Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #6 (Online)
2021-04-19..2021-04-23
-- online --
who it's for
mobile game developers, user acquisition managers, monetisation managers, publishers and distribution partners, product managers, live ops engineers, indie studio founders
topics
creative A/B testing for store art; alternative Android store distribution; user acquisition and retention tactics; IDFA opt-in and SKAdNetwork adaptation; playable and rewarded video ads; in-game branded ads and billboards; hybrid monetisation: subscriptions and battle pass; live ops in the cloud; influencer marketing for games; seasonal Asian market monetisation; M&A and publishing strategies
| title | author | length |
|---|---|---|
| Art Definition: The Queen's Gambit of CRO | Jose García | 35m |
Lab Cave runs iterative ASO/CRO using Google Play experiments and A/B tests (SplitMetrics for iOS), formulates hypotheses from competitor research and reviews… | ||
| The Big Catch – Unlock New Audiences with Motivational-led Creative | Lynda Barry | 24m |
Shows a tested framework: pick four of eight player motivations (self‑expression, progression, discovery, power, escapism, relaxation, social, expertise)… | ||
| Growing Your Audience in Alternative App Stores | Pedro Dinis | 29m |
Catappult claims distribution across alternative Android stores drives scale — they report close to 20 billion downloads a year for apps they handle and run a… | ||
| Best Practices in User Acquisition & Retention | Peggy Ann Salz, Martin Macmillan, Matej Lancaric, Tibo Vincent-Ducimetière, Asaf Hochman | 52m |
Panel claims that playables double or triple IPMs and on average deliver 20% lower CPA versus video; advertisers prove this across Unity and some networks… | ||
| How to Optimise Game Success & Monetisation With the Right Brand Partners | Nicholas Longano, Patrick Dolan, Zach Stadlin-Robbie | 39m |
Argues that g-commerce turns game lobbies into non‑disruptive stores that monetize every player, claiming a multi‑trillion opportunity across 3 billion gamers… | ||
| Monetisation Optimisation in Apple's New Normal | Justin Welter | 26m |
Apple enforces an IDFA opt-in so publishers test branded pre-prompt flows (Among Us, Ball Blast examples) that explain data use and offer ad-free purchases… | ||
| Choosing the Best Ad Format for Your Game | Peggy Ann Salz, Meg Mylan, Akseli Virtanen, Eiso Kawamoto, Jobie Tan, Efe Incesulu | 53m |
Panelists argue that rewarded video and playables outperform banners and text ads for mid‑core and idle games, with playables especially effective for… | ||
| Exploring the Potential of InGamePlay Brand Ads | DAVE BRADLEY, Chris Wright, Hannes Hultgren | 31m |
AdInMo’s SDK embeds branded assets as in-world billboards and objects inside mobile games and Impact Unified integrates it into Umpire’s Call, a 3D cricket… | ||
| The Game Business Post-vaccine - A New Path to 'Normality' | Kay Grünwoldt, Kirstin Bosc, Renee Gittins, Xavier Carrillo Costa, George Osborn, Petri Hyokyranta | 48m |
Panel reports the games sector stays resilient with about 80% productivity and roughly a quarter of companies still hiring, while almost half of developers… | ||
| Seize the Moment-Seasonal Changes in the Asian Market -The Best Times to Monetise | Jason Parmar | 31m |
Asia accounts for almost half of global games revenue about $85B and China shows 76% of players in tier 3–5 cities producing 70% of its game revenue, so ad… | ||
| Are M&As the New Markers of Success? | Luke Alvarez, Marvin Liao, John Peterson, Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Eitan Reisel, Dieter Schoeller | 43m |
Panel argues M&A fatigue is false: 2020–21 shows seller's market dynamics with mega deals (Microsoft/Bethesda), IPOs and large private rounds driving more… | ||
| Being Successful in Self-publishing | Martin Macmillan, Riley Andersen, Laurent Benadiba | 33m |
One panelist reports 6 million downloads and another cites ~34 million players and both say they raised and reused cash (one raised ~$500k) to scale teams and… | ||
| Organising Projects: Financing vs. Killing it | Martin Macmillan, Chris Calderon, Christopher Natsuume, Markus Vahtola | 49m |
Panelists compare concrete processes and outcomes for running multiple titles: portfolio of risk—keep ~half the studio on profitable co-dev or work‑for‑hire… | ||
| How to Win in a Fragmented Mobile Market? | Nikita Zatsepin | 17m |
Claim: distributing beyond Google Play adds measurable reach and revenue using Unity tools. Unity Distribution Portal Unity Distribution Portal (UDP) automates… | ||
| Is it Still About the Whales? Getting the Most of Your Users | Martine Spaans, Toni Sala Echaurren, Eado Hofstetter, Bolin Xiao, Vasil Gospodinov | 59m |
Panel argues that monetization shifts from a few IAP whales to a mix of paying cohorts and ad-heavy users, citing ~70–80% revenue from whales+dolphins and ~5%… | ||
| The Crossroads Between Edge Computing, Privacy, & Ad Monetisation | Abhishek Sen | 27m |
Privacy changes lead to sharp addressability loss — IDFA opt‑ins fall around 75–85% opt‑out, and a study shows 40–50% drop in in‑app revenues for… | ||
| IDFA / iOS14: How Contextual Advertising Can Save Game Studios Millions | Christian Facey | 18m |
