Selling casual games

I compared a series of Hyper-Casual games like Helios Jump clones. I could create a top 5 game chart from 5 different clones. Some of them were very different from the original, some were exactly the same or worse. This is what the chart looked like and why:. Original Game. Good music A so-so Clone - the same visual aspect, the same mechanics but with some new features - 2 skills available. A bad clone of a clone - the same fruit style but with a very ugly art. A bad clone of an original game - the same mechanics and art but more ugly.

Unclear interface and ugly colors. Let's assume 1st point went great. How to go from users to without heavy marketing investments? Rovio invest directly in USA. It also depends on your monetization model. If you have lots of intrusive ads in your game, then probably first minutes of gameplay is the most important for you, also a player number is also important. The more players, the faster you will multiply your investment. As long as you don't lose money on it, why not to invest? That's what I would do The game can be good or decent but imagine this: someone just gives you 2 stars on Google Play and your game automatically not in top.

What do you do then? The game is still good, but people don't see it anymore. If your retained players are still playing your game and you earn money - great! Soon it will go down anyway day 15, 30, 60 or You will have to keep updating and investing in marketing to keep your player base. Otherwise you will need to use your player base and to launch another game - Version 2. That's very hilarious how some developers manage to stay on the float using the same mechanics and just publishing an improved version of the same game, again and again Those from Rovio thins this way: If the game is not a hit in first 15 days, just drop it and do something else.

Doesn't matter how much updates you will do, the game will not get significantly more users from that. You will have to learn to trust your own experiences with each game you make and publish. Just like I described yearly-er Even if someone will clone your game and kill it with marketing, you still have that small window days to collect your cash! After that - doesn't matter!

Yes they will remake your game in a new, maybe better, with cooler effects or graphics, but as long as you had something original, you will still have your audience. If I would be a "big fish" developer, I would probably ignore games that didn't earned at list Hey, guess what!? That's an opportunity for you! Next time when you create something cool and wish to publish it, you can write down those guys that cloned and marketed your last game!

Now you have something like "a food in the door", they now your last game and maybe you can manage a good deal for your next one? Anyway it will be better than nothing. Honestly, do you know when I would publish my own game? If I have money for marketing. If the game is "special", something with meaning, something designed to attract a specific audience. Just remember Mountain Valley. At the beginning Ketchapp distributed it for free.

The game was a hit, good graphics, good music, simple mechanics and it has a sort of story in it. Later, they put a price on it and on version 2 as well. Who the hell would like to buy that Version 2 if nobody would be able to play for free that first game? To sell a product, you need to understand who will be interested in it.

Draw a portrait of the target audience: age, gender, location, language, websites that they visit, etc. For hyper-casual games, you need to segment the audience at a very detailed level, because almost everyone can play them due to simple mechanics. The more details, the easier it is to decide on the format and placement of your ad. Evaluate competitors and their strategy. Check out our email course to learn more about conducting effective competitor analysis.

To get attention, you need to talk about yourself. At the very beginning of the promotion, it will be enough to post information about yourself on such resources as Product Hunt, Hacker News, Medium, etc. This is how you attract the first users and form your audience. A properly selected icon will be able to pull out even a weak product. Describe the product as much as possible: talk about the game features, bonuses, describe a couple of game moments — the more details, the better.

Add real and interesting screenshots of the game. This is also a matter of customer focus. The trick of this stage is also that you can determine the core of the target audience. Advertising in app stores is highly dependent on the keywords in the title, the title of the game itself and its description, and the rating.

Keep in mind that casual gamers want games that are free. However, they do not mind watching ads in exchange for in-game rewards.

This allows you to adjust the ads most accurately if there is a clear portrait of the target audience. Social media platforms have their own user database. You can also create your own group on social media and form a community. Inside, you can conduct contests, polls, receive suggestions, reviews, and ratings. The word of mouth marketing is one of the most powerful mobile marketing strategies that drive the most organic traffic.

Encourage the users to tell their friends and family about the game by using GetSocial Smart Invites. Smart Invites allow the users to send invites through all social media platforms and chat apps quickly and easily. But do not overuse them, it is best to use daytime notifications and only alert the players about the most important things. There are two main ways to monetize hyper-casual games: through advertising and through in-app purchases. In contrast to casual games, the life cycle of a player in a hyper-casual game is very short, so it is harder to monetize hyper-casual games with in-app purchases.

They also have a lot less content that can be sold for money. But it does not mean that you do not need to work with iAP. A competent approach to introducing iAP and creating content that can be sold can increase income, so it is advisable to use every opportunity. The most common types of ads in hyper-casual games are banners, rewarded videos, and interstitials.

To generate more views of rewarded videos, you need to solve the following problems:. In this section, we have collected the 15 most popular hyper-casual games for Android and iOS as of September Players must gather a large crowd and figure out ways to keep them all alive. The journey will be filled with gaps, traps, and enemies that threaten the lives of everyone in their path.

In Bridge Race, players compete to build the best bridge and cross over a river. There are rails, walls to jump, a stick to balance and a huge podium waiting at the end of the epic road in this game.

A different obstacle awaits players in each parkour that will test their skills as well as dexterity with every step they take towards an escape from these towering skyscrapers.

Club is a much more ambitious and exciting but expensive project. Full details of some of the planned improvements are in the about section on our Patreon page. Consider joining Club so we can continue making improvements that help you find good games on Steam. As a bonus incentive, greater pledge levels come with some additional rewards, including your Steam reviews on an exclusive ranking and your name etched into the site! Community Discord Steam curator Chat on Discord from the web, your desktop, mobile or all three at once!

Join our friendly little community and chat about games and rankings. Follow our official Steam curator page to access game rankings directly from the Steam store!