Uncovering the Hyper Casual Market

What the talk is about

Andre Santos of Nectar Interactive shares the experience of a small team that moved from business gamification and branded games into hyper casual. He advises assembling a team of a developer, a game designer and an artist, studying the top charts, playing many games in the genre, following social media trends and keeping a pool of ideas. Then comes fast prototyping for publishers: first a CTR test, then CPI, then retention (D1, D7). A prototype should polish only the core mechanic. He compares publisher deals (upfront money versus revenue share), recommends keeping several publisher contacts and entering contests for visibility. He shows how, over seven prototypes, the cost per install fell from almost two dollars to 25 cents. Useful for indie teams wanting to enter hyper casual.