8 Essential Skills for Game Producers

Master these to become a top producer: 1. Vision Creation 🌟 - Craft a clear direction for the project- Convey and inspire the team with your vision- Align with stakeholders 2. Industry Knowledge 📚 - Understand gaming industry trends deeply- Perform continuous competitor analysis- Be well-versed in a broad range of references 3. Game Design 🎨 - Master game design principles- Understand project economy and balance- Be skilled in user flow and UI/UX- Find fun and work with game loops 4. Technical Understanding 💻 - Familiarize yourself with game engines and technologies- Know game development processes- Understand technical constraints and possibilities- Communicate effectively with technical teams 5. Product Thinking 🧠 - Grasp the product goal for each feature- Prioritize development based on product impact- Understand player needs and pain points 6. Leadership 🏆 - Inspire, motivate, and guide your team- […]

Anton Slashcev July 18

Highlights

ZiMAD Partners Up with Dots.eco

Mobile game developer ZiMAD is proud to announce a partnership with Dots.eco, an environmental rewards platform that transforms millions of casual actions into real-world impact on the planet. As part of the collaboration, ZiMAD has crafted special Magic Jigsaw Puzzles game packs showcasing stunning wildlife images. Proceeds from these packs will directly support the protection of 130,000 square feet of wildlife habitat. Have you ever thought that you could help save the planet by assembling a pack of puzzles? ZiMAD gives such an opportunity to everyone — by earning certain rewards in the game, you help preserve an acre of land that will one day be home to a new pride of lions or perhaps a large family of elephants! As players solve puzzles, they will also learn more about how they can make a difference in environmental preservation every […]

Gamigion July 18

Journal

Are Downloads and Revenue Indicators of Success?

Downloads and revenue are not indicators of a game's success.Many large games operate with a negative ROAS throughout their existence.Despite impressive numbers, they often bring their owners nothing but losses.So why do studios continue to buy traffic for such games and lose money?Here are several reasons:• Hope for profitability: Belief in a turnaround during the live-ops phase• Competitive strategy: Securing traffic share to force competitors to bid higher.• Inflating valuation: Boosting overall ARR before selling the company.• Attracting investments: Demonstrating potential to draw in investors.• Misjudgment: Sometimes, it's simply foolishness. :)There are rare cases where buying traffic for a loss-making game makes sense.But it's mostly an attempt to create the illusion of a successful game for investors or stakeholders.Profit > Volume

Anton Slashcev July 16

Journal

Toxic vs Healthy Game Experience

Your game isn’t irreplaceable; Players have countless alternatives just like yours.If you make a mistake and frustrate a player, they'll simply find a better experience elsewhere. Here are some mistakes that can cause churn: Pre-Game:↳ 📂 High file sizes and long download times.↳ 📝 Requiring players to create an account before entering the game.FTUE (First Time User Experience):↳ 🧩 Offering a complex, text-heavy, and confusing onboarding experience.Mid-Game:↳⏳ Not having enough content to keep players engaged for 14 days or repetitive gameplay.Long-Game:↳🚫 Lack of Live-Ops and not fostering a sense of belonging among players.Yes, you can make these mistakes. Because you are human.But remember, the cost of losing a user is higher than acquiring a new one.So, aim to be healthy, not toxic.

Yagiz Gur July 16

Journal

10 Game Monetization Models

Here’s a quick overview of 10 different models, each with its pros and cons. 1. Premium Pros:- Immediate revenue upon sale- Complete experience for players Cons:- High price can deter players- Heavy reliance on initial launch success 2. Free-to-Play Pros:- Large player base- High revenue potential through in-game purchases Cons:- Challenges with user acquisition- Requires constant updates 3. Subscription Pros:- Predictable, steady revenue stream- Encourages long-term engagementCons:- Requires ongoing high-quality content- Achieving profitability can take years 4. Ads-Based Pros:- Free for players, large player base- Quick profitability Cons:- Poor user experience- Short engagement span- Volatile ad revenue 5. Hybrid Pros:- Flexibility to cater to various player types- Diverse revenue streamsCons:- Complexity in managing and balancing methods- Risk of overwhelming players 6. DLC (Downloadable Content) Pros:- Extends game lifecycle- Provides post-launch revenueCons:- Requires ongoing development- Balancing free content and paid DLC […]

Anton Slashcev July 16

Journal

15 Red Flags For Game Producers

If you hear statements like these - RUN! 🚩 1) "The more meetings we have, the faster tasks get done!" 2) "I don't care about player feedback; we just make money." 3) "I don't need market research; I have a Vision." 4) "I don't need a Vision; I have market research." 5) "We won't use new tools; everyone is already used to Excel!" 6) "We need to add AI because everyone else is adding it." 7) "I listen to those I like and ignore the rest of the team." 8) "I don't trust my team and personally check every task." 9) "If I'm crunching, everyone must crunch." 10) "I could do this task faster myself; why does it take the developer so long?" 11) "I don't have time to play other games; I'm busy developing our game." 12) "No one is indispensable; the team is just parts of a big […]

Anton Slashcev July 15

Journal

All Key Game Metrics In One Place

Here is the list of all crucial metrics to track: Progression: - Unlock Rates for Features/Items- Avg. Time to Finish Level- Player Level Distribution- Level Completion Rates- Feature Usage Rates- Churn Rate Engagement: - Levels per Session- DAU / WAU / MAU- Retention D1-D360- Sessions Per User- Session Length- Playtime Balance: - Currency Consumption Per User- Income/Spending by Source- Currency Income Per User- Currencies Per User- Attempts Per Level- Win/Loss Ratio Technical: - Build Size- Load Time- ANR Rate- Crash Rate- Frame Rate (FPS) Community & Support: - Social Media Engagement- User Reviews and Ratings- Response Time- Common Issues- Support Tickets Volume Marketing: - ROAS- k-Factor- CPI / CPM- CVR / CTR- Target Spend- Monthly Installs Monetization: - Ads Fill Rate- ARPU / ARPPU- LTV / Avg. Check- Conversion Rate- Payer Cohort Distribution- Player Spendings by Sources Business: - Revenue- […]

Anton Slashcev July 11

Journal

How to explain the 80/20 rule so even a kid can understand?

