Recent Posts

Squad Busters 2.0 & SpaceX’s Raptor 3 Engine

Squad Busters’ original thesis has been falsified. What once seemed like KPI paradise: hypercasual-esque core, aggregating Supercell’s beloved IPs à la Super Smash Bros., and infinite consumable-based monetization with zero marginal cost, is now unrecognizable. I was brought in, and called it the game with Supercell’s biggest ceiling! Yet, just a year later, the hypercasual core has vanished, giving way to multiple player-activated abilities and completely removing consumables. Squad Buster 2.0 attempts to simplify nagging launch criticisms, including combat readability, character UX, progression speed, agency out-of-round with unit selection, and agency in-round with abilities. It gets halfway there, but in solving some issues, surfaces others.

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Overwatch Uses This One Content Productivity Hack

Overwatch’s new Stadium mode officially marks the launch* of Overwatch 2, building on the previous release’s perk system. Inside Stadium, there’s one content productivity hack, known previously only to the savviest Steam roguelike indie developers: conditional passives.

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Law & Economic Order, A Game Economist Investigation

Pokémon’s patent of spherical objects throwing of cartoon creatures threatens Palword’s lifeblood, while Tim Sweeney has lifted, at least a percentage point, in total gaming GDP with its injunction success.

  • How does Apple’s rent-seeking rate change in the face of this ruling?
  • Should Apple lower its rate to 15%, like it did in subscriptions?
    • Remember, it faced competition primarily from “webstores” too.

We premier a new segment: SOLVE that for EQUILIBRIUM. We discuss the marginal monetization effects and debate the benefits of personalization opportunities (hint: there are none) with webstores. @Chris is intrigued by Joost’s piece on rising game costs, while AI’s effects on the industry are measured in the Solow model. @Phil insists rising game costs mean rising revenue and stable margins, while Eric has his own doubts.

Eric’s on IP Laws, Joost’s On Gaming Costs

In Search of the Casual Habby & Meta SDK

Habby (Happy + Hobby) rewrote mobile’s growth playbook when Archero exploded in 2019, and the studio has remained a case study in scaling hybridcasual hits ever since. The game coined “hybridcasual,” surpassed $500M in revenue, and, more importantly, created a meta sturdy enough to be recycled in every project that followed. Despite a surge in hypercasual puzzle games over the last two years, casual developers have yet to adopt the Habby Meta.

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