Unity's China publishing deal, the different types of monetisation, and PlaySimple Games raises $4 million

The hottest articles of last week

• 5 The seven rules of monetisation design

  

  "Making games used to be straight forward. We only had to think about the game experience and whether what we have made was fun."

  So begins Oscar Clark in his article on the seven rules of monetisation design, a key part of our recent Monetisation Design course in our Mobile Games University.

  From there, he outlines seven things every developer should know about monetisation, including the importance of timing, anticipation and repetition.

  If you're not keen on reading, or just want to hear Oscar talk you through it, we're also running a webinar with the man himself on December 7th. You can sign up for it here.

  
  

• 4 FunPlus' King of Avalon surges to the summit of the US App Store top grossing charts

  

  Take a look at the iOS top grossing on any given day and you'll usually see one of the usual suspects - Pokemon GO, Mobile Strike, Game of War, etc.

  So when a game like FunPlus' King of Avalon tops the chart for the first time since it launched in July 2016, it's worth shouting about.

  The studio owes the game's success to an aggressive marketing campaign, which included recruiting Kristian Nairn - Hodor from Game of Thrones - to be the face of the game.

  Whether the game can hold its position is another matter entirely, but it's still a remarkable achievement given the usual stagnant nature of the top grossing charts.

  
  

• 3 Unity’s Xiaomi deal will offer developers “unparalleled access” to China’s mobile games market

  

  Getting your game out in China is pretty tough no matter who you are, but Unity and Xiaomi have just made it a little bit easier.

  The two companies have partnered to give Unity developers access to Xiaomi's app store and some help with the red tape developers have to get through just to launch their games.

  Unity is getting something in return of course, as Unity Ads is now the only third-party ad service enabled on any Android app store in China.

  The deal goes into action some time in 2017, but there's no specific timeframe on when developers can start publishing just yet.

  
  

• 2 Mobile Games University - Monetisation Design: The different monetisation types in games

  

  If you didn't know about our Mobile Games University, then you should really check it out. It's chock full of useful information about mobile games, and we're updating it pretty regularly.

  Most recently, we introduced a guide to monetisation design and the different types of monetisation that games use.

  It's a handy list of videos and articles from people smarter than us which explain the various aspects of monetisation, and how best to implement them in your game.

  So if you don't know your IAPs from your interstitials, and couldn't even begin to talk about rewarded video, give it a look - you might even learn something.

  
  

• 1 Ex-Zynga devs raise $4 million for new Indian studio PlaySimple Games

  

  If there's one thing developers love to do, its leave big companies, form their own smaller company, and raise a few million in investment to really get them goin.

  One such developer is PlaySimple Games, set up by a team of ex-Zynga developers based in India which just raised $4 million to expand its team.

  Investment comes from Saif Partners and IDG Ventures India, and will be used to increase the number of staff from 22 to 50 by the end of 2017.

  The studio will also continue to work on its puzzle and word games, like the already-released WordTrek and GuessUp.