Game development process of designing the content and rules of a game
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In this episode, I talk about the pressures of changing things that have been the same for decades.
This episode is another in my series to talk about every Magic expansion. Here, I talk about Aether Revolt, the second set in the Kaladesh block.
Here, I talk about the basic strategy when playing Mood Swings. To make sure everyone gets their full allotment of Magic design episodes, this episode is bonus content.
Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Distraction Pieces Podcast with Scroobius Pip!This week Pip is joined by the awesome actor and now also game designer ABUBAKAR SALIM!What an absolute gem of an episode you have before you right here, as Pip checks in with Abubakar, one of the most power-move making-est actors in the game. You'll likely/surely recognize him from House Of The Dragon (Alyn of Hull), or Raised By Wolves (serving iconic costume realness), but chances are you might have also come into contact with his game 'Tales Of Kenzera' too. Even if none of those ring any bells, Abubakar is someone you'll get along with from jump, and has tales and perspective for days - working with Ridley Scott and what that process taught him, how the House Of The Dragon casting came about (crank call instincts on high alert), and how the inclusion of game design factored into life. A lovely chat with loads to enjoy for wherever you connect in those touchpoints, so enjoy!PIP'S PATREON PAGE if you're of a supporting natureIMDBINSTAGRAMHOUSE OF THE DRAGONRAISED BY WOLVESTALES OF KENZERASPEECH DEVELOPMENT WEBSTOREPIP TWITCH • (music stuff)PIP INSTAGRAMPIP TWITTERPIP PATREONPIP IMDB Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This month's playable trends are the kind you only catch when you're staring at hundreds of creatives in a row: the dress-up "please your boyfriend's mom" hook quietly flooding match-3 UA, and the Playrix templated-playable machine that turns one build into an entire portfolio.Matej Lančarič and Ondrej Mosberger are joined by Robin Kuyer, who leads Unity PlayWorks (formerly Luna Labs) and has been building playables for five years. They break down the fashion/dress-up template appearing across Crazy Labs, Kinetic, and others (often with identical assets) and why it's really a match-3 onboarding wrapper, the Playrix masterclass of strongly templated playables reused across Township, Gardenscapes, and Homescapes, and the single most underused tactic in the industry: taking one winning playable build and squeezing everything out of it with asset swaps, camera-angle changes, and different cut points. They also dig into long playables (and why 3 minutes can pre-qualify your best payers), the authentic-vs-non-authentic debate (where CTR can double but ROAS stays close), network approval chaos, and where AI playable production is genuinely heading — plus why "make a playable that performs well" will never be a working prompt.The throughline, straight from Robin: production speed means nothing without the foundation. Knowing what a good hook, reward loop, and progression actually look like is the part too many studios skip.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Game designers on playable team?03:35 The fashion / dress-up playable pattern08:00 Why it's really match-3 in disguise16:14 The Playrix templated-playable masterclass20:35 One build, many ads — asset swaps and camera angles27:00 Long playables and pre-qualifying payers36:46 Authentic vs non-authentic playables40:00 Can AI vibe-code a winning playable?--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.
Der Rollenspielklassiker Gothic von 2001 schickt uns als namenloser Held ins Minental, wo wir um einen Platz in der Gesellschaft und unsere Zukunft kämpfen müssen. Es ist eine rauhe Spielwelt, die auf uns abweisend reagiert und kein allzu großes Interesse hat, uns weiterzuhelfen. Nicht zuletzt für diese Eigenheiten wird Gothic bis heute als Ausnahmetitel gelobt. Wie aber verändert sich nun das Spielgefühl, wenn wir nicht als Mann, sondern als namenlose Heldin spielen? Reagieren die Menschen anders auf uns? Wird Gothic so vielleicht sogar zu einem noch besseren Spiel? Antworten auf diese Fragen liefert die "Prequel"-Mod von Jase, die absolut Gothic-begeistert ist - und ihrem Lieblingsspiel eine besondere Mod widmen möchte. Auf dem technischen Gerüst des zweiten Gothic-Spiels werkelt sie seit Jahren an einer alternativen Gothic-Geschichte, die von den Ereignissen vor dem Hauptspiel erzählt. Sie gestaltet dafür ganze Ortschaften um, vertont NPCs und stellt sich die Frage, wie die Kolonie auf eine Frau reagieren würde. Daraus ergeben sich ganz neue Spielsituationen, die mal leichtherzig sind, mal die Grenzen zum sexuellen Übergriff streifen. Im Gespräch mit Dom Schott erklärt Jase, was sie zu ihrer Arbeit motiviert, wie genau sie beim Game Design ihrer Mod vorgeht und welchen Hürden sich ihr in den letzten Jahren entgegengestellt haben.
