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The Underused Power Tool of Game Scaling and Personalization

In the world of live games, progression and its heartbeats are everything. They are the scaffolding around which we build gameplay loops, economies, monetization, and long-term engagement. But while progression systems are widely understood and employed, whatโ€™s often underleveraged โ€” especially outside mobile free-to-play โ€” is the notion of progression vector scaling and contextualization. This article explores how progression vectors, when treated as system-driving parameters rather than passive meters, can become the backbone of scalable game experiences, personalized economies, and smart live operations. Iโ€™ll dive into examples across genres โ€” from MMORPGs and extraction shooters to puzzle games and 4X strategy โ€” and explore practical frameworks for designers, product persons, and live ops teams. What Is a Progression Vector? A progression vector is a directional, measurable representation of a player's growth โ€” a time-evolving (or stage-evolving) metric or set of […]

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Game development is full of myths.

Game development is full of myths. Hereโ€™s what every aspiring (and experienced) dev should know:๐Ÿญ. ๐—” ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ปโ€™๐˜ ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ด๐—ต โ€ข Execution, planning, and validation turn ideas into actual games.๐Ÿฎ. ๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ปโ€™๐˜ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ ๐—ถ๐˜ ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฒ โ€ข Even indie games need artists, coders, designers, and marketers.๐Ÿฏ. ๐—•๐—ถ๐—ด ๐˜€๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ผ๐˜€ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐—ปโ€™๐˜ ๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜„๐—ฎ๐˜†๐˜€ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€ โ€ข Indies often create the most innovative and engaging experiences.๐Ÿฐ. ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ปโ€™๐˜ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜ โ€ข Balancing gameplay, difficulty, and retention is much harder.๐Ÿฑ. ๐—Ÿ๐—ฎ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ต ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ปโ€™๐˜ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ต ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฒ โ€ข Success depends on post-launch updates, community support, and events.๐Ÿฒ. ๐— ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐—ปโ€™๐˜ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐˜๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€ โ€ข A tight, refined core mechanic beats feature overload.๐Ÿณ. ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜ ๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐—น โ€ข Community building, influencer outreach, and user acquisition drive growth.๐Ÿด. ๐—ก๐—ผ๐˜ ๐—ฎ๐—น๐—น ๐—ณ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ-๐˜๐—ผ-๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜† ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ต ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐˜€ โ€ข With the right design, monetization can be fair and fun.๐Ÿต. ๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚ […]

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I canโ€™t stop seeing Dota 2 characters in Wittle Defender

I canโ€™t stop seeing Dota 2 characters in Wittle Defender ๐Ÿ™ƒ Iโ€™ve been playing it almost daily since global launch, and loved every second of it!According to AppMagic, the game made over $5.5M in IAP revenue, outperforming Survivor.io and on par with Capybara Go that month. Not bad, right?Of course, 99.9% of that success comes from a combination of Habbyโ€™s signature UX/UI, progression, LiveOps and monetization systems. Plus a solid dose of innovation!But thereโ€™s that 0.01% that keeps me personally coming back: spotting my favorite Dota 2 heroes in those little defenders.> Blazing Archer summoning skeletons like Clinkz? Yes, please.> Fire Mage dropping meteors like Invoker? Love it.> Fighting Medusa, Centaur, Huskar, Kunkka? Count me in!But you know whatโ€™s even better?While Wittle Defender characters remind me of Dota 2 heroes, I canโ€™t help but see those old Warcraft 3 faces […]

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4x content innovation never died, genre platform economics just consumed it.

