Why Eternal Dream Studio Shifted from Mobile Games to Premium Games

Hello, everyone! I’m Lucky Putra from Eternal Dream Studio. In this article, I want to share some key factors behind my decision to shift from mobile games to premium games.

Disclaimer: All key factors are based on my own experiences; there might be different perspectives or disagreements. Feel free to share yours in the comment section! 😊

For your information, Eternal Dream Studio is an alumnus of Google Indie Games Accelerator 2022, selected as one of the 30 participants from around the world. We gained extensive insights into mobile games, covering areas such as monetization, user acquisition (UA), core loop, game design, and many other valuable aspects during this fantastic program. We also got an awesome mentor from The Walt Disney Company, Head of Games. So, why have we decided to shift from mobile games, especially after graduating from such an awesome program?

Team Capabilities and Preference
Most of our team members grew up playing premium games on PlayStation or other consoles. As a result, we have a better understanding of creating premium games and delivering a complete gaming experience to the players.

Most of my team members are also fans of narrative games, we want to create games that convey meaningful messages and give players new perspectives on their lives.

When we created a narrative game on mobile, none of us had knowledge about mobile games, so we used what we knew — that knowledge of premium games. As a result, the metrics and monetization in that game turned out poorly, leading to the loss of many players. Despite their appreciation for the art and story, we received numerous negative reviews due to a bad monetization model that undermined the overall experience.

Now we are creating narrative premium games; we want to give players a complete experience and share meaningful messages.

Technical Complexities in Mobile Development
When we were developing mobile games, our focus was mainly on the game’s content, neglecting the diverse devices that players might use. Unfortunately, by the time we realized this, it was too late to alter the code’s architecture. Our mobile game is already live, and we’re experiencing numerous crashes and ANRs from our players.

To make it worse, we don’t have any technical capabilities to fix these issues, so we just watch our rating go down from 4.8 to 3.9 stars review. The intricacies of mobile development, involving the accommodation of different specifications and overcoming optimization challenges, have influenced our decision to explore premium games.

Fair Dealings with Premium Game Publishers
Personally speaking, working with premium game publishers feels like a fair deal. It’s like we’re a team right from the start, sharing the risks. They provide funds, feedback, or anything else needed to complete the game, and we invest our time and effort to bring it to life.

From my experience pitching to mobile game publishers, I’ve never come across any offer of an MG/development fund. It seems in the mobile world, you need a good game with solid metrics first, and only then might mobile publishers consider publishing your game.

Player Behavior
From my analysis, there’s a clear difference in how players behave on PC and mobile platforms. PC players usually give more helpful reviews, maybe because they pay for the game upfront and invest their time in playing.

In mobile games, I’ve received some strange reviews that have nothing to do with the game, like “1 star for now, will give more if the game is good,” but that person never comes back to update the review. I also get funny reviews like “Why is this game so boring, it’s just reading text,” even though the game title clearly says “visual novel.”

These are the factors that led me to decide to shift away from mobile games for now. However, it’s important to note that Eternal Dream Studio hasn’t completely left mobile games, especially for B2B deals. Moreover, personally, I am still curious about mobile games. I aim to create mobile games that earn a spot in the “Editor’s Choice,” drawing from the valuable insights gained from the Google Indie Games Accelerator. I intend to implement these insights when the studio’s conditions and circumstances are favorable.

But for now, I’ll enjoy creating premium games.