In this episode, I cover one of the main goals of game design: to create specific emotional responses in the players.
This episode is part five of a five-part series. In it, I go through every single Mood Swings card, in collectible number order, and talk about how they were designed, including many of the changes they went through and some strategic tips on how to play them. Note: This is a bonus episode for this week.
In this episode, I talk about many of the weird elements of Magic's first set.
In today's episode we talk about the non bad bad guy. What is a non bad bad guy? Why would you want a bad guy that isn't actually bad? What are some examples of these bad guys? We give you our thoughts and answer all these questions and more in today's episode.Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.comor Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGamingPlease leave us a review or a five star rating wherever you get your podcast.
Gunnar Lott (Stay Forever) und Dom Schott (blaues Lichtschwert) widmen sich in ihrem gemeinsame Format "Hommage" wieder einmal einem modernen Spiel, das irgendwie alt aussieht, um es bis auf's Code-Gebein zu analysieren: Wie viel Popkultur steckt in den Pixelblöcken, woher kommt die Inspiration für das Game Design und warum zitiert wieder einmal ein modernes Spiel die Ästhetik der längst vergangenen 90er Jahre? Unser Anschauungsbeispiel dieses Mal: Signalis, ein mehrfach preisgekrönter Survival-Horrorhit aus Deutschland, der 2022 erschien und damals einen hörbaren Begeisterungssturm auslöste - und das trotz Pixeloptik, hart limitiertem Inventar und ungewöhnlichem DDR-Anime-Mix. Oder gerade deswegen? Das Duo findet es heraus - aber bevor Dom & Gunnar so richtig losspielen und die Lupen rausholen, tauschen sie sich im Vorgeplänkel über ihre Erwartungshaltung an den Titel aus, den die beiden bis heute nicht gespielt haben.
Supercell rebooted MoCo, their monster-hunting RPG, with a big relaunch update - new weapons, new abilities, redesigned portals, daily jobs. The hype cycle lit up. And after playing it, the verdict is brutal: it's still dead on arrival.Matej Lančarič, Jakub Remiar, and Felix Braberg dig into the MoCo relaunch and why it doesn't fix the game's core problem. MoCo launched in March 2025 with a download spike, hit a hard shark fin, and the relaunch pumped it back up to roughly 230K DAU — but only around $14K/day in revenue and ~$5M lifetime (about one peak day of Brawl Stars). Jakub's diagnosis as a hardcore RPG player: the game has no depth, no chase items, no endgame, just farming stat-cores and a cosmetics shop. The relaunch added "depth-ish" — a little bit of depth sprinkled into the depth — but lightweight RPGs don't exist, and Supercell's broad-and-accessible business model is fundamentally incompatible with what makes RPGs work.The conclusion the hosts land on is uncomfortable: in its current state, MoCo is essentially unsalvageable as an RPG. Either pivot it into a MOBA, or kill it and go back to strategy games — the thing Supercell is genuinely great at.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — what does this mean for Supercell?02:19 The relaunch and the search for one positive sign03:30 The numbers — shark fin, 230K DAU, $14K/day07:40 The core problem — no depth, no chase items12:50 "Gen Z slop": why the RPG genre rejects this16:00 The endgame problem — stat-cores and cosmetics26:00 MoCo vs Diablo Immortal vs Path of Exile30:45 The verdict — kill it or pivot to MOBA--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej LancaricPodcast: Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultanthttps://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultanthttps://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultanthttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit lancaric.substack.com & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej Lancaric
Send us Fan MailI know this isn't table top roleplaying, but stay with me for a moment.When I was a senior in high school the guy who ran our gaming and miniatures sessions invited us all to a Murder Mystery Party.We received an elaborate invitation with information about the “character” we were to play for the party. It also had suggestions for what to wear.When we showed up, his place was completely decorated. Lights, soft music, drinks and appetizers. He even had a waiter and waitress serving guests.When I made my way into his house it was like I was on another planet. I felt like an actor in a movie and even though I had never done anything like this before and I was a little scared about it, I got into it very quickly.By the end of the night, we had solved the murder…the waiter did it by the way, and I walked away having one of the greatest gaming experiences of my life.That night has always stuck with me, because it was more than the plot and more then the game. It was even more than hanging out with a lot of my friends and making new ones. It was really about the experience of the game and that was all created by the little things he did that often go overlooked.The lights, the music, the costumes, the food and the drink.On this episode we are going to talk about setting the stage for your games and how you can turn that dial up to 11 to really make an impact.Christina, have you ever had one of those fully immersive games?[Kick to Christina]
In dieser Folge sprechen Christina und Florian über Black Jacket, Gothic Remake, TR-49 und Thick As Thieves.
