Łukasz Miądowicz, Huuuge Games

Rise of Hypercasual & Takeaways From Tap Tap Games

(White Nights Conference Berlin 2019)
The official conference website — http://wnconf.com

Transcript

1. The Rise of Hyper-casual & Takeaways from Tap Tap Games
2. Free-to-Play Global Market Leader Place Your Graphic Here Founded in 2014 400+ Employees 8 Offices $100M+ spent on Ads per year Huuuge Casino Billionaire Casino Huuuge Stars
4. Tap Tap Games Place Your Graphic Here Founded in 2018 30+ Games 1 Game/Week 24 People
6. What are Hyper-casual games? • Instantly playable • Minimalistic • Easy to understand UI • Short sessions (bus, queue,...) • 1 or 2 mechanics • Replayable • Youtubable • Appeal to many
7. Recently released Super Slime World Adventure Rollercoaster Dash Super AirTraffic Control Bendy Tracks Kitty Jump!
9. Over 2.5B People play free-to-play games
10. Game Spectrum https://venturebeat.com/2018/06/10/hypercasual-is-mobile-gamings-new-dominant-force-as/ • CPIs : <= $0.50 • <= 0.5 year lifecycle • Very High Organic traffic • CPIs : $0.50 - $6 • Up to 0.5y-2.5y lifecycle • High Organic traffic • CPIs : $6.00 - $11.00 • 1y-3.5y lifecycle • Medium organic traffic • CPIs : <= $11.00 - $.. • 1y-3.5+ lifecycle • Low organic traffic
11. Back to Arcade Jungle Hunt, 1981 Swing, Ketchapp, 2016 Frogger, 1981 Pong, “Avoid Missing Ball” One button control Source: TabTale
12. Back to Arcade Jungle Hunt, 1981 Swing, Ketchapp, 2016 built sustainable business on top of simple games at big scale Frogger, 1981 Source: TabTale
13. Source: TabTale, http://tabtale.com/blog_posts/tabtales-super-into-super-casual-games/ Year by Year Download Summary
14. Hyper-Casual Genre Leaders
15. Hyper-Casual Genre Leaders 2017: - Make up 48% of all Arcade downloads in Apple’s AppStore and 7% revenue.
16. Market leadership • >160 Games • 700M downloads (2016) • 23M downloads/month (2016) • $57k/day Revenue from Fidget Spinner • $600k Scream Go Hero in 2 months • >40 Games • 150M MAU (2017) • 300M downloads (2017) • 1bn downloads (2018) https://uploads.strikinglycdn.com/files/a7ad09f5-4a58-4a3a-87fa-57ae2b601288/20180528%20Voodoo-GS%20MBD%20-%20ENGLISH.pdf https://Appannie.com https://www.inc.com/eliran-sapir/how-to-make-57000-a-day-in-the-app-store.html http://www.euroinvestor.com/news/2016/09/27/ubisoft-entertainment-ubisoft-acquires-mobile-publisher-ketchapp/13456579#_ftn2
17. Hyper-casual & Top Charts source: AppAnnie 2019, Google Play + iOS
18. Acquisitions & Investments 2016, undisclosed 2018, $200M 2018, $250M https://lloydmelnick.com/2018/06/05/is-hypercasual-worth-the-450-million-that-zynga-and-goldman-sachs-just-spent/
19. Hyper Casual Games Deep Dive Simple Controls & Progress: 1 finger portrait mode show level progress Skills: no brain effort/no commitment Pick & play but hard to master Session time: Short; avg. 30-60 sec. till 2 minutes Waiting / bus / queue Experience: lightweight / minimum UI Instant satisfaction Business model: Free to play Rewarded video ads to revive (watch to keep going) Banners & interstitials IAPs to remove ads Mass market potential: Big audience (youngsters, mids, old), appeal to many not niche Describable in 20-30 sec video (use it for testing) Easy to understand / No tutorial Minimum on-boarding
20. Takeaway #1 - Do your research - Study Top Games using spreadsheet - what qualities do they have: - Average time or length of the session - Online / offline - Single/Multiplayer - Core mechanic description - Goal (=finish all levels) /Fail (=hit obstacle/wall/…) - Special (=unlock balls & platform skins for coins,...) - Improvement suggestions - Review Top Chart games (what works what doesn’t) - Check App Store game recommendations
21. Takeaway #2 - Find USP Unique Selling Point You are selling screenshot/short video to your users
22. Takeaway #3 - Only one control
23. Some of our games Tappy Stack • Tap to jump • Avoid flying blocks Kitty Jump • Swipe and release to shoot • Aim for the box Keep Turning • Tap to run • Avoid falling down Tap Dunk • Tap to bounce • Hit the basket Rollercoaster Dash • Tap and hold to accelerate • Release to fly higher
24. One image tutorial • It’s not a Tap Tap Game if we need more than a few words or images to explain stuff • You should be able to understand the gameplay right after seeing it.
25. Minimalism is the key • The less UI the better • Only necessary info included Only 3 elements!
26. Clear communication • Gameplay elements are easy to read and differ from background • You just need to play one game to understand all of them • Don’t unnecessarily overcomplicate it
27. Long Time Motivation • Give clear goals • Add reason to play for longer with Upgrades mechanics or.. • Amaze player with custom Quest/ Challenges
28. Takeaway #4 - Add fresh theme to existing mechanics
29. 4 Using existing mechanics and re-defining them with a new camera + =
30. Hypercasual matching gameplay Feel free to combine these ideas Aim game Clicker Flip Linker Match 3 Runner Snake Merge game Slicer Stack game Jumper Frogger Brick breaker Idler
31. Iterate! • Start with a humble prototype • Focus on a core mechanic’s fun factor • Without great gameplay, there is no use for more sophisticated features Working prototype Finished game with only core features Launch Finding fun Update 1: additional features Next updates and so on Leave it Performing well? Y N Well performing
32. Takeaway #5 - Metrics & Benchmarks • Retention ◦ D1 >= 40% ◦ D7 >= 14% • CPI ◦ CPI <= $0.50 • % of DAU watching video ads ◦ If low then improve your implementation (correct your message, change reward value, not interrupt gameplay,…) ◦ From Unity ads - (20% have up to 20%, 51% have 20%-50%, 27% have 50%-80%, successful games have 45%+) • Ads per watcher ◦ Try to improve from 1 to 2-3+ to increase revenue ◦ From Unity ads - on average 2.7; most successful games try to achieve 3-4 Unity Ads, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bwTPzdtGtk
33. Thank you & reach out to me! Łukasz Miądowicz, Developer Relations Manager lukasz.miadowicz@huuugegames.com