💰🚜 How Playrix turned a 17-Year-Old Tycoon into a $45M/Month UA & Match-3 engine
By two & a half gamers
Summary
Topics Covered
- The Evergreen No One Else Is Compared To
- Match-3 Puzzles Weren't Even in the Original Game
- Township Is Now a Match-3 Game with a Side Tycoon
- Every Major Match-3 Studio Is Now Copying Kingshot's Creative Template
- The One Pattern That Exists in Every Great Ad
Full Transcript
Suddenly there's stuff like this. What
does this mean here? Which is a fullyfledged match tree game. And I mean fully fledged like thousands of levels, not some random miniame thing.
I wonder where they are getting the match free expertise, right?
Of course. And not only that, there's all other different loops that are in this game because again here Oh, here we go. There's a exploration adventure loop
go. There's a exploration adventure loop basically energy based one. Where did we scene here?
Chasing the sky. We're the two and a half gamers. The midnight crew talking
half gamers. The midnight crew talking UA adverts and game design too. Mate,
feeling shaky. We're rocking those vibes till the early day master eyes on the prize. Tracking data
through the cyerspace skies. Felix
stacks colors like a wizard in disguise.
Jack crafts lift us to the highest. Two
and a half gamers talking smack. Slow
hockey stick got your back. Ads are
beautiful. They light the way. Click it
fast. Don't delay. Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
Uh-huh.
Hello everybody. Welcome to this what is like super rare special episode. I'm not
sure like what's the what's the actual rarity of these episodes but ultra rare ultra rare episode because today we're talking about township and we are going to do a little bit of history lesson
insights and go through pretty much all township since possibly more than little bit.
Yes. So buckle up. It's going to be couple hours maybe but we'll see.
Anyway, my name is Mata.
I'm Yakub Breier and I'm Eric. Hi. Hi. Everybody has a special quest here coming from Game Refinery. So happy to be here.
Refinery. So happy to be here.
Hello. Hello. And we are your hosts.
Perfect. So I know you want to introduce again like you game refinery and then we go straight into the township history lesson.
Yeah. So game refinery first of all if if you didn't know the company. So it's
a basically marketing del focusing mostly on the product side features live events all this jazz. What are whatever top games that are not doing so well?
what are they actually doing in terms of feature feature implementations, how they evolve, how they build their live event frameworks, all that jazz basically and then we work with our
clients to provide basically competitive intelligence through that and nowadays we are part of the bigger liftoff of family. So there's still like the UA
family. So there's still like the UA part coming in but game refinery as a tool itself it's very much still like a product focused but we are part of the bigger lift of family now
uh working working with them uh as well and you know expanding our reach to uh bit wider from just the product uh into the UA UA side uh as well. I
it's pretty much the analytics for game designers I would say to say and and and by the way one of the first let's say pioneers of doing like game genre taxonomy especially on mobile
which is quite important just saying it's it's been a while it's like we've been around for now I think 11 years uh since we started so very very very early days and been a while since we've been
like deconstructing you know market nowadays back what what it used to be when we started in terms of this type types of tools or this type of insights.
It was quite a different landscape overall than whatever is nowadays.
So, Township Township by Playerics an very very interesting game and it's on our radar for a long long time and I mean when is the better time than now? I
mean their revenue is growing alltime high is insane super old game. So
what's going on? What's going on? That's
why we are here. Yeah, that's why that's why we're pretty much talking about all of this because maybe let me just uh share this for a second so you get the taste of like why are we actually talking about this and like what tshin
what do you mean like this is whatever like now they're what nearly Yeah they're going to be 20 years old in in in 3 years pretty much. So 17 years old game 17 years old game all time high.
Yeah. But this is the the reason why we're talking because this is what like 45 million in March and uh again that's still rising and rising and rising and
is the biggest player game currently.
So this game is literally evergreen.
This is the evergreen no one else is compared to these guys.
So yeah we're talking we'll be talking about township but that's why we called no. So you see that we need the experts
no. So you see that we need the experts because this will be long one and the thing that these guys did with the game was amazing. But just to kind of give
was amazing. But just to kind of give you like brief intro like what Township is and why are we talking about this? So
this is coming from the old like first era of mobile games where they were not even on mobile they were on browser.
Facebook canvas where you talking about Facebook canvas. Exactly. And it was the
Facebook canvas. Exactly. And it was the era of farm will and again this is a farming game because during that era you needed a farm game to kind of make it in the game industry. The question to the
audience, please comment in uh in the YouTube section under the video like who out of all of you guys remember Facebook canvas.
That's the very big question.
Tumble weed.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We are dating ourselves.
We have we have the game as or the game started as this kind of like you know innocent farming simulator stuff like that but then a lot of things happens. So there's
not already like the usual kind of farming loop of you getting resources, collecting stuff from your cattle and completing orders. Suddenly there's
completing orders. Suddenly there's stuff like this. What does this mean here? Which is a fullyfledged match tree
here? Which is a fullyfledged match tree game. And I mean fully fledged like
game. And I mean fully fledged like thousands of levels, not some random miniame thing.
I wonder where they are getting the match free expertise, right?
Of course. And not only that, there's all other different loops that are in this game because again here, oh here we go. There's a exploration adventure loop
go. There's a exploration adventure loop basically energy based one. Where did we seen here? So yeah, we go through all of
seen here? So yeah, we go through all of these things to kind of frame it and put it into context for you. As Mati said, this will be a longer one. So we want to get deep to it. But yeah, trust me, you
want to see this by the end because it's it will pretty much tell you what's the current state of the market and why everybody is doing what they are doing and why this game is so successful with
it. So, let's let's start with that.
it. So, let's let's start with that.
Oh, hello. Hello there. I didn't see you. Thank you very much for coming to
you. Thank you very much for coming to this episode. Uh, it's brought to you by
this episode. Uh, it's brought to you by our sponsors, PVX Partners, the simplest and most effective credit line for marketing. If you're scaling your
marketing. If you're scaling your business uh and need funding, here's the deal with PVX partners, you can grow your game easily and your business.
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wait. Go to pvxpartners.com. Perfect.
Well, like Yagub said, the game nowadays it's almost like a platform of games.
There's a lot of aspects, but it wasn't back in the day like that. So, I think kind of good way to start off is little bit quickly go through the history like what has happened throughout the
history. what has been like I said it's
history. what has been like I said it's a game out there for 17 years. So what
has happened actually how the game has evolved and what kind of a phases the game has had because it has had quite a bit of a different phase. There's still
the core tycoon is still nowadays but honestly it's just one of the aspects anymore and I in my opinion it's not even the key aspect anymore in the whole
game. So if I start sharing my screen,
game. So if I start sharing my screen, um I made a little quick timeline how I think about the kind of like a eras of
township made it into three sorry five uh different different eras. So like the very very early early days I could talk about the social media social media days
uh the web days and then we had the transition already to mobile and also PC platforms that happened that's also like the 2012 in app store. It's been ages
out there. Then uh we started to see
out there. Then uh we started to see some kind of like I would say early live game era. How that went on that they
game era. How that went on that they still really started to add features to well the whole market market was changing more and more live ops was you know it was becoming a thing. It was not
just okay we add some horizontal content and that's it. and then into the even uh kind of like a more nearer um uh like to
2021 2023 what Jakob showed the puzzle aspect it started to you know raise its head in the game and it started to become more
and more relevant uh to the game and then nowadays if we're looking at the past 3 years two two to three years
pretty much all the new content pretty much all the new ops and live events, everything is very much tied to the match tree. So the match tree has become
match tree. So the match tree has become like a such a relevant thing to the game and it wasn't even part of the game when it was launched. So it's an interesting shift of focus that they the whole game
has seen uh throughout the years. But if
we go a little bit through the eras, so like I said, the early early days, I'm not going to spend a lot of time there.
It was mostly, you know, they're finding their footing. The live ops wasn't that
their footing. The live ops wasn't that much of a thing yet. It was mostly like horizontal content, you know, your like usual stuff, little bit new crops, little bit new like factories and all
that stuff, but like that's minimal in the in the modern when we're thinking about the scale of modern day live ops.
Not not that much interesting things to be honest happening. So I would I would I would maybe start going through from the 2021 era. So the like the early live
game era maybe couple key features that I would put up from here. Of course,
this is this is such a long history. We
cannot cover it all.
Yeah, we're already six years old by this time. By the way, the game is six
this time. By the way, the game is six years old.
Exactly. So, we have to cut corners a little bit on somewhere. Um, let's try to focus on the on the actual like highlights and and the key key features for the game. And and like I said, it's
been constantly adding the horizontal content for the you know, end end game players. They are getting more and more
players. They are getting more and more content and giving reasons uh to play the game. But what happened actually in
the game. But what happened actually in terms of features and this kind of like uh bigger live events and the fundamental shifts that the game has had. So in this early live game era 2015
had. So in this early live game era 2015 they added the zoo. I would say that was the maybe one of the bigger one of the first biggest features that they added.
So zoo if you haven't played the game it's basically you have your tycoon main you know area your main town. Then the
zoo is a separate instance. go to a button, you click that, you go to kind of like a separate area which is called the zoo.
Wasn't there like a zoo caves or something similar to like the on the airport?
There was by the way. Yeah, it was like 2020 something like that. They tried it.
I don't know. Did it ever came out of soft launch.
It was live, but I don't think it was a big true.
Uh but yeah, zoo is basically kind of similar idea as with the main core town, but it's a separate and then now that it's themed around a zoo. But one maybe
like interesting factor that I would point out from the early day zoos or zoo feature was that it actually had very familiar card collection mechanics back
in the day already when the card collections were not such a trend yet.
what we see in every single Kazawa game nowadays. It worked a little little bit
nowadays. It worked a little little bit differently, but it was a Kazawa game that had this kind of like a gacha monetization that in this format you basically collected these cards of an
animals. How did you get this card backs
animals. How did you get this card backs then? Was by, you know, playing the
then? Was by, you know, playing the game, participating some of the like simple events and all that jazz. But
like very very early kind of like a format of uh the the the collectible albums that we see in every single casual game nowadays.
I guess I guess that they back then weren't able to trade the cards as you have now with the album on steroids.
very very simplified which would be interesting because 2015 there was way bigger Facebook era than it's now 2015 that's one year before Clash Royale
was released.
Yeah. Think of that.
That's true.
You think about like what would kind of become already 2015 if they had all these Facebook group capabilities and trading stuff.
Yeah. Just look at monopoly monopoly.
Insane. Ah, this is an amazing example.