In episode 143 of Game Design Unboxed, we talk with board game designer and founder of Pink Hawk Games, Emily Vincent. After a career in software and UX design, Emily caught the game design bug when she realized the games she wanted to play simply weren’t on the table. She shares how her love of […]
The conversation delves into the world of game design, community, and the challenges faced by designers. It explores early board game experiences, the impact of colorblindness on gaming, and the importance of accessibility in board game design. The transition to game design and publishing is discussed, along with the struggle of idea generation and the vulnerability in playtesting. The founding of the Board Game Proto Hype Group and its membership and global reach are also highlighted. The conversation covers topics such as overcoming imposter syndrome, the role of content creators, trends in UK board gaming, and the legacy and impact of game publishing. Evan Wilcock shares insights on community building, motivation, and the challenges of game publishing, providing valuable perspectives for aspiring game designers and enthusiasts.TakeawaysThe importance of community and support in the world of game design and publishing.The challenges and opportunities in creating accessible and inclusive board games. Overcoming imposter syndrome is a common challenge for new game designers.Content creators play a significant role in promoting and supporting game designers.The UK board gaming scene is seeing a trend towards smaller, travel-friendly games.The legacy of a game designer is defined by the impact and enjoyment their games bring to players.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Game Design and Community07:22 Accessibility in Board Game Design17:25 The Struggle of Idea Generation22:38 Vulnerability in Playtesting30:00 Membership and Global Reach44:55 The Role of Content Creators56:52 Trends in UK Board Gaming01:03:29 Legacy and Impact
In this episode, I talk about designing Magic: The Gathering® | Marvel Super Heroes.
I just returned from a trip to Los Angeles, California, where I went to a red carpet event celebrating Magic: The Gathering® | Marvel Super Heroes. I then spent three days doing interviews about the set at Summer Game Fest. This podcast talks all about that trip.
This episode is part four of a five-part series. In it, I go through every single Mood Swings card, in collectible number order, and talk about how they were designed, including many of the changes they went through and some strategic tips on how to play them. Note: This is a bonus episode for this week.
