ABOUT THIS EPISODE
The single most freeing idea in playable ads: your playable doesn't have to be your actual game. This month's Playable Trends proves it — including a studio running what's essentially a Fishdom ad to drive installs for a completely different fish game.
Today is the "everyone brings playables" episode — nine playables, nine different lessons. They break down Meow Doku's onboarding-perfect tutorial playable (a rare puzzle playable that's short, juicy, and instantly understandable), the non-authentic approach done right (Coin Master's scripted save/risky trail, Idle Miner's exaggerated 5x version, XP Hero's Forex "jump on the button" concept that's now everywhere), a genuinely wild example of a playable borrowed from an entirely different game (a Fishdom-style ad driving a fish.io title), and Robin's concrete CTR tactic: the 6-second auto-advance rule (if the user does nothing, make the first choice for them, keep the playable moving, and overall engagement and CTA climb). Plus standout new games — Last Asylum's chaos-from-second-one base defense, Voodoo's Path of Kings POV roguelite, and a Game of Thrones 4X playable drilled down to just a dragon and a couple of units.
The closing lesson, straight from the crew: if you ask which playable performs best, there's no single answer — they each preferred a different one. That's exactly why you run all of them, to capture every kind of user.
⏱️ TIMESTAMPS
00:00 everyone brings playables
04:20 Meowdoku — the onboarding-perfect puzzle playable
11:35 XP Hero and the Forex "jump on the button" concept
15:45 A Fishdom playable for a completely different game
20:30 Raid Rush — the pick-your-towers customization setup
24:50 Robin's 6-second auto-advance CTR tactic
28:30 The Pixel Flow copycat that's scaling with ants
40:10 Last Asylum, Path of Kings & the Game of Thrones playable
This episode is brought to you by Kinoa — the AI operating system for mobile game operations: flows, live segments, in-app messages, push notifications, and A/B testing in one place, run by the operators who own the numbers. Carry1st saw +43% ARPDAU; PlayStudios saw +31% revenue on Tetris Block Party. Learn more at Kinoa.
http://www.kinoa.ai?utm_source=MatejPodcast&utm_medium=Link&utm_campaign=Matej+Podcast&utm_id=100
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This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session. Sharing actionable insights, dropping knowledge from our day-to-day User Acquisition, Game Design, and Ad monetization jobs. We are definitely not discussing the latest industry news, but having so much fun! Let’s not forget this is a 4 a.m. conference discussion vibe, so let's not take it too seriously.
Panelists: Ondrej Monsberger, Robin Kuyer, Matej Lancaric
Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-3bckldvr8-8PXvzciMWdheOzED9hq0SA
Matej Lancaric
User Acquisition & Creatives Consultant
https://lancaric.me
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