4x content innovation never died, genre platform economics just consumed it. Both Worldwide Global and Million Victories raised money this week, with the French Million Victories announcing a whopping $40M raise (in this economy!). Its title, Million Lords, was a highly innovative attempt at modernizing many 4x mechanics by removing base building entirely and centering the game around combat. It's also a great exercise on how system design ultimately shapes player behavior. In this case, the primary way to become more powerful was to level up, which required XP, which required combat. Other mechanics, like world map bounties, kept the bloodbath going. Another combat-focused mechanic was the ability to respond to enemy marches with a reinforcement that could only be deployed in the window of the march. The game explored strong (but now standard) 4x price points with content that […]

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50 IP Collaborations in LiveOps in H1 2025

To celebrate the mid-year mark, we prepared a little gift for you โœจ 50 IP Collaborations in LiveOps in H1 2025โ€จโ€จWe wanted to help everyone in thoughts of doing an IP collaboration or planning LiveOps strategy for the second half of the year. Weโ€™ve put together a list of 50 IP collabs is LiveOps featured in the top games such as: โ€ข Archero 2 โ€ข Clash of Clans โ€ข Clash Royale โ€ข Coin Master โ€ข Dice Dreams โ€ข Frozen City โ€ข Gardenscapes โ€ข Toon Blast โ€ข Whiteout Survivalโ€ฆand many others! ๐Ÿ˜‰ The list is available in Figma via magic link.๐Ÿ’กAll these collabs were discovered using our own event database from LiveOps & Updates Calendar.

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How many installs do I need to measure Retention?

"How many installs do I need to measure Retention?"?? We get this question approximately 1000 times per year.And frustratingly, our answer almost always needs to be customized to the stage of the project, the retention target, and the ideal tradeoff b/t cost and accuracy.Here's a cheat sheet that can suffice in 90% of cases.A simple lookup table. Start by choosing your retention target.Say, you are looking at D1, and hoping for 40%.Let's suppose that:โ€ข Last time you measured, you got 35%,โ€ข You want to prove retention increased to at least 38%โ€ข You want to minimize UA costReference the cheat sheet:โ€ข Step 1: Choose the 40% retention column (2nd one)โ€ข Look for the relevant range (first row: 38%-42%)โ€ข Step 2: Reference the same cell belowโ€ข Cell prescribes 2,305 installs. 2300 will suffice.Here's a scenario with a different answer:Say you are focused […]

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The clones and genre expansion are getting into full gear

Gaming industry people often have an inferiority complex around "tech", feeling never quite properly understood, and usually looked down upon. I understand the frustration! Replit hitting $100M ARR, over two explosive growth quarters, is hailed as a remarkable achievement. However, when we compare it against Monopoly Go (MoPoGo), which achieved multiples of Replit in ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ต๐˜ถ๐˜ข๐˜ญ ๐˜ฒ๐˜ถ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ญ๐˜บ ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ถ๐˜ฆ over the same acceleration period, it falls much flatter. Much of this is a MoPoGo story, which has experienced an acceleration towards an apex and is now "reverting to the mean." The rapid rise of MoPoGo is unprecedented in mobile games; it's hard to think of anything that has scaled so fast, reaching heights higher than Game of War or Clash of Clans in their heyday. It's certainly been reported on, but somewhat underappreciated. The clones and genre expansion are getting into full […]

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5 Things About Breakout Hit F2P Live Service Hit Mecha Break

5 Things About Breakout Hit F2P Live Service Hit Mecha Break 1. ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ณ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฎ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜† ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜๐—น๐—ฒ, ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐—ฎ ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ญ-๐—ฎ๐˜…๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ฎ๐˜†. Lock-on makes the controller and cross-play easier, and it supports 3rd-person gameplay. 2. ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ผ๐—ฏ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜€๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฝ, ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐—ถ๐—ณ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜‡๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด. Nearly all of the gameplay modifiers, including the vertical progression mods, exist only in the Extraction mode, ripped from the PvP after Reddit complaints. The extraction mode features paid consumables that allow for early gear extraction, thereby acting like insurance in case of death (also seen in Call of Duty's DMZ).3.  ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜€๐˜†๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—บ'๐˜€ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ป ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐—น๐—น ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ธ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜† ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฒ. Unlocking three mechs over three months through a long grind ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ฉ ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ ๐˜จ๐˜ข๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฑ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜บ ๐˜ถ๐˜ฑ๐˜จ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ฅ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜จ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜—๐˜ท๐˜— ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฅ is a poor response […]

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Uma Musume has the best in class roguelite system design.

