How Rollic sees the way forward for ‘TikTokable’ hypercasual video games

Rollic has had a billion downloads for its hypercasual video games — these you can play in a minute or much less.

And 7 of its video games have reached the No. 1 or No. 2 prime free downloaded recreation spots within the U.S. app retailer on iOS. Three video games — Hair Problem, Excessive Heels, and Tangle Grasp 3D — have reached greater than 100 million downloads.

The knack for arising with hit hypercasual video games is why Zynga purchased Rollic for $168 million in August 2020. Rollic has additionally acquired 4 studios of its personal — Uncosoft, ByteTyper, Cresear Leisure, and ZeroSum — because it expands within the hypercasual market.

And the corporate is launching winter-themed customizations for 16 titles with in-game occasions this month. Gamers will be capable of deck out their characters in winter put on, strut on a snowy runway and snowboard to the end line throughout Rollic’s prime titles. That’s all a part of retaining the video games alive and buzzing. It additionally did a partnership with dressmaker Kenneth Cole to rejoice Delight Month in Excessive Heels.

I talked with Burak Vardal, who cofounded Rollic in 2018, concerning the success and his expectations for one of many fastest-growing segments of the sport {industry}. He needs to make “runway-style,” “TikTokable” video games that shoot by way of the charts.

Seeking to 2022, the corporate plans to evolve its portfolio by delivering extra new launches and daring beats to gamers world wide.

Right here’s an edited transcript of our interview.

Above: Burak Vardal is cofounder of Rollic.

Picture Credit score: Rollic/Zynga

GamesBeat:What’s a hypercasual recreation versus only a informal recreation? Or a greater query could be, what do you suppose works for hypercasual?

Vardal: Hypercasual is straightforward gameplay, easy and enjoyable gameplay becoming the consumption habits of our present viewers and our present world. That’s hypercasual. However as for what works, you shouldn’t suppose too deeply, as a result of the customers ought to be capable of perceive your recreation in 4 seconds from after they see the advert. They’ve three or 4 seconds to grasp your gameplay from an advert for the sport. Person acquisition is essential for all cellular video games, and it’s no much less essential hypercasual. You want to have the ability to clarify your recreation in three or 4 seconds. When you can suppose like that, you’ll begin discovering the perfect mechanics to work in hypercasual.

If there’s an excessive amount of element, you’ll find yourself scaring away your customers. However that doesn’t imply that retention is essentially low in hypercasual. I can’t share onerous information instantly, however Excessive Heels and Hair Problem have retention that’s akin to extra mainstream informal titles. The 2-day retention, four-day retention, it’s suitable. To try this you don’t must go too deep. You want easy, however sharp and catchy degree design. You want enjoyable character animation and gameplay animation. That’s what’s going to aid you clarify it in three or 4 seconds.

This yr additionally confirmed us how essential it’s to be TikTokable, as I stated. It’s a phrase we coined earlier this yr to outline a few of our titles. I believe the phrase says all of it. It provides you an understanding of what it’s. Individuals scroll by way of TikTok very quick, proper? Individuals spend about three or 4 seconds watching these movies, too. You might want to catch their consideration in a really brief time. That matches effectively with hypercasual.

On the similar time, I couldn’t think about an actual on-line leaderboard in a hypercasual two or three years in the past. That’s why I believe it’s finest that we don’t outline hypercasual too firmly. Subsequent yr we could be coming again and arguing once more about what it’s. When you requested me this query two years in the past I’d have stated that anybody placing up leaderboards for a hypercasual recreation can be loopy. However now it really works. It’s a really fast-moving style, and it creates its personal guidelines, even from quarter to quarter.

GamesBeat: Wanting on the hypercasual market from a type of year-in-review perspective is attention-grabbing. Pondering again to a yr in the past, what was the atmosphere like, and the way do you suppose it’s modified?

Vardal: It’s been fairly an incredible yr for us. We had quite a lot of nice information coming in. An important half is we launched a brand new recreation design pattern in hypercasual. That’s modified the course of the enterprise loads this yr. That was these–ranging from Excessive Heels, one among our video games surpassed 100 million downloads, adopted by Hair Problem, in Q1 and Q2 of 2021. Each of them had been probably the most downloaded video games in the US for 2 consecutive quarters. They began a brand new pattern in what we name “TikTokable” runway video games, which has had an enormous affect on the subsequent era of cellular players, on Gen Z. We’ve had enormous natural traction on TikTok with the distinctive design and character animations.

