Volume is dead. Retention pays.
$387 billion market in 2026. But downloads grow just 0.8% while in-app purchases climb 10.6%. Value no longer comes from new players - it comes from the ones who stay.
It is almost never the graphics
The loop does not hook
The game looks good, the first session is pleasant, and nobody comes back the next day. The core loop was never tested on its own, without dressing.
The economy was never modelled
Prices, currencies and rewards set on instinct at the end of the project. A binary outcome: either it earns nothing, or it unbalances the game and drives players away.
Nothing after launch
No events, no seasonal content, no measurement. The retention curve collapses within three weeks and the acquisition budget burns.
Four phases, a decision at each step
You only commit to the next phase once the previous one has proven something. That is what makes the project stoppable - and therefore fundable.
Scoping & loop - 2 to 3 weeks
Audience, promise, core loop. The economy is modelled in a spreadsheet before the first line of code, with D1, D7 and D30 retention targets and an acceptable acquisition cost.
Playable prototype - 3 to 5 weeks
A real build on a phone, without final art. One goal: verify the loop is fun. If it does not hold, we iterate or stop - before production.
Production - 3 to 6 months
Art direction, content, meta-game, in-app purchases, cloud saves, offline mode. Plus a back-office so your team can add content without a developer.
Launch & LiveOps - ongoing
ASO, soft launch in a test market, then operations: events, challenges, seasons, A/B testing. We steer retention and revenue per player from a dashboard, week after week.
A loop that holds in grey will hold in colour
Our first deliverable is never a moodboard: it is a playable game without dressing. Because a beautiful game that is not fun is still a game that is not fun - and no art direction will bring a player back the next day. We applied it to our own title, Awale Flow.
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