Then let's go one year forward. They
added social. Uh, they didn't have any social almost at all back in the very very early days or like they didn't have the proper, you know, I think they might have had like some friend list, maybe
some chat, but they didn't have guilt for example, which is a must in a Tyon game nowadays. A lot of the the the the
game nowadays. A lot of the the the the gameplay loop is around working together, talking to, you know, like a social group, trading the the resources
in the in the guild feature. And also
they added the the regata, which is, if you are familiar with Heyday, it's basically the heyday derby. So the
competitive aspect, the main activity for the social groups that was also added in 2016. So kind of the the the era when the social aspects also in the
mobile game started to little bit grow especially in Kazawa back in the day it was like I remember the days of like doing presentations in like 2018 19 and
social in Kazawa was like ah nobody wants to you know play together and it's everybody is so casual and they just play puzzles alone and look at the market nowadays all of them have some
kind like a social aspect implemented into them Then uh actually uh if we jump quite a few years it was kind of stable uh in terms of like the product
development like I said they're adding horizontal content they are h like having these recurring loops of events um uh in the game uh supporting the core
gameplay loop but not that many like big big features. And then 2019 they added a
big features. And then 2019 they added a battle pass uh which is still nowadays of course in the game. And that was the era of you know battle passes starting
here also.
Exactly.
Fortnite comes up adds a total disaster change the game to PUBG makes a battle pass monetization and everybody starts copying it.
Yeah.
There we go.
That was the era.
Yeah. Thank you very much for listening.
See you see you next time.
But player X was one of the early ones in the casual space to embrace battle passes. Uh which was around that time.
passes. Uh which was around that time.
Fortnite came yes midcore markets. We
were seeing a lot of lot of battle passes. But then I remember also back in
passes. But then I remember also back in the day when the first battle passes were starting to happen in different kind of Kazawa games and and people like ah I don't know this is such a midcore
feature and uh you know it's like like what are you talking about? Yeah,
but one interesting thing maybe like on the early early battle pass implementation that they had was that kind of like a it felt more subscription like than many battle passes because
many of the benefits that you were able to get from the battle pass track where this kind of like a hey if you know your crops grow two times faster. So this
kind of like subscription like benefits.
So, it wasn't just that, hey, you unlock this and this reward if you reach that on the reward track, but it was built actually more like, hey, buy this in the early season, so then you can earn these
benefits for the duration of the whole, you know, battle pass season. So, it was built kind of like a extra subscript subscription model almost like uh for the game to increase the monetization on the game.
Yeah, just one one one caveat I want to add there. During this era, it was also
add there. During this era, it was also a era of hits to the economies because battle pass is your biggest discount on your economy and not every game can
absorb that and Clash Royale learned that the hard way. Just saying. So be
careful with these mechanics, please.
100%. And it's not the only only example that we see in the like actual negative impact on the on the on the performance.
But I would say those were like three kind of like a key key like early early early features on the mobile uh era. But
to be honest, if we go back and look at township, many of their features have been actually implemented as live events. And if we look at the let's say
events. And if we look at the let's say past five, six years, this type of like a permanent features that are not timer based, so not live events, there isn't
that many on top of the kind of like just adding horizontal content into the game. But for the township story, I
game. But for the township story, I think the most interesting aspect is how their live ops and how their live event
framework actually has been evolving. So
in those early days like 2016ish onwards, they started to experiment quite a bit on mini games. And what is
kind of like interesting here is how these mini games worked back in the day and how do they work nowadays. So if we take a look and like how did the early
mini games basically work usually event starts last for I don't know two weeks then there's like event building and then event building in the tycoon core gameplay loop you are using it to
produce basically energy to play the mini game. So you have like event items
mini game. So you have like event items and in order to get those event items you need to you know participate in the core gameplay loop do your crops do your products in the factories and all all
this jazz and then once you have done that you are able to produce energy and then that energy is used actually to play the mini games. So the the the playing the mini games was the reward
and back in the day there was a huge variety of those mini games. So there
was like fishing. There was a lot of like very hyper casual and like UA creative inspired mini games. So for
example this one where you like tap the screen and hold the screen to make this bridge and it falls. Very popular like a creative at one point. There was a mini game like
helix jump.
Exactly. Exactly. Literally helix jump implemented there. these type of a
implemented there. these type of a different mini games that you hold a button and then you need to you know jump the pig on the next platform and it's like very straightforward a simple
mini games but one of those mini games that this was the early early days I think it was 2017 when the first time they actually introduced match two so
this blast to blast type of a puzzle but now the key thing here was that they were kind of like a separate like oneoff mini games that and Then also it was
like, hey, you know, create these things in the tycoon and then you get to play one or two levels of a match to blast puzzle game. So it was a it wasn't in
puzzle game. So it was a it wasn't in the center of everything at all. It was
just like a very few levels here and there, not not like completely like like constantly on.
It was actually like a reward mechanic because again you need to keep in mind that in between you're still doing these long ass timers on all the crops and all the cooldowns and all the buildings. So
what to do in between? You play
mitigation something. Yeah. Exactly.
Exactly.
And especially if if it works so well in the UA, then why not to implement it in the game when people are whining about this is fake. This is not in the game.
Oh, wait a second. Well, now
it's the hyper casual era now and hyper casuals are destroying the charts.
That's why we put all the hyper casuals in Township.
Also, you you need to remember where it all started with uh playerics acquiring a minority stake in Hero Wars. It's
pretty much next then in next. And then immediately after they saw what's happening under the hood with Hero Wars, they're like, "You're doing pull the pin."
pin." Thank you. We are doing pull the pin.
Thank you. We are doing pull the pin.
We are doing pull the pin. Exactly.
And then we are doing pull the pin on all the [ __ ] games. And then suddenly the charts are exploding and the revenues are going up as as never before. It's like, okay,
before. It's like, okay, let's not end there. Let's start adding more hyper casual stuff which are also destroying charts now. Yep. Sounds
sounds like a good idea. Yeah.
And it was interesting. I remember
Township back in the day. It was very unique in this way that they did. Not
not a lot of games did did like this type of a live ops in their games that it's like so many different variety of mini games and there was coming like a
new one every month, every every two months a new one appears. And it wasn't this kind of like a very formulaic yet.
It was a lot of variety in terms of the mini games which is kind of different what is it nowadays when once we uh get get to it but yeah you played the mini games and then you can't be surprised because every every month there was a different
different hyper casual game in the in the top charts like every two months.
Yep.
Thank you very much. Let me take this and put it in township.
See you next See you next month. See you
next month.
Especially back in the day it felt like a you know platform of Yeah. mini games
platform of games that okay what we're gonna get this month and there was that variety which was kind of interesting at the time in the market and you know what's what's even more interesting like people don't even know
this happened if you ask oh so have you seen all the mini games in township well what are you talking about what are you talking about they're not for 30 minutes exactly
so is amazing insight but yeah this was happening like this same format it was always the same format okay let's support the core gameplay loop let's incentivize as you know the participation in the core
gameplay. Look get get energy play the
gameplay. Look get get energy play the mini games and then get the rewards.
Usually the rewards were like might have been like a leaderboard based that okay earn this much energy and then you get in the leaderboard by playing the mini game get rewards through there or then
usually they had also like the personal goals. So just like point thresholds and
goals. So just like point thresholds and that was the format. It was the key live ops machine for the whole township for years and that's all the events worked
in the same fundaments and in a similar mechanic and that was happening pretty much from 2017 and 2021 but then we started to see a little bit
of a shift I would say in 2021.
So like I said back in the day the miniame design was built so that the playing the puzzle or playing the mini game that was the reward and that was
very very restricted. But in 2021 we started to go and shift towards what the game is nowadays where the role of the
puzzle actually becomes even bigger. Uh
then basically the shift happened so that actually when a new event started how did you get that energy wasn't actually anymore that you need to create
these event items in the tycoon loop but actually there was a proper match two so the blast uh uh approach or the match three and then that was hey play this
puzzle and then you have your all the usual you know monetization syncs there your boosters and your continues and all that jazz. All the expertise from the
that jazz. All the expertise from the escapes games that the player took and then the so-called mini game was actually now the meta of the event so to
speak. So you actually played the the
speak. So you actually played the the match tree which was the core to get the energy and then how you progressed you had renovation events you know your usual play Rick stuff uh choose from
three and you know renovate an area or room or so on. They had like makeovers, project makeover, this type of stuff.
Then 2022 they actually added merge.
Hello merge. Exactly. Exactly.
That was the loop. So okay uh play the like puzzle to get the energy to play that. And then the important one that
that. And then the important one that what like Chug Chug already showed was this like exploration energy based mechanics.
They added that. Yeah, that's that's also, you know, man, it's also like Diggy like, you know, exploration energy loop where family island.
Yeah. Yeah. It just like drives the narrative. You you spend energy and
narrative. You you spend energy and unlocks like small environmental puzzles and like stuff around that's there, but it's mainly energy mechanic and because it's energy mechanic, you can tie to anything because it's energy based.
Also, like would you say now instead of one game, we have three games in one?
There's multiple cores. That's for sure.
That's the important part like there's multiple cores now in the game.
Yeah. Which is everything that we're talking about for past two years pretty much. And these guys are doing this
much. And these guys are doing this since 2021.
Yeah. Much sooner than Chinese in forex by the way.
Exactly.
That's the important part that is ignoring here.
That's why I'm that's why I'm bringing this up because this is just you know not even two and a half steps ahead of the whole industry is like [ __ ] years. Yeah. Exact. Exactly. And they
years. Yeah. Exact. Exactly. And they
definitely were the early adopters of the whole mentality that the industry is talking about nowadays in that that sense. But yeah, that was like when they
sense. But yeah, that was like when they started to do this. They started to experiment. Like I said, they they had
experiment. Like I said, they they had both blast mechanics in the puzzle. They
had the match two and then they introduced match three. Let me check the chart. So match two like said they had
chart. So match two like said they had those oneoff type of a match two events already. 2017 there was those one-off
already. 2017 there was those one-off things. But then in 2021 is this type of
things. But then in 2021 is this type of a shift on the design that okay now you play the puzzles then they had match two events uh for quite a while still 2022
they introduced the the the match three core so those two different types started to rotate that okay now I get a match two blast uh event with let's say
the renovation and then I got like match three event with the exploration and then the next one is like match two and merge for example. So this type of a two
different coursees on how to play the mini game or play the event and then different type of like a progressive vectors for playing that mini game and then naturally for playing all of those
then you get the rewards. So there was a lot of like experimentation still going on with the both course and with the different
uh different and then we start to move on to like the more recent uh years. So
the actually the match three focus. So
if you look here in 2023 actually the match two so the blasting mechanics they like stopped appearing completely. So it
was only match three anymore. And then
in 2023 also the renovations and the ma makeover kind of like a meta layers actually disappeared.
And 2024 to 2024 they they actually ran the merge events but in 24 that also actually disappeared. So then that takes
actually disappeared. So then that takes us where we are now where it's actually constantly only match three basically
focused uh events and these kind of like expedition events. So I think in order
expedition events. So I think in order for me to illustrate this a little bit better I could hop on to the actual game refinary platform to showcase kind of like a calendar calendar view what I'm talking about.
Perfect.