After the launch of Excessive Heels and Hair Problem, the entire {industry} adopted that very same recreation design pattern, attempting to create new hits. That was the large spotlight for us. Consequently, we surpassed 1 billion downloads for the yr. It’s a really aggressive atmosphere usually, however the important thing to being the chief is to be the trendsetter in recreation design. That’s what Zynga and Rollic have accomplished this yr.

GamesBeat: What yr did you get began in hypercasual?

Vardal: Rollic was based in January of 2019. We had been at all times a hypercasual writer and developer. It’s going to be three years in a month. We’re fairly younger, however hypercasual usually is fairly younger. It didn’t get began till 2016, 2017, at the very least at an even bigger scale. We began fairly late in comparison with our rivals, however now I believe I can say we’re in a number one place.

Above: Zynga’s Rollic celebrated Delight Month in Excessive Heels.

Picture Credit score: Rollic/Zynga

GamesBeat: What number of titles do you launch in, say, a given yr?

Vardal: In whole we’ve launched greater than 60 titles, and we launched greater than 30 on this yr alone. Seven of these titles had been ranked within the first or second place in the US app retailer, which was an enormous success for us. Sixteen of our titles reached excessive positions. However in whole we launched greater than 30 video games this yr.

GamesBeat: What’s the viewers like? I’d guess you could have a extra various participant base than some video games.

Vardal: We surpassed 1 billion downloads, and to do this you want a mass viewers. However the game-changing viewers this yr was the TikTok viewers. That’s what actually kickstarted cellular gaming this yr, the newcomers from Gen Z. That was a giant achievement for us, to unlock that viewers on an even bigger scale with natural traction. That was the game-changing information this yr by way of viewers attain.

Above: Rollic partnered with Kenneth Cole on Delight Month in Excessive Heels.

Picture Credit score: Rollic/Zynga

GamesBeat: In relation to the way in which hypercasual recreation corporations function, it jogs my memory of the way in which quite a lot of the early cellular and free-to-play recreation corporations labored, the place that they had numerous launches after which narrowed them down. Kabam was an instance earlier than, the place they began with quite a lot of completely different video games after which narrowed right down to spending all their time on Marvel Contest of Champions. When that launched it grew to become one among their solely essential video games. They foresaw that the highest 10 cellular video games had been going to command this great viewers. However hypercasual appears to have opened it up far past simply the big-budget video games. Abruptly corporations are publishing 30 video games a yr on this area, going by way of numerous concepts. Do you suppose that’s going to slim down, the way in which it’s occurred in different rising areas of gaming?

Vardal: The distinction now’s the consumption habits world wide. Now, hypercasual matches that place much more. The eye spans of the customers are very low proper now, particularly with this newcoming Gen Z viewers. The brand new pattern is giving them enjoyable new ideas and new designs again to again. That’s what they need. It’s very onerous to imagine that the present viewers will spend quite a lot of days, months, and years on one recreation.

That’s the place hypercasual is available in as a brand new type of gameplay. We give customers a recreation, they play it quite a lot of instances, and we all know what they like, what they need. That helps us to create extra of that within the following months. We have now an enormous quantity of knowledge. We’ve launched 60 video games, and we’ve discovered from our customers’ habits. We all know what they like, the place they spend their time. That provides us quite a lot of perception to create new initiatives and produce extra hits on an even bigger scale than our earlier video games.

This yr’s instance was Excessive Heels. It was an enormous recreation at first of the yr. It had enormous natural traction on TikTok. It handed 100 million downloads. Hair Problem, which once more handed 100 million downloads, it was an thought generated from the core values in Excessive Heels. Once more, it was a girl character, a really Gen Z-style character, a really particular character animation, and quite simple however enjoyable gameplay. However video games scaled huge in the identical yr, and even in a few of the similar months. Meaning our viewers needs extra content material.

Manufacturing in our enterprise is essential, and it’s essential for the way forward for cellular gaming. Stay companies, dwell recreation updates, that’s a subject that only a few corporations can cope with effectively. One in every of them is Zynga. If we will merge that dwell companies tradition with this manufacturing methodology, that’s the way forward for cellular gaming. We’ll know what ideas are scalable, those we will re-create. From Zynga’s tradition we already know loads about dwell companies. If we will merge that, we don’t want to stay to at least one recreation. We will replicate that in lots of video games and dominate the market within the coming years. That’s the way forward for cellular gaming.

