Andy Russell is the Director of Engineering at Kwalee, one of many main cellular recreation publishers and builders with over 1 billion downloads. Kwalee was an early and exceptionally profitable adopter of the hypercasual mannequin within the mid-2010s – however because the trade developed, so did their methods. Right now, they’ve a thriving portfolio of hybrid informal and informal video games with longer lifespans and more practical hybrid monetization. We mentioned why Kwalee selected Balancy to help development and improve LiveOps for his or her portfolio video games with Andy.
The problem: Constructing a sturdy LiveOps infrastructure to help hybrid shift
One of many core challenges for product groups is delivering the content material and experiences that gamers want as shortly as attainable. Some options should be delivered in time for a celebration, others intention to enhance key metrics swiftly, and a few should be launched earlier than a development fades. Timing is vital for reaching efficiency objectives.
Nonetheless, the reliance on spreadsheets, hardcoded options, and overloaded developer pipelines slows down prototyping, delays time-to-market, and complicates function iterations. To beat these roadblocks, the Kwalee staff determined to make use of Balancy’s content material administration system (CMS). This answer introduces a unified but versatile admin panel that streamlines collaboration between product and engineering groups, enabling sooner supply and smoother workflows.
Kwalee’s strategic shift to hybrid monetisation additionally demanded superior LiveOps instruments to higher section gamers and personalise their monetisation journeys. With out this focused strategy, the staff risked lacking vital income alternatives. The Balancy’s LiveOps Suite turned a key answer, making it simple to launch new recreation occasions and in-game store affords and to tailor them to particular person gamers.
The answer: Seamless integration and distinctive options for publishers
Balancy has seamlessly built-in into Kwalee’s LiveOps ecosystem, enabling the staff to ship smarter, extra personalised gameplay experiences throughout their portfolio. The combination was an easy process of integrating a light-weight SDK into video games. The Balancy staff supplied all the mandatory tech help and coaching alongside the way in which.
Managing customized recreation settings with Balancy’s Content material Administration System (CMS)
After the combination was full, the Kwalee staff gained entry to a variety of LiveOps instruments. These embody a content material administration system (CMS) for creating and deploying customized recreation settings, in addition to options for managing particular affords, occasions, segmentation and A/B testing.
In collaboration with Kwalee, Balancy has launched vital function for groups that actively work with LiveOps – branches. This permits groups to create separate variations (branches) of a undertaking to develop new options, check modifications or repair bugs with out affecting the reside recreation. As soon as a function is full and examined, the department might be merged again into the principle undertaking, guaranteeing the principle model stays secure whereas new improvement continues. Balancy is at the moment the one LiveOps platform providing this important instrument.
Branches function in Balancy
One other highly effective function utilized by Kwalee is packages. In Balancy, any function or configuration might be saved as a package deal and reused in the identical or different tasks. This protects time for publishers and builders with a number of video games by permitting them to shortly replicate profitable options – like particular affords, store templates, battle passes or advert setups – into new video games with only a few clicks. The one step left is to fill within the template with assets and values which might be related to the brand new undertaking.
The outcomes: Personalised experiences increase ARPDAU whereas the staff saves improvement time
One standout instance is Dream Construct Solitaire, which lately transitioned its LiveOps platform to Balancy. Given the undertaking’s complexity, the staff leveraged Balancy’s superior segmentation and overrides to design reside occasions and affords tailor-made to every participant’s behaviour.
This strategy ensures that:
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New gamers aren’t overwhelmed by irrelevant affords or pop-ups.
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Advert-focused gamers (IAA customers) take pleasure in uninterrupted gameplay with out pointless store promotions.
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Buying gamers (IAP customers) obtain extremely curated store offers on the moments they worth most.
Listed below are the wonderful outcomes that the staff achieved over a three-month interval:
This meticulous strategy has not solely improved the sport’s core metrics but additionally elevated the participant’s general enjoyment – a mirrored image of Kwalee’s player-first philosophy. As Andy places it, “It is not nearly maximising metrics; it is about making essentially the most enjoyable video games for the world’s gamers”. That is what helps the Kwalee staff proceed creating video games loved by thousands and thousands of gamers all through greater than a decade.