So here we have basically a calendar of township's live event framework and now we're currently looking at January 23
uh like the early days of the kind of like the shift to the match tree era. So
if you look at the framework it's at this point you're going to see when we go to the you know what whatever happening happening there today it's very light. So we have naturally the
very light. So we have naturally the battle pass.
This is light.
This is very light.
This is already light, man.
Very light. So you have the battle pass on all the time. Then you have the regatas which is the you know the derby like uh guild competitions and so on.
And then you always had a miniame some kind of a mini game. So like see here we see there was like a make over and a match two event.
Then there was an exploration and a match three event. Then there was a renovation and a match two event. So
this type of a thing.
Yeah, they all run templates. That's the
important part. They all run in templates with different skins all the time. Like they had the mechanic and then it's just free skin on whatever of those like selection of those two or
like those uh different metas and uh the match t two or or three basically. Then
all the other events, these type of like shorter events, they were already back in the day running these what I like to call like match three support events. So
when let's say this event started the match three exploration event they were running the usual like you know usual suspects from puzzle game events on top
of that. So you had this was the key
of that. So you had this was the key event that okay play match three you and and progress in an exploration. Then
there was also like the your leaderboards, your race events, your like this kind of like a threshold events, anything that you see in a you know normal puzzle game. These type of events on top
just to illustrate the stuff that you see on the sides of the screen in royal match that's just forcing you to play the progression. It's like glorified
the progression. It's like glorified progress trackers. That's it.
progress trackers. That's it.
That's it.
Exactly. I like always like to call them like a core support events. So you have just events that gives you shortterm or midterm progression vectors just to play
the core which is in man royal match cases you just play the royal match and then you get this small drip rift feed of progression and reward and then what
township did back in back in 2023 the match tree was still kind of like a it wasn't active all the time or because they were rotating between the match two
and match three it was always still an event, but they still were running like support events for an event core gameplay, which is kind of kind of
interesting and very unique uh approach.
So, it was basically event for your event in a way.
There were the time where I guess they were still not sure if this should take over the game and they were still testing it in a way. So, it's like this metamorphosis of like still being, you know, Caterpie instead of butterfly, but
somewhere they're like metapot stage basically.
That's a that's a good analogy.
My god. Yes, that's very true.
But yeah, from here we can see that back then still they were like rotating like I said match to they were even trying this like couple day event. This was a you know the Zen match style event. So
this type of an event they were trying that out. They were in an experimenting phase with the puzzle.
What kind of a core we should like really go for? What is the best return on investment? What's the best meta so
on investment? What's the best meta so to speak? So you had, you know, okay,
to speak? So you had, you know, okay, let's try the blast mechanic with the renovation. So you play the the puzzles
renovation. So you play the the puzzles and then you renovate an area and so on and so on. So they were testing and they were rotating all of these. Then here we see the 2023 we're in March. The first
time they ever did the merge merge aspect. So how that that worked was
aspect. So how that that worked was basically again you play the puzzles from playing the puzzles you get the energy that then you can use to play
your merge mansion basically it's also also almost like a matching story as well. It's just the merge was merge free and then just merge free as well.
Yeah, they have merge five there plus plus true. So you could always like
true. So you could always like but again this is 2023 2023 this is 23 already. They've been doing it for a little while.
Yeah.
A lot time. And they've been like honing it. Once we get to the like the modern
it. Once we get to the like the modern day now it's such a like a template machine that they are running. I would
imagine uh like the all the processes because they have they're not in an experiment. This was still the
experiment. This was still the experimental phase when they were like trying it out. Now they have really like snipered in into the like the best return and investment mechanics and hone
those to the perfection. I mean the 45 million a month speaks for itself.
Exactly.
And also you have three free years of of content and data and it's like oh okay this let me put this into the game.
Exactly. And also the portfolio effect because of the match you know puzzle aspect they are honing. I don't know how much the teams are talking with with each other, but I would imagine that the
player's portfolio effect also how big the bustle is nowadays in the game, honing that all the well, we're going to talk about later about the economy overhaul that they did quite recently,
which also kind of like aligns the game a bit more economic wise to their like the puzzle portfolio like the Scapes games and so on.
Yeah. But I I would guess that these teams talk like on daily basis or like they pretty much supporting each other one to one. I would imagine. So
even if you take the example when they were getting on with Nexters and like Hero Wars and all these things like what they did you could see like okay somebody just came from the other team and gave them all the knowhow from the previous team like one to one and I
wouldn't be again surprised if like for now it's like every everything just supports township in the portfolio because it's the money printer and one important thing like before you start adding all these cores to your game and
whatever whatnot keep in mind that this is a perfect match audience-wise also. also because
tycoon crafting is also dominated by female casual audience which is also this like perfect match for match three pretty much. So this isn't that easy to
pretty much. So this isn't that easy to pull off if these things wouldn't be you know aligned within themselves they wouldn't be able to do it.
Yeah but you can you can say you can slap tycoon stuff or simulation stuff into merch game. Yeah, yeah, you can.
You can, but you cannot, you know, you cannot slap whatever Clash of Clans thing into Brawl Stars.
You mean you mean Evermer Merge or whatever was that?
No, no, no. But I'm just saying like Yeah, same.
There's lots of underlying factors here playing in favor of them that just need to be kind of pointed out because it's not that easy like like these things that you see morph here into this because you know next stage after
Metapod is not Butterfree, it's a money printer. Yeah,
printer. Yeah, there's there's dollar signs in the photo obviously.
But yeah, and also like the the resources that they probably and and still of course have, but especially in the experiment phase when they were
adding new cores like new core gameplay aspects on a relatively high cadence and you know testing them out. It's not like every small studio can pull off that kind of live ops very easily. So
it's a separate game. It's not live ops.
They literally create a new game and you put it in.
Exactly. But then if we continue a little bit on 2023 as we are seeing now like looking at the like these mini games over here it's constant. There was
always a miniame on and it started to be that okay there's match 2, match three, they were rotating. But now in May 2023 onwards, if you look at the live event
framework, match 2 disappears. So it's
only match three onwards anymore. It's
always okay. We have match three and the exploration. We have match three and a
exploration. We have match three and a makeover. We have a match three and a
makeover. We have a match three and a merge. So most likely at that time if we
merge. So most likely at that time if we think about player portfolio again like homescapes, garden scapes and so on, they are all match three. They are not
really blast. So their expertise on
really blast. So their expertise on that, they probably were like, "We know this better. We get the better return on
this better. We get the better return on investment on this one. Let's scrap the match tree aspect at all and let's put all our effort into match driven
events." And also still back in that day
events." And also still back in that day uh you know the match tree it was still like very event based. It it's not what it is nowadays that the button is there in the actual main you know tycoon
gameplay. It wasn't that. It was
gameplay. It wasn't that. It was
actually under it was basically very connected to the events that okay you know this event comes play the match tree and then a new event comes then again it's under it's kind of like a
more separated what it what is it nowadays but that was the early days that they started to like push a little bit more little bit more uh the match tree into the forefront and it started
to be kind of like a part of the game almost all the time since 20 uh 20 uh 23. Then if we move a little bit
23. Then if we move a little bit further, there's of course like if we look at the calendar, they are rotating more and more mini games. So all all the support events we talked about, battle
passes happening, all that jazz. In 23,
they started to add a little bit more of these support events. So emphasize on the match tree again growing your disco fever is this. You've been playing royal match like you click the the button and
then like one hour competition starts.
Just another type of leaderboard event.
This one we won one type of an event that okay you know you again kind of like a play the the puzzle and then you are competing just against the one player and then uh gaining score and
then the rewards are based on that. Let
me just stop it for a second so people understand the disco event or the disco ball event that it's called like casually in the industry is one of the like key events that Royal Match pretty much did there because it literally you
can pinpoint the revenue increase with that event as it was put into there and from that point on this kind of style of extremely aggressive events like very low timers has been the game the name of
the game 100% and it's like we're going to see on the on the like the even the uh the last years and so on more and more of this like the you know the lava quest style when there's like win streak
tied to this and but basically this sense of urgency event the player triggers the event and gives that time frame that okay hey now it's the 1 hour I'm going to play or 30 minutes and then
that short time frame really gets that sense of urgency for the players compared to you have a leaderboard that lasts for 2 days it's a completely different kind of like a uh feeling that you get from this type of an event
it's a different motivation for you like if you if you have one.
Uh then in 2023 also what we start to see that now the renovation like on the miniame side the renovations and the makeovers that we were seeing they actually started to drop those. So now
if you're looking at the calendar it's merge exploration urge exploration two merges in a row exploration. So they
dropped completely the like the makeovers and the renovation. So why?
Well, explorations merge both of both of them are energy based. Both of them are much more monetized. You can buy more energy or you can play play the puzzle
and then get energy from there which is then you know exposes player to the you know buying continues for complete four levels and so on and so on. So, but with the renovations, it was just, you know,
you play the puzzle and then you get the current, you couldn't buy progression there. So, they dropped completely uh
there. So, they dropped completely uh those type of an events and it started to be just match tree and just merge and exploration. Also again we need to say
exploration. Also again we need to say that playerics invested in Vizer games around 2020 and pretty much since then
until 2023 I think even Colondai was kind of starting to to grow and then since they seen the revenues again very similar situation that with the Hero Wars it's like oh wait a second
let's just take Cloneike and put it in my [ __ ] game and make more money.
There you go.
Exactly. Exactly. And it's very interesting actually like we're now talking about just township but we were if you go back and look player any player title you look at homecapes
gardencapes there are a lot of similarities there and if you look at gardencapes or like homecapes nowadays they also are full in on this
exploration energy based clondike style events. So it's very much like player at
events. So it's very much like player at that point were like okay this is the return on investment this is working well like it's like exact same setup as hobby basically so they have their
template pretty much like their metagen template and between the games they keep improving it and using it to every other game pretty much. So the learnings are kind of continuing from there.
Sure. But they are releasing new games.
These guys release some new games didn't work that well. So they came back like oh wait a second we have a [ __ ] game which is 17 years old. Let's just put everything there. We figured out the UA
everything there. We figured out the UA that that that's what the problem that Habit has that it struggles with keeping the scale of those new games whereas these guys already are keeping the struggle because UA is the key here in the end and will be
yes as everywhere we'll get there we'll get there just you wait but then if we little bit jump forward
for then like much throughout 2023 2024 not that much was happening they were operating as it as it was so like I said miniame all the time, match tree almost
all on all the time. There were
exploration, the energy based mechanics, the merge mechanics. They had the support events for the match stream and then you know new seasons for battle
pass, new seasons for the the regata on the tycoon side rotating uh like kind of constantly not that much happening. So
if we roll a little bit forward over here to 2024, uh what we saw is that actually the merge uh starts to disappear soon. So we are
still seeing some of them. I think this one was the last in July 2024. This date
onwards all the way to the current day.
