Design Home
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Documents about Design Home
Redefining play – Blurring the lines between app and game
Design Home, a mobile application launched in 2016, serves as a primary case study for the emergence of lifestyle gaming, a category that blurs the boundaries between digital entertainment and real-world interests.
- Design Home, launched in 2016, has scaled to over one million daily active users and generated more than 215 million dollars in bookings by blending interior design mechanics with real-world brand partnerships.
- The platform successfully targets a non-gamer demographic—predominantly women—who utilize the app for creativity, relaxation, and practical learning rather than traditional gaming mastery or fantasy.
- Engagement is sustained through a high-frequency content strategy that mirrors social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest by releasing five to six unique design events daily.
2019 Predictions: Simulation & Customisation Games get Primed for Growth
Simulation and Lifestyle games, two casual-game categories often seen as stale and entrenched, are positioned for further growth in 2019.
- The Simulation category experienced significant growth in 2018, with revenues increasing by over 20% to approximately $1.1 billion and total installs rising by 13% to 463 million.
- Cooking Craze achieved the top grossing position in the time management sub-category in 2018 with $46 million in revenue, representing 182% growth compared to 2017 despite having fewer downloads than its competitors.
- Interactive Story games saw a 50% revenue increase in 2018, though the category faces challenges with low retention and a lack of social or progression mechanics, leaving market dominance to established leaders like Choices and Episode.
As Glu’s Stock Price Soars, Its Crowdstar Acquisition Looks Prescient
Glu Mobile's November 2016 acquisition of a controlling stake in Covet Fashion developer Crowdstar, at roughly $45MM, has proven to be one of the shrewdest deals in mobile gaming history.
- Glu Mobile's acquisition of Crowdstar for approximately $50 million has been a primary driver of its financial turnaround, with Crowdstar's titles, Covet Fashion and Design Home, accounting for over 50% of Glu's revenue in Q2 2018.
- Glu's stock price increased nearly 300% between November 2016 and August 2018, rising from $1.91 to $7.57 per share.
- The company is successfully transitioning toward profitability by stabilizing losses while growing top-line revenue, reporting a $4.4 million loss on $90.2 million in revenue for Q2 2018 compared to a $23.6 million loss on $68.7 million in revenue for Q2 2017.
Industry Update: Q3 2018
This weekly industry newsletter from Q3 2018 combines a personal essay with news items and quarterly earnings snapshots across games, media, and emerging technology.
- Sony achieved record operating profits in Q3 2018, supported by total PlayStation 4 hardware sales reaching 82.2 million units.
- Nintendo generated $1.51 billion in revenue, though analysts remain skeptical of the company's ability to meet its 20-million-unit annual sales target for the Switch.
- Activision Blizzard experienced a 14% decline in Blizzard revenue, a downturn attributed to increased market competition from Fortnite.
Predictions for 2018: Casual Games
Casual mobile games in 2017 saw a market where soaring cost per install has pushed developers toward deeper, better-retaining, better-monetizing products.
- Rising user acquisition costs have forced casual game developers to shift focus from simple portfolio expansion to creating deeper, higher-LTV titles with advanced mechanics.
- Playrix has emerged as a dominant force in the puzzle category, leveraging gameplay innovations and cross-promotion across its titles to challenge industry leader King.
- The hyper-casual market is experiencing a surge in growth driven by short, ad-monetized gameplay loops, leading to industry consolidation as major publishers acquire smaller developers to secure talent and scale.
Design Home and the Art of Monopoly
Design Home, Crowdstar's interior decorating game, is analyzed as a rare success in "female first" mobile gaming, one that abandoned the cutesy, pink, animal-centric stereotypes common since Facebook embraced free-to-play.
- Crowdstar achieved market success by moving away from stereotypical 'female-first' gaming tropes toward a professional simulation model that treats players as interior designers rather than casual users.
- The game's core loop relies on a 'Key' system where players must vote on 45 other designs to earn enough currency to enter a single new competition, creating a self-sustaining social ecosystem.
- Monetization is driven by 'just-in-time' purchasing, where players spend currency to acquire specific furniture items required to complete a challenge and maintain a high community rating.
Can Mobile Gaming Companies Go Public Again?
Mobile gaming's relationship with public markets shifted markedly between the Zynga and King IPO era of 2012 to 2014 and autumn 2017, and Eric Seufert argues that the once-prevailing belief that public investors are structurally hostile to mobile games has become outdated.
- Public market sentiment toward mobile gaming has shifted from hostility to acceptance, evidenced by Rovio Entertainment’s 2017 IPO, which achieved an enterprise value exceeding $1 billion.
- The industry has moved beyond the 'hit-driven' model that caused early public failures like King, which saw its stock price drop significantly after its 2014 IPO before being acquired by Activision for $5.9 billion in 2015.
- Mobile gaming companies have matured their business models by mastering sustainable user acquisition, effective monetization, and the integration of brands to improve retention.
Move Over Minecraft: Monetizing User-Generated Content
Mobile and PC games built around user-generated content are entering a new phase beyond Minecraft's open-world sandbox, and this 2017 analysis argues that a wave of "prosumer" platforms offers developers real monetization opportunities.
- User-generated content (UGC) platforms are shifting from simple sandbox environments like Minecraft to structured ecosystems where players act as 'prosumers' who create, distribute, and monetize their own content.
- Platforms like Episode and Roblox demonstrate that providing users with sophisticated, accessible creation tools—such as story editors—effectively transforms consumers into producers and drives long-term engagement.
- The 'IKEA effect' explains the high engagement in UGC games, as users derive disproportionately high value and satisfaction from products they partially or wholly create, even when the aesthetic quality is lower than professional content.
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