Mobile gaming has had an undeniable burst of growth into one of the largest and most profitable types of gaming in recent years. Chief among this explosion sits the rise of story driven mobile games; they’ve not only redefined the (mobile) gaming experience, but the boundaries of storytelling itself.

If these sound like big claims, that’s because they are—but that doesn’t make them any less true. Let’s delve into the rapidly-developing world of story driven mobile games, and start unpacking why they’ve become such a driving force in the industry.

Want to know how industry experts like us save production time but still keep players satisfied? We finally reveal six game design tips you could use in your game!

For decades, game designers have found clever workarounds to improve a game’s design and player experience, without showing the inner workings to players themselves. This article will explore some of them! I’ll talk about 6 long-hidden game design tips that keep our players playing, and save us hundreds of hours in production time.

One of the biggest challenges for mobile game developers is how to maintain player engagement alongside effective monetisation. One of the solutions is Reward Videos (RVs). These are video ads that are almost miraculous because players actually want to watch them! In this article, we’ll dive deep into Reward Videos, walk you through designing your game around them, and their many benefits.

What is a Reward Video?

Game writing is something that’s had a wave of popularity and exposure recently, especially following the rise of big-budget, narrative-driven games over the last two decades. And with that, I’ve definitely been getting more questions about my job as a video game story writer — which is exciting!

It also gives me a great excuse to sit and talk for a while with you about how I craft interactive worlds, how you can get into it too, and whether AI should be worrying us game writers.

Handling SDKs can feel frustrating, and you can bet something will mess up before you scour StackOverflow forums for that lifesaving solution. So if you’re starting out in gamedev and aren’t sure how the Facebook SDK works, this is a good place to start.

Why do I need Facebook SDK in order to launch a test?

What’s your all-time favourite game? Whether that question takes you back decades to an 8-bit masterclass, obscure indie gem or a 2020s GOTY, the answer is probably as much about what you heard as what you saw. Learning how to make music for video games is a decision as influential as those you make for design, art, character or genre for your project.

Truly memorable games can create powerful emotions through video game music, making the best of us well up with nostalgia, pride, or even frustration.

Coding your own games… is not as easy as you think! Only the brave and the bold would decide to become a game developer in six months.

So let’s be honest: six months is a daring goal. Unless you’ve had prior experience making interesting software projects, whether as a personal hobby or as a professional, making games is a tough gig that takes a long time to get good at.

Inside the Success is where our hypercasual experts do a deep-dive into Kwalee’s chart-topping successes, dissecting the game’s production post-release – from development to marketing. Learn how our games are such a success for free!

Whatever stage in game development you’re in, if you want to show us your game prototypes, send it to us anyway. If you don’t send it, you might never know if it’s ready to be published on the Hyper Casual market. With professional feedback, you can propel your game to any state that’s outside of brainstorming or prototyping. That’s a lot faster than wondering what to do by yourself.

With that said, are you serious about partnering with a game publisher like Kwalee in the long term? Then we have five tips for you to put together a pitch-perfect prototype for us.

Behind almost every game developer’s chart-topping success is a heap of failed prototypes. As a games publisher with a ‘Fail Fast’ prototyping culture, we’ve harnessed those failures to use as an advantage. We know the principles you need to make chart-topping successes. Principles that beginner game developers sometimes neglect when they make Hyper Casual games. It’s not only easy to avoid them, but they can also make a real difference in whether your game achieves success.

Fun fact: Build Your Vehicle was a concept that existed way back in May 2021. But it never made the cut after the tests showed very poor results… until the project was resurrected a year later. Normally, our philosophy is to fail fast; test, prototype, and ship quickly when the data is convincing and move on when it doesn’t. So what changed in a year?

In the business of Hyper Casual games, it’s important to create experiences with truly global appeal. We at Kwalee have enjoyed many worldwide hits, but none have encapsulated this principle better than Draw it. 

Launched in 2019, Draw it has been downloaded more than 100 million times and continues to perform very well.