They only always have exploration as a miniame. So again going back to like
miniame. So again going back to like honing the template balancing all the events all that stuff they have now 100%
went on full on about the exploration or like the the the energy based energy based exploration like the clondike every single miniame events that they have had pretty much since that date
July 2024 has been this. So if we wind back a little bit to the era when they were experimenting with a lot of the like the hybrid casual mini games a lot
of different type of course it's kind of different what it is now. They found the one that really gives them the best return on investment best maybe engagement for the players and they have
really really doubled down on that and that's something that we see at the moment in the game only anymore. Yeah, I
think if it's also one other thing that it gives them which is it's production light in a way that you can do this because what you're doing pretty much I think like the most kind of new content
is basically the story itself or whatever they're they're kind of doing there but then it's just what like few environments reskinned or re reshuffled a little bit and that's it. And you know
the numbers are pretty much there as for like the balancing and everything. It's
just templates. So it's very very efficient to run these. And this is this is by the way one of the main things why garden scapes even become what it what it was and what it before was because garden scapes originally was a hidden
object game.
But to run a content thread on the hidden object game compared to mer match three game those are two different things you need. Like those were the days of we didn't have AI that you just crunch out assets and art all the time.
You would need to draw it all yourself.
Yeah. Exactly. Production capacity in this welloiled machine is also important factor how they run this giant content treadmill.
Exactly.
It's very diff very different to balance like thousand levels in metry and then just do Yeah. exploration.
Yeah. exploration.
Yeah. And I can imagine also when township had all of these, you know, they have the merge, they had the match two, they had the match three. Like they
are like yeah sure they're like puzzle style games but they are like completely different beasts and then when you're bouncing around all of these and rotating all of these like how can you actually be very efficient and get the
best return on investment all on all of these. It must have been quite a you
these. It must have been quite a you know quite a juggle for them to have so many different core so many different types of you know mini games. Yes, they
are rotating, they are learning by iteration by duration, but compared to what they have now, you know, been and just iterating that must have been like
much much more easier for them as well.
But you know, if you remember in 2019, they pretty much acquired Serbian developments to the IP. So it's pretty much like an aquaire for like this like content production which was cheaper
pretty much because obviously they they they have still giant content treadmills.
Yeah, of course. All their games run on giant content threads. This is not, you know, Clash Royale that that was run originally by 10 people team because players are the content, the matches are the content.
This is heavy heavy heavy content.
Exactly. And now we're just talking about like just the live event framework. Sure. They haven't added a
framework. Sure. They haven't added a lot of permanent features or that kind of things on top, but the horizontal content for the tycoon, horizontal content for the puzzles. It's not just
the stuff that we are looking to always keep pushing, get get, you know, more content for the players. as we're
talking about it's like a it's nothing it's production light but it's I mean certain extent it's also super hard it's a lot of work but again you see that the
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Uh then we are actually already getting to 2025.
So now we start to see even more and more I think 2025 and 2026 where the the kind of like years when the match tree
focus started to pick up even more.
couple uh key things. Uh uh I think this was in July 2024. They added uh familiar feature for anyone uh who has played puzzle games in the recent years and
know about efficient and features that give usually a good return on investment on puzzle games. This something called super light ball that little game Royal Match implemented uh while ago and now
if you look at any puzzle games have it.
So they implemented this also to township. So, if anybody doesn't know
township. So, if anybody doesn't know how it works is basically you play 10 levels, then you activate this benefit, which usually the benefit is that it doubles the the benefit that you get
from the the kind of like the biggest combo piece in the puzzle. So, in match threes, it's usually the rainbow ball or like some kind of like a rainbow item
which destroys all the one specific color pieces from the board. And now
that's combined from five five match.
Exactly.
now and then now it actually destroys two colors. So the the benefit is
two colors. So the the benefit is doubled. So, Royal Match implemented I
doubled. So, Royal Match implemented I think this was two end of 2023 or something like that when they implemented this and now it's one of those kind of must-have features on any
type of a puzzle game they had a very good positive impact especially Royal Match when you look at when they implemented this there was a clear correlation on the performance tool blast also look at their implement
implementation of this feature clear correlation on the performance but I have to say like this is also one of those features that we have seen also negative impact because like if your
difficulty balancing is not correct, you can actually give a little bit too much and it makes the levels even too much easy like easier and then it actually can have a negative impact on your performance. So again a feature that's
performance. So again a feature that's you know balancing is everything.
The the the hidden det like devil in the detail in this image read the bottom line will be active until your first loss truth. Sorry. Yeah, this this is the
truth. Sorry. Yeah, this this is the whole spending point because what this gives you is pretty much this supercharged hammer where it in my opinion it breaks the difficulty because
match three levels are not designed in ways for this booster to be two color strong. It's just it breaks the
strong. It's just it breaks the difficulty which is amazing feeling because you're blazing through the content. But if for some reason you
content. But if for some reason you lose, you don't want to lose. You buyers
plus everything. So you spend like crazy because during this small period you just blaze through all the stuff that was like so hard to do and everything and as said yeah it breaks the
difficulty in my opinion it completely breaks the difficulty. So it's just about like do we have enough levels to throw at you and to keep you in the loop because retention equals monetization in
uh match three basically if we keep you in the level saga.
Yeah. And that's also like one of those things that because it breaks the difficulty, you need to be ready for that. Sure, it's balancing that you know
that. Sure, it's balancing that you know how we balance the levels for having this positive impact uh for the player that this kind of like a feature has.
But usually it just you cannot balance both. So you need to be ready to have
both. So you need to be ready to have enough content because like like said, you know, people are going to chew through the content. So you need to have that horizontal amount of content.
That's why actually we don't see this feature. You look at like early versions
feature. You look at like early versions of like some games that don't yet have thousands of no levels in puzzle. It's
not the one of the first features to add because there's the risk of like people chewing through the content a bit too quickly.
Yeah. Because your game need to be able to absorb it. So only like high high level count games can even afford it basically. And in my opinion, it's also
basically. And in my opinion, it's also good in a way that it's kind of a balancing act where, you know, you start the game or match the game with 1,500
levels, then you end up like, I don't know, Candy Crushes was like 17,000 levels, 23.
You can be much more generous with your content cadence. Now, so this thing
content cadence. Now, so this thing actually helps you because it speeds up the LTV that you would be waiting for much longer.
Mhm. Exactly.
Yeah. But you, as you said, you need to have that content in the game.
Like 10 years of content, it's easy.
17. Come on, man. 17 years of content.
Yeah.
All righty. Uh, so that was the first step I would say in the like complete push towards the match three act started to be active all the time. But then if
we move a little bit forward uh I think it was let me see uh a lot of the similar stuff similar stuffing rotating
I think it was December 24 I don't have it here but like the now in December 24 they brought the match tree button into
the main screen. So it wasn't anymore hidden in the UI. It wasn't anymore hidden under the kind of like you go to the event and then you have the match tree but panel over there. But now even
if you're playing the tycoon, it's right there on the same spot on the bottom right corner. So they brought the match
right corner. So they brought the match tree to the forefront for all the players. So even if it's like, you know,
players. So even if it's like, you know, you don't want to participate uh on it, it's right there. It's much more in your face.
Player profile. So if you go into player profile, if now it shows your town level and match tree level equalized in one
line, both numbers are there now shown.
From there on, we go to kind of like get to like summer of 2025. Then a lot of stuff start to happen in the live event framework. Like I said, we had this
framework. Like I said, we had this match tree was already active all the time and the exploration was the like the rotating on the on the game and they had some of these like yeah, we had
these like you know tournaments and this stuff but from this point on onwards we start to see kind of like let's implement all the all the features that
all all the events that all the uh homescapes and garden scapes have and royal match have. So we start to see the usual suspects in terms of just pushing
events for the puzzle core. So we start to see this kind of like a not one trendy uh event type that okay you have tasks in a stages and that in
incentivizes you to play the core core game play. You have the collection album
game play. You have the collection album finally like the modern collection album not anymore the zoo one. So we saw that happening and also in this one where do
you get the get the packs? It was mostly by through other events and the other through the other events in this game start to be like 80% like those support
events for the match tree. So your
leaderboards and so on and so on. They
start to add more leaderboard weekly contest straight from royal match exactly the same week long there's like match with your friends type of a stuff.
If you look at the size of the the framework compared what we were looking at 2022, this looks a little bit starts to grow. Yes, it starts to grow
all the time. And then we get to 2026 even more. We had the social co-op
even more. We had the social co-op events. We have seen all of like we this
events. We have seen all of like we this is one of the event types actually also where we see quite a lot of correlation with the performance. So if you don't know this social events or the social co-op or social partner events, what do
you where you call it? I think it was monopoly goal implemented in 200 maybe 24. Basically is that you partner with
24. Basically is that you partner with one friend and then you can partner with multiple friends at the same time but you have a separate progression for each
of the kind of like a friends you are partnering with. So it's not a one huge
partnering with. So it's not a one huge team but it's like onetoone partnerships that you do and then you progress that.
How you progress that? You earn
currency. How do you earn the currency?
play the match tree and then if you get to a certain level in your partnerships, you get rewards and there's an extra incentive that okay, if you complete all
the three partnerships that you made, you get a grand prize. But again very trendy event has been for a couple of years in all type of casual events but
especially in the puzzle events and in this game games case all about going into the the the like supporting the
matchy aspect more races different competitions and so on and so on and now we are here in the modern day it look if you'll compare like royal match event framework and the township event
framework lot of the similarities a lot of the like pretty much same kind of events and I think the key thing here is if we think about we are talking about
tycoon game and if we look and looking at the kind of like all these events the type of them yeah the type of the events and how they
are designed pretty much 95% of them is to support the match three it's not the tycoon it's not the tycoon even actually
I think it was let me see the t the battle pass was they had a renov like overhaul of the battle pass which I actually missed in 2025
and what did what did they do with the battle pass overhaul was that they actually re removed the quests all together and now what's the progression you just play the match tree
match three yeah there we go so like every pretty much live event nowadays in the modern township is built to support the the kind of like a match tree more than the
tycoon so the focus has totally shifted Star Town Star Township to be almost like a match three game with a side tycoon if we think about what it used to be back in the day.
Yeah, it's it's really shown here in the current game.
But in January 2026, basically they completely kind of like overhauled their premium currency economy which is this called township cash in the game. They
did that only for end game players.
