At Department of Play, we love shopping on AliExpress, from retro console mods and arcade hardware to office equipment and clothes. But recently we’ve become fascinated by its complex web of games, which have their own mature economy that backs out to real dollar value. This is not just your typical gamification with a progress…
I am excited to announce that Department of Play has once again begun accepting new and existing clients for our product review service (read more), starting in March. However, this will be on a reduced capacity of one project per month. Our product review is an expert-led two week process that identifies the key problems…
As a central concept to crypto gaming, tokenomics is a fast emerging field in game design. But it is also complex and oftentimes confusing. This article was written as a complete introduction and reference guide for developers, publishers and investors. We will cover crypto technologies, their applications and the underlying motivations at play. ContentsToken MechanicsCoins…
Maths is the fundamental language of games: Strip away the audio, the visuals and the story and you’re left with only numbers. This is true of every game, big or small. The numerical exchanges in Yahtzee or poker may be well surfaced, but the maths at play in a game like Fortnite is far less…
Here at Department of Play, we’re often approached by teams aspiring to improve a game’s revenue. More often than not, these games contain several monetisation features with the potential to earn a profit. However, in many cases, players are spending irregularly or not at all. This is often due to a lack of pressing reasons…
Launch Date: October 2018Developer: Sky MavisPublisher: Sky MavisStatus: WorldwidePlatforms: Android (side loading), iOS (closed TestFlight Beta), Windows, Mac OS.Genre: TCG / team battler.Similar to: Hearthstone, Pokémon, CryptoKitties. What is it? Axie Infinity is a NFT-based collectible battler developed by Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis, who are an alumni of Ubisoft’s Enterprise Labs. The developer is also…
Launch Date: 5th October 2020Developer: Electronic ArtsPublisher: Electronic ArtsStatus: WorldwidePlatforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X & S, Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia, Microsoft WindowsGenre: SportSimilar to: eFootball (formerly Pro Evolution Soccer) What is it? For the unfamiliar, Ultimate Team is a stealth free-to-play CCG (Collectible Card Game) nested within the FIFA franchise’s…
Here is a question game developers often find themselves concerned with: how do I evaluate the viability of a game idea that I’m about to start working on? Having invested many months and a ton of other resources in development, you’d quite like to end up with a game that is not just fun to…
The idea that developers and publishers of contemporary games can take meaningful, monetising lessons from the heritage of arcade gaming might sound counterintuitive. Arcade gaming today is often thought of as a dwindling niche where a handful of players remain devotedly committed to punishingly difficult games that ostracise larger audiences.That model appears to have very…
The process of deconstruction can be fundamental in defining the success and quality of your next game project. As such, understanding the process of ‘deconstruction’ could be considered a key skill within game design, yet it is so often misunderstood or given passing attention. Viewing a game through a deconstructive lens lets you build a…
Launch Date: 6th April 2021Status: Soft Launch (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland).Genre: Strategy.Similar to: Spooky Pop, Legend of Solgard, and Puzzle and Dragons. What is it? Clash Quest is a tactical puzzle RPG with clear influences from King’s Legend of Solgard and Supercell’s own discontinued Spooky Pop. Clash Quest is one of three recently…
If you want to make a game that succeeds creatively and commercially, prototyping will almost certainly be a key step in the design and development process. Prototyping serves as a point at which early ideas and concepts can be crystallised, pivoting the process of game design into the production pipeline phase. And while many design…
In this specially contributed piece, AppMagic CEO and Founder Max Samorukov considers what AppLovin’s purchase of Adjust means as Apple’s looming IDFA changes are set to complicate the world of mobile ad targeting and tracking. What’s Going On? In summer 2020, Apple announced its new ATT (App Tracking Transparency) policy that seriously restricts mobile apps’…
As a general concept, matchmaking is fundamentally simple. It serves as a means to group players in online games, based on the experiences they are looking for, and the ability or skill level they bring. The motivation for matchmaking, of course, is about giving players a rewarding experience. Games are more enjoyable – and thus…
Launch Date: August 4th, 2020Developer: MediatonicFormats: PC, PS4Status: Public launchGenre: Battle royale/platformerSimilar to: Fortnite, Tetris 99 In the midst of a year consumed by the COVID-19 pandemic, an atypical battle royale game emerged as something of a star of 2020. That game was Fall Guys, and for a few weeks after its launch on PC…
Beyond game design itself, there is perhaps no more vital effort in making a game successful than that of user acquisition. After all, retaining and engaging players only begins when you have people downloading and playing your game. The notion of acquiring users in reality includes any way players find your game, including organic and…
Joost Rietveld, Assistant Professor in Strategic Management at UCL School of Management returns to Department of Play with the second and final part of his look at the evolution of platforms – from digital game stores to the coming consoles. Part 1 can be found here. The insights presented in this series of articles are…
