Ketchapp

𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹-𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 > 𝗘𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻? Remember the glorious days of endless runners? Subway Surfer, Jetpack Joyride, Temple Run, Alto’s Adventure, Rider… These evergreen titles have grossed hundreds of millions of downloads each. However, in most recent games, a "level-based" approach replaced "die-and-retry" endless runs. Why? Because level-based progression has 3 advantages: 𝟭) 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁-𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝗼𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲: 𝘄𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹. Whereas in endless games, especially runners, the motivation to beat your best score is a driving force only for the most committed players. 𝟮) 𝗜𝘁 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗻𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲, 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 & 𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲. Game designers have many tools to predict the time players will spend at each level. However, in traditional endless runners, top players may need to play non-stop for a while before beating their high score. Plus, it's usually easier to track players’ behavior and identify potential frictions with analytics in level-based games. 𝟯) 𝗜𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝘀 𝗻𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘀, which is ideal to expose players to progression & monetization features without interrupting gameplay. This is of course critical in free-to-play games. We ran an insightful A/B test on the topic with the early version of our recent title Divineko. Using the same gameplay, we tested both endless and level-based versions. The level-based version won with x2 D1 retention and x3 lifetime playtime (reaching respectively 47% and over 45 minutes in the early prototyping phase). So, has level-based won over endless? Partly--but the reality is more nuanced, and we'll soon cover why endless progression can still be relevant for your game.

🏍 Rider Worlds x Hungry Shark 🦈 Our exclusive time-limited event begins today in Rider Worlds! Beyond offering exciting fresh content to our players, this is a unique opportunity to leverage and expand the huge communities of our brands (almost 1B downloads combined for Rider & Hungry Shark games 🔥) Big shout-out to our teams & dear partners at ChimpWorks & Ubisoft Barcelona Mobile who made this happen 🙌 Join the event now: iOS: https://lnkd.in/eT6EgdaT Android: https://lnkd.in/eiRpmvun

Audio ads, supposedly less intrusive than other ad formats, have been introduced in 2020. Since then, a handful of games have tried integrating them but it failed to become a trend. In 2024, the technology seems to have matured and audio ads could become a new major ad type, similar to rewarded videos, banners, and interstitials. What do you think?

Time to get rid of boring RV placements! ❌ Many rewarded video placements work in every game. Currency multipliers, revive button, or upgrades, to name a few. But even though these placements remain “safe bets,” seeing them everywhere can tire players and decrease their engagement. Creating innovative RV placements, tied to a game’s specificities, is a great way to generate curiosity and make rewarded videos more appealing. That’s gamification 🎮 In Divineko, some of our top-grossing rewarded video placements are gamified. Chests work particularly well 🧰 Players are introduced to them early in the game through the shop. They can open one chest per day for free, but there’s a little twist. In order to unlock the chest, they must draw 3 signs in less than 3 seconds. The process is fun, and players can repeat the experience after watching an RV. Later in the game, users enter a chest room that’s unlike any other. They have only a few seconds to open as many chests as possible by drawing the signs displayed on each of them – a process they’ve already been taught earlier. In both cases, the “drawing” mechanic used to open chests is the main mechanic of the game, also used to fight enemies. Opening all the chests in one go is extremely challenging, and most players don’t make it… But thankfully, they can watch an RV to get more time, open the remaining chests, and collect all the rewards! Gamifying rewarded video placements turns a daunting experience into a fun, positive one that betters the user experience. Such additions have not only improved ad revenue, but also Divineko’s rating on the Google Playstore (4.8/5 ⭐). Have you tried gamifying a rewarded video placement? What were the results?

A solo dev can’t launch a profitable game in 2024. Or so our competitors say 😉 Luckily, Pierre-Etienne Greuzard didn’t know – so he did it. Divineko just reached 5 million downloads, and it’s only the beginning! 😼 But how did a solo developer and a black cat conquer the hearts of 5 million players worldwide? Going against market trends, Pierre-Etienne focused on a challenging 2D minimalistic game. With its reasonable scope (compared to the ongoing "content inflation" in our industry right now), Divineko is fun, engaging, and perfectly executed. Thanks to his background in UX design at Ubisoft, Pierre-Etienne designed a highly polished, optimized, and juicy experience for players. Every detail is carefully thought-through, and it shows: players rated Divineko 4.8/5 on the Google Playstore ⭐ "A warm thank you to all Divineko players – your love and support mean the world to me! I'm truly honored by the positive reception the game has gotten so far. Big shoutout to Ketchapp for believing in my vision. I'm excited about the journey ahead with all of you! 🐱" – Pierre-Etienne Greuzard, Divineko’s developer ❓ Have you already tried Divineko? If so, what do you think? If not, links in the comments below 👇

Knife Hit hits the mark with 200 MILLION DOWNLOADS! 🙀🔪🎯 Released in 2018, Knife Hit results from a fruitful collaboration with Estoty Riga LLC’s talented teams. Knife Hit's unique and satisfying game feel greatly contributed to its success, and the game is still a favorite among players, 6 years later! We've got big plans in store: Knife Hit will live on and delight arcade lovers for many years to come. Swipe left for a Knife Hit Cake 🥧 – The game has inspired Lead Gameplay Programmer and amateur pastry chef Samuel Boullier, who won our internal cake competition last week with a Knife Hit special!

