In this first podcast of 2021, The Mobile GameDev Playbook unveils what might be in store for the new year and the mobile gaming industry - it’s a fully packed episode! We discuss how the pandemic’s development might affect industry growth in 2021 and how gaming habits might evolve in the post-COVID era. We also explore future potential trends for the Match 3 genre, the expansion of the casual gaming market in China, as well as the recent increase of mobile game collabs. Host Jon Jordan is joined by GameRefinery's Chief Analysts Kalle Heikkinen, Erno Kiiski and Wilhelm Voutilainen.Thanks for listening! 

As the end of the year approaches, this episode of the MobileGameDev Playbook will take a look back at what 2020 has had to offer the mobile gaming industry. We’ll delve into the key trends to come out of this eventful year, including the rise of social mechanics, changes to location-based AR games to fit COVID lockdown restrictions, as well as some of the secrets behind Genshin Impact’s success. To wrap the year up, we’ll also do some forward-thinking about what might be in store for the industry in 2021.Host Jon Jordan is joined by GameRefinery's Chief Analysts Kalle Heikkinen, Erno Kiiski and Wilhelm Voutilainen.Thanks for listening! 

In the latest episode of the Mobile GameDev Playbook, we examine what it takes to design a profitable game economy. We uncover the best monetisation strategies for mobile game developers, as well as how to plan and execute these strategies to boost a free-to-play mobile game’s potential revenue. From the planning of in-game economic structures to applying an enticing value exchange for players, this episode covers all the bases for developers looking to maximise their game’s chances of financial success. We’re joined by game design consultancy Mobile Game Doctor that specialises in bringing together experienced game designers from all over the world to help promote global game design health and creative well-being for its clients. Host Jon Jordan is joined by GameRefinery's Chief Analyst Erno Kiiski and special guests Dave Rohl, Chief Executive Officer and Raymond Holmes, Consulting Designer at Mobile Game Doctor. Thanks for listening!

Apple shocked the mobile advertising world this summer when it gave a two months’ notice of a seismic change in how mobile advertising campaigns would be targeted, measured and evaluated with the arrival of iOS14 and IDFA changes. Luckily, with these changes now likely taking place in early 2021 instead, mobile game developers and advertisers have some more time to plan accordingly and explore new ways to build their acquisition and attribution strategies. But what is IDFA? What do the upcoming changes really mean? And most importantly, what marketing and tracking technologies will be available for the mobile games industry instead?In this episode of the Mobile GameDev Playbook, we focus on Apple's iOS14 ad feature updates and how to best prepare for them. Host Jon Jordan is joined by GameRefinery's Head of Product, Lauri Heikkinen, as well as special guest Alasdair Pressney, Product Manager at AdColony - one of the world's largest mobile advertising platforms, with a reach of 1.5billion users globally. Thanks for listening! 

Social Games are the hot topic for Episode 8 of the Mobile GameDev Playbook, where we delve into understanding what the must-have features that help create global hits are. We are joined by the expertise of Teatime Games who will share the lessons learnt from their amazing success with mobile game 'QuizUp', which has now accumulated over 100 million downloads. As well as talking about feature-level specifics, Teatime Games uncovers how they reached the top of the US App Charts in only two weeks with 2 million users, as well as their recent success with their brand new game, Trivia Royale. From avatars and AR emoticons, to chat rooms and other social mechanics, this episode explores why social features in games could be the missing piece in the puzzle for developers looking to maximise their game's success and monetisation. Host Jon Jordan is joined by GameRefinery's Chief Analyst Erno Kiiski and special guest Thor Fridriksson, CEO of Teatime Games. Thanks for listening! 

Drawing from insights gained from Facebook and GameRefinery's brand new report on mobile gaming genres, this episode of the Mobile GameDev Playbook delves into the popular RPG Genre.  Titled 'Genre and great games - Understanding Audiences and Designing Better Mobile Games', the report provides valuable genre-level insight across mobile games in the US, UK, South Korea and Japan. With a specific eye on RPG’s, the podcast takes an in-depth look at genre fulfilment, community, monetisation and ad preferences for RPG’s. We’re joined by Facebook Gaming to explore the differences and similarities in RPG design across the four main markets as well as what RPG fans are looking for in their games. We'll also be exploring the winning features common to the most popular RPGs and how game developers can build games that their fans will genuinely love. GameRefinery's Chief Analyst Joel Julkunen joins host Jon Jordan along with special guest Deon Moh, Gaming Marketing Lead for APAC at Facebook. In this role, he not only drives the B2B marketing strategy for the region but also global gaming marketing initiatives for Facebook with the Genre and Great Games report being one of them.Take a look at the live report on the GameRefinery website: https://www.gamerefinery.com/genre-and-great-games-report/Thanks for listening!

Episode 6 of The Mobile GameDev Playbook looks at player archetypes and motivations and how these essential insights are being factored into game development. The podcast explores how game designers develop insight into their player types, as well as some of the most recent developments in player types and motivation metrics. Podcast guests are Rovio and Fundamentally Games, help provide further insight into their own experiences and what they’ve learnt when it comes to designing games for specific audiences. Host Jon Jordan is joined by GameRefinery's Chief Analyst Joel Julkunen as well as Kieran O'Leary, Director of Growth for Games at Rovio and Oscar Clark, Chief Strategy Officer at Fundamentally Games. Kieran has many years of experience marketing and growing mobile games, including five years at Gameloft before joining Rovio. Oscar is a well-known hat-wearer in the world of mobile games and is also the author of the book ‘Games as a Service’. Thanks for listening!

Join us for Episode 5 of The Mobile GameDev Playbook as we focus the Coronavirus pandemic, how it has impacted developers and how they’ve adapted their games during the last few difficult months. The podcast also examines how the virus has generally affected the mobile gaming industry. We’re also joined by GameAnalytics who unearth some fascinating insights around insights traffic rates, age-specific genre engagement, in-app spending levels, and more. Host Jon Jordan is joined by GameRefinery's Chief Analyst Joel Julkunen as well as Iona Hreninciuc, CEO of GameAnalytics. GameAnalytics is an analytics tool for games used by indie developers, games studios and publishers around the world, including 100,000 games which are played by more than 1.75 billion people.

Episode 4 of the Mobile GameDev Playbook takes on casual gaming. Joined by PeopleFun, we are taking a close look at the well-known free-to-play favourite, WordScapes. We delve into understanding what makes this mobile game so successful and what are the lessons learnt from generating over 5000 levels. What's more, we will also discuss how they managed to scale up their content and what their overall business strategy is from a mobile game development perspective.Host Jon Jordan is joined by GameRefinery's Chief Analyst Joel Julkunen along with special guest Carol Miu, VP of Product & Analytics at US developer PeopleFun. PeopleFun is a US-based mobile game developer company, best known for its games such as Wordscapes, Wordstacks and Word Chums, which have over 29 million MAUs. Thanks for listening!

In this episode of the Mobile GameDev Playbook, we take a look into the challenges faced by game developers when working with licensed IP. With a specific focus on design and feature consideration, we also discuss how licenses have affected mobile game sales in different countries, such as the US and China.Host Jon Jordan is joined by regular guest, GameRefinery's Chief Analyst Joel Julkunen along with special guests Rosemarie Sarno and Stephen Wark, Community specialist and Lead Game Designer at mobile developer Ludia. Ludia has published several titles around well-known IP including Jurassic Park, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Dungeons & Dragons. Thanks for listening!