Warning โ˜ข๏ธ Heavy Game Design podcast ahead. Uma Musume has the best in class roguelite system design, which is confirmed by its surprising growth in the west as the game already passed $400K a day on English versions only ๐Ÿค‘. No other Roguelite game on the market gets even close to how the rogue-lite legacy system works in Uma Musume. It is based on the principle that once you finish training your horse girl, she became a veteran and her "inheritance" benefits, called sparks, roll. This is random for each of the 3 types of sparks - Main stat Blue, Affinity Pink, and extra white sparks of additional skills and stat boost. This essentially means that after every run you have a chance to create a perfect "parent" for your trainee on the next run. Even though you made all […]

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What Does Hybrid Casual actually means?

I asked 10 game industry experts, What Does Hybrid Casual actually means? Here are the answers: New Holy Grail,Undying hypercasual after day 7,Monetization response to rising cost of UA,And many other GREAT definitions..To help you understand what Hybrid Casual is,So that you can strategize your game accordingly.Powered by AppMagic,I work on hybrid casual game analysis, And share results with you guys! Actually just spoke on IAP Driven Design ElementsIn Vietnam Game Connect about it.Many great studios here including ABI and iKame,And major publishers looking for talent.Hybrid casual is growing and so you can!Hope this helps you to understand.My greatest salutations to all experts contributed.This industry is much better with you!Ahmetcan, YaฤŸฤฑz, Sergei, Michail, JakubAndrei, ร‡aฤŸฤฑl Ilgaz, Carlos, Mariusz, ร–mer

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What makes a game FEEL great?

What makes a game FEEL great? ๐ŸŽฎโœจ ๐Ÿญ. ๐—ž๐—ป๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐—ธ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ ๐—˜๐—ณ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜ ๐Ÿ’ฅ โ€ข Clear enemy reactions make every hit satisfying. โ€ข Example: Enemies flying back after a strong sword strike.๐Ÿฎ. ๐—œ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ณ๐˜‚๐—น ๐—ฆ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—˜๐—ณ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐˜€ ๐Ÿ”Š โ€ข Punchy sounds reinforce actions, adding immersion. โ€ข Example: "Crack" sounds when breaking objects.๐Ÿฏ. ๐—œ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜ ๐—ฉ๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜‚๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—™๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ โšก โ€ข Quick flashes or animations indicate success. โ€ข Example: Flashing when collecting coins.๐Ÿฐ. ๐—ฆ๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ผ๐˜๐—ต ๐—–๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฎ ๐—ฆ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ธ๐—ฒ ๐Ÿ“ธ โ€ข Subtle movements amplify powerful actions. โ€ข Example: Camera shake during explosions.๐Ÿฑ. ๐—ฃ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—˜๐—ณ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐˜€ โœจ โ€ข Sparks, dust, and splatters elevate cinematic experience. โ€ข Example: Sparks flying off sword clashes.๐Ÿฒ. ๐—œ๐—ป๐˜๐˜‚๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐—–๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—น๐˜€ ๐ŸŽฏ โ€ข Immediate, responsive inputs that feel effortless. โ€ข Example: Smooth character movement in platformers.๐Ÿณ. ๐—๐˜‚๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐˜† ๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ ๐—ฉ๐—™๐—ซ ๐Ÿ’Ž โ€ข Visually exciting effects make rewards feel special. โ€ข Example: Shimmering effects when opening loot boxes.๐Ÿด. ๐—˜๐—ณ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐—จ๐—œ ๐—™๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ฏ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ โค๏ธ โ€ข […]

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