Hey gamers, how would you explain the 80/20 rule so even a kid can understand? What is 80/20 Rule or Pareto Principle? 80% of effects come from just 20% of causes.Let's break it down using a game - Mario 🍄8️⃣0️⃣% of obstacles can be overcome by perfecting jumping skills.8️⃣0️⃣% of enemies are overcome by mastering 20% of tough levels.8️⃣0️⃣% of time savings come from 20% of speedrun techniques.What's your 80/20 rule in your favorite game?

Sergei Vasiuk July 9

Journal

Things no one tells you about being a leader:

Things no one tells you about being a leader: The weight of building your team.It hit me like a boss fight unprepared:• I’m responsible for this person’s journey.• They need this job to level up in life.• It helps sustain their life.That’s a heavy load to carry.And it changed my perception forever.When I recruited my first 5 devs, our performance tanked."The team isn’t hitting the high scores like it used to," I thought.But then I noticed some power-ups. I:• Had more bandwidth to strategize.• Completed tasks that were way overdue.• Was no longer grinding on day-to-day taskAnd I realized no game dev manager should view hiring or firing as a casual choice.Team members aren’t just NPCs to throw into the fight.And “your playstyle” isn’t the only one.You can’t play solo every raid.You need to trust your team to play their […]

Sergei Vasiuk July 9

Journal

Agile gets a bad rap in game development.

Agile gets a bad rap in game development. It never had much of a chance for one overriding reason:Game production phase gates.In the early 2000s, the wider software development world abandoned traditional SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) with its set phases spanning a long time.However, game production phases (GDLC), often spanning years for AAA, continue to look awfully similar to SDLC.SDLC:Analysis -> Design -> Development -> Testing -> Deployment -> MaintenanceGDLC:Planning -> Pre-Production -> Production -> Alpha -> Beta -> Launch -> Post ProductionThe vast majority of planning & design continues to happen up-front, with the vast majority of testing happening at the end. You might be running sprints during production, but over-ruling phase gates thwart them.You’re trying to be agile in a waterfall wrapper.Adding pre-defined production milestone deliverables to the equation makes the situation even worse. By holding on […]

Jon Leslie July 8

Journal

Game Development Tools Cheat Sheet

Planning Asana: https://asana.com/Jira: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jiraClickUp: https://clickup.com/ Communication Slack: https://slack.com/Discord: https://discord.com/Microsoft Teams: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software Documentation Notion: https://www.notion.so/Confluence: https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluenceGoogle Docs: https://www.google.com/docs/about/ Whiteboard Figma: https://www.figma.com/Miro: https://miro.com/Canva: https://www.canva.com/ Game Engine Unity: https://unity.com/Unreal Engine: https://www.unrealengine.com/Godot: https://godotengine.org/ IDEs JetBrains: https://www.jetbrains.com/Visual Studio: https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/Eclipse: https://www.eclipse.org/ Networking Photon: https://www.photonengine.com/Mirror: https://mirror-networking.com/Nakama: https://heroiclabs.com/nakama/ CI/CD TeamCity: https://www.jetbrains.com/teamcity/Jenkins: https://www.jenkins.io/GitLab CI/CD: https://about.gitlab.com/stages-devops-lifecycle/continuous-integration/ Art Photoshop: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html3DS Max: https://www.autodesk.com/products/3ds-max/overviewSubstance Painter: https://www.substance3d.com/products/substance-painter/ Animation Maya: https://www.autodesk.com/products/maya/overviewCascadeur: https://cascadeur.com/Mixamo: https://www.mixamo.com/ Sound Wwise: https://www.audiokinetic.com/Audacity: https://www.audacityteam.org/FMOD: https://www.fmod.com/ Text Articy: Draft: https://www.articy.com/en/Google Sheets: https://www.google.com/sheets/about/Lokalise: https://lokalise.com/ Market Research Sensor Tower: https://sensortower.com/AppMagic: https://appmagic.rocks/Playliner: https://www.playliner.com/ Analytics Game Analytics: https://gameanalytics.com/Tableau: https://www.tableau.com/Firebase: https://firebase.google.com/ Playtesting Antidote: https://www.antidote.gg/PlaytestCloud: https://www.playtestcloud.com/Bugsee: https://www.bugsee.com/ Monetization AppLovin: https://www.applovin.com/AdMob: https://admob.google.com/home/Balancy: https://balancy.com/

Anton Slashcev July 8

Journal

Wondering How Wood Games Are In The Top Charts?

Here are some insights from the fastest growing Wood Games! KEEGO - Wood Screw Falcon Games - Screw Puzzle Zego Studio - Wood Nuts ABI Games - Wood Screw

Zack Weiss July 5

gamedevelopment

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