Artem Z.

📢 Looking for Speakers: Game Industry Conference 2024! 🎮 I'm looking for individuals interested in giving lightning talks on topics related to psychology in games (or psychology in game development) at the upcoming Game Industry Conference, taking place October 24-27 in Poznań, Poland. If you have insights, research, or experiences to share in this area, I'd love to hear from you! 📚💡 If you're interested or know someone who might be, please contact me for more details. 🤝 #gameindustryconference #GIC2024 #gamedev #gamedevelopment #gamingindustry #psychologyingames #psychology #GUR #callforspeakers

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Mobile gaming giant Playtika has acquired SuperPlay, a leading mobile game developer. The deal, valued at $700 million with potential for additional payments, aims to strengthen Playtika's position in the mobile gaming market. Key Points: ⭐ Strategic Acquisition: Playtika views SuperPlay as a valuable addition to its portfolio, offering opportunities for growth and innovation. ⭐ Strong Partnership: Almog and Netzer, founders of SuperPlay, expressed enthusiasm for the acquisition and the potential for collaboration with Playtika. ⭐ Growth Potential: SuperPlay's existing games, Dice Dreams and Domino Dreams, have demonstrated strong user engagement, and the company has additional projects in development. This acquisition marks a significant step for Playtika as they continue to expand their reach and deliver exceptional gaming experiences to players worldwide. (source: https://lnkd.in/esbkzdpz)

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💡 MOBILE GAMING SPENDER REPORT - BY MISTPLAY I would like to share with everyone a comprehensive report on the global mobile game market in 2024! 1. Mobile spenders will be more discerning with their spending in 2024 ✅ The landscape of mobile game spending may witness a discernible shift this year, with 32% of spenders – and 41% of High-value spenders – planning to reduce their in-game spending and shift toward more budget-conscious decisions for discretionary spending. 2. A good (personalized) offer goes a long way ✅Optimizing the usage of IAP offers and discounts can be a viable strategic approach to encourage investment, given that 33% of spenders indicate they will spend if they encounter a deal too good to pass up, and 40% would be influenced to spend more if given personalized offers. 3. Social factors influence installs, not always spend ✅Community is a powerful lever at the top of the funnel, with mobile spenders ranking word-of-mouth recommendations as a top-3 discovery channel and 31% downloading three or more games from referrals in the past year, but it may lose importance further down the funnel, as a majority of spenders (69%) report that social factors don’t influence their spending decisions at all. 4. Loyalty bonuses are powerful tools to engage spenders ✅Spenders are looking for ways to make their discretionary spending go further and will engage with brands that help them do so, as a majority (79%) not only engage with a variety of loyalty programs but will also spend more in-game if doing so earns them extra points or monetary rewards (51%). 5. Engagement with ads relies on relevant, real gameplay ✅A majority of spenders will download a new game after seeing an ad impressions for a few days or less – and while 72% of mobile spenders will be interested in ads that have appealing gameplay, they are often frustrated with misleading gameplay. Source References: https://buff.ly/3NStWMK #mobilegame #gameindustry #gamesector #gamota #gametrendreport

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Alright, another gaming industry report for the first half of 2024 has been recently published. Thanks, Konvoy. In 2024, the market is expected to reach 💲 1️⃣ 8️⃣ 9️⃣ billion, which is heftier than the COVID years. Moreover, with an annual increase of 💲 7️⃣ - 8️⃣ billion in revenue, this forecast looks pretty optimistic. 🔍 As a gaming startup, we were particularly interested in the investment landscape. Private market funding in gaming YTD has already surpassed that of all of 2023, which is encouraging. 💳 Early-stage funding is doing well, but late-stage funding is lagging. This is understandable. Those who can navigate this stage and gain investor trust through an ambitious product, promising metrics, or both will find it relatively easy to secure late-stage investments due to the abundant growth capital available. 💹 Don't fall into momentary pessimism over the fewer M&A deals. With so much cash on hand among strategists, this is clearly a temporary phenomenon. There's a great opportunity for startups aiming for late/growth stage in the next year or two. Public gaming companies hold 💲 3️⃣3️⃣ billion in cash and equivalents, so, as the report states: "a healthy M&A environment." Additionally, YouTube and LinkedIn introducing game strategy means the trend towards cross-platform is continuing, and games should not only launch as standalone apps. In summary, with the hope of no new geopolitical shocks and easing global tensions, the future of the gaming industry looks optimistic. For now, we give ourselves at Made on Earth Games a pat on the back for deciding to go cross-platform and build our own IP with a standout product for a wide audience. The results will show whether this praise was well-deserved. Link to the full report is in the first comment #vc #venture #capital #startup #gaming #game #developer #crossplatform #growth #merge #strategy #nextgen #report

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Most of us at some point have an 💡idea we'd like to develop, very few move forward with it. Out of those who try, over 90% fail. Ilia Eremeev's presentation can be helpful if you've made initial steps working on your idea (gaming or otherwise) and want to better match what you have to what VC's are looking for.

