Learn on to study some finest practices for growing a profitable technique to your hyper-casual sport. We had a chat with Erwann Thebault, Publishing Lead at Homa Video games, and study his insights on the best way to create and develop a hyper-casual sport.
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- winning strategy for your hyper-casual games: Q&A with Homa Games
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How did Homa get into hyper-casual video games and why do you deal with this style over others?
Homa was based in 2018 to present hyper-casual builders – a brand new style on the time – a data-driven and technological method to development. Supported by the arrival of Carlos Mas Rodriguez, VP Gaming at Homa, now we have since diversified and innovated into new sport genres, such because the ultra-casual and idle arcade sub-categories, in addition to introduced IPs into the area.
How does the hyper-casual style differ from different sport genres when it comes to monetization and UA?
In comparison with different genres, the common LTV is comparatively low for hyper-casual video games as a result of shorter session size and excessive addictiveness. The hyper-casual style can be very depending on a low value of acquisition and, second, is very primarily based on sturdy consumer acquisition and monetization optimization as a result of low margin on absolute worth.
By way of monetization, a big portion of income for hyper-casual video games comes from promoting – greater than 90% – whereas a small, however not insignificant, a portion of income comes from in-app purchases.
Whereas different apps and video games have very distinct goal audiences, our merchandise are addressable to… everybody! We work with an extended checklist of premium companions and take a really granular method to consumer acquisition to make sure we’re buying as many customers as potential, no matter their geo and units. Expertise and creativity drive Homa’s technique to distribute cellular gaming merchandise throughout an enormous viewers – 5B lively units worldwide.
The place does Homa get inspiration when creating video games?
We now have a couple of processes in place to assist our groups unlock creativity. First, we leverage our personal expertise. Our advertising and marketing intelligence workforce developed a collection of instruments that may spot upcoming traits out there that might change consumer’s expectations to preferences. We then pitch distinctive concepts and prototypes primarily based on this information to our partnered studios and assist them construction their very own ideation processes.
Second, contemplating concepts can come from anyplace and now we have 100+ workers at Homa, we’ve constructed an inside concepts module so anybody within the firm can pitch an thought to the advertising and marketing intelligence workforce. It then will get reviewed, authorised, or challenged.
How are you aware if a sport will likely be a hit? And the way do you resolve to kill a prototype?
We rely closely on expertise. We use our testing platform, HomaLab, and data-based merchandise to evaluate the total potential of a prototype, and we use inside KPIs to find out whether or not a product is price our full consideration.
For instance, for a traditional hyper-casual sport, we intention to succeed in a CPI under $0,25 within the Android US market to maneuver ahead with a sport.
If a prototype doesn’t meet one requirement of our testing and pre-publishing standards, we’re ready to “kill” the prototype and cease growth efforts at any second.
Are there any new alternatives for hyper-casual sport builders to develop and monetize their video games?
We expect it’s vital for sport builders to problem the present state of the market, and to deliver tech and data-driven approaches to every stage of the publishing course of. Curiosity and innovation are a few of our core values, and so they encourage our groups to find new alternatives for builders and customers on a weekly foundation.
First, incorporating adaptive monetization is changing into worthwhile. Gamers work together in another way with every advert placement inside our video games. With adaptive monetization, we are able to tailor our monetization technique to suit every particular person’s expertise. This manner, we are able to enhance the gaming expertise whereas boosting LTV.
Second, there may be an growing variety of IAP alternatives. Traditionally, in-app purchases haven’t been a robust income driver (lower than 5%) for the hyper-casual style. As our video games turn out to be extra participating and extra premium, we’ve seen the chunk of customers paying for in-app purchases rising.
Third, it’s vital to benefit from enhanced A/B testing instruments. We imagine that operating significant A/B exams is the important thing to bettering the gaming expertise for our gamers. Our N-Testing software has been an enormous focus for our tech workforce up to now few months.
Fourth, the Chinese language market has a quickly rising participant base and represents a robust development alternative for all builders. At Homa, now we have invested closely on this geo – strengthening partnerships with native gamers, understanding the tradition round gaming, hiring specialists, and so forth. – to make sure we seize this incremental development.
Do you may have any ideas for the best way to grasp cross-promotion?
To run profitable cross-promotion actions, it is advisable to grasp a couple of issues. First, tackle the cross-promotion advert to the suitable viewers. Ensure you have a working algorithm that ensures you’re displaying significant promotions to your viewers. Efficiency KPIs, similar to CTR & IPM, are important to the optimization course of. Second, create visuals that suit your advert placements and mess around with the placements. Except for the gameplay itself, the 3-second rule is a vital component of efficiency. Third, create a robust model so folks really feel snug trying into your different merchandise. Providing distinctive and inventive experiences will make your customers focused on the remainder of your portfolio.
Are there any secrets and techniques to making a profitable UA technique to your hyper-casual sport?
The key to mastering your UA technique for hyper-casual video games is granularity. Although we intention to succeed in as many customers as potential worldwide, we rely closely on information and proprietary tech instruments to make sure we’re spending our consumer acquisition price range properly. Mastering all consumer acquisition actions takes time, nevertheless it’s an vital asset for a cellular video games firm.
We’re additionally extremely fortunate to have a gifted and motivated workforce. Because it’s a really fast-moving atmosphere, we plan to maintain investing closely in consumer acquisition innovation within the subsequent few years – new requirements, new companions, and new applied sciences.
Why did the hyper-casual sport style develop so extensively in 2021?
First, due to the rewarded gaming expertise on cellular, there’s a rising viewers of non-gamer gamers – now we have numerous new customers who hardly ever performed any video games earlier than. Hyper-casual video games tackle a need for easy however very enjoyable video games.
Second, hyper-casual sport development is supported by the modern and fast-iterating nature of cellular sport manufacturing. The time it takes to create a brand new cellular sport is getting quicker and quicker – all you need to do is tweak some mechanics to create a wealthy gaming expertise.
Lastly, the worldwide pandemic boosted the variety of sport downloads and cellular utilization. The hyper-casual style was positively impacted by this unlucky state of affairs.
What are hybrid-casual video games and the way do you see them affecting the trade?
Hybrid-casual video games are a intelligent merge of hyper-casual video games and informal video games. They leverage the most effective of each worlds: marketability and accessibility from the hyper-casual merchandise and long-term gameplay expertise and social from the informal sport style. We got here up with the time period “Arcade Idle” at Homa, which is what we name the sub-genre of hybrid-casual. We not too long ago revealed Farm Land in partnership with the French studio, Lola.
It’s very constructive for the trade! On the developer facet, it offers the chance for smaller and fewer skilled groups to work on a deeper gaming expertise with out committing to a 6 to 12 months growth roadmap. On the consumer facet, it creates one other accessible gaming expertise for brand new avid gamers.
