The Art & Science of Games
The views expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the views of my employer. Even further, this post is just a fun thought experiment expressing a contrarian view to current popular opinion. Fortnite: The Cultural Phenomenon! Fortnite is a cultural phenomenon with over 40M downloads on PC and … Continue Reading about Why Fortnite will fall, but Battle Royale will rise on mobile
Context: Mobile game pre-production teams often focus on the wrong activities. An early focus on playables in software or building a game's … Continue Reading about “Key Risks” Based Mobile Game Pre-production
In 1983, a small group of entrepreneurs was hard at work creating a company that would define a new age of digital entertainment. This new … Continue Reading about Emergence of the “Software Artist”
In June of 2016, little known Chinese publisher DroidHang Games (aka “DH Games”) launched Idle Heroes, an auto-battle RPG with very heavy Asian metagame design influence. Although seemingly unremarkable at … [Read More...] about How Idle Heroes made $100M
Overview This post focuses on three primary forms of F2P game design: gameplay, systems, and social. The console and PC world are currently dominated by a "units sold" business with emphasis on gameplay focused … [Read More...] about F2P Game Design: Gameplay vs. Systems vs. Social
Context: Mobile game pre-production teams often focus on the wrong activities. An early focus on playables in software or building a game's core loop may be useful but not the best approach. Any team with … [Read More...] about “Key Risks” Based Mobile Game Pre-production
SEGA Networks (mobile operating division of SEGA) partnered with Sensor Tower this year to present the 2016 Mobile Gaming Trends Report. The report covers the overall and category-focused mobile gaming industry … [Read More...] about 2016 Mobile Gaming Trends Report: Key Take-aways
There is a better way to make your mobile analytics far more effective and to dramatically reduce your integration time! Further, I illustrate how the best person to manage analytics not only understands metrics … [Read More...] about Design & Implementation of Mobile Analytics
I recently spoke as a panelist at the MG West conference on mobile game analytics and after the panel was very surprised by how few companies and people in the industry seemed to know about analytics overall as well … [Read More...] about Introduction to Mobile Analytics & Reporting
Are you ready to level up your mobile app monetization? Context: In October of 2011, an article about DeNA included a number of key mobile monetization insights: High Ass ARPU: Claimed $12 ARPU (average revenue … [Read More...] about 12 Critical Mobile Monetization Concepts (Part 1 of 3)
Guys, it's not 2011: The world does not need another card battle game. Cruising around at the latest Pocket Gamer event last night, within 1 hour I randomly bumped into different folks from 3 different companies … [Read More...] about The World Doesn’t Need Another Card Battle Game (Gamasutra)
Context: In today's mobile game market, the most successful games must have extremely high LTV (Life Time Value). As LTV is fairly difficult to project accurately (at least in the short term), shorter term metrics … [Read More...] about Monetization-based Game Design: ARPDAU Contribution
Some of the philosophies and lessons I've learned from my life experience don't have scientific backing but I have come to absolutely believe in through real world experience. More specifically, building a … [Read More...] about Building a Successful Team through Determined Optimism: Winners vs. Whiners
Context: Mobile game pre-production teams often focus on the wrong activities. An early focus on playables in software or building a game's core loop may be useful but not the best approach. Any team with … [Read More...] about “Key Risks” Based Mobile Game Pre-production
Introduction Steve Jobs was famous for creating some of the most successful products ever built. He made significant, positive impacts on the the product teams and with product decisions. However, with many … [Read More...] about Destructive Executives and the “Giant Spider” Problem
Context Before gameplay, mechanics, monetization, or any other key design consideration, a new video game design needs to consider the most important aspect of all: a good concept. Feature film screenwriter … [Read More...] about The “Strange Attractor” in Video Game Design
A man can surely do what he wills to do, but cannot determine what he wills. - Arthur Schopenhauer John Hopson introduced the concept of the compulsion loop applied to video games as early as 2001. Since then, … [Read More...] about The Compulsion Loop in Game Design Explained
Business and life philosopher. Clash Royale Fan. Father of 3 crazy kids. Mobile gaming executive currently working at NBCUniversal Games & Digital Platforms group. All opinions expressed in any of the content found on this website are my own and do not represent the opinions of my employer. More.
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