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Kudos to my colleague Olga Sobolevskaya at MY.GAMES, my dear friend Andrei Zubov, as well as Alexandra Doroshenko from AppMagic, on their insightful research into 4X strategies in mobile gaming. This analysis of titles like Last War and Whiteout Survival reveals fundamental shifts in audience engagement and monetization approaches, opening new insights for developers in this highly competitive genre. Highly recommended reading. Check out the article in the comments. #gaming #mobilegaming #4X #appmagic #mygames #gameindustry

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How I manage 5 co-dev contracts without skipping dinner: Here's my system: I run UGI, a mobile gaming studio. We currently have 5 co-dev projects. Here's how I stay on top of all priorities. 🗓️ 09:00 - 12:00:  Production meetings with clear agendas No exceptions. Each project gets dedicated focus. 🗓️ 12:00 - 13:00:  Industry research and checking in w/ network Keeping our studio competitive through constant learning. 🗓️ 13:00 - 15:00:  Partner and client meetings Concentrated timeblock prevents day fragmentation. 🗓️ 15:00 - 17:00:  Creative sessions with the team Where our best game concepts emerge. 🗓️ 18:00 - 19:00:  Family dinner. Phones in another room. 🗓️ 19:00 - 20:00:  Gaming with my son. My favorite. Currently: Sackboy: A Big Adventure together. 🗓️ 20:00 - 22:00:  Meta Quest sessions with American partners Converting "downtime" into valuable relationship building. The reality? Being a CEO is about saying no. Time with family isn't something you find. It's something you create through disciplined boundaries. This leads to clear evenings. And more time with my loved ones. My advice to other leaders out there. State WHEN you are available. This makes you more available to those you care about most. Do you work evenings?

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Wrapped up #EVA2024 with Byzantium and we had a great time visiting old friends and meeting new comrades from the industry. As always kudos to Florencia Fole 🔜 EVA, Miguel Martín and the team behind ADVA - Argentina's Video Game Developers Association for such a kick ass event! (sorry I missed the closing event I had a splitting headache). Now as I promised I wanted to do an AAR (After Action Report) of the event, specifically focused on the #indiedevs that attended and that I met with (some I was not able to do so!) Let's jump right in! PRE EVA: Now, pre-event I saw a couple of things that still have me thinking how can people fumble this much. Lots of indie dev profiles were missing basic info, like project data, and somewhere you could find that there was no person to invite for a meeting! It is CRUCIAL for devs to have all the data as soon as able, so publishers, investors, service providers and so forth can better understand if they could be a fit or not! I recommend always prepping things for an event as soon as you can, ideally 1 month in anticipation, so you can then focus on other important stuff (like sorting your schedule). DURING EVA: Now, during the event I was swamped, and I was back-to-back, thus I did not have that much extra wiggle room to go and talk to devs which I did not have the time to schedule a slot. That said, when you do have time, be sure to have a deck ready to present the key components of your pitch: Platform, tech, game genre, team size, team accomplishments (if any), costs, what are you looking for, gameplay trailer, and the like. Use the deck as a support tool, and don't just read it, focus on the opportunity of the project and not the issues (lack of funding are always issues!). Have a business card at the ready (I do not recommend anything bigger or extra than that) so we have your contact info, If you were not able to have one be sure to write after the event so the link can be stablished, remember we see tons of people and we might not remember you! POST EVA: Ideally once you meet someone, send them over the deck of the game and make sure to do a little bit of an intro again, just in case, so you can rumble my old memory sack. So far of the over 25 meetings I had just 1 dev wrote to me (Granted we are still one week after the first B2B day). Anyhow, hope this helps!

