Executive Orders
Interview: How the Game Executive Bootcamp at Finland's AaltoEE will help you grow your business
Andreea Cozma tells us about Supercell, Visual Novel Entertainment, EA and Fingersoft sharing their secrets this autumn
Shovel Talk
Yacht Club Games' COO James Chan on potential 'sophomore slump' for Shovel Knight sequel
Still hopes to bring brand to mobile
Eastern Promise
Southeast Asia powered Gravity’s Ragnarok M: Eternal Love to $50 million a month
We speak to Gravity COO Yoshinori Kitamura and delve into the data
Speaker Spotlight
PGC Helsinki: Jestercraft’s Klaus Kääriäinen to deliver talk on hybrid monetisation
“When learning to make games the sooner you start to create something the sooner you can realize what it takes to make full-blown entertainment products”
Mobile Advertising
Discover the optimal ad unit combination
IronSource VP of global partnerships Nadav Ashkenazy outlines some best practices that can be followed to create the optimal ad unit combination for your game
Keep Talking
Indie Spotlight: Steel Crate Games co-founder on the uncertainty of premium mobile games
If you don't enjoy the process and experience of game development, there are far more likely paths to wealth
Serious Gaming
The importance of play in serious gaming
"Nobody will want to play your game if it’s boring. This is where most serious games go completely wrong"
Small Giants
How Small Giant Games made it big
We speak to studio co-founder and CEO Timo Soininen about the developer's incredible journey
User Acquisition
Using Facebook to drive people to your games
Smartly.io head of gaming, EMEA Fernando Pernica discusses how to best utilise the social network to acquire users
Jobs In Games
"Game design isn’t all about grand ideas and blue-sky visions of exciting new games"
“The devil is in the detail”
Speaker Spotlight
PGC Helsinki: Funday Factory’s Emil Kjaehr to discuss game developer life lessons
“First thing I'd say is that you should be willing to relocate! In the Nordics, for instance, studios mostly cluster around a few large cities”
Beyond Mobile
Interview: Big Screen Gaming brings PC and console experts to 2019 Helsinki conference
For the first time, tickets to October’s Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2019 include access to a track dedicated to making PC and console games
Speaker Spotlight
PGC Helsinki: Full HP Ltd’s Murad Musakaev to discuss balancing priorities between growth and retention
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki is being held from October 1st to 2nd
Speaker Spotlight
PGC Helsinki: Quicksave’s Elina Arponen to host a talk on the challenges of games as a business
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki is being held on October 1st to 2nd
Lacking Influence
Futureplay: We blew our brand marketing budget on influencers
"It failed miserably. So we donated $10k to charity instead"
Speaker Spotlight
PGC Helsinki: Gametapas’ Juan Gril to host talk on game depth in hyper-casual games
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki takes place from October 1st to 2nd
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Olivér Papp on why it's important to acknowledge your learnings at the end of a project
"You gained so much knowledge and experience during your journey and you should acknowledge it"
Top Dog
How Zynga used M&A and forever franchises to become the world's number one mobile games company
"Personally, this is actually a quest that I’ve been going after since my days at EA Mobile"
Speaker Spotlight
PGC Helsinki: Homa Games’ Jon Hook to discuss the future of hyper-casual games
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki takes place from October 1st to October 2nd
Huuuge Deal
Traffic Puzzle generates $1m in revenue in first eight weeks powered by Huuuge Publishing
First title published by the new division
App Store Optimisation
How can I determine the relation between organic and paid users?
LabCave analyses the data
Finland Report
Finland's transformation from games start-up capital to mobile heavyweight
Ahead of Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki on October 1st and 2nd 2019, we take a look at the current state of the Finnish games industry and how it's changed
Interview
“We view our development process more like a marathon than a sprint, so it makes no sense to have a crunch culture”
Future Games of London MD Ian Harper discusses how the studio aims to look after employees and fights off toxicity and crunch culture
Storytellers
Swag Masha on why it sold to My.Games and how it's carving out a space in the interactive fiction market
"We’ve learned that interactive story games are not a simple sell and if you are thinking about it as easy money - you better pass!"
