Level Devil Review - NOT A TROLL GAME! haha really? Solo Dev, Millions of Installs. Profit!

37m

Level Devil (solo dev) proves that level design is a UA channel. The game’s “troll but fair” traps create clips that people have to share, fueling TikTok/YouTube reach with essentially zero paid spend.


Monetization is light: interstitials triggered by deaths on a cooldown, occasional rewarded skip, one ad network (Unity), no mediation.


We est.: $5–7K/day; with mediation + a couple of safe placements, $11–14K/day looks realistic.


What we cover

• How the level-design craft creates infinite hooks (rage → laughs → shares)

• The actual ad logic (death-based interstitials; rewarded skip after streak)

• Why copycats fail (it’s the hours-per-trap polish, not the theme)

• Monetization gaps (no mediation; limited placements) and easy wins

• Viral geos & creator angles (Brazil/ES longform shout-casts = IPM rocket fuel)


When the product manufactures shareable moments, you don’t need paid UA to grow - just enough monetization hygiene (mediation + safe placements) to convert all that free attention.


Get our MERCH NOW: 25gamers.com/shop

--------------------------------------

PVX Partners offers non-dilutive funding for game developers.

Go to: https://pvxpartners.com/

They can help you access the most effective form of growth capital once you have the metrics to back it.

- Scale fast

- Keep your shares

- Drawdown only as needed

- Have PvX take downside risk alongside you

+ Work with a team entirely made up of ex-gaming operators and investors

---------------------------------------

For an ever-growing number of game developers, this means that now is the perfect time to invest in monetizing direct-to-consumer at scale.

Our sponsor FastSpring:

Has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 years

They power top mobile publishers around the world

Launch a new webstore, replace an existing D2C vendor, or add a redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg.

---------------------------------------

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: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jakub Remia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠r,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Felix Braberg, Matej Lancaric⁠

Podcast:


Join our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-2um8eguhf-c~H9idcxM271mnPzdWbipg


00:00 — Cold open: product-led growth in a troll platformer

01:20 — The solo-dev story and why it resonates

03:10 — Virality loop: die → laugh → share → install

06:15 — Core monetization today: death-based interstitials + rewarded skip

09:40 — What’s missing: no mediation, limited placements

12:05 — Safe add-ons: menu banner, app-open, regional “remove banners” IAP

15:10 — Creator/geography angles (why BR/ES clips pop)

18:30 — Retention pattern and how level craft sustains it

22:10 — Why copycats fail: the craft, not the theme

34:00 — Wrap-up: ops to turn virality into $$$


---------------------------------------

Matej Lancaric

User Acquisition & Creatives Consultant

⁠https://lancaric.me

Felix Braberg

Ad monetization consultant

⁠https://www.felixbraberg.com

Jakub Remiar

Game design consultant

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakubremiar

---------------------------------------

Please share the podcast with your industry friends, dogs & cats. Especially cats! They love it!

Hit the Subscribe button on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple!

Please share feedback and comments - matej@lancaric.me

---------------------------------------

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

Press play and read along

Runtime: 37m

Transcript

Speaker 1 But otherwise it would break the break the no but come on like add the banners and then slap on an IAP to remove ads it's just a decoy this audience won't buy that one IP okay so what okay well

Speaker 1 you add but even even if yeah you can you can do regional pricing even this audience like you can do like remove ads for for removing banners we've seen it like for two dollars yeah rumors game

Speaker 2 only banners

Speaker 3 it's 4 a.m and we're rolling the dice pate drops knowledge made of gold and ice felix with ads making those coins rise. Jackup designs, worlds chasing the sky.

Speaker 3 We're the two and a half gamers, the midnight crew. Talking UA adverts and game design, too.
Matei, Felix, Shaku, bringing the insight. We're rocking those vibes till the early daylight.

Speaker 3 Mate, you aim as your eyes on the prize. Tracking data through the cyberspace skies.
Felix stacks colors like a wizard in disguise. Jackups craft our realms, lift us to the highs.

