Masters of Publishing 2: 3 Signs Your Game Will Be a Smash!

Gaiv, director of new games at Supersonic. Let's start with the uh the most difficult questions. How do you know you have a hybrid casual hit on your hands?
Okay, there are three key signals uh that we are trying to to track the marketability, stickiness and conversion.
Erh, we are aiming to find a games that has a wide audience. erh as broad as possible. Erh second, we always track the ratio between day one to day three to day seven. We have those metrics that we believe that this is the the the key for success and of course we want to see the output rising regardless to meta like only the
colo.
Once we see those uh three signals the sky is the limit.
Yeah. Oh, that's okay. So, pretty easy.

But what are the steps? I'm curious from from you have that idea, you have that core gameplay, you have that arpoo rising as you said and and what are the steps when working with a publisher from that point to the magical scaling part?
Yeah. So, uh there are five steps I would say. First, the ideation part is super super important. We always track the the the market and try to see what is the most appealing sub genres, themes, trends. Once we have it, uh we have a we are running initial test that we want to see the the very start of a game mainly focus on CPI and day one that's it. And if we see those uh two metrics are solid, we are starting iteration stage that focus on improving the retention of the game. Mainly optimizing the core loop if it

works. Fourth stage would be the Apple ones. Probably we will optimize the economy, demonetization and look for new ways to improve uh LTV and then we move on soft launch and we focus mainly on growth adding more more media sources and always keep optimizing both core loop and all the rep around it. So if I would break it down, there's like um design phase if you will during which you're prototyping, designing, testing that core. Then there's the production phase during which you actually solidify this is the core. This is what works. This this generates the output without bells and whistles. But now it's time to add bells and whistles and content to to keep the the player then and then you go into a soft launch phase during which you start testing different marketing marketing creatives. And then once that proves that it's scaling up correctly,

the CPI is not going the cost per install is not going too quickly up, the the LTV keeps on increasing after a longer time, we can go towards a global launch and really put the jet engines behind it.
Okay. What is the length of each of the phase typically like what are you looking for? Because there always there's the notion of these are hybrid casual games. We want they are produced faster than a casual game. But what does the faster mean? So the I would start with the bottom line. The total is six to to 10 months.
That's pretty short.
Yes. That's why we are doing hybrid. We want to move fast and uh if it works amazing.
We always say that a a heat a mega heat born as a mega heat.
So you know it you you know it from from the very first moment. That's why we are we are we we we we are not tolerate with the non or nice game I would say if it's

not going to be something profitable that we will be able to scale probably we will kill it along the way so six to 10 months I would say the ideation would take probably two to to four weeks then we'll start to design it probably uh the iteration uh stage or the designing part will take two to three months. Another two to three months for the the output stage and then soft launch it really depends on the game. It can take a month or two it can take four five months but we see the soft launch as the optimization stage as the game will be optimized in advance then the soft launch will be shorter and we can go live to to global launch. M you said you can't basically polish a game to success. What are the um how how did you arrive to that conclusion? Because from a developer side, if they look at a game and if it's on the yellow, you know,

it's not that bad, it's not great. I'm sure we can do it. Like how do you how do you come up with with
that's the biggest misconceptions because many times we tend to fall in love with our product and it's fine. Erh, but the key is uh to to be very uh straight with your game and always to criticize it. You need to make sure that you enjoy to play it as a user. It's very hard to do it. And when you spend your time on your couch during the weekend and you need to pick one game to play, h it should be that game. If it's not, probably it's not strong enough. And you need to to be honest with yourself and then to to cut that rope.
Yeah. So basically the competition is so tough
indeed.
Uh with other games, with other sources of media as well, social media, whatnot, that if you're not great, there's no room for mediocracy. There's no room for

good even.
Yeah. I I I don't want to I don't want it to to to be super uh extreme but uh yes the market is huge not always we understand what makes the tiny difference you know god in in small details although I I have to say I just uh came back from Vietnam we met with many local developers and I was surprised to realize that they the philosophy is there's room from for everyone like for
many games, many types
and and and and I try to be a bit more soft with that approach after that visit.
Okay, I'll put it this way. You can go from medium to good or but you need to go from good to great. Like you can't go from medium to great.
Indeed.
Okay. Well, that let's line on that. Uh let's talk a little bit about how does a

publisher work with a developer in your role as a head of new games. What how do how do you work with publishers?
So I would split it into two main uh phases. I would say the first part uh we need to support the developer. [Music] We handpicked our partners. So once we picked one and we believe in this partner, we should give him the room uh to build the game. Uh so at first we need to support the partner mainly from operational perspective uh to guide to show uh as much references as possible uh to make sure that we are going the the the right way. And once we are ready to move on to soft launch or to to scale it up then uh we take over it and uh start to pay much more attention on the

