Blog classic sidebar

“Fail fast” is one of those startup mantras that sounds smart, until it isn’t. I’ve seen teams fail fast.And then fail again.And again.And again.Not because the product was broken.But because the thinking was.In one case, a team I worked with tried to rapidly iterate on monetization features.Every two weeks, a new offer, new layout, new pricing.No segmentation. No goals. No understanding of player behavior.Each version failed.So they failed faster.By the end of the quarter, they hadn’t learned much.But they had definitely shipped 12 different failures.And confused their players in the process.But you should know:🚫 Failing fast without a plan isn’t iteration — it’s noise.🚫 Speed without clarity just gets you lost quicker.If you want to fail fast and actually grow, here’s what to do:✅ Set a clear hypothesis for what success looks like✅ Track the right metric (not just revenue […]

You can be sure a new game studio is doomed if you see these deadly signs: • They talk about “disrupting the genre” despite having built nothing.• They care more about a fancy office than making a great game.• Hiring is focused on big-name studios, not actual skill or fit.• Swag gets ordered before a single line of code is written.• They brag about funding rounds, not product results.• There are more managers than developers.• Studio culture is defined by slogans, not workflows.• Founders are getting rich from their salaries, not equity.• Player feedback? Who needs it when you’ve got a “vision”!• Everyone’s working on a trailer, but no one’s playing a prototype.• MVP means “Maximum Vanity Pitch,” not “Minimum Viable Product.”Hype doesn’t replace product.Flash doesn’t equal substance.Build the game first.Let everything else follow.

7 Things Squad Busters Needs to Experiment with NOW The game needs to go crazier. If game development aligns with an explore-exploit model, Squad Busters must continue exploring. That means covering as much exploration space as possible. Eric Seufert makes similar claims in UA creative testing, and those lessons apply similarly to games. The changes from 2.0 were big, but they need to be bigger. 1. Deck Loadout EverywhereDue to short mobile session times, there is insufficient time to build depth through in-round progression. Marvel Snap is a goddamn gift from the CCG gods in this light, and remains the top tier benchmark. Players must be able to theory craft, which rarely happens in real-time. In auto chess, players have specific deployment phases, which is also true for CCGs, MOBAs, and Vampire Survivors. Players also enter with a known strategy.Squad […]

𝗦𝗤𝗨𝗔𝗗 𝗕𝗨𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝟮.𝟬 & 𝗦𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗫’𝗦 𝗥𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗢𝗥 𝟯 𝗘𝗡𝗚𝗜𝗡𝗘 Squad Busters’ original thesis has been falsified. What once seemed like KPI paradise: hypercasual-esque core, aggregating Supercell’s beloved IPs à la Super Smash Bros., and infinite consumable-based monetization with zero marginal cost, is now unrecognizable. 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘭’𝘴 𝘣𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨! Yet, just a year later, the hypercasual core has vanished, giving way to multiple player-activated abilities and completely removing consumables. Squad Buster 2.0 attempts to simplify nagging launch criticisms, including combat readability, character UX, progression speed, agency out-of-round with unit selection, and agency in-round with abilities. It gets halfway there, but in solving some issues, surfaces others.The original mechanics captured contemporary design zeitgeist: merging, star systems, in-round progression and economy, roguelike, consumables, hero collections, and mods. It’s a system designer’s dream, but it’s spun the […]