Thanks to the 100ish people who came to our debut event, Off The Record, last week.
And in particular, thanks to our panellists, host Miniclip and sponsors Appcharge, WeHype, Exient and Moore Kingston Smith.
The response has been phenomenal – we had twice the number of people apply for a spot at the event than we could accommodate. Clearly, there’s a very real need for smaller, high-level, behind-closed-doors events for mobile game leaders.
We’ll be doing it again soon for sure – email me direct here if you want to be involved.
Here are some of the highlights, in picture form only – as promised, what was discussed will stay among those in the room.
The first panel of the day featured Appcharge’s Omer Torok, Offroad Games’ Geoffrey Gilles and Included Games’ Michael Heywood. They discussed the latest monetisation trends, tips and tricks.
Next, we discussed the current state of game development with Exient’s Paul Topping, Offroad Games’ Vera Zaitceva, King’s Trevor Burrows and DoDreams’ Erik Pontiskoski.
Among the discussions about AI, Unity, outsourcing, company culture and more, overall it felt like we in mobile are over the worst of the recent industry-wide troubles – and perhaps ahead of game-makers working in PC and console in terms of working through a recovery.
A lively panel about M&A and investing followed, featuring wise words from Super Evil Megacorp’s Kristian Segerstrale, NextBeat’s Simon Hade, Moore Kingston Smith’s Cameron Coutts and Miniclip’s Craig Chittick.
Popular topics of discussion were where the next ‘money truck‘ might come from, what investors are looking for right now and whether M&A is heating up a little, after a few chilly years.
WeHype’s Bjorn Karlsson, Original Games’ Arseny Lebedev and King’s Roberto Kusabbi were up next to talk about marketing trends.
They offered some do’s and don’ts on navigating the current marketing space, as well as some spicy advice on working with influencers. We also got a peek into Lebedev’s Notes app, truly a treasure trove of marketing and user acquisition insights.
The final session of the day was called ‘user acquisition: real talk’, and was hosted by Luna, Unity and Kwalee veteran John Wright.
Wright talked UA with NextBeat’s Ryan Davies, Miniclip’s Kemal Kilic and Boombit’s Goncalo Alemeo Martins.
The assembled ‘UA mafia’ discussed how AI is influencing their work, new creative trends plus do’s and don’ts of working across UA channels.
Miniclip CEO Saad Choudri (below) wrapped up with a few words of thanks, urging those in the room to stick together and keep sharing information for the good of everyone in the mobile game business.
Choudri even said the mobile business should continue to support mobilegamer.biz and projects like Off The Record – the cheque’s in the post, Saad.
In between the panels there were chunky breaks and extremely strong coffee was served to keep the energy high.
Mingling in amongst the attendees were Sybo boss Mathias Gredal Nørvig, Ustwo’s Jennifer Estaris, Supercell’s Alexander Patouchas, Miniclip’s Hugh Binns, First Touch Games’ Charlie Chapman, 10six Games’ Susan Cummings and plenty more mobile game leaders and investors.
We also watched the Switch 2 reveal – consensus suggested it’s fine to buy one on launch day and put it down as an R&D expense.
Attendees flew in from Sweden, Russia, Finland, Germany and France to talk with their peers. Once again, thanks to all that helped put this event together, our host Miniclip and our sponsors Appcharge, WeHype, Exient and Moore Kingston Smith.
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Photos: Snaps, By Calvin.