We’ll at all times want new ideas and we’ll at all times want dwell companies. Hypercasual is what’s bringing these new ideas to cellular gaming.

Above: Rollic made a couple of acquisitions.

Picture Credit score: Rollic/Zynga

GamesBeat: What was attention-grabbing for lots of corporations this yr, and what was typically tough, was the Apple privateness push round IDFA. Frank Gibeau talked about that one advantage of buying Rollic was that Zynga would have this a lot wider funnel of individuals coming into the Zynga recreation ecosystem, and the corporate may share different video games with them. These video games may take off in a extra viral means by way of cross-promotion. Has that turned out to be a profit, that the purchasers you herald by way of Rollic wind up spreading all through the Zynga universe?

Vardal: The impact of the Apple privateness modifications on Rollic’s enterprise have been minimal. Our viewers is a mass viewers. We don’t do quite a lot of focusing on. We goal the entire universe, mainly. It’s simpler for us to do consumer acquisition and monetization with our present viewers, even after the privateness modifications. Rollic stored its progress even after that.

And sure, we now have helped to deliver a mass viewers to Zynga. We’re working with their groups on our cross-promotion applied sciences. We’re testing new issues, seeing new outcomes, and planning extra for the longer term. However that’s all I can say proper now.

GamesBeat: We noticed quite a lot of industry-wide exercise like that. Acquisitions of corporations that grew to become, not directly, extra vertical, as a method to cope with this alteration within the potential to focus on. Offers that made sense by way of entry to extra players.

Vardal: Greater than 600 million of our whole downloads had been distinctive downloads, which implies which can be distinctive customers. It signifies that about one particular person out of each 10 on this planet has performed a Rollic recreation. That’s an enormous quantity. That’s why you’re very proper. This viewers scale, coming principally from hypercasual video games, is bringing quite a lot of worth to the corporate, and quite a lot of information particularly. You possibly can create one thing like a mini-game in an even bigger franchise for those who use that information, or use it to develop a brand new manufacturing methodology. For the way forward for cellular gaming, particularly after the privateness modifications, these mass-audience video games are going to play an enormous function to find out the methods of massive corporations.

GamesBeat: Do you suppose it is sensible for each recreation firm to have hypercasual on the prime of its funnel?

Vardal: If it’s as profitable as Rollic has been, sure. However I believe hypercasual will not be a enterprise you can tackle at a small scale. It doesn’t make sense at a small scale. The hypercasual enterprise, you must have a mass scale along with your video games. Try to be ready to provide the perfect video games on this aggressive atmosphere. We’re producing our video games in three working days. We’re updating and launching them in two weeks, principally. That’s why your crew must be very agile. You want to have the ability to function very effectively at nice velocity. When you’re not prepared for that in your organization tradition, then you definitely shouldn’t make a transfer into hypercasual.

What Zynga did with Rollic helped loads. They revered our tradition. Our mind-set may be very completely different. They revered that and gave us an enormous area to proceed our enterprise because it was. We discovered an excellent atmosphere inside Zynga to scale our enterprise and had an incredible yr in 2021.

Above: Rollic is ringing within the holidays with customized occasions.

Picture Credit score: Rollic/Zynga

GamesBeat: Getting extra into predictions about what’s going to occur with hypercasual in 2022 and the longer term usually, what are some issues that come to thoughts?

Vardal: We’re in place, as a result of I believe the way forward for hypercasual depends on dwell companies. Proper now what Rollic is doing, we’re managing all of our titles as in the event that they’re franchises. Even when we now have 60 video games, we imagine we now have 60 franchises to handle proper now. I believe that’s a key a part of the way forward for hypercasual. For instance, this yr we launched the first-ever actual on-line leaderboard for Hair Problem, the place customers can work together with one another and compete with one another whereas enjoying a hypercasual recreation. That’s a really informal replace contemplating the sport style, but it surely labored effectively with Hair Problem. Individuals beloved it.

To create long-term revenues and long-term scale, it is advisable to additionally begin doing deep dive dwell companies updates to hypercasual video games. For us, the primary key half, with the assistance of Zynga and their tradition, is to maintain doing these dwell service updates. The second half, it’s all concerning the new traits. This yr’s pattern, these TikTokable runway video games, we created it. That can proceed within the subsequent yr, however crucial factor for Rollic – or for our rivals – is to seek out that new pattern for 2022. To try this you want quite a lot of manufacturing.