Happy 10th birthday, Ketchapp! 🥧 A lot has changed over the years… From 2 brothers working in their apartment, the team now counts more than 60 people working at Ubisoft. Once relying on cross-promotion and gut feeling to grow, we’re now a data-driven company with teams of experts using advanced automated tools. Even if we still value spontaneity and “gut,” we’ve adapted to a highly competitive market. Ketchapp has turned into a 360° game-making company. Today, our internal production team works on our own titles on top of the ones we publish with our external partners. From making 100% hypercasual games, our teams gradually moved toward making more ambitious, deeper titles. In the last few months, we’ve worked with ChimpWorks on one of our most ambitious games, Rider Worlds – a sequel to hit game Rider. We’ve also teamed up with Pierre-Etienne Greuzard to prove that in today’s market, a solo developer can still thrive with a game like Divineko! 😼 For the 10 years to come, we will remain agile and keep working to adapt to our ever-changing industry. A huge thank you to our amazing team and partners for your unwavering passion and grit 💜

𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒? 2023 was a defining year for the hyper- and hybrid-casual industry. - 𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 had a direct impact on the industry, with, for example, many talented studios struggling with the consequences of the war between Ukraine and Russia. - 𝐆𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 has significantly reduced players’ buying power. It negatively impacted in-app purchase revenue, and thus big advertisers’ UA budgets, resulting in a global eCPM decrease. - 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭-𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 is brutal. The impressive growth of the gaming industry during Covid tricked investors and companies into believing it was an easy way to make money. In truth, the market is dynamic but competitive, and succeeding requires strong skills. Now that the market is cooling down, investors are cutting back budgets and previous investments, sometimes causing many layoffs in the process.   - The mobile gaming industry heavily relies on a few actors and technologies for conception & distribution. Breaking news regarding Unity’s runtime fee and Apple’s privacy policy changes have proven that the industry stands on a fragile foundation. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬? 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝. Prioritize live ops and optimization on existing titles (if you have some), especially if they’re successful. Strive to make them even more performing to secure and increase revenue before investing in new projects. 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬. Assess the potential of an idea based on data analysis and pursue promising, high-quality projects powered by well-structured teams of experts. 𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞. The hybrid model (ads + IAPs) is becoming the norm – not exploring them both would mean missing out on a potentially big revenue stream. Likewise, be sure to nail the marketability of your games to decrease your costs as much as possible. It has never been so important and equally difficult to achieve. 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬. Generative AI hasn’t revolutionized the way we make games (yet), but some tools are already simplifying game development, quality control, UA, ASO, data analysis, etc. We expect this trend to accelerate as bigger tool publishers integrate AI into widely used products. Staying on top of these trends is critical – in the end, there will be a gap between companies that maximize their AI resources and those that miss the mark.  

𝐌𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲… 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐞 👀 Here's a short guide to help you kickstart your Discord community! 𝟏. 𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐏 𝟏: 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐫 (& 𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬!) Hackers are common on Discord, thus you must protect your server – or all your work might go to waste. Turning on the “Discord AutoMod” feature, forbidding players from sending links, disabling vocal channels, and preventing players from inviting others to the server can help mitigate the risk! Filtering the users who can join the server is also crucial to avoid chaos. In our case, with Rider Worlds, players can only join the community through a link that pops up in the game after several days of playing. 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐏 𝟐: 𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐌𝐄𝐄𝟔 𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐛𝐨𝐭 It allows you to animate your server and set up advanced security features (identify and ban keywords of your choice, mute spammers, etc.) 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐏 𝟑: 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 from different time zones Leaders are active community members who can handle small issues and/or sound the alarm in case of emergency. 𝟐. 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 Interacting and engaging with players is an essential aspect of community management. 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐏 𝟏: 𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 Share exclusive news, announcements, game updates, and ask questions. Something we do in Rider Official Community is host Q&A with the dev team. Players love interacting with the game makers, and their feedback is invaluable to us. 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐏 𝟐: 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐧-𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 To make sure players keep engaging with the game and sharing their achievements with the community, we host weekly high-score competitions and offer in-game rewards. 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐏 𝟑: 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 We host a monthly giveaway for our most engaged community members, giving them a chance to win in-game rewards. Indeed, rewarding active community members with vanity roles and in-game rewards is a great way to boost engagement. 𝟑. 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐃𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 Feedback collection is why you’re managing a community in the first place. It’ll allow you to considerably improve your game. 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐏 𝟏: 𝐒𝐞𝐭 𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐧 “𝐮𝐩𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠” 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 In a “game suggestions” channel, ask players to post ideas and upvote their favorites. Create a rule so that popular suggestions are sent to a moderator-only channel, so you can easily identify popular demands. 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐏 𝟐: 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚 “𝐛𝐮𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭” 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥… and let players know you’re handling the situation. Interact with them and explain what’s going on. These are a few of the many tricks we've learned during the first months of community management. We hope you'll find them useful. Don't hesitate to share your tips in the comments!