Actually, you need to be I don't remember the exact levels. So, but you need to be quite far in the game. So,
what did they do? They basically made this kind of like inflation for the whole currency. Basically, they lowered
whole currency. Basically, they lowered the value of an individual like a bill of township cash. It used to be that okay you could get I don't know like by
the extra moves in the the the matry part like let's say 10 uh and now the the the value it was increased by I
think it was like 80 80 times. So
basically they inflated the currency a lot. So now the numbers are much much
lot. So now the numbers are much much much more much more bigger. So that
happened also with of course with all the prices but also naturally they had to change the what they are giving as a reward as well but in proportion it was
much lower what they are now giving as a reward. So they basically tightened the
reward. So they basically tightened the economy. So everything was made a little
economy. So everything was made a little bit more expensive. The amounts that you get of course were like got bigger but not in the same proportion that the
prices went up. So basically one way to kind of like uh change the economy to feel that you know we are giving more because now with the lower value of the
premium currency you can get the sense that you are getting more because they can hand hand it out as a reward in a relatively bigger numbers but the value is actually lower. So as a reward in the
event you were able to get nowadays you are able to get much more currency and it feels that you are getting more but the actual value that you are getting it's not more it's just the amount like the amounts that you are getting more
but maybe the m main important thing again to the narrative of the match free focus is that now from every single puzzle level that you complete you can
get the premium currency and if we think about that economic model of premium currency it actually now reminds a little bit what they have for example
with garden scapes and the homescapes.
So every level you get the currency you get the currency from the from the from the events and and so on and so on. So
my like feeling on why they do this is they aligned a little bit the economy to all the all the puzzle games even more emphasized the the kind of like a need
to uh play the puzzles because that's one of the key sources for that premium currency nowadays and it kind of like becomes even more mandatory than like it
it used to be because like you're still using the same premium currency in the tycoon and the main source is by playing the match And then uh of course the aspect of like
even tightening the monetization monetization a little bit uh trying to increase b yeah yeah basically trying to increase the monetization when we are now looking at the performance graph
from January 26 onward we don't see like a huge jump yet player sentiment of course has been very very negative players are not stupid even even when
they try to you know make it a little bit like it's not so straightforward that we are just increasing prices and that's it. They made this whole overhaul
that's it. They made this whole overhaul to that it kind of feels like more rewarding but then when you start to calculate it's not so players were not happy but in terms of performance we
haven't seen a big dip yet or what we haven't seen yet it's still too early to see that you know what's the actual impact of this economy overhaul that
they did. So, but again, one factor,
they did. So, but again, one factor, especially the one that you know, now you need to play the match tree to get access to the main s source of the premium currency. Another factor that
premium currency. Another factor that kind of like a pushes the game to be even more match free uh a few things that I want to add here.
Guardianscapes runs only on one currency. I guess that's that's also the
currency. I guess that's that's also the push because their gold is hard of like one currency basically. They don't have hard currency. It's one currency. in uh
hard currency. It's one currency. in uh
township of course we have gold and the cash whatever hard currency pretty much so the there's normal two currency system so I guess that they aligning that because it removes complexity makes the match tree even more easier to go
that's first thing second thing is this is pretty much I would say quite close to what happened with clash royale and brawl stars when they were doing their moon phase up and down because they also
went a little bit on cost cutting on the economy budgeting which means brawl stars you know remove their gem cost of the battle pass. It's get much more pricier. So on so forth. Clash Royale
pricier. So on so forth. Clash Royale
the same. They removed freetoplay shop and all these other things with this giant overhaul added also the the merch sorry merch tactics pretty much in into it and all these other things and again
shut up. So I'm guessing they're also
shut up. So I'm guessing they're also following this thing. And the last thing is which I'm thinking is in the end the biggest problem that they're facing is that their endgame players are probably
sitting on lots of cash because they were there and they were getting it from the tycoon progression all the time and they want to get rid of it. And how do you get rid of it? You inflate it away.
You just, you know, change zeros here and there. Oh, we give you more. Don't
and there. Oh, we give you more. Don't
worry, we give you more because you lose sense of value immediately. So I'm I'm thinking they're trying to inflate this giant lump of cash that's being sitting on players inventories from like the tycoon era because those are their best
players for 15 years.
Exactly. and then trying to kind of slowly absorb it into the match three kind of engine because match three engine is just better engine and I'll have more on that later but it's just
like seems to me like a logical step and yeah there will be this kind of a pains and growing pains with this but I think there's no other way for them because otherwise like these guys their best pairs just like you know sit on the
infinite cash basically from the old era and just like click click click pay through it so no other way to do that okay anything else here or shall we go to the game then Yeah, let's let's do the game. Like
the game. Like we really love this line, man. Like
great job on making this especially with the like the points and everything.
Yeah, well done. Well done is explaining
well done. Well done is explaining everything pretty much. So you can share the screen Yakob now.
Okay. So here we go.
I will do the UA at the very very end.
So people No worries. That's that's not the end
No worries. That's that's not the end for sure.
That's the So just so you see this is the match three level that I just played and I getting Yeah, it looks literally like hardcapes. Okay. Yeah. So, I'm getting
hardcapes. Okay. Yeah. So, I'm getting the soft currency which was the gold there and then the energy that goes into the loop as you saw there. Anyway, so
let's start again from scratch what's happening here in the new game. So, I
was really keen new game.
Yeah, it's literally a new game. Like I
remember playing Township for like five times.
Yeah. Yeah. like like we can we can actually check like I have it here so you so you see it literally looks like a new game honestly because like this is
this is 2018 check how all like grainy and and kind of like oldish looking and like like this was cutting edge by 2018
like it's definitely like they you know and and now we see this like super saturated very colorful nice and like you know this kind of uh literally
supercell style uh UI here. Here we have the of course the match threetory button and top right corner here. Also the
exploration button here is in one of the main buttons here. If I click here it goes into the exploration miniame. So
that's there you still start with this you know typical field of farm wheel or whatever you building mechanics and stuff like that. Let me just show you what happens very very early in the game
because this is something that I was really looking for because if you look at um if you look at uh you know other player games like Gardens games and hopescapes it's literally stitched with
all these pin puzzles or whatever you know the fake creatives that are every second third level pretty much in the beginning and here I was like like do I also start with this or what not. So
what happens here is that somewhere around second minute they introduce orders for the first time which is just normal just basic on boarding of the tycoon core and then there's your
miniame right there which is still quite optional because you can select between the orders and normal ones and if you go here it's kind of a zoomed in a little
bit zoomed in like their signature creative the one with the resource overload the one where like resource puzzle the one where It's like a blend of pizza ready with
No, but you're building stuff and then you're selling stuff. It's pretty much resource management and then stacking.
Yeah. Yeah.
Again, like this thing that you see here like like this like you walk onto a spot and you pay with your stack of cash on your back. This is pizza ready.
your back. This is pizza ready.
Literally, this is super.
Yeah. And then again, they put a little bit of resources, but again, if you would look at this, like this is literally outlet rush and pizza ready.
Like exactly. If you know, if you know, if you know, if you know, like this is again those are again hyper casual games from Super Saiyan, the guys from Korea.
It's one of their main creative of course with plays and I was like really curious what happens here. So it's
actually a fullyfledged like I don't know three, four, five minute level.
Like if we skip here, you see that that that this person really enjoys it. Yeah.
Like you can like see you want to earn that money. Come on,
man.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you go here and takes like literally like lots of time and I'm frozen whatever but again you play it for something like 5 minutes and then gives you like five hard
currency that's it and goodbye. And then
I had it one more time here in the order somewhere like uh 10 minute mark, 12 minute mark and that's it. And that that was it. Which I'm still kind of
was it. Which I'm still kind of surprised because I was expecting more push towards this kind of a mitigation of fake ads going into the on boarding as we see with Forex or these other games where it's like literally like a
separate core working for you like in Kingshot or White Out Survival and so on so forth. But here no it's
so forth. But here no it's what do you mean with Kingshot? with
tingshot is just the like first 10 minutes it's the same basically if if you go and like look the player click on the player ad and you go here and you expect that you will be building the thing again you
willing in the second minute and that's it goodbye so it's still the kind of the next way where you just put in the playable creative into the onboarding and that's it then you don't care because if you on top
yeah exactly if if you look at the forex way that what forex games do these days they they don't sh like doing even three course there.
Good example of that. Do you know the the game that is currently scaling the last asylum? It's using also the
last asylum? It's using also the stacking two weeks. It's a bit more hotel more sophisticated than just that small one mini game out there.
Yeah. Yeah. We we just covered it and it's literally it's one my my perfect hotel for gameplay in the first 20 minutes and only then they unlock the Don't forget this is 17 years old game.
So you need to you need to stitch it there somewhere and find yeah you can't just build it into the onboarding you can't do just oh let's just take my perfect hotel and build it in in in
township it would be very difficult with forex cores those are I think much more easier to adjust because forex cores are the same for like last 15 years I guess with again slight
differences but cores are the same but the thing is like if you're now building a township 2 then yes you can build it around all of this. But how you
want to put it in here? You have limited space. And you know what's what's better
space. And you know what's what's better like the best out of this? Like it's
actually working with like two places of that stacking mechanic or creative in there. Like first 10 minutes you play
there. Like first 10 minutes you play twice and then it's gone.
Goodbye.
It's gone.
Goodbye. Uh goodbye.
So but then you kind of mitigated that with the old live events in in the past.
So Mhm.
Exactly. So, so you know again what we're doing is like the original Tycoon gameplay is just a giant resource puzzle or resource conversion thing where again we have these primary resources which
are the ones that grows on the field then they gets turned into secondary resources which are these like I don't know our lovely cows here or whatever stuff like that and then we in the end
fulfill the orders or send them on train which I'm still waiting for which gives us these materials that you need to kind of build the buildings things and this goes by the way quite quite big as for
its like scaling like uh where do I have it here? I have it here in the tab here.
it here? I have it here in the tab here.
So for instance this is just the basic you know how wet is scaled like how many different products you can build through it and like go from it or how corn or
like what's what's there you see as they go lower and lower it gets like tinier and tinier because you don't be giant complexity basically. But the key thing
complexity basically. But the key thing here with these things that their timers increase like their like you see like milk takes 20 minutes to kind of you know cast you the thing and gives you
the milk. Mushrooms takes 5 hours per
the milk. Mushrooms takes 5 hours per one.
And when I was even like playing this game before then they already had like a lot of mini games even before which with the stack for instance like this mine which is literally like a mini game that
you go deeper and deeper and blast with dynamite. It's like very cute nice mini
dynamite. It's like very cute nice mini game. They would like you know naturally
game. They would like you know naturally they trying to fill out the time when you're waiting for the timers because the whole game is like tyon crafting is basically around timers nothing else like you just set your timers and you go
because that's it and you know farm wheel farm wheel was using negative conditioning back in the days to kind of force you in because it means that if your crops has grown and you didn't come
back they would die. So it was a negative condition actually. So you come here and there's a negative emotion like your crops died, you want to revive them other than other than here like when you come back of course you have your or
crops waiting for you because that was kind of I I guess too strict by that time. But anyway, you you do this tycoon
time. But anyway, you you do this tycoon crafting thing and all these loops kind of unlocked very very soon. Meaning the
match three one and the energy one also collectible album unlocks quite fast which in the opinion they kind of I would implemented it sooner even though they knew how powerful it was even from 2015 because
sooner time wise.
