Legend of Mushroom's Success: 150+Mil IAP revenue in 4 months? Social features, guilds, UA & Admon

This is no BS gaming podcast 2.5 gamers session #102. 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: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠
Special guest: Ken Landen
Podcast:
Join our slack channel here: join.slack.com/t/two-and-half...
Agenda
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
01:10 Legend of Mushroom's Success in South Korea
05:27 Game Design Similarities
08:08 Different Core Gameplay
10:18 Discussion with Ken Landen
13:29 Monetization and Social Features
21:21 Farm and Theft Mechanics
22:49 Social Features and Guild Mechanics
23:18 Timer Helper Mechanic
24:14 Unlocking Auto-Lamping
25:00 Session Links and Lamp Upgrades
26:13 Asynchronous Delta Event in Clan Wars
27:21 Different Types of Events
28:48 Durian Fruit and Cultural References
29:45 Ad Monetization and Urgency to Watch Ads
30:37 Implementing Banner Ads
33:17 Debate on Implementing Banner Ads
36:29 Discussion on QA and UA
37:43 Final Thoughts on Ads and Game Design
39:55 Twitter Ads in the US
42:11 Revenue in Japan and the US
44:01 Advertising Channels
45:33 Creatives and Localization
48:00 Creative Strategy
51:32 Localization in Asia
52:37 Improvements and Rating
---------------------------------------
Matej Lancaric
User Acquisition & Creatives Consultant
⁠lancaric.me
Felix Braberg
Ad monetization consultant
⁠www.felixbraberg.com
Jakub Remiar
Game design consultant
⁠ / jakubremiar
---------------------------------------
Takeaways
Legend of Mushroom has achieved significant success in South Korea, surpassing expectations and earning high revenue.
The game shares similarities with Legend of Slime in terms of game design and core mechanics, but also introduces some unique features.
Monetization and social features play a crucial role in the success of mobile games, and Legend of Mushroom has both strengths and areas for improvement in these aspects.
The farm and theft mechanics in Legend of Mushroom add an interesting and interactive element to the gameplay experience. Legend of Mushroom has unique social features and guild mechanics that enhance the gameplay experience.
The timer helper mechanic, taken from other games like Forex, allows players to receive assistance from their guild members on various timers.
The game could improve by unlocking the auto-lamping feature earlier in the gameplay progression.
The implementation of banner ads could provide additional ad revenue without significantly impacting IAP revenue.
---------------------------------------
Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!
Hit the Subscribe button on KZbin, Spotify, and Apple!
Please share feedback and comments - [e-mail]
---------------------------------------
If you are interested in getting UA tips every week on Monday, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠lancaric.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ & sign up for the Brutally Honest newsletter by Matej Lancaric
Latest article - open.substack.com/pub/lancari...
Do you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! lancaric.me/matej-ai
Felix Latest Article -
www.felixbraberg.com/post/the...

[@umen2424]

Great videos! Can you explain how the initial marketing of this game was done, especially given its complex mechanics? It's not a casual or hyper-casual game .. Also did you consider to move from slack to discord ? everybody is there ..

[@2.5gamers]

Thanks for the support! nope, slack was our first choice. what do you mean by initial marketing of this game? The marketing didn't change..they use the same creatives and marketing activities that we cover in the video!

[@Sacc23k]

The asynchronous Dota is present in other 4x games (State of Survival, WW, etc)

[@jakubremiar]

Thanks for pointing out, I will check it out in the meantime 😁

[@cokezero9254]

Legend of Mushroom originated as a Wechat minigame and its not even a top performer in that market. the game dev world need to pay closer attention to what is happening inside the wechat ecosystem

[@jakubremiar]

Thanks for info :) that's why we are going to ChinaJoy this year 😁

[@2.5gamers]

yeah we would love to! tell us more :)