Claim: contextual audio ads can replace much IDFA-driven revenue loss by using on-device audio intent signals, game genre and app ID to sell brand bids without… | ||
| Keys to Success in 2021 | Emory Irpan | 29m |
Unity's 2021 Gaming Report compiles engine, Ads/Analytics, DeltaDNA, Multiplay and Vivox data and shows clear, actionable shifts: daily active users spike in… | ||
| Hybrid Monetisation, Subscriptions, Battle-pass - What is Best for You? | Nick Murray, Sarah Tilley, Jonathan Lin, Antanina Livingston, Daniel McLaren | 40m |
Panel argues hybrid monetization pairs battle passes and subscriptions with liveops experiments: deploy a limited-time battle pass to test pricing and… | ||
| How the Industry is Preparing for Post-IDFA | Jon Jordan, Philip Gontier, Tanya Lee, Saurav Dutta, Shay Ze'ev Yosifon, Neil Mills | 47m |
Panelists describe concrete moves: teams are buying massive LAT traffic to benchmark post‑IDFA performance, updating SDKs and Info.plists urgently, and A/B… | ||
| Liftoff's Preparation for ATT | Anthony Mkhize | 30m |
Liftoff outlines concrete steps for post‑ATT UA: switch attribution to SKAdNetwork (sk ad network) for iOS 14.5+, avoid recreating IDFAs, and use a third‑party… | ||
| Beyond IDFA - The Publisher Viewpoint | Oscar Clark, Jarkko Rajamaki | ? |
Argues that ATT/IDFA makes precise user-level targeting far harder so UA teams shift to probabilistic models and aggregate signals, using SKAdNetwork… | ||
| Dear Influencer Agency | Shanzay Usama | 34m |
Top actionable rules: send a best deck anyone's ever seen as first contact, check the game's name and spell names correctly (one organizer eliminated three of… | ||
| Targeted Approaches to the Casual Game Market in China | Yufan Wang | 32m |
Ohayoo presents concrete China numbers and tactics: casual games hit ~400M MAU and ~200M daily users in 2020, generating ~$5B (projected $7B), downloads rose… | ||
| Getting a Publisher vs. Self-publishing | Caglar Eger, Bertrand Vernizeau, Alex Van Lepp, Michelle Brandstetter, Jami Wardman | 52m |
Publishers describe a checklist: run a small UA test and measure retention and first‑session length, inspect in‑game behavior and monetization, and treat ASO… | ||
| From an Indie Game to Hypercasual Success - Can Any Game Go Hyper? | Shai Sasson | 30m |
CrazyLabs describes a fast, data-led pipeline: concept to worldwide launch in four to six weeks, early tests in one to two weeks using the Click dashboard, and… | ||
| 15 Minutes on 15 Seconds: Breaking Down a Hit Hypercasual Ad | Jake Parker | 27m |
Kwalee claims 600 million downloads and shows that winning hypercasual ads are actual gameplay recordings, not staged trailers: capture a first-second… | ||
| Hypercasual Ideation - How #1 Hit Games Are Born | Moria Goldstein Toren | 35m |
CrazyLabs’ internal checklist: scan social platforms for repeating videos, confirm trend offline, isolate the pure fun moment, make a mock-up and a pitch that… | ||
| What Does it Take to Create Real Social Games? | Emil Kjaehr, Langer Lee, Parin Shah, Joanna Haslam, Benjamin Charbit | 53m |
A tech-first claim: making real social games means giving players creation tools and agency rather than chasing graphics, exemplified by successes like Valheim… | ||
| What can Hypercasual Games Teach the World? | Stephen Lee, Aysegul Can, Marco Frisina, Callum Carmichael, Jake Parker | 55m |
Hypercasual development centers on rapid testing and ruthless iteration: teams build a prototype in one to two weeks (often in Unity), run creative-driven UA… | ||
| Why Developers Fail on Alternative App Stores & How to Succeed | Maciej Burno | 30m |
Argues that alternative stores deliver real users and revenue if treated as a channel: expect about 5–25% incremental revenue within 24 months, examples… | ||
| Best Practices & Pitfalls to Avoid When Creating Game Videos | Natalia Shuhman | 29m |
Portfolio lists 123 game videos and a production pipeline that starts with a brief of 12 questions (four decide goal, audience, platform rules and prioritized… | ||
| Know Your Players, Grow Your Game: A Guide to Live Ops in the Cloud | Marion Finnigan | 23m |
Argues that live ops is a continuous cycle of design, delivery and feedback and gives concrete tooling: an analytics pipeline built with CloudFormation feeding… | ||
| Live Ops Strategies That are a Must for Every Game Developer | Emil Kjaehr, Stuart Muckley, Philipp J. Karstaedt, James Mayo, Pierre Katkoff | 44m |
Panelists argue start live ops during prototype stage, plug a live ops platform early to let non-tech teams run events and avoid last-minute plumbing. Treat… | ||
| Are Influencers the Future of Game Marketing? | Sophia Aubrey Drake, Alwin Wong, Mika Kuusisto, Philip Wride, Amy Huang, Daniel Cole | 52m |
Panelists describe concrete wins and tools: a Bash tournament platform that drove one streamer’s audience 3x follower growth in six months, ENCE used sponsor… | ||
| Healthy Growth Tactics for Esports | Mark Reed, Brett Diamond, Ilias Pajoheshfar, Spike Laurie, Ignat Brobovich, Berkley Egenes | 58m |
Panel argues developers must deliver a fun, fair game with matchmaking, custom lobbies and spectator tools to scale — examples: Valorant built for competition… | ||
| nothing matches | ||