Seatbelts, everyone! This week the Nice Hosts talk vehicles, which apparently means more than just cars. That's good news because none of them know much about cars (hopefully Nice Guest and vehicle specialist, Kris Roberts doesn't notice). So pile on in and buckle up: we're going to talk about the challenges of capturing the feel of a vehicle with video game inputs, what a solid vehicle system needs at a minimum, and the hobbyist racing scene.Vehicle DesignGame DesignProductionProgrammingKris shared a couple photos of his sports car with us.His car, at another angle.Kris Roberts's Website - Kris RobertsSim Racing Streamers
AI creatives just hit a new level and the most surprising convert is Playrix. After years of holding back, they've gone all-in on AI across Township, Gardenscapes, and Homescapes. Matej, Jakub, Felix (and Freddie the robot) review 100+ AI creatives to figure out what's actually working right now.The episode is a guided tour through the current AI creative landscape: AppQuantum's Golden Goblins running AI influencers from a creative team scaling toward 100 people, Playrix's full-AI pivot with the recurring "there are no ads in Township" concept (and Felix's repeated insistence that ads are coming anyway), the "getting slapped" husband concept that has spread across the entire 4X category in a single month, freezing-families intros rendered at near-Pixar quality, the pajama guy who quietly took over Last War / Dark War creatives, and the broader collapse of creative production timelines from a week to a single day. It's the clearest snapshot yet of how fast AI creative production is moving — and how quickly a single winning concept now propagates across an entire genre.The throughline: this isn't about whether AI creatives work anymore. It's about who's iterating fastest.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — Freddie the robot judges the AI creatives02:30 AppQuantum's Golden Goblins and the 100-person creative team04:00 Century portfolio downscaling AI (and near-Pixar quality)07:30 Playrix goes full AI across all three games08:00 "There are no ads in Township" — the recurring concept16:30 Freezing Families gets the full AI intro treatment22:20 The "getting slapped" concept takes over all of Forex33:30 Top Heroes, anime quality, and where this is heading━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━-PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej LancaricJoin our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultanthttps://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultanthttps://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultanthttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit lancaric.substack.com & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej Lancaric
On this special Behind The Geeks, Justin and Nate sit down with Casey Baron, Senior Programmer for Tribeca Games, to discuss the growing role of video games within the Tribeca Festival and the evolving relationship between games and film. Casey shares what it actually means to be a Senior Programmer, the games that shaped his perspective on interactive storytelling, and how his experience across both film and games influences the way he approaches the festival. We also explore the role games play in the future of storytelling, the recognition of independent game developers, and which titles attendees should keep an eye on at this year's Tribeca Festival. Plus, Casey joins us for our signature “Whatchya?” segment to share what he's currently watching, playing, and recommending. Attending Tribeca this year? Be sure to visit the free, public Games Gallery at Pier 57 from June 10–14, where you'll have the chance to play exclusive demos of exciting unreleased games featured as part of the Tribeca Games Program. Learn more about Tribeca Games:https://tribecafilm.com/festival/games Learn more about the Tribeca Storytelling Summit:https://tribecafilm.com/storytellingsummit Explore the Tribeca Festival:https://tribecafilm.com/festival Follow Tribeca:https://www.instagram.com/tribeca Check out Geekcentric onYouTube | Instagram | Twitter | TikTokJoin the Geekcentric Discord HEREFollow Eatcentric - Same geeks. New Eats
Send us Fan MailWelcome to you heard it here last where we talk about news, you've already heard.https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06spb8wSeveral years ago, I stumbled across one of the greatest podcasts I have ever listened to. It was called the Lovecraft Investigations and it started with the Case of Charles Dexter Ward. I'm a huge fan of Call of Cthulhu and I've pretty much read all of Lovecraft over the years. Some good, some bad, but all of it steeped in the myth and mythos. Lovecraft was very good at atmosphere.This podcast was perfect. It felt like a real investigative podcast and with BBC 4 backing it the production quality was incredible. Over the next several years the Lovecraft Investigation podcast continued to slowly put out some fantastic episodes that really felt like you were in a Call of Cthulhu game. Then in 2023 it just stopped.Not a big surprise because podcasts stop all the time. But I was generally bummed.But good news does come to those that wait.https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/julian-simpson/lovecraft-investigations-the-call-of-cthulhu?ref=bk-ads-ga-p-20&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23860975866&gclid=Cj0KCQjwz9_QBhD_ARIsADnSCfDc7zHCkZjWINm47NNyZOau7v-un5Z63IHEX0AHXiH66Pn_noXAb-AaAokFEALw_wcBLovecraft Investigations is coming out with Season 5. The Call of Cthulhu. This time they are going through Backerkit and all the original audio cast is joining the new season. They are offering digital downloads of the entire audio play as well as physical copies and extra books and items to make the entire thing special. If you haven't listened to the original BBC4 podcast do yourself a favor and do it, right now, then come back to the episode. But even if you don't want to go back and dive in you don't have to because the new Season 5 is designed for people who haven't heard any of the old episodes. I am stoked and yes I've already pledged.Christina, what do you think of audio plays like this? Is there a place for them in today's CGI world?[Kick to Christina]What about you Mike, did you ever listen to the original Lovecraft Investigations?[Kick to Mike]Up next, we have more Conan!https://ttrpgfans.com/new-conan-the-barbarian-rpg-books/That's right, our favorite…at least for now…roleplaying game Conan the Hyborian age has new sourcebooks coming to Kickstarter. The campaign hasn't launched yet, but it looks like we will get source books for Tortage which is a haven for pirates, thieves and smugglers in the Baracha Isles and Zamora the ancient land of dark sorcery and the home to the City of Thieves. Both of these settings I managed to avoid in our first campaign of Conan so as soon as I get my hands on these source books, we will visit Heliope, Drebu and the rest of our Hyborian friends again.Christina, what do you think about Monolith putting out sourcebooks for Conan?[Kick to Christina]Mike, this has always been your issue with new games, not enough lore. Does this new sourcebook get you pumped for more Conan?[Kick to Mike]And there you have it, all the news, you've already heard.