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How do you build an engineering team from scratch in iGaming? 5 main things to keep in mind: 1️⃣ Hire experts with practical experience. If you want to develop a platform, you need teammates who don't require months-long onboarding and can set the rhythm from the get-go. And of course, understanding the iGaming industry itself is a plus. 2️⃣ Take time to grow the vision and strategy. It's too easy to lose a valuable team these days. Explain to engineers why they should be passionate about your project or product. Despite the industry's trends, money isn't usually the best motivator. 3️⃣ Think ahead about your strategic advantages. Focus on what will empower you in the future. For example, specialize in a powerful bonus AI recommendation engine and hire experts for that. Make it a part of your product vision and use it as a distinctive advantage over competitors. 4️⃣ Be ready to spend like your life depends on it. If I had to set up the engineering team, I'd go for 40 people along with 2-3 strong leaders. The salaries only pile up to 240 thousand dollars a month. Multiply it by 3 years, and you know the rough development cost. That's a bare minimum for the industry. 5️⃣ Treat technologies like tools Some tech gets more attention but It doesn't mean it fits your platform needs. Try to cut unnecessary tools and introduce the ones the team can use to enhance the product. When you cover the basics, constantly improve your product offer.  There's no stopping now. #GR8Tech #igaming #sportsbook #igamingplatform #bettingprovider #iGamingSoftware #softwarearchitecture

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This is my first experience as a CMO and my first job in the gaming industry on the client side. For the past 7 months, we have been promoting League of Masters. From the very first weeks, it became clear that this project is not typical. Here are the challenges we’ve encountered: - Despite being a quality game, it's struggling to find its audience. - Media buying costs are rising, retention is falling, and Facebook tools are failing. - The mid-core genre transitioning into hardcore immediately dismisses a large part of the gaming audience, while we target the most solvent one (mid-core shows high revenue values in game dev reports for 2022-2023). - The need to make the game an esports discipline. - Working with bloggers not only on the "we paid - you did" scheme but also through an ambassador program. - The press doesn't want to write about "another battler," and we have to break through to them from ten different angles. How we are addressing these issues: - Testing audiences from competitors and different genres in media buying. Retention is growing, but so is the CPI. We are trying to identify where the higher quality audience is. Google Ads works worse for us than Facebook, and we will soon try TikTok Ads and Unity. - We are finding the mid-core audience through targeted bloggers and specialized press. - We've connected with several esports teams to gather feedback before launching the first tournaments. Not all feedback is free, research costs money. - We are bombarding thousands of small bloggers with emails, offering support and in-game goodies. Some are interested and start creating content. - With the press, not being able to meet in person, we network through social media and email, looking for direct contacts with journalists. This has resulted in a few good publications. Currently, my main task is to gather 10-20,000 wishlists to get featuring from Steam at launch and to form a core audience interested in the game. Additionally, we continue to seek out esports teams and gather their feedback. We have organically grown our Facebook group to 2,100 members and our YouTube channel to 780 subscribers. Soon, we plan to start paid influencer campaigns with the sole aim of adding the game to wishlists. Like this post if you find this interesting and I keep sharing!

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Alexandra Trifonova from Hitapps tips on finding a new monetization partner "Reputation and Reliability: Research the partner’s market reputation, stability, and reliability. Look at reviews, ask for references, and consider their industry presence. - Scalability: Determine whether a potential partner can scale operations to meet growing demands. This is crucial for expanding projects or entering new markets."

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gamescom latam was a blast. However, one week of discussions with game developers from Latin America and around the globe spotlighted the weaknesses of the European digital trade promotion policy. First of all, the Chinese and Indians were visible at the event, but the EU was missing. The trade consulates of EU countries still see each other as their main competitors, but our main competitors are non-EU giants like the USA, China, and India. Only by collaborating, finding synergies, and pooling resources will the EU member states be able to challenge the global visibility of American, Chinese, and Indian trade promotion activities. Secondly, we might be too focused on talent attraction and outsourcing opportunities. Do not get me wrong; both are critical topics for the growth of the European game industry, and we must continue working with them. However, we should not be blinded by those goals. Brazilian game dev studios are rapidly expanding, and the largest of them are already starting to open their local studios in the EU. It is time to broaden our focus and begin promoting the EU more as an investment location and an ideal sport for co-productions. Thirdly, the EU parades itself as the forerunner and trendsetter of digital regulation. As Brazilian efforts to build a GDPR-adequate privacy policy framework and their plans to regulate gatekeeper platforms demonstrate, Brussels's effect is true. However, if the EU does not take a more active role in aligning digital policies inspired by it, we will face a significant risk of deepening global regulatory market fragmentation. It is clear that trade agreements are not an instrument that is agile enough to address this challenge. Instead, the EU should focus on building joint guidelines with third countries on how to align regulatory requirements. In practice, we need joint guidelines between, for example, European and Brazilian data protection authorities addressing the potential conflicts between the EU and Brazilian data protection frameworks. Thank you so much for the invite, great hospitality and enabling the trip Eliana Russi 🔜 gamescom latam , congrants for successful event Stefan Heikhaus 🔜 gamescom latam and thank you for all the help Alessandra Leone.

