How the 2020 changes in the hyper-casual games market affected their development approaches and processes

What the talk is about

Andrii Mikhlin looks at how the hyper-casual market changed in 2020 and what it means for development. There were more players, sessions got longer and monetization grew, so his team now pays more attention to session length. At the same time, large developers and publishers started copying indie projects. Using examples of cloned games, the speaker shows that rushing out a game without polishing its mechanic brings no installs or revenue, and that forced ads drive players away, while content unlocked through progression earns far more downloads. His conclusions: aim production at retention and LTV, not just a low CPI; use mature game design and introduce mechanics gradually; run many hypothesis tests; refine one key mechanic instead of piling up many. Useful for producers, game designers and hyper-casual studios.