two & a half gamers

By Lancaric.meLeisure Video Games

two & a half gamers episodes

March 10, 2022two & a half gamers session #8 - Game design fundamentals & AMA. When to kill a game?
Hello & welcome everyone. This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session #8. Let’s dive in.
Youtube: https://youtu.be/f_3GRQ8Wl-Y
Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej Lančarič
Game Design fundamentals discussion:
Remo asking questions
Felix & Lanco answering
then Remo using militant pessimism

How to start with Game Design?
Mobile industry vs Premium/ Indie games?
What is hard and challenging about GD? Can everybody do it? (everybody does it already :D)
What are the main skills that define a game designer?
How do game design tests work?
What is an ideal background for a game designer?
“Let’s clone this game what can go wrong it is making so much money on the charts we can make at least ⅓ of that”
How ideas for new games are born?
Ask me anything
What’s the most you’ve been able to affect D1, D7, D30 retention with game features?

When should you kill (give up) on a game?

What’s the difference between a good game designer and shitty one?
Please share feedback and comments - [email protected] / lancaric.me
56 min
February 25, 2022two & a half gamers session #7 - Is Axie infinity dead? LTV in crypto gaming & web3 UA/marketing
Hello & welcome everyone. This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session #7. Let’s dive in.
Youtube: https://youtu.be/cpR3YZBB5Us
Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej Lančarič
Special Guest: Nicolas Vereecke
As NFTs, Crypto and blockchain gaming are filling up the headlines we are doing a special episode on the current state of crypto gaming - not the peak of November 2021 but the fresh look at the end of Feb 2022.
Play to Earn - Play & Earn - Play to Own
I would start that discussion with the point that the current consolidation in the big crypto games is more and more pointing to the fact that play to earn is unsustainable as there is “no free lunch”

Therefore the buzzword is changing to Play & Earn or even Play to Own as the “earn” part is becoming harder and harder to realize - this is mostly seen in the depreciation of the Axie economy.

One other milestone can be considered the recent blog post from Philip La Phil's Views: Axie Infinity Economy and Reasons to Play where admits this and refocuses the view on the original model of any game - to create fun and engaging experience as the primary reward for the player - not an investment vehicle.
“we will not be optimizing our game or experiences to drive short-term returns as it’s simply not sustainable”
“we will focus on is creating a balanced game economy with proper sources and sinks, just like non-blockchain games have done for years.”
Does this imply that Skymavis wants to compete with companies like Supercell, Playrix or King?

The biggest innovation of the free to play model is removing the initial friction of a payment before the player plays the game - the first wave of crypto games have even bigger friction funnels on top of reversing this problem.
What is the current state of the friction funnel for a block-chain based game?
Friction to play a crypto game: current models:
Buy crypto assets first to even play - Browser/PC only
(Axie infinity, Crypto Raiders)

Download the game for free (find out about the secret crypto layer somehow from the game website - sell NFTs there)
(Thetan Arena)

Have the game on the store and streamline the funnel to crypto wallet
Skyweaver

Have a functional F2P game with F2P economy and implement the crypto layer into a later stage of the player progression - Future in hybrid?
(Chromatic Souls: Afk Raid, Axie Origin?)

Burning questions about block chain games:
UA
Open economy
NFT design
Gass Fees
Business model - the most burning of them all!
Please share feedback and comments - [email protected] / lancaric.me
1 hr 5 min
February 19, 2022 two & a half gamers session #6 - Supercell rant, why do fake ads work? UA fundamentals Q&A
Hello & welcome everyone. This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session #6. Let’s dive in.
Youtube: https://youtu.be/d_BDO5jnRTk
Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej Lančarič
Google to limit ad tracking across apps on Android
Google has announced new measures that will limit tracking across its Android operating system, following a similar move by Apple to introduce restraints in the way the online advertising industry can target users. The changes, which will not be implemented for at least two years, are intended to curb the sharing of user data with third parties, restricting advertising tracking for users who move between different apps on billions of devices running Android. Google said it planned to eventually phase out advertising IDs, a code that allows marketers to track individual user behaviour, in favour of alternatives that protected user data while still supporting advertising efforts.
Supercell revenue increases 45% to $2.24bn in 2021
Supercell published its financial results for 2021, with revenue reaching $2.24 billion (€1.89 billion) compared to $1.48 billion (€1.30 billion) in 2020 -- a 45.3% increase year-on-year.
The studio generated profits before taxes of $852 million (€734 million), an impressive 80.3% growth compared to 2020's $463 million (€407 million).
But it's still not quite back to the level of its 2015 heydays, when the company made over $2 billion in revenue and $965 million (€848 million) in EBITDA.
The post also said that Clash of Clans and Clash Royale have now made over $10 billion in combined revenue since their respective launches.
Spotify is acquiring two major podcast tech platforms
Spotify is making more podcast acquisitions. The company announced today it’s acquiring both Chartable and Podsights — two of the most prominent podcast marketing and ad attribution companies. The deal price hasn’t been disclosed, but this marks the first major acquisition the company has made this year in a long line of audio purchases.
This deal is particularly critical for the company as it tries to make its ad platform the best and most powerful in audio. If it wants everyone to purchase ads through its marketplace, then it needs technology to better figure out who’s listening to those ads and what they’re doing after hearing them.
AudioMob and Odeeo up next?
UA fundamentals discussion - Matej asking questions - Felix, Jakub answer & Matej gives his opinion at the end!
How or why to start with UA?
My game has amazing organics. I don't need UA! Is that true? Why not?
Are all UA channels equal?
-Break down the benefits and drawbacks of top 4 UA channels?
How to structure an UA budget?
What is the payback period we should look at?
What is hard and challenging about UA? Can everybody do it?
Listen in to learn more!
Please share feedback and comments - [email protected] / lancaric.me
1 hr
February 12, 2022 two & a half gamers session #5 - Surprise crypto comments & How to tackle soft launch stages?
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 - [email protected] / lancaric.me
1 hr 9 min
February 06, 2022two & a half gamers session #4 - How to soft launch a mobile game Ad monetisation Perspective
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 - [email protected] / lancaric.me
53 min
January 30, 2022two & a half gamers session #3 - Is Roblox evil mega corp or money making machine?
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 - [email protected]
56 min
January 21, 2022two & a half gamers session #2 - UA & Creative trends 2022, Microsoft <3 ATVI, TOP10 gaming M&A
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!
59 min
January 14, 2022two & a half gamers session #1 - Casual intro, love/hate relationship towards predictions 2022
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 - [email protected]
55 min

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This is a no BS gaming podcast. We share insights, knowledge and fun gossip relating to the topics of User Acquisition, Game Design and Ad monetisation. You will find here actionable insights in a fun…