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Data on job openings in the #gamedev industry: ➡ 86% of all open positions do not offer remote work options. Only 14% of positions provide this opportunity. ➡ Asia (32.5%), Europe (28.3%), and North America (22.9%) lead in the number of open job positions. Only jobs that do not offer remote work were considered. ➡ The countries with the most job offers for gaming industry workers are: USA (16.4%), China (13.9%), UK (7.4%), Canada (6.3%), and Japan (4.2%). ➡ At the city level, Shenzhen (6.7% of all job openings) and Shanghai (4.4%) are the leaders in terms of the number of open positions. They are followed by Montreal (3.6%), Tokyo (3%), and London (2.7%) via Dmitriy Byshonkov newsletter

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If you’re considering sending us your CV - read through - a couple tips!

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🎮 Scaling Mobile Games: Insights from my colleagues Nikita Matsokin and Polina Kozhanova📱 The mobile gaming industry is evolving (duh!), and scaling successfully means adapting to new challenges. As Nikita and Polina highlight in their discussion with TechIsland®: ✅ Monetization needs flexibility. Players expect more than in-app purchases, so balancing ads, subscriptions, and creative monetization models is key. ✅ Data is the foundation – Understanding player behavior through real-time analytics drives engagement and retention. ✅ Think global, act local. Expanding into new markets requires localization and cultural relevance to connect with players truly. ✅ Sustainability is a priority. Gamers care about social responsibility, and companies that align with these values build stronger loyalty. Combining innovation with market insights is the way forward — learn more about MGVC Publishing by reading the article in the first comment! #MobileGaming #GamingIndustry #MYGAMES #MobilePublishing

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Great News! For the past couple of months, we've been working at 80.lv on a special offer for the market, a win-win solution for clients and outsourcing studios. This project holds great significance for me because it's where I finally got to apply my experience in branding, communications and strategy, working with the fantastic team at 80.lv in a strong collaboration, and seeing the results now is particularly gratifying. So, why should you choose 80.lv outsourcing (with benefits =)) when selecting a partner for outsourcing or searching for clients? 1. We've compiled an extensive database of outsourcing companies and services, allowing clients to receive the best conditions and offers in one place (no more need to approach numerous companies, send out briefs to everyone, and gather feedback). 2. Our team of producers will curate several bundles for you, catering to any preference in terms of style, budget, and timing. As well as leading your project to success along the way. 3. Our internal vendor ranking system helps track performance across various criteria, including key aspects like quality, turnaround time, communication convenience, and many others. 4. 80.lv Media helps showcase projects and case studies to the world. And our community of creators supports the product from the start and helps generate unique user-generated content (UGC). If you have any questions on this project or want to join us as a client or vendors, please feel free to contact me directly or via e-email, we have many delicious solutions to offer to save your time and efforts 💪

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Couple of weeks ago, eJobs Romania launched #Score2Skill, a campaign in which, my company, Good Game Industry, was involved together with The Geeks Bucharest team (Ioana, Laura & co), Dan Petre, Angela Rosu and many other talented people. All of us working with and for gamers know that gaming has a lot of benefits. We say that in every interview, in every meeting, at any event, but how to really make them count, to make them as truly benefits in our lives. #Score2Skill was a project that started more than one year ago with an idea that I embraced from the very beginning: what if we transform the gaming skills into job skills that eventually the gamers can use in their CVs. It took us several meetings, focus groups and interviews with gamers of all kinds (casual, pro, influencers) to come up with the final algorithm. So far, in less than 3 weeks, thousands of people have used the tool and I can't be more excited and happy about it 😀 . Well done everybody! #Score2Skill #gaming #goodgameindustry #eJobs

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Reflecting on my predictions for the Games industry recruitment in 2024. Last January I joined the PocketGamer.biz podcast to share my view on the state of the industry from somebody who's deeply involved in recruitment. While I may have been optimistic about some recruitment trends, but other aspects such as the rise of AI in game development and the demand for AI skills, have proven to be pretty accurate. What are you observations Peggy Anne Salz and Brian Baglow FRSA?  Would be great to catchup and do another episode some time! #GamesIndustry #gamedevelopment #recruitment #trends #industryinsights #gamesfactorytalents #gamedevtalents #hiring #recruitment

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