Deconstructor of Fun

With privacy changes affecting the front-end of the funnel across the entire mobile games industry, the importance of metagame driven long-term retention of your players has never been higher. Heroic Labs is one of the leading providers of gaming backend-as-a-service to help you run your game backend, live operations and social metagame with their services Nakama, Satori and Hiro. In this week's interview, Ethan sits down with CEO and Co-Founder Chris Molozian to talk about their services help small teams focus on the fun while building a deep, retentive metagame, social structures and world class live operations.

Can you believe we're already halfway through 2023? Neither can we. As teased last week, the TWiG crew checks in on some of the biggest mobile, free-to-play releases of the year so far. Laura invests in Baltic Avenue as she breaks down Monopoly Go. Phil brings up Fanlight 84 which Kress quickly deems mice nuts. Ethan illuminates the power of anime thirst in character collectors by highlighting Nikke: Goddess of Victory's jaw dropping revenue-per-download. Jen takes us to the Hell with Diablo Immortal. Plus, we celebrate Kress's birthday and learn all about his third mid-life crisis. All this and so much more this week in games.

Gamefam founder and CEO - Joe Ferencz - was early among professional game developers to spot and chase the Roblox opportunity. Now he runs the top publisher on the platform with hits including Sonic Speed Simulator, Twilight Daycare and Military Tycoon, as well as games on other UGC platforms like Deadpines on Fortnite Creative. Joe sits down with Ethan to talk about UGC gaming, if the Metaverse ever even existed, and what it takes to run a venture scaled business inside of another company's UGC platform.

We are tackling LiveOps from both sides of the equation this week with Laura deconstructing the latest and greatest in puzzle LiveOps from Candy Crush and Royal Match, and Jen prompting a lively debate on if celebrity marketing is ROI positive for mobile free-to-play. Ethan thirsts for the Jonas Brothers (despite the seemingly mid performance of their Candy Crush event) and also talks about PUBG Mobile's incredible $10b in lifetime revenue. That's right, TEN BILLION DOLLARS!$!$! Phil highlights the new crush in every Steam gamer's heart, the chart topping BattleBit Remastered. As an added bonus, we learn that while Jen is blasting through Champion League levels in Toon Blast, she is also blasting Metallica on her airpods. It's another action-packed week in the games industry and this episode is not to be missed!

An increasingly hot topic amongst the TWiG crew, and the industry at large, is mobile, F2P veterans looking to additional platforms for blue or purple oceans. Between the maturity of the mobile market, the challenges of breaking through as a new game or IP, rising CPIs, diminished targeting capabilities or the limited power of platform-level featuring, it feels like every company with live-service expertise is asking themselves where else they can ply their trade. That's why Ethan invited Adam Smart - Director of Product at Appsflyer and host of "In the Sandbox with..." - onto the podcast. In this wide ranging conversation, they discuss the forces driving the push to console, PC and cross-platform development and how free-to-play developers can bring their mobile platform playbook to these platforms. Given Appsflyer's recent launch of their measurement suite for console and PC, things are getting a lot easier for traditionally mobile developers interested in using performance marketing to scale their games on these platforms.

With Ethan out, the crew runs amok with more shocking regulatory news from the MSFT and ATVI merger. Will it ever end? Eric gives Embracer a much-needed reality check while Jen checks in the plethora of Summer Games Fest announcements. Laura reveals some surprising match-3 data while the crew debates the prospects of Space Ape’s Chrome Valley. Phil isn’t excited about FOMO rotating stores, despite the huge news of Diablo’s historic revenue week.

The games industry is not taking any time off for summer vacation as we're seeing another absolutely monster week of news. The Vision Pro is here, is Kress impressed by Apple's attempt at changing the world of computing again? Diablo IV is live and Phill breaks down their record setting launch. Jen explains everything you need to know about the latest change to ad tech - Apple's Privacy Manifests. Ethan demands that Kress bow down to MihoYo's global dominance as Honkai Star Rail is crowned the King of May Revenue. Laura analyzes if there are any up and coming puzzle games that can put a dent in the dominance of Candy Crush, Royal Match and Gardenscapes. Line your stomach with a glass of milk and give us a listen, because this is a spicy one!

Halo, Destiny, Hearthstone, Warcraft, Fable, Mass Effect, Shadowrun. What do all these classic series have in common? They've all been improved thanks to the UX research and tactics by John Hopson and the talented teams he has worked on. When Deconstructor of Fun Slack member Hopson shared the release of his book - The Secret Science of Fun - I loaded it up on audible and was blown away. It is filled with pragmatic, no nonsense, hands on advice on how to use the art of user experience research to improve you games with budgets ranging from monumental to microscopic. Ethan and John go deep on what UX research is, how it is best integrated into your game's development, and how the true art of UX research is when to be scientific, and when to be science-ish. If you enjoy this podcast, you'll love the audiobook of The Secret Science of Fun which you can get on Audible.

Over 500m Tik Tok users watch gaming content every month, according to Jen's recent trips on the conference circuit, and this audience is one that the crew things you should be building your game thesis around from day one! Detective Ethan is on the case making wild conjecture on who may have been the counter-party that suddenly pulled out of Embracer's $2b deal last week. Laura unpacks Voodoo's latest strategic shift from hypercasual to hybridcasual. Is there more to this rebranding than wordplay? Phil uses the recent announcement of Bungie's Marathon extraction shooter to explain his oft cited Game Thesis framework. The full crew dissects Flood Rush and Squad Busters, the two latest Supercell soft launch games aiming for that $1b+ a year brass ring. And Kress goes deep on Sony's Playstation Showcase event that featured Marathon, Spiderman 2, Assassin's Creed, Metal Gear, Alan Wake, Final Fantasy, the non-Vita Project Q handheld streaming device and of course, some VR games. This week was filled to the brim with news and, as ever, your loyal TWiG crew is here to digest it for you.

First, join us all in welcoming Jen Donahoe as the new, full time member of the TWiG crew! This week, Kress talks about the Embracer implosion, Phil falls for Fall Guys' new creator mode, Jen explains PUBGs reenlistment in India, Ethan unpacks the critical production blunder that was the root cause behind Overwatch 2's PvE cancellation, and Laura takes the MC microphone for a drive.