Yeah, time wise like the whole player portfolio implemented this what like last year or year before or something like that. actually one of the like if
like that. actually one of the like if we because we follow the all the top console games and for some reason this format of collectibles play was one of the last top companies actually to
implement it.
Same same with King by the way. I think
Candy Crush also was kind of pretty last to the party. Do I remember correctly that Royal Match took it after Monopoly in the current version, not the other version?
Royal match had it actually like it was interesting because Royal Match had it uh as a permanent feature without the seasons since the launch of the game since the global launch of the game, but
they shifted into the like the seasonal based that that's been already while also 2023 maybe something. I don't have the exact number here because I keep hearing that it was actually like in this current form that
is being run in Monopoly. in in some like old playa game because I know Scopi had it with like Yatsi with friends in that form already but even before then like some people keep telling me I don't know which one
play like social casino game like slots games I think that's the origin of that feature I remember like that's like years and years ago some of them had the same mechanic already yeah exactly but again you need a giant
game to kind of you know proliferated around the industry like go but then everybody's like oh this definitely works we're going to throw it in yeah because because if it works in mobile go it's going to work in my game.
Exactly.
No, but the thing is Jakob like the PE people don't look outside of their genre to just borrow the different things and if it's if you're not ship if you're not township of course but like
but in like overall you borrow something from social casino which was sitting there for years but nobody was brave enough to just bring it here because we don't look at social casino because we only only focusing on match three which
is our lane like that's wrong.
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So here we are basically where we have as I said the match tree level here and again it's fits the loop very very naturally because now we have this multi-core loop basically multiple cores that we need to
kind of tend to we play this game for the whole day pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
Like again this is this infinite session budget now. It's completely different
budget now. It's completely different than the previous session because it's like like I remember that was one of the paradigms that I was told like you create soft session endings like you know like chesting Clash Royale like you
fill them up you can still play the game but you won't get any rewards. So like
come back later because there was always this paradigm like you don't want your players to burn out on mobile games.
Nowadays no nowadays it's infinite sessions all the way. You don't like you don't want them to leave the game.
Exactly like it was old days in Farmville because Farmville had this ambulance crops thing where you would start planting crops in the late game and by the time you planted the normal you could start harvesting to start the field.
You can't leave. You can't leave now.
So big. But that was a balancing issue not the purpose.
And if you think about any puzzle games nowadays compared to back in the day like lives actually had a meaning back in the day. Nowadays it's unlimited lives to everybody.
Unlimited lives reward for everybody.
all the time because you have win streak and you don't want to lose the win streak. So you just Yeah. I was like, "Okay, I don't care
Yeah. I was like, "Okay, I don't care about lives anymore."
Yeah. Yeah. So, so the times are really shifting. And again, I see it from here
shifting. And again, I see it from here because as I said, you set your timers, you do your thing. Like, by the way, you get stuck so much on this barn puzzle Tetris mechanic, which is like, you know, you need to upgrade this because
there's there will be basically more and more types of resources. So, I guess like this is just worse and worse. is
like pretty good monetization. But
again, nothing comparable to the match three as for the engine itself.
You know what? You know what what they're going to do, man? I I already figured out like the next step for Township Forex 27. Thank you very much.
You put forex in there and they're good.
It's going to have female players and male players at the same time, which they already have.
I think it was called Everdale. Already
died.
I know. I mentioned I mentioned it already. Anyway, so again, you set your
already. Anyway, so again, you set your timers and then what to do again, you go and you play this very very structured progression and and one thing I wanted to show you like as I said like I'm this
is my profile like pretty fresh account like this week basically. But again, you see the town level is on the same equal footing of your match tree level like how they pretty much already kind of show it in here. And if I go here and
like look for some like random friends here, yeah, there's a person that's level 12, level 67. person is level 66
in town, level 13,000 in in match three.
Just guess how much time spent this person shifted between the tycoon crafting and between the actual match three.
And you know what's what's even better?
Like this person started in 2024.
Yeah. Yeah.
He's already playing for two years.
Exactly. And you see you see this thing.
You see this kind of a flower thing. You
know where this is coming from? This is
from Royal Match because this is what you get for the ultimate cosmetic of the collectible album. And by the way, I
collectible album. And by the way, I don't know if these guys also have it, but I know the Royal Match one. You have
the grand prize. Yeah.
Yeah, he completed this this season already. But do they have double bottom
already. But do they have double bottom here? As in Royal Match,
here? As in Royal Match, I'm not sure on on like Yeah, Royal Match Mono. Yeah,
Match Mono. Yeah, a lot of them have, but not sure on this one. The biggest games have double
one. The biggest games have double bottom which means if you complete the collection there's grand collection which just reset the progress you can complete it again for even better cosmetic during the same time obviously
try and spend them.
I mean yeah but it's also I mean for the hardcore players like that's that's the challenge.
That's the cosmetic they're going for like just the one the one for the ultimate one because like who cares about the normal one like Yeah. It's like pleps for plees for
Yeah. It's like pleps for plees for normal people. Yeah. Exactly. So, so we
normal people. Yeah. Exactly. So, so we have all of these all that jazz. As I
said, the the old loops are still like here. So, for instance, again, the port
here. So, for instance, again, the port starts 2019. Here's the riata thing that
starts 2019. Here's the riata thing that starts on level 19. They're old here, but as I said, they're kind of more pushed to the sidelines as Ernos said, like some of the things got cut out and cleaned, which in my opinion is better
because there's so much maintenance.
There would be so much maintenance like even now it's like super more like resource heavy overloading player budget and and stuff like that. So, that's there. But still
like that. So, that's there. But still
you see that it fits very nicely in this loop of me setting the timers and then going to play the match three because that's that that's what's happening here. And again these two
here. And again these two no no no no Yakob you know what is happening here it's the UA play that you mentioned like this is this is it. So
pretty much for match three games and you need to kind of do all the pin puzzles that they are doing like okay this is expensive which game from our
portfolio has the best CPIs wait a second maybe there's the township with all the stacking mechanics and all the fun in the UA space of what do we do oh
let's just put our best cave with monetized games in here so this is a UA funnel and there you go and there you go 100% agree because Yeah. Yeah.
Honestly.
Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead.
Like Yeah. If you think about Yeah. Any
like they haven't really added almost any features to the tycoon for ages.
So, it's just honestly like a UA play for their match three game nowadays.
It's like they're not cutting because it's, you know, they have this great side game out there, but you know, it's more like a UA play. I feel nowadays it's literally like reverse Forex because you know with Forex games you
always start with the Forex core and you you're looking for these like front ends to kind of duct tape on and like create the onboarding funnel like Last Asylum with my perfect hotel or frozen city
with the idol here it pretty much was shifted the other way around the other way around the main game was turned into the front end and we added the giant core which is by the way the key key
learn because it's the key learning here that like all of these things were done basically because of UA optimization because that that that's why this whole
thing can works and yeah this is the one thing that I wanted to mention here because pretty much the whole market is pretty much converging towards this one specific thing which is like UI is the
main problem like we know how to do no no UI is the main solution yeah whatever so so it's the biggest problem so we need to kind of do these things on the front side so we know what to do here but what do we do on the back
side of like where do we actually make money and this This is the issue that's also being kind of you know not challenging but we are all pretty much going on the same direction. There are
only few engines like these metag game engines that can pull off the current CPI numbers to be profitable into LTV segment. Only few and I mean stuff like
segment. Only few and I mean stuff like forex, stuff like match three, stuff like merge, stuff like social casino and maybe one or two more. That's it.
Everything else is just not scalable into these heights. You just cannot create a game that's making 20 million plus with these other metag game engines because it's just possible.
Come on, man. Yeah, we we will see.
We'll see. Sword is is getting there, but uh yeah, we talk about sword and sword still is waiting for it like if it's if it goes and and like moves, but but yeah, but still it's you know
it's honestly it's a level based engine also. It it sense so so it's part of
also. It it sense so so it's part of part of this stack. But still the thing is that I think this is again the time where we we see the exact same dynamic just reversed as you said as as is
happening in forex because the key is to lower the CPI through a highly attractive and very approachable front end which kind of sucks in the players from the creatives from all the low CPI
or like all the traffic pretty much and then have some kind of giant monetization engine in the end which offsets the the gameplay. That's what's
most important like the spend depth because then people like everybody should create the game from the fake ads.
Sure, but you need to actually monetize the players like like that's the key. It's
not it's like people still forget like there's the CPI versus LTV equation and there's like two parts of that equation, not only one only once.
Yeah. So, so this is just in the end like a logical evolution to this like very like I guess surprising twist of events. what happened with Township. But
events. what happened with Township. But
again, as Matthew said, like Township became the front end and match three became the main onboarding. Yeah, the on boarding match.
Yeah, that's it. And it makes complete sense because like why would you do it the other way around if this is the part making money? So that's there.
making money? So that's there.
I would be I would be surprised if they added uh a township on boarding to garden scapes and homecapes. It's like
well let's try to do it other way. We'll
see what happens.
Yeah, I'm guessing it's because again you see it like if you want to see what are the company's best creatives look into their on boarding within these companies and there's usually their best creative like with Kingshot like Kingshot is the creative because it was
the steam game that they took from thall and that's the creative that like by the way even puzzle games are now copying it like royal match is running kingshot style and no even match factory is running
it's like it's it's pretty much everywhere and I might actually show yeah I have one you can you can go. You can go very similar. Okay. So, so when we are
very similar. Okay. So, so when we are talking about the the Kingshot stuff, I'm going to share pretty much yearbyear creatives and I'm I'm starting with
2026. And you know what I'm starting
2026. And you know what I'm starting here? Because look at this. What does
here? Because look at this. What does
this this reminds you? I mean, it's cooking shot right here. I mean, come on. It's the same layout.
on. It's the same layout.
Yes.
It's the same [ __ ] layout and it's the same thing. It's just
again a genius UA move set of shooting soldiers. You have
Yeah, exactly. You're selling stuff overload.
You're selling stuff and like do you know like how insane this like uh combination is iteration is not combination.
Yeah. It's iteration of of the king shot but it fits so well here.
Yeah.
So like this is the pure and it's like it's 1 minute long obviously so it's suitable for uplo and there you go. Now
it's scaling.
I know for some people this that could mean like like what do you mean like is the same? See, look, look, look.
the same? See, look, look, look.
This is the kingshot knight.
Yes, it's there. This is it. I mean,
it's there. This is it. I mean,
there's there's very very specific nuance to being able to port a creative concept from one game to another game.
Exactly. And it's also really hard, right? And
right? And pull it off.
To pull it off. And it's not really just everybody can do it. But again, like this is pretty much we can start with 2026 with what they're running at the
moment. And then I will go back to 2019.
moment. And then I will go back to 2019.
