Predicting Games’ Potential Since Concept Phase

What the talk is about

Jakub Trancik shows how to assess the potential of a mobile free-to-play game run as a service already at the concept phase, and how to avoid the traps of unrealistic expectations, sunk cost and the "one more iteration" belief. He reduces success to marketability (audience size, click-through rate, store conversion) and player LTV. He advises checking the niche and competitors, testing visuals on landing pages with surveys, and matching competitors' feature sets. He also covers how core gameplay and meta should connect to monetization: in a darts game, LTV grew from a few cents to over a dollar once purchases visibly affected progression. Finally, he turns to team readiness: relevant experience, reliable analytics, content for live ops, economy charts and regular schedule tracking. Useful for game designers, producers and analysts.