In this specially contributed piece, Joost Rietveld, Assistant Professor in Strategic Management at UCL School of Management considers the evolution of platforms – from digital game stores to the coming consoles – and the developer strategies and revenue generation options that have emerged in tandem. The insights presented in this series of articles are based…
What Is It? Launch Date: 4 February 2019Developer: Respawn EntertainmentPublisher: Electronic ArtsStatus: WorldwidePlatforms: PS4, Xbox One and Windows.Plus Switch (confirmed) and mobile (rumoured).Genre: FPS.Similar to: PUBG, Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone. Most significantly, Apex Legends marks Electronic Arts’ move on the battle royale space dominated and defined by Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (commonly, ‘PUBG’).…
In this specially contributed piece, AppMagic CEO and Founder Max Samorukov shares the results of a statistical deconstruction of the relationship between game setting, genre, and how that relates to success. When looking to understand a game’s success or potential, many of us choose to focus on monetisation models, retention frameworks, and other such factors.…
Here at Department of Play our clients often ask us about the sheer breadth of tools available to those that make and publish mobile games. From ad-tech offerings to data platforms, there are a somewhat bewildering array of options, and it’s not always immediately clear what differentiates even the most popular tools.With that in mind,…
For the past handful of years, the rise of hypercasual has become something of an obsession for developers, publishers and investors alike. Truly cementing its presence in the F2P mobile game market through 2018, the hypercasual form arrived with dazzlingly low CPIs and the promise of beguiling even larger audiences than casual and midcore. Here…
In this specially contributed piece Matt Frenchman, co-founder and CEO of game and app studio financing platform Sugar, takes a look at the sometimes misunderstood art of modelling and calculating LTV, and why it matters to the success of your next mobile game. If you are working on building a successful free-to-play game studio or…
Here at Department of Play, many of our clients are deeply interested in improving player retention in their free-to-play and paid games. The reasoning behind that fascination is fundamentally straightforward. The longer a player is retained the more time they spend engaged with a game, broadening their opportunity to spend. So far, so simple. But…
What Is It? Launch Date: 16 March 2020.Status: Soft Launch (New Zealand, Australia and Finland).Genre: Puzzle / City Builder.Similar to: Gardenscapes, Toy Blast, Hay Day and Candy Crush Saga. Supercell, the studio behind Clash of Clans and Clash Royale, are revisiting their first breakout hit, Hay Day. However, where Hay Day was a farming sim…
18 months ago I started thinking about lots of big questions: How will we work in the future? What are the problems facing games companies? How can I help? As these questions bounced around my head, I began to realise the answer was incredibly interconnected. I believed there was a demand for some kind consultancy…
Our CEO Will Luton talks about why we chose not to have an office, the great things it did for Department of Play and the great things it can do for you too. When I founded Department of Play, I was used to working in huge companies, with huge buildings jam-packed with facilities that seemed…
Warframe is a silent success that has defines what a free-to-play PC and console hit can look like: High production values, slick gameplay, hardcore mechanics and monetision that keeps players happy. Launched by Unreal co-creators Digital Extremes in 2013 – as the studio’s last ditch attempt to save itself – the title was met with…
It is increasingly common for our clients to ask us to advise on player-friendly monetisation that explicitly excludes loot boxes. And this is a timely way to be thinking: Following Belgium’s outright ban on loot boxes, causing devs including Nintendo to pull games from the region, a committee of MPs in the UK last week…
This article first appeared as the opening column in issue 20 of Wireframe. Free-to-play has brought gaming to billions of new players across the globe: from the middle-aged Middle Americans discovering hidden object puzzles to the hundreds of millions of mobile gamers playing MOBAs in China. People who wouldn’t (or couldn’t) buy games now have…
Just when the mobile F2P market was threatening to get stale, along came hypercasual. As the star of 2018 with Zynga snapping up Gram Games for $250m and Voodoo raising $200m from Goldman Sachs, where does the genre go next? Here’s my key predictions for 2019. 1. CPIs Will Rise Hypercasual is predicated off buying users…
What Is It? Economics is a large field of study covering how and why the production, consumption and transfer of items occur. For example, the UK’s economy is defined by the complex flow of money between corporations, households and the government. Why Is It Important? As games become more complex with currencies being created, used…
Today new industry magazine Wireframe hit shelves across the UK. My eight page article The Mathematics of Balance: Part 1 features, giving a complete introduction to curves and probability. While the mag costs a measly £3, you may know that I’m a big fan of free things. Well, the good news is you can download…
Being a PM is often equated to being the “CEO of a product” and requires a multi-disciplined skill set including design, business, analytics and leadership all in one person. The complexity and relative youth of this discipline means that PM and other product leaders rarely get the mentorship they need and I see many PMs…