Both Guns Blazing (original) (raw)
May 01
Announcement – Joining Forces with the Best!
posted by
I started this blog many years ago as a space to write down my feelings on games that I enjoyed playing. During the early F2P boom on mobile I noticed that some of my colleagues and friends were interested in finding out more about specific games and mechanics on mobile but didn’t really know […]
February 09
Fire Emblem Heroes
posted by Anil DG
Nintendo’s second mobile game (and third mobile title) is now out on the app store and this time it’s visiting more familiar territory as the classic Japanese RPG model meets head-on with Nintendo subsidiary Intelligent Systems’s classic Fire Emblem console series. And the result is a very slick and enjoyable experience with some really fun […]
December 22
Super Mario Run
posted by Anil DG
Today is a joyous day! It’s the day when I finally get to blog about a Nintendo designed and published game developed from the ground up for mobile. That game is Super Mario Run and I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time given that on this very blog I’ve written about why […]
December 14
Game of War, 4X Games and the Future of Mobile Mid-Core
posted by Anil DG
Introduction Obtrusive UX, confusing gameplay, dated graphics. These are just some of the subjective comments I hear from many of my peers in the games industry about Machine Zone’s smash hit Game of War. And yet despite these criticisms the game has been a top 5 grossing game for over 2 years, and it’s successor Mobile […]
July 24
Pokémon GO! – Fad or the Future?
posted by Anil DG
In the rare case that you’ve been living under a rock for the last month, you’ll be aware of the cultural phenomenon that is Pokémon GO! A cross between an augmented reality game and an alternate reality game developed by Niantic, published by The Pokémon Company and partially funded by Nintendo. At the time of writing […]
November 06
Welcome to the World of Warriors!
posted by Anil DG
Today is a momentous day! After 18 months of blood, sweat and tears from the team at Candylabs in Brighton, I’m delighted to unveil the latest game I’ve been working on – World of Warriors an action based RPG best described as “Game of Thrones meets Pokemon” with all of the awesome that such a […]
June 22
Hearthstone – Analysis and Deconstruction
posted by Anil DG
One of the biggest gaming success stories in the last 15 years has been Irvine-based developer Blizzard, whose games World of Warcraft, Diablo and Starcraft have millions of active players around the world. However, despite the rise of mobile and tablet over the last 5 or so years, Blizzard took a long time to get […]
November 16
Boom Beach – Beta Deconstruction
posted by Anil DG
Chances are that if your are reading this blog, you’ve played Clash of Clans and / or Hay Day by Supercell. The Finnish tablet games specialists recently sold a 51% stake to Japanese giant Softbank in an eye-watering deal worth $1.5 Billion dollars. Supercell have successfully managed to take these two games to high ranking […]
November 03
League of Legends – Deconstruction
posted by Anil DG
Mobile / Social games aren’t the only type of games that use the F2P business model. There have been massive success stories over the last couple of years with games like Riot Games’ League of Legends and Wargaming Inc’s World of Tanks. Over the next few weeks, Microsoft and Sony will be releasing new consoles […]
October 28
Game Economies and Currency Flows
posted by Anil DG
When designing a Free to Play game, one of the trickiest things to do is to create a fun, balanced and lucrative in-game economy. This is something I do not pretend to be a master of as every game is different and there are countless ways of going about it. However, in this post I […]
October 22
The K-Factor, “Growth” and Going Viral
posted by Anil DG
Although relatively young in comparison to other business models in gaming, the Free To Play marketplace is already fiercely competitive. Many games, apps and services fight for your time and want to be the next big thing in not only your life, but those that you know too. As such when designing a F2P game […]
October 19
Clumsy Ninja Deconstruction
posted by Anil DG
I’m a huge fan of Natural Motion games, who have established themselves as one of the first mobile / tablet companies to really push triple-A console production values and polish onto the portable screen. They are best known for CSR Racing, developed by subsidiary studio Boss Alien. That studio has very recently released a spin-off […]
October 12
The F2P “Magic” Formula
posted by Anil DG
Here is the magic formula to turn water into gold! As much as I wish that were true, no such things exists… However, I will share with you a pretty important set of terms that are crucial for understanding how to make a successful Freemium game. What do these terms mean and why are they […]
October 10
Divine Gate – Deconstruction
posted by Anil DG
Pop Quiz: What is the most Lucrative mobile game in the world right now? Candy Crush Saga? Wrong. Clash of Clans? Wrong again. The correct answer is Puzzle and Dragons by Japanese publisher GungHo Online Entertainment making upwards of a cool $75M a month. So when I heard that GungHo were releasing their new game […]
October 08
Japanese Card Game Mechanics
posted by Anil DG
Card Battle RPG’s such as Rage of Bahamut, Marvel: War of Heroes and Puzzle and Dragons are some of the best monetising games in the world of mobile. In Japan in particular, card games can have insane ARPU numbers such as $18 (!) meaning that customers are happy to spend a phenomenal amount of money […]
September 24
A / B Testing
posted by Anil DG
Games these days aren’t just a single self-serving offering, but actual services that evolve adapt and grow over time. After a game is launched, a Producer or Product Manager (often more than one work on a title) is responsible for optimising game performance by increasing KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) to improve monetisation / retention / […]
September 13
Guild vs Guild Dominance on the App Store
posted by Anil DG
This Friday presented one of the most interesting days to date on the app store and a confirmation of a trend long in the making; Guild vs Guild is BIG. Of this list, SIX are Guild vs Guild games: Clash of Clans, Marvel War of Heroes, Crime City, Game of War, Knights and Dragons and […]
August 07
What is a Gacha?
posted by Anil DG
Gacha is a monetisation technique used in many successful Japanese free-to-play games. But what exactly is a Gacha? In Japan (and now in the West too) a Gacha is toy machine into which a customer puts money into. They then twist a crank and out pops a plastic egg, inside of which appears a prize, […]
May 24
IAP Types
posted by Anil DG
In free to play games there are a number of IAP types that can be used for monetisation. Some are very effective, and some are not. Here is a brief summary from my experience. Here are some additional notes for each of the types: Impatience It’s counter-intuitive to think that adding friction and frustration to […]
March 02
Free-to-Play: Basic Game Loop Theory
posted by Anil DG
In the world of Free-to-Play many designers and Product Managers often talk about “Game Loops.” But what is a game loop, why is it useful to construct / design one and what benefits does it provide? In this post I’ll try and answer that question. When designing a mobile / Facebook Free-to-play game, session length […]