Homa and Gnarly Game Studio on surpassing 100m downloads through the power of collaboration

Publisher Homa recently surpassed 2 billion downloads across its mobile games portfolio. One partnership Homa has is with Gnarly Game Studio, where together they have launched various titles, including Agent Hunt and Frontline Heroes, amassing a combined total of over 100 million downloads.

In this interview, we spoke with Homa’s co-founder, Olivier Le Bas, and Gnarly Game Studio’s co-founder, Mehmet Gurdal. 

We explore the origins of their partnership, the dynamics of collaborating with a publisher, and the strategies that have driven their success. Additionally, we gain insight into Türkiye’s growing games market.

Pocketgamer.biz: First, can you tell us a little about how Homa and Gnarly Game Studio’s came to work together?

Olivier Le Bas: The collaboration began when Gnarly approached Homa with an exciting idea for a shooter game. Given Homa's strong track record in the genre and Gnarly’s development and creative capacity, we saw a great opportunity to join forces.  

The process started with multiple prototypes, evolving through continuous learning and refinement. Thanks to our shared vision and ambition, we successfully launched Agent Hunt together.

After some months, and drawing on our experience and the strong foundation we had built together, we launched Frontline Heroes. Together, these two games accumulate over 100 million lifetime downloads.

And for Gnarly Game Studio, how has it been working with a publisher? What value do you find from it?        

Mehmet Gurdal: Working with Homa has been transformative for our studio. Although we had experience with other publishers, we didn’t find the right chemistry to plan, build, and scale successful games until we partnered with Homa. They’ve brought crucial advantages, from industry expertise to financial support.

Their team is highly experienced and understands market trends and user behavior, helping us fine-tune our games for success. They also handle all aspects of user acquisition and run large-scale marketing campaigns, allowing us to focus entirely on making great games.

For Agent Hunt, for example, the Homa team helped us optimise game difficulty, strategically place rewarded ads, balance the game economy, A/B test all game features, and improve monetisation.

Their user acquisition campaigns and creative ad content were instrumental in helping the game reach #8 in the US free games ranking in December 2023, with over 80 million downloads. Working with Homa has truly made a significant impact on both our games and the growth of our studio.

Working with Homa has truly made a significant impact on both our games and the growth of our studio.

Gnarly Game Studio is based in Türkiye. As a publisher how do you manage working with studios around the world and how should others adapt to this?

Olivier Le Bas: A key strength we bring to our partnerships is our diverse, globally-minded team of over 230 people from nearly 35 nationalities.

This diversity enables us to connect and collaborate seamlessly with partners around the world. In the case of Türkiye, we’re fortunate to have team members from the region, bridging any language or cultural gaps. However, while we may come from different places, we share a common language - the passion for creating incredible games. 

In the case of Türkiye, we’re fortunate to have team members from the region, bridging any language or cultural gaps.

Understanding cultural differences and maintaining open communication are key to effective collaboration. By staying flexible and open, we tailor our approach to meet the unique needs of each studio, while ensuring everyone remains aligned on expectations, deadlines, and priorities.

What is the game market like right now in Türkiye? How do you see it expanding in the coming years?

Olivier Le Bas: The gaming market in Türkiye is witnessing remarkable expansion. In recent years, Türkiye has established itself as a vibrant hub for mobile game development, with several studios gaining global recognition and securing major investments from international players.

At Homa we are thrilled about the opportunities ahead and we are looking to recruit more top talent from Türkiye while also strengthening our partnerships with local studios. The future of gaming in Türkiye is very promising.

At Homa, we are thrilled about the opportunities ahead. We are looking to recruit more top talent from Türkiye while strengthening our partnerships with local studios. 

For Homa, how do you approach working with a new studio and in what ways do you aim to support a studio such as Gnarly Game Studio?

Olivier Le Bas: At Homa, our partner studios are considered part of the team. Our main goal is to support them and drive them to success. We provide strategic guidance and resources from the beginning and throughout the development and post-launch phases.

We keep our finger on the pulse of the market, and through our tech platform and data insights, we are uniquely positioned to break through in such a competitive market.

In the collaboration with Gnarly, we launched two consecutive hits in a row - Agent Hunt and Frontline Heroes - by leveraging our long-term partnership. More concretely, for Agent Hunt we achieved an increase in downloads, LTV, and retention, through the implementation of various Liveops strategies.

Among them, we placed strategic reward videos within the game, resulting in a 20% uplift in the LTV and an 8% increase in Day 3 retention for Android US. In addition, the UA team at Homa executed a strategic user acquisition strategy focusing on playable, interactive ads which showed great success. Furthermore, the creative team crafted over 1000 videos aiming to capture the user’s attention.  

Later, we applied the learnings and insights from this game to the launch of Frontline Heroes, which currently accumulates over 20 million downloads. But that’s not all. Recently, we introduced a live event in Frontline Heroes, and thanks to the AB testing feature in our platform, Homa Lab, we optimised it, achieving an uplift of 12% for Ad LTV D0.

From both perspectives, what do you need to do to build a strong relationship between a publisher and a studio? Do you have any advice on how to ensure a healthy collaboration?

Olivier Le Bas: The foundation of our relationships with partners is clear communication, mutual trust, and shared goals and values. We are driven by curiosity, ambition, and humility, and it’s essential for us that our partners align with these principles.

To ensure healthy collaboration, transparency, respect, and clear communication are key. Regular updates, open feedback loops, and collaborative problem-solving help keep both teams aligned on expectations, deadlines, and priorities, creating a seamless partnership with no surprises.

Mehmet Gurdal: Building a strong relationship between a publisher and a studio relies on mutual trust and valuing each other’s contributions. Both parties need to share the same vision and ambition for the project’s success.

The publisher should give creative freedom to developers, while developers should value the publisher's guidance on targets, market insights, and trends.

Staying agile, maintaining active communication, and being proactive about potential features and current challenges are key to an efficient development process. Finally, both parties must support each other and remain tolerant when unforeseen problems arise during development.

Do you have any advice and insight you can share on launching successful games?

Olivier Le Bas: Launching a successful game requires a mix of market research and knowledge, technical capabilities, funding for marketing strategy, and a data-driven approach. A well-crafted game needs to engage and retain players.

It’s important to keep in mind that you are not your target audience. Therefore it's important to be updated with industry trends and market knowledge to know what’s working and what’s not, and the player preferences.

But overall, the key is a data-based approach. Monitoring metrics like player retention, engagement, and monetisation will allow you to continually improve the experience and drive long-term success. Balancing creativity with these strategic elements is key to launching a successful game.

In the case of the collaboration between Homa and Gnarly, applying lessons from one game to another made the process of launching two games in a row more efficient.

For example, when creating Frontline Heroes, the teams leveraged existing systems related to core gameplay, controls, or FPS optimisations, which resulted in a 60% reduction in production time compared to Agent Hunt.

Also, as both are shooter games, it allowed us to apply proven cross-game tests, which means deploying successful challenges, features, and live events across both games.

Finally, what should we be on the lookout for next from Homa and Gnarly Game Studio?

Olivier Le Bas: Even after launch, our collaboration with Gnarly remains strong and hands-on. We continue to optimise and maintain the games together to ensure they stay relevant and exciting for players in the long term!