Block Out by Grand Games is scaling to $300K/day — and it doesn't even have an Android version yet. It's about to become Grand Games' biggest title, overtaking Magic Sword, and the whole thing is a masterclass in perfect execution over original innovation.Matej Lančarič, Jakub Remiar, and Felix Braberg break down Block Out, the deterministic sort puzzler that's quietly become one of the most aggressive scalers in mobile. The conversation covers how Block Out's iteration is now out-earning the game it borrowed from (Color Block Jam), the level-design difference that makes it more casual and more approachable, the UA upgrade that Jakub estimates at 500%+ over Grand's earlier games, the iOS-only / US-only / single-AppLovin-campaign soft launch playbook (the same one Pixel Flow used), the blended-ROAS interstitial strategy driving 32-36% ad revenue, and the 1,000+ creatives and 260 playables now powering the scale. Plus the bigger Grand Games story: a $70M raise, $105M+ total funding, and a template machine that takes proven concepts and executes them better than anyone.The thesis, straight from the episode: Grand Games doesn't do giant innovation. They do perfect execution.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 the 500% UA upgrade03:50 The numbers — $300K/day, 140K downloads/day, iOS only06:40 The Grand Games template — perfect execution, not innovation10:25 What a deterministic sort puzzler actually is13:25 Block Out vs Color Block Jam — the level design difference20:50 The soft launch playbook — one AppLovin campaign, US only21:45 The ad question — blended ROAS and 32-36% ad revenue26:30 The UA breakdown — Mintegral, 1,000 creatives, 260 playables--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultanthttps://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultanthttps://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultanthttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me---------------------------------------If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit lancaric.substack.com & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej LancaricDo you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask Matej AI - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai
This episode is part two of a two-part series where I talk about the designs of all the cards that have a mana value of 11 or higher.
This episode is part one of a two-part series where I talk about the designs of all the cards that have a mana value of 11 or higher.
This episode is part three of a five-part series. In it, I go through every single Mood Swings card, in collectible number order, and talk about how they were designed, including many of the changes they went through and some strategic tips on how to play them. Note: This is a bonus episode for this week.
In today's episode we talk about letting your players cook. What does it mean to let your players cook? Why should you let them cook? What can letting your players cook do your game? We give you our thoughts and answer all these questions and more in today's episode.Leave us an email for feedback, questions, or thoughts at levelupyourgamingpodcast@gmail.comor Follow us on Facebook and engage with us at https://www.facebook.com/LevelUpYourGamingPlease leave us a review or a five star rating wherever you get your podcast.
Two rewarded UA platforms just became one — and the integration is already live, not "coming in six months." Recorded live at MAU Vegas, this is the inside story of Mistplay's acquisition of MyChips and the launch of the Mistplay Audience Network.Matej Lančarič sits down with Massimo (founder of MAF / MyChips, now scaling the international business at Mistplay) and Mark Bearman (GM, Loyalty Play at Mistplay) for the third Mistplay MAU conversation. They unpack how the deal actually came together (it started with a Slack message asking "who is MAF?"), why MyChips wasn't even looking to sell, how a bootstrapped 70-person company with just 7 engineers moved fast enough to be operational on day one, the near-zero overlap between the two businesses (MyChips strong in APAC/EMEA supply, Mistplay strong in North America demand), and what consolidation in the rewarded space actually looks like now that the first major deal has closed.The North Star, stated plainly: be the undisputed number-one rewarded UA platform by MAU 2027.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 The Mistplay Audience Network — already live01:25 Meet Massimo (MAF) and Mark (Loyalty Play)02:25 "Who is MAF?" — the Slack message that started it03:17 Why Mistplay, why now — the billion-dollar question05:24 The geo fit — APAC supply meets North America demand08:03 How the demand and supply integration actually works11:50 Scaling without losing quality — fraud, engagement, price16:46 The consolidation question — and why only Mistplay has moved19:45 MAU 2027 — the number-one rewarded platform North Star
Host Dirk Knemeyer, a veteran in user experience (UX) design, is joined by co-host David Heron, a long-time game industry professional known for his work across major console evolutions and mobile free-to-play titles. In this episode, they dive deep into the rapidly evolving landscape of AI in game development, sparked by listener questions from their Discord community. The discussion explores the technical hurdles of AI memory and "drift," the ethical debates surrounding AI-generated art versus code, and the historical parallels between current AI fears and past technological shifts like the Luddite movement. Whether you're a developer or a curious player, this conversation offers a blunt, expert look at how AI might either disrupt or democratize the craft of making games
Send us Fan MailIt started with a simple text to the Thursday Night Gaming Group.“Hey, Free League's Twilight 2000 has a life path character creation system. Anybody interested in playing it?”And I have to say, of all the texts and emails I have sent to the group over the years that one got a lot of attention and the answer was an overwhelming yes.I had played the original Twilight 2000 as a teenager and I liked it. Our group had basically tried to recreate the movie “Red Dawn” with it and it had been fun, but we didn't dive heavily into the post-apocalyptic version of the game. We stayed mostly to the cinematic and war genre so as teen's it was perfect.Put this time I wanted to dive into some of those basic questions I find myself playing around with in roleplaying. “What does it mean to be human?” “What does it mean to be a hero?”“What does sacrifice look like?”So, I grab some ideas and we created characters and in January of 2026 we started playing.Fast Forward 5 months and I think we have played it enough to get a good feel for the game, the mechanics, and the setting.So, on this episode we are going to do a review of Twilight 2000 4th Edition by Free League.Let's start with general overall feelings about the game?Christina what are your overall thoughts?
Most teams treat influencer marketing as a series of one-off campaigns. The ones who actually scale treat it as a system — one continuous testing framework that runs from your first nano creator all the way to a Mr. Beast integration.Marion Balinoff returns for episode two of the influencer marketing series, going one level deeper than the foundations. Drawing on 12 years building influencer programs across 15+ studios and eight-figure budgets, this episode lays out the complete testing framework: the three-phase path from knowledge-gathering to scaling, how to read the vertical assessment table, the CPM/conversion/LTV diagnostic for fixing what's broken, the gift-code and giveaway mechanics that move conversion without killing LTV, and the custom in-game integrations that lifted conversion 437% on average. If you watched episode one, this is where the foundations become a machine.The single most important mindset shift: you're not buying reach, you're buying learnings. Volume isn't the goal - data density is.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Why influencer marketing is a system, not a campaign01:30 The three-phase framework: gather, optimize, scale02:40 Influencer size — why 8% of channels drive 63% of views03:40 The vertical assessment table and the three thresholds06:00 The CPM / conversion / LTV diagnostic08:30 Gift codes that doubled ROI (and the starter pack that killed LTV)13:00 Custom in-game integrations — 437% conversion lift16:30 The five key takeaways and the 12-month timeline
In episode 142 of Game Design Unboxed, we talk with freelance game designer Rosco Schock about his first published game, Diplomacy: The Golden Blade, released by Renegade Game Studios. The conversation focuses on the challenge of translating the “feel” of a classic, beloved strategy game into a streamlined and more approachable card game experience. We […]
Trent Kusters chats with Gregory Louden, Creative Director behind Housemarque's latest dark sci-fi bullet-ballet, Saros. Together they discuss his early work in film with directors such as Alfonso Cuarón and Ridley Scott; transitioning into games and his path from VFX, to narrative, and ultimately direction; creating a spiritual successor to Returnal while developing a brand new IP; focusing on challenging but rewarding gameplay; and building a narrative around the roguelike gameplay. This episode is supported by Xsolla iam8bit Episode Host: Trent Kusters Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving us a rating and review. Support the show and get all of our episodes early/ad-free: https://bit.ly/4kU34Lt Follow us: linktr.ee/AIAS Please consider supporting game dev students with: AIAS Foundation
Voodoo wasn't supposed to be making this kind of money. For years their entire portfolio sat at sub-$100K/day games — Mob Control, Cap Heroes, the usual hyper-casual treadmill. Then something switched in early 2026 and now they're suddenly running at $1M/day in IAP across the portfolio. The flag-bearer for the new era is Marble Sort.We dig into Marble Sort by Voodoo — a sort-category puzzler that scaled from launch in February to $200K/day in IAP plus $52K/day in ad revenue by March. The conversation covers the sorter-category explosion (Pixel Flow's Scopely acquisition for close to $1B set the precedent), the 800-1,100 creatives running on AppLovin and what they tell us about Voodoo's creative production discipline, the level-design and APS-curve methodology that Tripledot-style studios actually use, why this game could be just a mini-game inside Royal Match (and why that matters), and the bigger story underneath: Voodoo just launched a mid-core PvP studio led by ex-Kameli Games French founders, signaling a serious IPO push in the next 1-2 years.If you want to understand the Voodoo renaissance — or just figure out why Jakub keeps insisting "the sort category is the new hot shit" — this is the episode.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:00 Cold open — Voodoo is suddenly doing $1M/day in IAP02:24 The sorter category is the new hot shit (and why)05:36 The Voodoo portfolio renaissance — Castle Clashers + Marble Sort08:56 Walking the game — sorting mechanics, level curve, no live-ops yet13:40 The level design metrics — APS curve, booster win ratio17:38 32% ad revenue + $52K/day = roughly $250K/day total19:59 800-1,100 creatives in 30 days — AI + gameplay + AppLovin altered videos28:33 Voodoo's new mid-core PvP studio + the IPO setup--------------------------------------PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.- Scale fast- Keep your shares- Drawdown only as needed- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors---------------------------------------For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.Our sponsor FastSpring:Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.---------------------------------------This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let's not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.Panelists: Jakub Remiar, Felix Braberg, Matej LancaricPodcast: Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SAChapters---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultanthttps://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultanthttps://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultanthttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar---------------------------------------Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me
In this episode we chat with Max Bickerton, Head coach of Grapple Collective. We talk about Injana Goodman's journey from a purple belt in 2023 to winning ADCC Trials in 2026, CLA, how Max thinks about mount and back in grappling, and more. Hope you enjoy! Download Sherpa, the free AI-powered journaling app for athletes. Join the convo with Josh on Discord here.Use the code "BJJHELP" for 50% off your first month on Jake's Outlier Database to study match footage, get links to resources, and more.Use code “BJJHELP” at submeta.io to try your first month for only $8!
In this episode, I talk about the pros and cons of the depth of Magic's gameplay.
In this episode, I talk about the history of one of Magic's greatest mechanics, landfall.
This episode is part two of a five-part series. In it, I go through every single Mood Swings card, in collectible number order, and talk about how they were designed, including many of the changes they went through and some strategic tips on how to play them. Note: This is a bonus episode for this week.
Your nice hosts have talked a lot over the years about exploitative game design, and this week we brought in an expert on gamification to lay out some of the dark patterns in games that take players' money and time via deceptive framing and UX.https://samliberty.comSam Liberty - MediumSam Liberty - LinkedInDark PatternsGame DesignWhy “Addictive” Gameplay Should Never Be The Goal - Lydia Symchych, ELB LearningHEXAD FrameworkAddiction by Design - Natasha Dow SchüllTiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything - BJ FoggHow to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be - Katy MilkmanHow dating apps weaponized loneliness against their users - Sam Liberty
Send us Fan MailWelcome to you heard it here last where we talk about news, you've already heard.https://www.enworld.org/threads/d-d-beyond-executives-explain-why-subscribers-cant-share-drops-content.719058/Recently D&D Beyond has started providing Drops for their online subscriber-based system for releasing Dungeons and Dragons Material. The problem is, the new Drops, which include maps, characters, and premade encounters are not shareable. So even though D&D Beyond members have paid for Master Tier Access which runs around 55 bucks a year and is designed to allow you to share material…you can't.D&D Beyond says they are doing this to ensure that creators get paid, but isn't that the companies job? And if you tell people they are paying for a service like the Master Tier that allows sharing and then turn around and don't allow sharing that seems a little shady to me…but it is Hasbro so it tracks.I think the real question I have here for the gang is this. In the digital age where everything is sold online and no one owns books anymore…how are creators going to get paid.Christina, let's start with you.Kick to ChristinaMike, put your business and tech hat on. What are the options?Kick to MikeNext up we have another Elric TTRPG on the horizon.https://www.enworld.org/threads/theres-another-official-elric-rpg-in-the-works-this-one-from-free-league.719041/It's cool to see Elric get some love lately. I mean the Witcher straight up stole most of it's esthetic and even some of its story from the Elric saga so it's not like he's been out of the public consciousness…but I like seeing companies turn back to a foundational fantasy character like that. The fact that he's a very complex character is just all the more appealing to me.But just like my last article, Elric isn't what I want to talk about.What I want to ask you is Free League becoming the new Asmodee?Let's start with you MikeKick to MikeChristina, I know you are a fan of Free League, is it good or bad that they are grabbing up all the IPs right now?Kick to ChristinaAnd there you have it, all the news you've already heard.
Designers don't like it when players criticise their board game, and the response often is that the game was intentionally designed that way. Players complain that a strategy feels unfair, a mechanism is frustrating, or a game simply isn't very clear. Designers reply that that just misses the point. Similar disagreements exist in films, novels, and art, yet board games seem to have them more often, and they are often more personal. Part of the reason may be that board games are not passive experiences. Players are not simply watching events unfold, but instead are interpreting rules and shaping the experience themselves every time the game hits the table.Read the full article here: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2026/05/26/intentional-experience-designer-intent-and-player-experience-topic-discussion/Useful LinksDune review: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2020/02/08/dune-saturday-review/BGG article The Design Process by Gerry Paquette: https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/550/blogpost/2529/the-design-processWhat is Player Experience?: https://bg-px.com/what-is-player-experience/UX in board game design by Jason Kogan: https://uxdesign.cc/ux-in-board-game-design-97bfcdb1d581Perception vs Reality in Game Design by Joseph Z Chen: https://fantastic-factories.medium.com/perception-vs-reality-in-game-design-67181c0e6b0eMusicIntro Music: Bomber (Sting) by Riot (https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/)Music: "Inspirational Flight", "Documentary Soundtrack" and "Success" by AShamaluevMusic.Website: https://www.ashamaluevmusic.comSupportIf you want to support this podcast financially, please check out the links below:Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/TabletopGamesBlogPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/tabletopgamesblogWebsite: https://tabletopgamesblog.com/support/(Photo by Daman IAm on Unsplash)
In this episode, I talk about putting together the larger story arc of the Phyrexian War storyline from Throne of Eldraine through March of the Machine.
What is "the rule"? Why does Magic have it? (It didn't always.)
This episode is part one of a five-part series. In it, I go through every single Mood Swings card, in collectible number order, and talk about how they were designed, including many of the changes they went through and some strategic tips on how to play them. Note: This is a bonus episode for this week.
In episode 141 of Game Design Unboxed, we talk with librarian and game designer, Lewis Graye, whose game design journey began after relocating to Syracuse, becoming part of the local tabletop scene, and participating in a game design contest at a wedding. They share the story of Lewis' first published design, Inkwell, and its unexpected […]
This episode is another in my series to talk about every Magic set release. Today, I discuss the third set in the original Theros block, Journey into Nyx.
How did I make Mood Swings into a simple, fast-paced trading card game? This episode talks about my 28 years of iteration and, for those of you interested in how a person designs a game from scratch, walks through how I created the game.
In this episode, I talk about all about my adventures at MagicCon: Las Vegas 2026.
In 1998, I came up with the idea of a more accessible trading card game. That game is called Mood Swings and goes on sale starting June 1 on MagicSecretLair.com. This podcast talks about my 28-year journey to get it made.
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