GamesBeat: If gaming historical past is any trace, then possibly it’ll be sequels to hypercasual hits.

Vardal: To search out that pattern you want quite a lot of information. You want quite a lot of testing, quite a lot of prototypes to check. When you don’t have that energy in hypercasual then you definitely gained’t be capable of scale your online business. That’s why Rollic is in an incredible place to create the traits for subsequent yr. To sum it up, we wish to merge new scalable ideas with high quality dwell companies. That would be the key for 2022.

GamesBeat: When you accomplish that a lot experimentation, do you could have quite a lot of failures? Is it solely a small proportion of prototypes that turn into hits? Or have you ever been capable of finding a greater batting common, so to talk?

Vardal: Three years in the past our prototype to launch common was a lot decrease. It’s rising higher each month, as a result of we now have extra information each month. We all know what to provide. Our ideation high quality will get higher. Our replace high quality will get higher. In whole, our video games are getting higher. That’s why our ratio is rising higher each month and each quarter.

GamesBeat: In relation to high quality degree, how can you entry the perfect recreation growth expertise? Particularly if they may consider hypercasual with some stereotypical impressions. “You possibly can’t probably make high-quality video games on this area.”

Vardal: This yr was a game-changer in that space, I believe. When anyone noticed Excessive Heels, they knew that was one thing particular for the gaming world. It was within the prime three video games within the Apple awards on the finish of the yr. It was a hypercasual recreation, but it surely had an enormous game-changer impact. All people tried to create new ideas prefer it. I really feel like that proved that within the hypercasual style, you possibly can create one thing for the entire gaming world. This yr was essential for creating that understanding. I’m very comfortable about that.

GamesBeat: It definitely stunned me, as a result of I performed it loads over this yr.

Vardal: We had a really profitable collaboration with Kenneth Cole and Delight Month. The sport was in Occasions Sq. and all the pieces. It grew to become an enormous model, the sport itself, at the same time as a hypercasual recreation. It’s not so typically that you simply see that occur with a hypercasual recreation. After that, the connection with our builders has modified a bit. Now they know they will create one thing that’s a trendsetter for the entire recreation {industry}.

I do suppose there’s nonetheless a misperception round builders who work in hypercasual, at the very least from an extra distance. Once you’re in it, it’s very aggressive. You might want to be very quick. You might want to be agile. You might want to have nice expertise to create these sorts of video games in a really brief time. However proper now, wanting on the variety of inquiries coming to Rollic from builders world wide, the quantity is greater than ever. It’s rising very quick. We’re getting emails from Indonesia, from France. We have now quite a lot of companions we work with in Turkey. We get quite a lot of requests from Scandinavia, Russia, Ukraine, all over the place.

The newcomers within the {industry}, the much less skilled builders with contemporary expertise, they wish to begin with hypercasual. We have now quite a lot of companions who used to provide larger informal video games, however now they’re partnering with Rollic to create extra hypercasual titles. Loads of our companions come from the PC, from the informal cellular market, and even from VR video games. Hypercasual is turning into a pattern amongst builders proper now. Whether or not you’re at a giant scale or a small one, you want to check out hypercasual and at the very least attempt to perceive the worth of it. It might probably aid you in no matter you’re producing.

I see quite a lot of PC video games, for instance, prime sellers on Steam, that are mainly hypercasual video games. However as quickly because it’s on PC we simply don’t name it that for some cause. It’s essential that builders are acknowledging the significance of hypercasual increasingly. 2021 was the perfect yr to this point by way of consideration from our developer companions.

GamesBeat: Is there something you’d like to shut with immediately?

Vardal: We did quite a lot of acquisitions this yr. We acquired 4 of our studio companions. Subsequent yr we’ll proceed to search for extra companions, as a result of we’re within the publishing enterprise and we all know how these groups work with regards to information, manufacturing strategies, and tradition. Publishers like Rollic can have an enormous benefit with regards to scouting new expertise in cellular gaming at an earlier stage, and that’s why we’re buying extra proficient companions. We’re making a profitable new funnel for Zynga by buying extra expertise at an early stage. Each corporations are on board with this technique, and I believe it’s going to play an enormous half in our enterprise subsequent yr.