The thing is it's only 2019 because sensor tower can't go to yeah 2014 15 16 unfortunately. I
tried to do it on Facebook uh ads library but couldn't obviously it's too old. But
now 2026 what do you see here? It's
pretty much 90% playables. Why
is that playable that was in the game?
Yes, pretty much playable. They said I couldn't make ads without the dev team.
They said I wouldn't understand the tech. Guess what? I just made a fully
tech. Guess what? I just made a fully working gorgeous top to play while eating noodles and watching trash TV and
taking care of my daughter. All thanks
to playable makeup. No code, no stress, no [ __ ] herald. We can we can try to to do it here and and play the actual
playable and see I mean way more polished but again the the whole kind of logic behind this is the same. It's
pretty much the same. You go you get crops you build stuff you sell stuff and throw it on the back in the infinite strike.
Exactly. Yeah. Stack it on your on your back and then sell it here. Thank you
very much. and then just earn money and do pretty much this like infinite playable pretty much.
Build and grow and expand.
Exactly. And you can do it until forever pretty much. And this is kind of the
pretty much. And this is kind of the let's call it the best practice of of the current playables because then you need to be able to spend so much time in
here to convert the players because longer you are here more chance to actually converting. But okay, so we
actually converting. But okay, so we have this. This was the first playable.
have this. This was the first playable.
We have a second play which is pretty much the same concept and it was running for 3 months. Again, this reminds me a little bit more of the my perfect hotel to be honest because you have all these
different elements and uh there's automation. Yep,
there's automation. Yep, there is. Yes.
there is. Yes.
Yes, there's I can see it already that you can buy. Yeah, exactly.
Exactly. You just scrub to I mean this is tulips pretty much but you sell them and then you just go here take the money and then buy the guy that's automating
all of this and again we can spend so much so much time in here so we can convert the the players.
Let's see I we can just automate this.
I I want to automate at least the part because this this is important because they have so many of these and again okay so now I can Hello. Yeah,
multiple. Thank you very much.
So now, perfect. And you can then upgrade and do all of the different things. Again, this is the second
things. Again, this is the second playable. And we can spend five to 10
playable. And we can spend five to 10 minutes in here. As my mom says, I'm playing Farm Hero Saga. And then there are like these different games that I play in the between the levels. I mean,
like, mom, it's not they're not games.
It's just playable of a different game.
It's like and this is exactly what the target audience my mom is yeah almost 60 and playing all these match three games and all all the different things and it's anyway so all playables we have
again a different playable here which is and this the river one the river one yeah river one which is again a little bit of things
that are you know borrowing from forex but still again still selling stuff cropping and then whatever else then and you have the the X and then you sell right
so we have this and if you look at this so we are talking about pretty much let's say 1 2 3 4 5 whatever like let's say 20 creatives 90% of these are
playables and we have Applavin Unity Mint integral all over the place so but these are let's say the new you can clearly see where is this coming from
from the lumber at least from the the start but now I mean this is pretty good I Honestly, very good.
They improved the creatives like so much and it fits pretty much. I mean,
you know, when we're talking about creative trends, there's always a township ad because they are like two and a half steps ahead. That's
innovating even with AI.
Yes. Innovating with different things.
So then we have uh yeah, we have this township. So we have the AI stuff which
township. So we have the AI stuff which is here which we already talked about.
Yeah, there she is with all these which is amazing. doesn't have ads. King
style.
Yeah, obviously that's why Felix is not here.
And it's pretty much Yeah. No Felix. No
ads. No Felix. And this look at this carefully because this is one of their concepts that I will show you again like couple years ago because this pretty
much these stairs it was I think idle bank or something which brought this. So it's again coming from idol and it was really popular at
that time when they were kind of running this and now they're bringing it back.
So they're iterating on their like all the best performing concepts and then adding more complexity on this because then you start with the great hook but now it's it's one minute long video and then you're selling there's multiple
people like it's like they're bitching about like all of these like emotions there like everything that you need to have there it is there and you don't feel like it's super complex but if you
actually zoom in and there's like so many elements like upgrading stacking emotions so many people so it's over yeah resource overload like even people overload. So, you know, as I always say,
overload. So, you know, as I always say, like mass battles. This is pretty much like just, you know, mass everything.
Overload everything. People resource
stacking like it's so many mechanics here, which is amazing. And I love it.
It's this is another kind of Yeah, this is the the king shot that. And then then we have two minute long videos. So, you
combine all of the best performing stuff and then you go from there and then you have so look. So even
that was the physics physics one that they still do.
Yeah. Look it's again like resource overlay and this is second minute. So
now again okay thank you very much another another creative still this is such a great stuff. Look it's visually really appealing and again still like upgrading resource overload
goblins basically.
But yes exactly. So pretty much all the stuff from from idol and a little bit you know this is more like top tycoon pretty much stuff.
This is bus sword bus jamm bus buzz jam. Exactly. Again
they're still borrowing different mechanics even to this date from the games that are kind of scaling. I'm
waiting for for pixel flow to to happen because look see this one. We seen this before and this was one of their best performing creative and again it's 2026
and it's here again just an iteration of the things. Okay. So let me just go back
the things. Okay. So let me just go back to back in time. Yes. And go to 2020.
Here we go. That's
Here we go. The pull the pin era era.
The pull the pin era. But it still has like something really really in common.
And this is what we always talk about. A
near death experience.
Yes.
It's all there. It's all there. So even
if it's a pull the pin, there's still the element of we're going to [ __ ] die. Let's save this ship. Let's save
die. Let's save this ship. Let's save
them. Oh, there's a wolf. Oh my god.
Like what what do I do? This is again like we're talking about 2020. Come on.
Like how amazing is this? Like they were so far ahead of everybody. the big change in
here and uh you tell me I mean you won't probably won't see it because you don't know like where to focus they are in 2020 running Facebook and Google mainly
so that's why we see all the videos but it's still videos and there like all these like if you remember it was pretty much everywhere garden scapes they had
this like even like the there was the time where there was the guy like what was the consumer acquisition company and they were doing all these different kind of creatives and then everybody was
doing pretty much it these guys as well across every game every game again a different iteration a different near death experience again very important thing
nails red nails red nail polish yeah nail polish polish it's that's also very important that at that time but again I was trying so many
different things.
Was this was this during the time that they were in open UA battle with matchington mentioned?
I think so. Yeah,
that was the time. Yeah.
Yeah, I think it was around that that the companies were like, oh, we cannot get into UA market now because this Yeah. Glue was Yeah. Yeah. Glue Glue was
Yeah. Glue was Yeah. Yeah. Glue Glue was like in their earnings call were like, "Oh, we can't spend because they're market forces."
market forces." Market. Yeah. Yeah.
Market. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Exactly. They kind of like you're looking at this like what the [ __ ] is this even like have in common with uh with Township? Yeah, of course. I think
with Township? Yeah, of course. I think
it's that fire like like the like blaze of fire that Matchington mentioned had because you would like pour electricity on like water and stuff like that.
Yeah.
Always the room would end up in fire.
Yeah. I mean obviously look like it's all the same thing. You build this whatever and still it's again needed like experience. You're trying to solve
like experience. You're trying to solve different things and but still like we are in the say like 30 second type of of creatives all the different things again see like they're they're experimenting
quite a lot but still like a choice like you need to solve the the puzzle and then just vision is fail state that's the important part they need to end up in fail state
and I'm I'm kind of looking at let's say 5 months in in 2020 1,300 creatives fine if we O
uh into 3,000 this this this month.
Yeah, sure.
If you look at let's say January and June 2021, it's only 600 creatives, but it's kind of already moving somewhere. I
mean, this is the old old video that they they've been trying to running even now like okay trying to do things. We still have pulled the pin
do things. We still have pulled the pin obviously here but then it's becoming slightly different stuff all the drama but still the core concept is choices
fail state of near dead experience because you have still pulled the pin but now it's also like building elements and now we starting to already see like one minute long videos which is I mean
okay thank you very much fine but we're still seeing these pull the pin stuff and what else yeah this is time by the way when the whole store was also pull the pin.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. And
now we have the pull the pin playables.
Oh, okay. Nice. Thank you very much.
Still, it's I funny thing is this is Google, but okay. Thank you. Anyway, so
then they're moving into kind of this trend.
Still pulled the pin, but now yes. And
I'm in they're kind of still running this on garden scapes and homescapes.
It's more like it's combination of freezing families and pull the pin or like it's not freezing families just pull the pin upgraded with freezing families.
Yes. Exactly. Yeah. It's pull the pin and not even freezing families but like poor families like they're Yeah. Poor and freezing families.
Yeah. Poor and freezing families.
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly.
That's that's right. That's right.
That's right.
This is amplifying the emotion. That's
it. Because the creative is basically the same like you pull the pins, you need to like heat something or like put coil in the heater or whatever and there's freezing family of small girl and and and her mother or something.
Yeah, exactly.
Or or is the butler or also the butler?
The butler. Yeah. Yeah, the butler. So,
it's all pretty much the same stuff now with with with this emphasis on on this pull the pin. Fast forward to let's say
2022 and I want to show you exactly this. Oh,
where's interesting? Where did we see this?
There's the stairs.
Oh, where you go? Okay, so this is pretty much the the original creative which was 2022 or 2023. See the like the
the watermarks here of township. I
wonder why. I mean, maybe because someone was stealing their creatives.
Who am I to judge?
For those who don't know, arc or like watermark creatives are there because lots of companies just take your creatives, cut off the end card and run it in your pipeline. They don't even ask.
And the funny thing is I was just doing this kind of experiment uh on my own. So
I run stolen creatives on Facebook, Google and Applavin. Facebook nobody
cares. Google nobody cares. Applav is
like, "Hey, by the way, we found out like you are running creative that is not game. We took it down. So you can
not game. We took it down. So you can say anything about Appliing, but they are actually policing this quite."
This is today by the way.
And this was this was last week. This
was last week.
Oh wow.
So they're actually like they're actually they take care of like what they see on their platform and if you are not, you know, working by their rules.
Yeah. So for for Google and Facebook you need watermark.
Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. Pretty much.
But now you look we are looking we are going in that like kind of this is the first stacking creatives they they start doing which was 2022 2023. So that's why I think they start implementing this
directly into the game. That's what we saw pretty much because this is like one of their first stacking mechanics.
Yeah, there's golden goblins.
Exactly. Golden goblins and they're like few few hyper casual games on top of this because golden goblins didn't have the stacking mechanic did they?
Uh I don't know. I don't is it a superendent or golden goblins I think the original in that case it's golden go complete because super was way way later than golden goblins but of course like
they're they took pretty much exactly I mean they're pretty much the same team right so again again we're going back to they invested in Hero Wars took their creatives pulled
the pin they did investment in vizor so they put kundike in there so they also are in uh also invested in like app quantum They they're running idle lumber
and township and golden goblins and pretty much everything.
That's one of the best creative teams on the market. Quantum for sure
the market. Quantum for sure 100% from the the idol point of view.