Counterpoint
Counterpoint: Offerwalls still deliver enormous value in 2019
As Apple enforces bans on offerwall-based CPI and CPE campaigns, CPA campaigns are still an option for developers
Jaffajam
New Zealand hyper-casual start-up JaffaJam wants to shake up the sector
Studio soft-launches new title Mountain Madness built on its own BubbleGum toolset
Meet Mogi
Meet MoGi Group, your new gaming services partner
MoGi Group is taking meetings at Gamescom from August 20th to 24th
Devcom 2019
What's new at Devcom 2019?
Ahead of the Cologne show's third year, we caught up with managing director Stephan Reichart to find out more
Master Plan
"Even at NASA deadlines aren't always respected"
Gismart's Andrey Mikhlin discusses the planning process, creating estimates and executing on a product
Indie Spotlight
Platonic Games co-founders on risking it all to form the studio
"It’s going to be our biggest and riskiest project so far"
Foldable Phones
Fighting the foldable phone design challenge: The impact on games development
Perfecto chief evangelist Eran Kinsbruner discusses QA for foldable phones
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Futureplay's Chris Wilson on going from food apps to marketing manager
"Though food tech and gaming are very different industries on the face of it, there are many similarities in the foundations of app marketing"
Indie Mavens
What monetisation models work best for indie developers in the current mobile games market?
The Indie Mavens share their thoughts on the different monetisation models on offer to small studios
Hyper-casual
Voodoo’s ad monetisation and the recipe for hyper-casual success
Thanks to the Mintegral-led campaigns, the ad fill rate for Voodoo’s titles increased from 30 per cent to a high of 75 per cent
Pr Tips
The beginner’s guide for games trade PR
Raptor PR founder Rana Rahman offers his top tips
Live Ops
A Thinking Ape on inclusivity in live ops content
We’ve spent the last couple of years exploring the impacts and developing our process for creating effective inclusive content.
European Expansion
Interview: Hyper-casual specialist Voodoo opens new Istanbul studio
“The move to Istanbul follows recent studio openings and that growth really demonstrates our drive to develop the sector and expand the hyper-casual market”
Live And Kicking
One year on: Next Games on the evolution of location-based title The Walking Dead: Our World
We catch up with executive producer Joonas Viitala to discuss the game's performance to date
The Other One
Whatever happened to Harry Potter: Wizards Unite?
Monetizer Mavens opine
Indie Spotlight
Indie Spotlight: Alike Studio on developing successful premium games and creating Very Little Nightmares
This week we put the spotlight on twin brothers Xavi and Marc Terris and the team at Alike
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Big Pixel Studios' Lorchan Trapp on how to be an environment artist
"People seem to assume there's a hidden 'make art button' in the software we use and don't understand that it actually takes a lot of time and skill to develop good art"
Get Networking
Industry leaders and games creators reunite in Cologne with MeetToMatch
MeetToMatch - The Cologne Edition 2019 continues growth after big success in 2018
Education Training And Success
IGDA Helsinki Hub gathers games developers this September
Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki follows from October 1st to October 2nd, 2019
Elite Game Developers
Elite Game Developers: Building Dazzle Rocks
Joakim Achrén speaks with co-founder and CEO Stella Wang about founding a company and gets her advice for entrepreneurs
Live And Kicking
Four years on: Bethesda on the mutation of surprise hit Fallout Shelter
"Many decisions we made with The Elder Scrolls: Blades were based on our learnings from Fallout Shelter"
New York New York
New York’s biggest two-day game convention Play NYC returns for third annual event
Play NYC will take place between August 10th to August 11th, 2019
Jobs In Games
Jobs in Games: Level designer Jay Foreman on going from Kent Police force to making games at King
"Suddenly I’d gone from policing the streets of Kent to policing the mean streets of Stormwind as a game master for Blizzard"
Nfts
PGC Hong Kong: WAX strategic advisor Malcolm Caselle to host talk on the purpose of digital goods and NFTs
Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong 2019 will take place on July 17th to 18th
Nexus Interview
Wargaming Nexus wants to find the next Fortnite on mobile
"For the near future, we plan to keep joining forces with external studios that are well-versed in Unreal Engine and willing to shoot for the stars alongside us"
Pg Connects
PGC Hong Kong: Dark Horse Digital director Jason Frazer on how to apply knowledge from one field to another successfully
Pocket Gamer Connects Hong Kong 2019 will take place on July 17th to 18th