mobilegames

Fun 2025 academic paper I stumbled across: enumerating 'deceptive F2P design patterns.' 🕵️‍♂️ "Over the last decade, the free-to-play (F2P) game business model has gained popularity in the games industry. We examine the role of deceptive design during a game’s transition to F2P and its impacts on players. Our analysis focuses on game mechanics and a Reddit analysis of the Overwatch (OW) series after it transitioned to an F2P model. Our study identifies nine game mechanics that use deceptive design patterns." - Hilda Haden et al"Deceptive designs are user interface design practices that trick users into doing things to benefit businesses. When used in games, such designs can cause negative player experiences, such as distorting their sense of time, swaying how much money they spend playing the game, and influencing their behaviour through psychological and emotional manipulation."

The puzzle market might be a red ocean, but it’s far from exhausted. Yes, competition is fierce. But there are still plenty of underused mechanics waiting to be explored. And both veterans and new entrants are quietly proving it. One moment that reshaped my player experience: Toy Blast’s update to the TNT + Rocket combo about a year ago (that you can see in the GIF below). The change, which is unlocked through a win streak, felt like a breath of fresh air. And I’ve been on the lookout for similar implementations ever since.Match Villains, which I talked about recently, has been the most significant standout lately along these lines. The way they designed Snitch, their version of Propeller, is a great example of puzzle innovation. Propeller is already a unique booster with its target-finding mechanic, but they’ve expanded on […]

The real difference between good and bad games: (spoiler: it’s not fancy graphics)It's not deep storylines or complex mechanics either.It's this: • You want TO BE in a good game even with no clear goal. • You’ll run, jump, shoot, fly just because it feels good.There’s a name for this:𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗼𝘆 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁. • A "toy" is fun without rules (unlike “game”). • No objectives needed. • It’s enjoyable just to mess with. • The best games feel like that.Great games do this well:• Web-swinging in Spider-Man: smooth, fast, satisfying• The “pop” in Candy Crush: instant, clear feedback• Exploring towns in Skyrim: immersive, curiosity-driven• Cutting fruit in Fruit Ninja: simple, endless joy• Drifting in Mario Kart: movement that makes you smileAll of these feel great without needing a mission.On the flip side?Bad games try to mask boring interactions with busywork: • […]

3 things I do before 11:00 am that help me design better games. I group the games I play, everyday.First, I check if there is new content or update.Then I look if there is any "drastic" metric change.Lastly, I login to games I need to track, and play a bit.This helps me not just understand the game play,It helps to understand feel of each "daily" session.To create games with deeper retention, your task isto understand what your players do, overtime.I usually play 5 group of games:↳ Obviously, your competitors,↳ Popular games with longer retention,↳ Popular recent releases comes from big names,↳ New games that looks great but actually feels off,↳ Finally, games that has a no link to your own game.All for a reason. (maybe another topic for future)PS: Yes, 11:00 is when the endless calls start and you lose […]

When I worked as a LiveOps product owner, running in-game events was my full-time job. And over time, I learned there’s a checklist I always fall back to. It saved launches, boosted revenue, and prevented more than one catastrophe.Here’s what that looked like:Before the Event- Align with goals. Retention? Monetization? Engagement? Pick one. Or you’ll end up with none.- Check your calendar conflicts. Launching during another live feature? Rethink. Unless they should be run together intentionally.- QA your configs. Twice. You don't want the wrong rewards going out, trust me (check my recent post about it).- Sync with support & community teams. They’ll get the heat if anything breaks.- Prepare fallback plan. Always have a hotfix path or a way to turn things off remotely.During the Event- Monitor live data. First few hours tell you everything. - Watch social channels. […]