Lessmore’s first release under Miniclip ownership
Hybridcasual hero Lessmore, the maker of EatVenture and We Are Warriors, has released its first game under new management at Miniclip, called Arrow Puzzle. It’s not an idler or strategy; it’s a sorting game that monetizes mainly with ad revenue.
Released in early August, Arrow Puzzle has already climbed to #7 in the ultra-competitive sorting genre. The game has reached 2.7 million downloads, which doesn’t say much since it’s almost entirely ad-monetized. According to Sensor Tower, its DAU is around 250k and rising quickly.
Arrow Puzzle’s core gameplay is simple and is played by clicking arrows and clearing the board. Each level takes about 30-90 seconds to complete.You can make two errors per level without failing, meaning you can make one error per level. It’s harder than it looks, believe me!
The game monetizes with Banners, Interstitials, and Rewarded ads. Banners appear after the 3rd level to help with early monetization. Rewarded ads appear as hints at the top of the screen as soon as you start to make errors, already from level 10. Interstitial ads appear after every 2nd level, starting on level 17. I estimate that the game is currently generating about $14-17k/day in ad revenue. A big caveat here is that the game is presently scaling fast.
The modern litmus test for a hit puzzle game is how quickly it’s copied, and wow, I can tell you this game already has a bunch of copies begging to pop up.
💰Great Content 💰
China continues to set the pace in modern game design, and studying Chinese titles is one of the best ways to spot mechanics worth testing in your own projects. That’s why this week on the podcast, we dissected Huntopia, an Idle RPG wrapped in high-end 3D visuals.
At its core, Huntopia is built around extreme automation, operating within what can only be described as “Chinese UI chaos.” Its commercial success hinges on a highly dynamic monetization system that triggers upsells through everyday actions, such as claiming idle rewards. These prompts nudge players toward its tight, progressive gacha loop for pet collection. On top of that, Huntopia introduces clever meta layers, such as a Collectible Album Bingo system, a rarity in mid-core design, and engagement rewards tied directly to time spent online.
🎯The Cinderella of the Week🎯
Miracles still happen! Despite the highly competitive landscape in mobile, solo developers can still scale their IAA monetized games to impressive levels. This section is to salute you. Why? Because everyone loves a Cinderella story… that’s why.
Why, you little Level Devil, you! Last week, we reviewed the Tower and how a Solo Dev, armed only with his clever game design, managed to scale that game to $50 million in lifetime revenue. This week, I wanted to highlight Level Devil by Unept, another solo developer who’s managed to scale their game to 1 million DAU by just being clever.
Level Devil: What are you? Simply put, Level Devilis a 2D platformer that non-stop trolls the players by killing their character with unexpected traps and shifting rules. The tongue-in-cheek tagline of the game is “NOT a troll game”. You progress by passing levels, a little like an old-school Mario game, but you have to die to figure out the traps.
The game monetizes mainly with beautiful ad revenue in two simple points: Interstitial ads between levels, and a Rewarded Ad to rage skip a level if you’re fed up with the troll traps. According to my estimates, the game should be generating about $17-20k/day in ad revenue.However, I’ve only seen Unity ads delivered, with no App-ads.txt file, meaning the figure should sadly be about 40% of that. But that’s a quick and easy fix! No one tells you these things!
What brilliant and clever game! For sure, worth a try!