Absolutely. Yes. And I even remember this creative was like crossy road/stacking mechanic whatever. I was
like, "Oh, again like so complex but so easy because like [ __ ] hell fail state again finding he made it but again stacking very very important because I think
I can remember my life by different creatives."
creatives." Exactly right. Yeah. Exactly. because
Exactly right. Yeah. Exactly. because
then then you know and there like more creative more playables finally happening but it's mainly again like it's Google lift off app up loving is
becoming more more important there's unity again so it's like again it's it's more UA diversification outside of just Google and Facebook which was back in
the days I mean obviously I mean and we are still in pretty much three era pretty much again 200 timeline
then we go to January and until August 2024, it's 17 7,000 creatives. And
again, we're seeing more playables, but we also seeing this very creative. What do what does this remind me? Oh, wait a second. We
just saw this [ __ ] iteration in 2026.
This was one of their best creatives in 2024. I wonder. I mean and obviously
2024. I wonder. I mean and obviously this is also very similar to what Idol lumber was doing at that time. So they
were like borrowing this these different things because we were talking about it in one of the creative trends and then people are like oh my god guys like they're one company they're you know kind of formally around allowed to use
this because it's the same it's the same team.
But now in 2024 we start to see way more playables and way more playables.
You see this counter here? It's not 90 second [ __ ] playable. It's like you can actually skip this in like 10 seconds. So it's a very very different
seconds. So it's a very very different thing. But it's already like starting to
thing. But it's already like starting to to be what we are seeing at the moment right now because again you have here you're stacking X. You want to get this
and sell it again. And then you earn money. You upgrade stuff. You you you
money. You upgrade stuff. You you you know get these guys here. It's not even guys like you're just automating all all the stuff but you can get all usually the sign that money is not
flowing into your back but on the ground is like say games games. Yeah because if it flows directly on your back into again infinite cash it's more supercent
style stuff. Fair enough. Fair enough.
style stuff. Fair enough. Fair enough.
And then again more more playables. I
mean it's pretty this is total this is my perfect hotel.
Come on.
Yeah this is my perfect hotel. I think
it's pretty much my for hotel. Yeah,
the cleaning thing and everything.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Okay, thank you very much.
So again, more playables. More
playables. These are the the pretty much the the best videos. And then again, game with no ads with this. It's pretty
much like I remember this again.
Yeah, we were talking about this creative for like 10 times in the creative section and the creative trends.
And now they use it with AI with the girl speaking to chicken.
Yeah, that's the mutation.
That's the mutation again. The same
thing. And again, it's pretty complex.
It's 1 minute long. You get all of these resources, then you sell it, then you upgrade, then you get more resources, then you upgrade again, then you sell it. It's like it's so many things. And
it. It's like it's so many things. And
then even here, same thing. 1 minute and 20 29 seconds long. So, this kind of brings us to Oh, I I skipped actually
2022. Sorry, guys. Brings us to 2022 to
2022. Sorry, guys. Brings us to 2022 to back to back to the future. No, but in this I think this was the time where there was like so many different hyper
casual games still because this is this is hyper casual like lawn mower and all of these different things.
So they were experimenting again.
There's like the watermark power progressions power. Yeah, exactly.
power. Yeah, exactly.
It's still it's the 2022.
Yeah.
Still drama and emotions.
There's the poor families.
Yeah, exactly. So it's already already there since 2022. But it's still already stacking mechanic in in this creative.
So again, so many different different creative concepts, but still kind of 30 seconds videos mainly. This is
definitely Golden Compliments, man. This
definitely Golden Goblins.
So, so let's go to 2025 now.
Last year. Now, yeah, now you see pretty much what we are talking about for again the same creative here, a little bit better polish. Here's the the different
better polish. Here's the the different kind of playable which was running for one year and even even now it's still it's still live. So, this creative this
is the the the playable which is running for a year and a 5 months and it's still live and it's started to run like 2024 which is insane. I mean this is this is
really really insane. But then we have the the resource overload, right? This
is we talked about this creative and this is golden goblins.
Golden for sure. Yeah.
So so this brings me to the point of like borrowing different things in the creatives in different genres that we always talk about. These guys pretty
much took Idol, everything that works in idol and now even Kingshot and the other genres and kind of adapt it to their game. So this as we said like this is
game. So this as we said like this is the UA funnel because this works really well and then they monetize with the match free layer and this is just golden goblin. So everything that works in
goblin. So everything that works in Golden Goblins idle lumber in like March in April it's here and I can guarantee like this is the this is the flow. This
is pretty much the flow. It's not going to go anywhere. And again, like this is a little bit of what was it? Park gem.
Bought some gem in here because you need to do the the sorting stuff with all the the crops and then then tomatoes and different things. Again, 45 seconds
different things. Again, 45 seconds long. Way more playables than because
long. Way more playables than because now it's applin and SDK networks again rather than just just Facebook. Because
if you if you go to Facebook here, I mean there is going to be Facebook. Oh,
well actually there's no Facebook. So
even there most probably they're running something on Facebook. It's just not visible on Sensor Tavern. But again, if
we go to 2026, here we go. See how this changed over time. What is so much more polished obviously, but they again like
double down on things that are working.
And this is pretty much combination of five of their best performing traders from 2024 and 2025 or 2023. And this is
like in one 59 seconds video. It's
insane. It's just like heads off, guys.
Like this is exactly how you should run like this. Like I mean, well, what do I
like this. Like I mean, well, what do I know? Like 17 year old game. It's longer
know? Like 17 year old game. It's longer
than I'm in the in the gaming industry.
So, but see, like there's even a riot there. Like, you were so slow. So now
there. Like, you were so slow. So now
we're going to steal all your [ __ ] eggs.
It's amazing. So again, it went from the Facebook, Google to now AppLavin, Unity, M Integral, all the SDK networks, which obviously makes sense because that's the
whole evolution of the the gaming industry at the moment. I love it here.
Hello.
One interesting very interesting thing.
Well, I guess that that's that is the modern industry. But like if we think
modern industry. But like if we think about the product timeline and we think about the UA creative timeline, what's the overlap? There's not much of overlap
the overlap? There's not much of overlap in terms of like like whole thing whole shift towards the match tree. Did we see any creative that anything even like small part of match tree or any type of a puzzle? No.
a puzzle? No.
No, not at all.
You can.
So yeah, exactly. So that's the whole Yeah. The whole CPI LTV discussion.
Yeah. The whole CPI LTV discussion.
Yeah. Because as soon as you you you show the the match free gameplay, then it's just $150 CPI or $100 and it's just it's not viable. Same with Forex. You
show Forex games like, "Okay, see you never, you know, I'm not going to play this game."
this game." But oh, wait a second. I I can farm.
There's so many resources. I can gather all of them. Oh my god, I can stack things. Oh, that's very popular
things. Oh, that's very popular mechanic. Oh, there is even like this
mechanic. Oh, there is even like this whatever they say it is there which is obviously not the the wood dropping.
Great. Of course, I want to I want to play this game. Maybe if there is a materia I will I will play that eventually.
Yeah.
So, I love it.
Yeah.
See something very interesting at the end. I can frame it.
end. I can frame it.
Yes, please.
Very very I really hope you're going to show the the graph and the revenue stuff. No
worries. No worries.
So just to kind of understand like how this small yellow thing here have outgrown to be the biggest grossing game now in Perics portfolio. It it pretty much took off somewhere in like what's
this? Yeah like pretty much start of
this? Yeah like pretty much start of last year they they pretty much are now the biggest one. No no no questions asked and just going up. All the other games like if I just took took these
they are kind of consolidating as they are whereas Township is still growing.
It's a growing egg.
No questions asked. Like all these And don't get me wrong, there's like hundreds of games on the portfolio. It's
It's like It's meaningless.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like if Yeah. If
I just put them all here, it's nothing. It's nothing.
it's nothing. It's nothing.
Yeah. Won't change a bit.
Yeah.
But few important things here. So, if
you look into the tycoon crafting category, of course, Township Dominates now with like 45, let's say 45 mil here.
Hey 14, my garden tails 11 and so on so forth. like yeah that's there but let's
forth. like yeah that's there but let's look on into other chart and let's end it here. So this is the match tree chart
it here. So this is the match tree chart and this chart is very interesting if we start to account these company portfolios into each other because if we have royal match the kings now which of
course they have the biggest game which is like 99 plus 37 which is like 136 mil let's say of course said there multiplier numbers vary we
don't talk about this but let's say 136 if we start adding here a little bit of numbers here we have garden scapes which is 40 we have fish them which is 22 and
we have homescapes which is 29 which is 91 but if I slept here plus 45 township we are pretty much at the exact same
level now so that's the question who is now the biggest match three company on the planet is it royal match or is it dream games or it's playings yeah exactly
exactly so let me just end there in a way in this fantastic journey through the times where again what you just learned is that the biggest match three uh company
on the planet is probably player now with their ever growing game which is still not stopping and we will keep an eye on it because as Ernos said what will happen now is I'm guessing it will
probably do a little bit of a bump if they time the UA right and the economy changes that's what I would expect it would happen or it could decline because players couldn't do it but I'm guessing
that the first one will happen player is play and Exactly. That's why it's oblivion.
The decline, it's not even an option.
Yes.
It's not even an option. I mean, the whole story of two brothers coming from Volda or whatever the [ __ ] was the like the the town was like, okay, we are fighting for our lives like we need to
make this work and that's like the existential question. So, we make it
existential question. So, we make it work. Period.
work. Period.
Yeah.
That's it. This is such a big inspiration and should be inspiration for all the developers out there because this is how you do stuff.
It's not like maybe it's going to work.
No no no no no no.
This is how you need to work.
Exactly. Cuz if it doesn't work, still pretty aggressive here with the downloads. You see here,
downloads. You see here, like if I I go here and check the Yeah, just to end it here with the download charts. Of course, their first not
charts. Of course, their first not comparable and it's what, like around 6 million.
But Super is never going to be even close.
Yep.
Never even close, man. Come on.
So, so 6 million is pretty much here somewhere on the same footing as Candy Crush, which is number two here in the chart. By the way, uh as revenue wise is
chart. By the way, uh as revenue wise is like half the revenue of Township, which they're pulling on download side. So,
I'm expecting that this will just grow more and more the revenue because of the match three cycle, how it lacks behind the download. Exactly. Because it takes
the download. Exactly. Because it takes time to to get This was amazing, I think. Well, at least I think so. It's
think. Well, at least I think so. It's
uh learned a lot.
I learned a lot. I learned a lot.
Super cool. Super fun.
And thanks for thanks for coming here know. And uh everybody pleasure.
know. And uh everybody pleasure.
Thanks for listening. This was a little bit longer, but full of insights you will never get anywhere else only here.
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You have the homework. Tell me who remember who remembers the the Facebook Canvas days and we see each other next time. Thank you very much. Cheers.
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