business part. So at first part we will be a supporter and on the second part probably we will be much more dominant with the monetization UA and and others. Um so and how does the uh how does the role change and is there a phase where the role changes or is it more that you think about the what does the winning team has to look like and you just start populating those people into that team.
So at first I have to say that the studio manager which leads this partnership uh should be like um a football coach. Okay. He should he should be on the entire court or the or the field and he gets all the support from game designer and monetization unlike many others company compan companies. Uh we do pay attention to a different type of monetization or economy if we're talking about new game a prototype or a live game. So uh the

team should fit to building games. Once the game is uh let's say mature enough to move forward probably we will change the the expertise to be more fit to to a live game. So this split is super important and it reflect our philosophy of how to make games since we are working with so many prototypes at early stage. Interesting. And what what's the um what's the best type of relationship when working with a with a studio? Like what are you looking for from from the studio to to have that sort of a what do you call it? A cultural fit with a publisher?
Yes. But at the end it's a partnership
and you know like in real life you you need to adapt yourself to the partner. So sometimes we see partners that had very strong product skills. So we

will let them be more dominant in the product and take other areas on ourself and the opposite we have partners that just say please let us do what we know the best and uh we need to more than everything we need to be able to assess their skills and according to that to decide um how this partnership is going to look like. Should I be more dominant, less dominant? And this is this sensitivity that I would expect from from my studio managers.
You know, in my career, I found out that there's two different jobs that are essentially the building of new games and then operating a live game. How do you look at this as a head of live games is like do you want your studios to focus on new game development because that's what they're good at and as you go through the stage of a design and production and soft launch and launch and it begin scaling like do you want them to go back to what they're good at

rather than learning a new job which is operating live ops
so I learned that building games it's one [Music] way to do games and operating as you said it's it's another most studios and I totally understand it even mature studios and and like great studios not necessarily knows to do the best even like big companies so we are trying to focus on the first part like to find partners that know how to to build games ideation and prototyping and fast lane like to to soft launch and then once the game is ready, we have our teams to support it like to to make it grow. But as a partner, I would prefer partners that mainly focus on on creating new games, new concepts that

are very involved with the with the industry, with the market trends. That would be probably my favorite. Uh, now that I think about it, I'm really curious like what does your normal week look like as a head of new games? Like do you play just a ton of new games? Because you must get hundreds of submissions.
Yes. So, we play a lot. We are focusing on on always to be aware of the market. Every new game like big game, not every new game, but a big game that comes live. We're trying to play. We're trying to play prototypes from many developers all over the world, from Korean game developers through India, Austria, and all the way to Argentina, I would say. So, we're trying always to play as many games as possible.
We are playing many prototypes or like start of the of the games that we get

with our platform. And once we pick the right game, we start to think how to make it better. What are the main references? By the way, it's all about references. I want to play a game that I say I love this game, but I would do this and that a bit better. And this is our dayto-day work like to find out how to make the popular games outside in the market to be
a bit better. That's always the fun part of when you when you're playing games at home and your kids look at you and like, "No, daddy's working. You can't play, but daddy needs to needs to work."
They play with me. They play other games. Many times I look at their screen, what do you do? What what is this game?
I come to to some random kids in the in the train in my brain and ask, "What do you play? What is this game?"
And then their mother just chases you away.
Excuse me. What do you do here? Yeah.
Um so what are the the sort of a three

misconceptions that comes for that people have about the hybrid casual game design?
So I see many times that um game developers think that if they have a a cool idea they say I will do it good and that might be enough. Um, so no, it's it's much bigger than than that. Like yes, you need to have a a strong core loop, but it's much bigger than that. The depth of of the game is super important. Also, uh, we see like many times they say, I would add the monetization later.
So no, big no. H Monetization is an essential part of building or designing a game and you need to know it and also to be able to think about how this game is is h developed or or like growing

over time. I I think one of the the most popular sentence that we use here is okay I I understand how this game look like at level five but how it's going to look like at level 15 50 500 5,000. Yeah. So and if the game designer or the studio manager or the studio itself cannot answer me how this game is going to look like over time. Erh, so I send them back to to rethinking about this concept and make sure that it has enough depth uh to move forward.
Uh last but definitely not least, what can other studios learn from the best studios that you work for with in creating new games? like what sets those studios apart that are able to just come up with
so it's it's two things but I think it relates to life to listen and to be humble like when we

are uh open for many different opinion and we monitor the market and try to see different ways to make games because there's not one way to make games uh It makes your product much much better and we see that our best partners have this I would say listening ability better than than than others.
Nice. Well, Guy, thank you for for sharing all the insights on how to make successful hybrid casual games.
Thank you.