two & a half gamers West Game II Review: Is cloning Kingshot enough?
West Game 2 is the first real King Shot clone built by a Chinese 4X team acquired by Tripledot, layered on top of Frozen City / Whiteout Survival onboarding, and wrapped in Western cowboy aesthetics.
In this breakdown, we dive into:
• Full onboarding → Lucky Luke opener → King Shot 1:1 copy
• Frozen City mechanics, chapter quests, invasion timers
• Why 4X innovation happens only in onboarding, not the core
• Webshops & D2C: now up to 50% of revenue for some studios
• The creative madness: Red Dead cinematics, Idle Lumber, Goblins, Save the Dog, Lens of Jail, ASMR mining, drama Playrix, Sims life-sims, TikTok memes
• Why running 1000 creatives in 30 days is “normal” now
• And how they cloned King Shot’s onboarding in under 7 months
Key takeaway
West Game 2 is proof: onboarding = everything. Whoever controls the first 10 minutes controls CPI… and 4X revenue.
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This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let’s not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.
Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric
Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-2um8eguhf-c~H9idcxM271mnPzdWbipg
Chapters
00:00 — Why West Game 2 Matters: The First Real King Shot Clone
04:20 — Onboarding Breakdown: Lucky Luke → King Shot → Frozen City Mix
10:45 — The Chinese Production Engine: 1000 Creatives in 30 Days
18:00 — Creative Chaos: Red Dead Cinematics, Goblins, Idle ASMR & More
23:30 — The New 4X Meta: Onboarding beats Gameplay + Webshops Rising
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Matej Lancaric
User Acquisition & Creatives Consultant
https://lancaric.me
Felix Braberg
Ad monetization consultant
https://www.felixbraberg.com
Jakub Remiar
Game design consultant
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar
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