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Monetizer: Berzerk Studio's The Peacekeeper
Key insights
6 takeaways- 01Berzerk Studio’s The Peacekeeper prioritizes an arcade-centric gameplay loop over aggressive monetization, keeping paid content secondary to the core combat experience.
- 02The title lacks a comprehensive tutorial, which, combined with significant early-game difficulty spikes, may alienate casual users and limit its target audience to those comfortable with high-skill arcade challenges.
- 03The game’s initial user experience begins with a standard push notification prompt followed by an immediate introduction to the upgrade system.
- 04The core user experience is built around static, trench-based combat that emphasizes pattern recognition and twitch reflexes.
- 05Progression is gated by the completion of specific waves rather than microtransactions, ensuring players engage with the upgrade system through gameplay rather than immediate spending.
- 06The game features a non-intrusive monetization model that relies on in-app purchase tiers ranging from 99p to £30.99, primarily focused on coin multipliers to accelerate resource acquisition.
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Transcript
hello and welcome to pocketgamer.biz's YouTube channel this is a a series of uh gameplay videos we're starting to shoot um showing the first five minutes of um new games that are coming out so we can analyze the user experience and the monetization processes that developers and Publishers are using um particularly in the early stages of games obviously things can change as you go on um so we've got the setup here I'm gonna launch the game I'm gonna start my stopwatch let's see what we've got going on here so we're loading at least it's moving quite quickly get a bit of music okay so we're playing Peacekeeper from berserk Studios first thing we see see there's a lot of a lot of games is push notification this is a fairly standard that pretty much every game does this first thing you see I'm not I don't think this is a very interesting I don't know anything about the game particularly I haven't
stopped by playing it it's asking me do I want to be hassled um I'm going to say no this is the action let's turn it down a little bit okay so plays the obvious thing to do I think at this point I'm telling me what I'm doing very much is it here we go okay it's quite complicated now interesting so straight to the upgrade system something a lot of free to play games do um I can buy I guess buy magazines I suppose yeah we know what I'm doing I mean I think these other games they should really just take you through it shouldn't really take you through these three into the first thing you see because almost a tutorial Okay so we've kind of seen what got here some sort of Tower Defense type in America it's hard if I was thinking touch the Fire release to crouch okay I'll probably get the hang of that um up and down move areas okay so I've been sitting in a sitting in a trench okay so let's go
okay whoa so we're doing a bit of kind of pattern twitch recognition there oh you can use my grenade okay smart one grenade you know we're liking that one I think I think this game is going to be asking me to buy a lot of grenades or my skill set at this game is going to be asking you to play a lot of grenades crying over a lot of grenades it says it's kind of like 1941 in reverse a static 1941 oh it's gonna hurt to work out which because I'm working out which ones I think you're gonna have something when it's oh my I'm dead oh that doesn't work well I've been pacified I have ah so and am I um okay so it's endless I guess they have two minutes in now so I killed some Ruffians um I can like a 10 Cup come for a bonus let's just continue see what's going to take me to oh so I'm just playing over again yeah looks like to see this isn't this time no it come from okay yeah that was
a great little story um so I didn't really move up and down there okay I got two different positions so let's get a bit more funky little dude I wanna look kind of a age group this is on his own deck I don't think it's aimed at me I guess it's great yeah screw you oh it's a diet no oh so that's interesting that the first one I was so bad that actually failed I'm not keen on failing uh in general I think it's a good design thing to fail tutorials so it's three minutes two minutes in I thought I finished that so you know I'm pretty feeling pretty happy with myself experience um continue and there's a new enemy he's got an ax
he's probably gonna get quite close to me okay yeah yeah yeah yeah so I'm gonna be taking some hits I guess trying to get these at times while I get into my Trench you're a dead ass man oh it's been Australia oh my word what's that gonna do come on give me that one yeah oh that's nice ah I got rocket launcher ugh okay so it's not really taking me to the store is it so it's quite interesting
I'd call that it's quite quite um low grade monetization let's go in the upgrades anyway see what I've got I'm not really I guess most Gamers know now how upgrades work um so I've got I've got quite a lot so I was gonna buy a gun body increase pushback ammunition increase my guns damage I definitely want to buy that to me there's not a golden well it's okay about gold increased pushback effects I can buy all these you know let's keep spinning spend the cash oh that's surprising isn't it I've not quite enough money even if they designed it that way okay so that's what I've got um I could unlock that but I have to complete waves okay okay we've just come over five minutes better that's uh let's keep going just see what effect these these things have had on me these updates maybe I need some two fingers
until equally playing on the floor is not maybe that some of my complete skills I'm probably much better not on camera of course okay let's go and do that one yeah you guys are gonna get it oh my health is not very good yeah no no no let's put it against upgrades what can I upgrade I can't actually upgrade anything so let's store it must be oh there's still oh interesting
I'm not quite sure that that is a real amount of money okay so that's 99p to 299 2.99 13.99 there's any more excuse me that's give me a multiplier isn't I guess that's so that's basically these occurrences second the most like this one is 30.99 pounds and then I can get a a gold multiplier so if I buy that presumably every thing I um every goal I get in the game will will be doubled yeah so it's a coin double I don't really want to do that so there we go uh I think we call that quite a quite an arcade not very highly monetized game food to play um so it's free to download if you want to check it out Peacekeeper interesting
Summary
The Peacekeeper, a tower defense-style title developed by Berzerk Studio and published by A10.com for the iPad, utilizes a straightforward arcade-based gameplay loop that prioritizes immediate action over aggressive monetization. The user experience begins with a standard push notification prompt followed by an immediate introduction to an upgrade system, though the game lacks a comprehensive tutorial to guide new players through its mechanics. The core gameplay involves static, trench-based combat requiring pattern recognition and twitch reflexes, with difficulty spikes that can lead to early failure, a design choice that may alienate casual users.
Monetization within the first five minutes is characterized as low-grade and non-intrusive. While the game features an in-game store where players can spend earned currency on weapon upgrades—such as increased damage or pushback effects—the progression is gated by the requirement to complete specific waves rather than relying solely on microtransactions. The premium currency model includes standard in-app purchase tiers ranging from 99p to £30.99, with a primary focus on coin multipliers to accelerate the acquisition of in-game resources.
The overall design reflects an arcade-centric philosophy rather than a heavily monetized free-to-play structure. By allowing players to engage with the core mechanics and upgrade systems before pushing paid content, the game maintains a focus on accessibility. However, the lack of onboarding and the potential for early-game frustration suggest that the title targets a specific audience comfortable with high-difficulty, repetitive arcade challenges. The experience concludes that while the monetization is present, it remains secondary to the game’s primary objective of providing a fast-paced, skill-based combat environment.
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