypercasual to Hardcore The two extremes will monetize 97% either from ads or from IAPs Advice here is for the middle ground - not hyper casual or Hardcore If your game genera sits in the middle of this spectrum you first need to decide which ad format to work with 9/10 the ad format that works best for you are Rewarded ads Rewarded ads are the undisputed king of game formats Highest eCPM compared to other formats Highest completion rates Lowest amount of friction from users since its opt-in Large competition on this inventory format from ad networks because it converts super well Listen in to learn more! here https://lancaric.me/how-to-soft-launch-a-mobile-game-ad-mon-perspective/  Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me / lancaric.me 

Hello & welcome everyone. This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session #3. Let’s dive in. Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej Lančarič Roblox Steam hosts 55K Games vs Roblox 20 Mil “experiences” 47,3 Mil DAU Half of the users are aged 12 and under Current Market cap 38 Bil $ Roblox Cut 75,5% Roblox takes a 30% cut of every transaction on their platform Discoverability Robux Minimum Withdrawal to real life money 100K (1000 $) Second life comparison (10$) Withdrawal only possible with Roblox monthly 5$ subscription On every 1$ revenue of roblox only 17% make it out Historic example of “Company money Scrib” Workers spend their money at the company Workers become afraid to break company rules as company rules over their “money” This dependency increase friction on quitting the system Illegal in US 1938 Platform Capitalism - business model based on unsustainable expansion in order to monopolize a platform Experience based payouts Roblox “editor knowledge untransferable “Make serious cash” claim removed from the website after video Roblox moderation - shut down official forums in 2017 because they couldn’t moderate them Roblox Collectible Market Tie ins with Brands Collectibles that are sold for limited time skyrocket in value from 10 to 15K $ dollars Roblox still takes a 30% form all of the transactions Roblox Black market Rewarded Interstitial ads - 6 months in Around 6 months ago Google and Facebook announced the roll out of Rewarded interstitial ads. An interstitial ad that pops up and users can opt out of and thus forgo the reward Admob are pushing very hard on this format which is still in Beta Facebook were pushing it but not so much anymore Don’t monetize with this format! You’re opening yourself up to unnecessary stress and risk Only FB and Admob support it - thus you’ll get lower prices FB on iOS is pretty much non-existent so you have no competition Calling it now that in 12 months they won’t exist. Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me

Hello & welcome everyone. This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session #2. Let’s dive in. Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej Lančarič UA & Creative trends / learnings from 2021 Main trend 2022 UA diversification Having Facebook as one and only UA channel is dangerous and the times when you could use FB up until the 1M monthly spend are gone. UA channel mix needs to be diversified even more. My UA go to channel was and still is Facebook, even though the quality decreased heavily in 2021, but I am running google UAC and Unity Hypercasual-led creatives The persona-led creatives is/was a trend everybody is talking about now thanks to the iOS14. The thing is, personas and motivations were here a long time ago. I guess it wasn't so popular to talk about back then. Let's focus on something else. Adapting hypercasual game concepts to your game creatives is going to explode next year. I’m pretty sure that you saw these ASMR videos on Youtube which let into the game development of the ASMR Slicing hypercasual game by Tricky Tribe – my friends from Slovenia – This ASMR game was a big hit in the United states and I think number one for a couple of weeks. I am also pretty sure you saw different games like Coin Master started slicing their coins. Why not use it for other games as well. Slicing a tomato? Hell yeah! We are not talking only about ASMR slicing here. There are other concepts you could use. Tangle Master 3D, Crowd City, etc. Great thing is, new ones are popping up every day! Look at hypercasual game called Countmaster, I am pretty sure there are some clones of it, but this game concept is now used by Warpath and some other strategy games. Topwar, merge strategy game is also leveraging hypercasual game concepts for creatives and I’ve also seen Playrix go into this direction. Gaming companies will do everything to decrease those CPIs! Audio ads for games Podcasts are really popular these days. Looks like almost every person on the Earth listens to a podcast. I even started one to educate and help build the game dev knowledge in Slovakia called Gamecast or 2.5gamers. But where am I going with this? Have you heard any game related ads in these podcasts or in games in general? This is relevant not only in terms of User Acquisition, but also a golden opportunity for game developers seeking to monetise their games without damaging retention. Audio ads can be played while you play the game and don't interrupt your gaming experience. Player retention doesn’t get hurt and therefore game devs can increase their profit and LTV. We already see a rise of companies focusing exactly on this topic. Everything looks on the paper, but I really feel we will see 2022 as a year of Audio ads. There is Audiomob and Oodeo in this space, let's watch it closely!

Hello & welcome everyone. This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session #1. A safe space for all of us & you as well. Bringing you the feel of a 4am conference discussion about the gaming industry. Let’s dive in. Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej Lančarič Predictions?  Who will be the biggest winner in the mobile gaming ecosystem in 2022? Who will be the biggest loser in the mobile gaming ecosystem in 2022? What was the biggest surprise you saw in the mobile gaming ecosystem in 2021? No play-to-earn games in mobile app stores How do we see it? Play to Earn vs Play and Earn Ponzi schemes + Scholarship mechanic - Prevalence in low salary countries Big Friction in user funnel Wallet & exchanges fees Very steep initial investment in some games (Axxie) User acquisition Discord communities & Early investors Conventional user acquisition Games soft launched/global launched in summer (and onwards) will have some form of blockchain in it What is it going to be like? Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me