Deconstructor of Fun

Did you know that nearly half of players say that genre is important when deciding which new mobile game to try, exceeding factors like friends or family recommendations and app store reviews? 

This insight ☝️ is just one of numerous you'll find in Facebook's recent Genre and Great Games report. It's a fantastic deep dive into four key mobile genres (Strategy, RPG, Puzzle and Hypercasuas) focusing on four key countries (US, UK, Japan, Korea), What makes the report unique is not only all the Facebook data but also the way it is structured based on genre characteristics, community, IAP preferences and ad monetization.

In this episode we are joined by Kyle Ranally, Vertical Insights Marketing Strategist at Facebook IQ and Joel Julkunen, Head of Game analysis at Game Refinery. Both of the gentlemen we instrumental in crafting up the Genre and Great Games report.

Get the Full Report here: www.fb.gg/genre2020

Welcome to our 100th episode retrospective episode!

In this podcast, we will look back on the origins of TWIG, talk about lessons learned, biggest news, future, and finally what are some of the best episodes you should definitely try to catch.

Hosts: Twitter, Insta

Today we discuss how to do writing for games the right way!

And speaking with us on this topic is one of the most experienced writers in the industry Susan O'Connor.

Susan has worked on over 25 titles, from AAA to indie. Titles in her portfolio have sold over 30 million copies and generated over $500 million in sales.

Listen to find out more about the opportunity for writing in games, the process, key considerations, how to work with and hire a writer, how to write great characters, and more!

Find out more about Susan here: https://www.susanoconnorwriter.com/

Host:

Guest:

Mid-core game marketing is know for either massive marketing campaigns that flood the market or those incredibly divisive creatives that have usually nothing to do with the game itself. Either way, scaling a mid-core game is an expensive undertaking.

So how should you launch and scale if you have a great game but limited resources and no brand recognition? 

In this episode we're joined by Riku Rakkola (CEO of Traplight Games) and Filippo De Rose (Chief Growth Officer of Traplight Games) who walk us through how they developed, launched and scaled Battle Legion. One of the most innovative mid-core games to hit the market in recent years.

Welcome to TWIG #99!

This week we cover:

#1. India bans PUBG in latest crackdown on Chinese apps

#2. Epic’s Latest Apple Argument Hints At Plans For World Domination

#3. Report: New Switch model with better graphics coming in 2021

#4. PS5 won’t be backward-compatible with PS3, PS2, or PS1, Ubisoft says

Do you have feedback or comments for us?

You can reach us on Twitter at:

Joseph Kim: @jokim1 (Twitter, Insta)   Eric Kress: @ekress    Adam Telfer: @adamwtelfer    Miska Katkoff: @m_katkoff

SPONSOR:

This episode is sponsored by Beta Hat (www.betahatMR.com)

GenJoy, a studio from the leading Spanish mobile Group Genera, just launched Tuscany Villa a match-3 puzzle game on mobile.  How will the Seville, Spain based mobile studio compete against giants such as King and Playrix?  

More specifically we talk about:  

#1. Strategy & Product: What kind of strategy and what kind of product differentiation does Genera employ to compete against the big guys?  

#2. Marketing: We’ve heard stories about how the big guys have a huge marketing advantage… or do they? Let’s dive deeper and find out how Genera competes on a marketing basis  

#3. Technology Infrastructure: And finally technology infrastructure. There are lots of rumors and stories of a massive infrastructure technology investment by King especially around machine learning and AI applied to level creation, design, and balancing. What are the technology investments Genera will be making to compete?  

To walk us through all of this and more are the three key leads from Genera:

     - Alejandro Moreno

    - Pablo Benitez

    - Jesus Bartus

Antitrust Specialist Ryan Tisch from Crowell & Moring and Video Games Lawyer David Hoppe from Gamma Law explain Epic's lawsuit against Apple and Google.  

Hosts:

    - Joe Kim, @jokim1

   - Eric Kress

Speakers:

    - David Hoppe, https://gammalaw.com/

    - Ryan Tisch, https://www.crowell.com/

Welcome to TWIG #98!

This week we cover:

#1. Facebook has abandoned the IDFA and may kill FAN for iOS. What’s next for mobile measurement?

#2. Unity’s IPO numbers look pretty… Unreal

#3. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War costs $69.99 for next-gen consoles

#4. The risks of market research

LINKS:

Guest Host:

Regular Hosts:

What are the biggest issues and annoyances in the games industry that trigger Eric Kress? Come to an uncensored broadcast discussing these issues moderated by Chris Hewish from Xsolla and also joined by Joe Kim who will egg on Eric for maximum entertainment!

Host: Chris Hewish, President of Xsolla

Speakers:

Notes:

In this episode we sat down with three growth experts to discuss following questions:

Connect with our fantastic guests: