Help my game is dying!

What the talk is about

Stephen Lee explains how the indie publisher Deca Games revives struggling games through live operations rather than launching new titles. He argues that relying only on marketing and paid user acquisition is a dead end: the funnel is costly and older games get harder to promote. Instead of keeping a game in bare maintenance or shutting it down, the team builds an experience players return to for years. Using Realm of the Mad God, he walks through the steps: find the most devoted fans, listen to them, involve them in balancing and beta testing, give them tools for skins and dungeons, and tone down a divisive pet system. The result was doubled DAU, tripled paying users and record revenue with no user acquisition spend. The Q&A covers finding superfans, filtering feedback and choosing games to acquire. Useful for developers and publishers of live games.