two & a half gamers ↪️ Simple ARROW design FTW. You don't need super high-polished art to make $250k/day!
Why is Lessmore’s Arrow Puzzle Escape scaling to millions of DAU and making $250k/day in Ad Revenue?
In this episode, we break down how Lessmore built Arrow Puzzle Escape into one of the fastest-scaling ad-monetized puzzle games on the market. From brutal simplicity and ultra-low CPI to aggressive ad design and relentless testing, this is a masterclass in distribution-first mobile game design.
Topics covered
• Why Lessmore is a testing company
• How Arrow Puzzle Escape reached ~4M DAU
• Why simplicity crushes CPI
• Ad monetization design choices
• Session length vs difficulty
• Why remove-ads is hidden
• Why copycats don’t matter
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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
00:00 — Intro & Lessmore background
02:30 — Miniclip acquisition context
04:30 — Portfolio overview & performance
06:00 — Arrows DAU explosion explained
08:10 — Category comparison vs traffic puzzles
10:30 — Why arrows beat cars for CPI
12:30 — Gameplay walkthrough & simplicity
15:00 — Difficulty design and session length
17:30 — Ad monetization breakdown
20:00 — Interstitials, rewarded videos & banners
22:30 — Retention vs monetization tradeoffs
25:00 — Why remove-ads is hidden
27:00 — Creatives & UA scaling logic
29:30 — Testing culture & prototype accounts
32:00 — Why copycats won’t catch up
34:00 — Final takeaways & Part 2 teaser
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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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Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me
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