Deconstructor of Fun

TWIG #60 Here we go! Today we have myself Joe Kim, Eric Kress, and Adam Telfer is back from paternity leave. Welcome back new dad! We also have 2 special guests related to the first article we will cover: Selcuk Atli CEO at Bunch and *the* Greg Essig Head of BD at Bunch. #1. Bunch scores $3.8M to turn mobile games into video chat LAN parties #2. Wildlife, Brazilian mobile gaming unicorn, valued at $1.3 billion by Benchmark #3. CD Projekt Red ending Gwent console support to focus on PC and mobile Elder Scroll Legends is officially Dead #4. Microsoft is Still planning a cheaper, discless next-gen xbox #5. Minecraft Earth in Soft Launch Hit us up on Twitter with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at: @jokim1 @ekress @m_katkoff @adamwtelfer Guest Twitter: @Selcukatli @gregessig Also be sure to check out JK's latest GameMakers YouTube channel series on mobile marketing/user acquisition: UA Coffee Talk on Creatives Optimization! Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!

Kolibri has found great success with its first two mobile game titles Idle Miner Tycoon and Idle Factory Tycoon. Both titles have now amassed about 100M downloads.   How did students coming from University achieve so much success at such a young age?   What were the processes and philosophies they used to develop Idle Miner Tycoon?  What were some of the biggest lessons learned and mistakes made by the team?  Found out all of this and more in this video with Kolibri Co-CEO and Co-Founder Daniel Stammler.   Content Overview:   0:20 Intro to Kolibri  0:50 Origin story of Kolibri  2:00 Daniel’s background 4:00 Process in Building the First Games  7:10 How did they come up with their development process/approach?  9:10 Most important factors in success of games - 11:00 Biggest mistakes made  11:50 Failed titles  12:50 Biggest lessons learned  14:20 Specific game dev process steps  16:40 Soft launch objectives  17:25 Team structure and roles  19:00 Biggest mistakes in new game dev  21:30 Why do big companies fail at new game dev?  24:00 How to come up with game ideas?   25:40 Data vs. intuition  27:00 What’s next for Kolibri?

Welcome everybody to TWIG #59! Today we have myself Joe Kim, Eric Kress, and Miska Katkoff joins in to defend himself on his Call of Duty prediction. We are also joined by Consumer Insights expert Stan Kwon from research firm BETAHAT. We discuss the following articles: 1. The top 1% of app store publishers drive 80% of new downloads 2. Valve’s Half-Life series continues with Half-Life: Alyx for VR 3. Microsoft's Xbox streaming app isn't official yet, but it's already way better than Google's new video game service 4. Where Net Promoter Score Goes Wrong Hit us up on Twitter with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at: @jokim1 @ekress @m_katkoff  Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!

Namaste everyone and welcome to TWIG #58! Today we have just myself Joe Kim and Eric Kress. Miska and Adam are out for the rest of the year. The full news we discuss is as follows: #1. N3twork raises $40 million for platform to help mobile games gain traction #2. How a Chinese Developer at Tencent Is Shaping the Future of Gaming #3. Has the hypercasual game genre peaked? #4. We review some of the predictions and actuals for Call of Duty Mobile, Harry Potter, Mario Kart, and other predictions we've made Hit us up on Twitter with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at: @jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!

Welcome to TWIG #57. Today we have your usual hosts Joe Kim, Eric Kress, and Adam Telfer (Miska's out for the rest of the year). We do have a guest host Alex Collins though: a software engineer at Jam City and DOF blog contributor. The full news we discuss is as follows: #1. Mixer + Shroud + Ninja #2. Everything Announced at X019’s Inside Xbox Conference #3. Fortnite’s Android installer is now a launcher for Epic mobile games #4. The world is waiting for Google Stadia to flop Hit us up on Twitter with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at: @jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!

Welcome to TWIG #56 everybody. This week we focus on live ops companies like DECA and now Rogue Games who will live operate Vainglory for Super Evil Megacorp. Today we have your usual hosts Joe Kim, Eric Kress, and Adam Telfer (Miska's out today). Joining us however is Ken Go CEO of DECA who will talk about DECA's business and the business of live ops specialists. The full news we discuss is as follows: #1. Deca Games plays F2P’s long tail, buying 4 one-time hits from GREE #2. Super Evil Megacorp raises $10.5 million, moves on to new game, and hands Vainglory off to Rogue Games #3. Supercell cans Rush Wars #4. BlizzCon 2019’s biggest announcements: Diablo 4, Overwatch 2, and an apology  Watch the Ironsource Gamefest video on GameMakers: HERE Watch the video interview with Mike DeLaet CEO of Rogue Games on GameMakers: HERE Hit us up on Twitter with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at: @jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!

Welcome to TWIG #55 everybody.  This week we get a bit of a battle between Eric and Miska over Zynga growth prospects so stay tuned for that! This week we cover: #1. EA games are coming back to Steam #2. Mobile game firm Scopely raises $200 million #3. One Million players now subscribe to PlayStation Now #4. Zynga posts record-setting revenues, net bookings in Q3 Hit us up on Twitter with any feedback or suggestions for news to cover. You can reach us at:  @jokim1 @ekress @adamwtelfer @m_katkoff Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!

Apple Arcade launched on September 19 earlier this year and has been praised by many in the media and significantly backed by Apple. Having said that: #1. What are the future prospects for this service?  #2. Who is the audience?  #3. What are key strengths/weaknesses of the service?   #4. Finally, how well do we think Apple Arcade will do in the long-term?   Find out in our discussion today with myself Joseph Kim, Eric Kress (Principal, Gossamer Consulting), and Steve Palley (Head of Business Development & Strategy, Pixelberry Studios). Comments? Questions? Hit us up on Twitter: @jokim1 (JK Kim), @ekress (Eric Kress), @spall03 (Steve Palley)

Welcome to TWIG 54! This week we cover: #1. Ghost Recon Breakpoint’s spectacular bomb blows up Ubisoft’s plans for 2019 #2. Google is making a "spectrum of bets" on Stadia content #3. Fallout 76 Now Has a $100-a-year subscription service, Fallout 1st #4. Why have hyper-casual games replaced gacha in Japan? Hit us up on Twitter: @jokim1, @ekress, @adamwtelfer, @m_katkoff Let us know which news topics you want us to talk about next or more in-depth. Or to let us know how we can improve. Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!

Welcome to TWIG 53. This week we cover: #1. Everything Riot announced for League of Legends’ 10th anniversary #2. The 4 Features that matter on PS5 - and 5 that don’t #3. Call of Duty is the biggest mobile game launch ever, with 100 million downloads #4. CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE POST-LAUNCH APPROACH TO NEW CONTENT We are joined by Paul Bellezza who actually works on Project A at Riot Games!  Hit us up on Twitter: @jokim1, @ekress, @adamwtelfer, @m_katkoff, @pabro Let us know which news topics you want us to talk about next or more in-depth. Or to let us know how we can improve. Also hit the subscribe button to get notified when we deconstruct the latest news in games!