When Publishing Works for Free to Play Games

Casual Connect USAJuly 30, 2013 | San Francisco, CA

About Jameel Khalfan

• Currently leading Publishing for Pocket Gems

• Previously led paid user acquisition for Tap Zoo and Tap Pet Hotel (#1 and #4 top grossing apps of 2011)

• Prior experience in Venture Capital at Globespan Capital Partners and Product Management at Microsoft

Agenda

• Background on Pocket Gems• What a F2P publisher should do for you• How to best work with a F2P publisher• Case studies

Pocket Gems Background

• 100M+ downloads on mobile• Backed by Sequoia Capital, who funded

EA, Apple, and Google• Globally, Top 15 Grossing Publisher in

2012 across iOS and Android

Do you need a publisher?

• Assess whether you are set up to succeed self publishing– F2P game design expertise– iOS and Android platform experience– Cross promotion abilities– User acquisition funding and operations

• If you are not ready to self publish your F2P game, you should look for a good partner to help make your game as successful as possible

What a F2P Publisher should do for you:Cross Promotion

What a F2P Publisher should do for you: Paid User Acquisition

What a F2P Publisher should do for you: Ad Optimization

Note: For illustrative purposes only

What a F2P Publisher should do for you

• Tech– Share analytics tools and connect game easily to ad networks and UA

channels

• Product– Advice (not mandates) on F2P game mechanics

• Overall– Fair deal terms and aligned incentives– Collaborative relationship

How you can work best with a publisher

• Develop a fun and engaging game!

• Spend time focusing on the core loop and game mechanics, don’t expect the publisher to do it for you

• Treat game as an ongoing service for your players, rather than a finished product.

• Continue to look at data from the game after launch and evaluate next steps

Questions to ask potential publishers

• How many of your games have been in the top charts (free and grossing)?

• How do you think about user acquisition?– How many user acquisition channels are you integrated

with?– How big is your network for cross promotion?– What do you do to help with organic traffic and

optimization?

• Which people will I be working with and what are their backgrounds and game credits?

CASE STUDIES

Case Study: Chasing Yello (Google Play)

Publisher highlights:• QA process for Android• User acquisition• Cross promotion in Pocket Gems

network

Case Study: Chasing Yello (Google Play)

Results:• Featured on Google Play• Reached Top 5 Free Apps in 1 Week• Downloaded over 2.3 million times in 2

weeks

Case Study: Amazing Ants (iOS)

Publisher highlights:• Product feedback and game

design advice• PR for the game and company• Cross promotion in Pocket Gems

network

Case Study: Amazing Ants (iOS)

Results:• Featured in Apple App Store• Downloaded over 2.2M times in 2 weeks• #1 Free on iPad in 35 countries• Twyngo was subsequently acquired by a

venture backed game company

Thank You