Speaker 3 Two and a half gamers talking smack. Slow hockey stick, got your back.

Speaker 3 Ads are beautiful, they like the way. Click it fast, don't delay.
Uh-huh.

Speaker 3 There you go.

Speaker 1 Hello. Hey, everybody.

Speaker 2 Yakup, you don't want to finish the sentence? You know, doesn't say. Ah, come on.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 Today, we are here in celebration of the genius that is one single solo developer and what creativity can do when you actually apply it in mobile gaming.

Speaker 1 Because today we are talking about the new game Level Devil. I'm Felix Roberts.

Speaker 2 My name is Matthiel Ancharic.

Speaker 1 And I'm Jakubremier. And you're going to hear another Cinderella story today.

Speaker 2 Oh, that's very nice. Yes.

Speaker 1 We haven't had a good intro in a while. So that's for sure.
Yes.

Speaker 2 Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 See you next time.

Speaker 2 Yeah, no, this is good.

Speaker 1 Actually, this is kind of the same bucket, I guess, as Granny. This is made by one developer.

Speaker 1 It is like at the start of Granny, I would say. Hello, everybody.

Speaker 2 Thanks for joining this episode. Our sponsor, Fast Spring, has delivered D2C at scale for over 20 years.

Speaker 2 They power top mobile publishers around the world and are reliably fast-growing, profitable, and very financially secure.

Speaker 2 So, FastSprink isn't just figuring out D2C on the heels of the recent VC investment.

Speaker 2 Their developer-first platform and deep gaming and payment expertise have helped democratize global commerce for over two decades. There's no drama D2C partner.

Speaker 2 With real-world experience at scale, FastSpring is a partner that you can trust with your players.

Speaker 2 To quickly launch a new web store, replace an existing D2C vendor, or just add redundant D2C vendor at fastspring.gg. Thank you very much, guys, for sponsoring this episode.

Speaker 2 Now let's get back to the content. Bye-bye.

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 Yeah, because it's like I can't scroll until the end of the TikTok page of all the fucking videos from this game. I mean, it's literally never-ending.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 is he running UA? No. No, I didn't say it.
It's all organic, right? Yeah. Yeah.
Yes.

Speaker 1 He doesn't even know how to run UA.

Speaker 2 I don't think that was like his main kind of strategy.

Speaker 1 There wasn't even the strategy on the

Speaker 1 I think there was

Speaker 1 marketing side. Should I show the stats and then we do the story, or what are we gonna do? I just want to wait, wait, wait.

Speaker 2 I think Adam knows or knew what he was doing because if you make this kind of game, you know, like there is a fucking huge potential for virality and you build it around it.

Speaker 1 And he built it absolutely product. Perfect product for sure.
Marketing, Marketing.

Speaker 2 Zero. Well, zero marketing, it's built in a way.

Speaker 1 It's built into the product.

Speaker 2 Exactly. Exactly.
Because honestly, I played the first few levels and I was like, fuck, this is awesome.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Like, you want to share it.
You want to share it because you get annoyed. And then instead of like rage quitting, you're like, hey, play this.
Or you show a video. It's so funny.

Speaker 2 Exactly. Very tick-tockable.

Speaker 1 Oh, hello.

Speaker 2 Hello there. I didn't see you.
Thank you very much for coming to this episode. It's brought to you by our sponsors, PVX Partners, the simplest and most effective credit line for marketing.

Speaker 2 If you're scaling your business and need funding, here's the deal. With PVX Partners, you can grow your game easily and your business.
There is no equity dilution.

Speaker 2 You can repay as you get paid, and it's flexible, fast, and fully tailored to your growth. So you can secure funding in 30 days and get a term sheet in just 24 hours.
Don't you wait.

Speaker 2 Take control of your UA budget without giving away

Speaker 2 a piece of your company. Visit pvxpartners.com and see how they can help you grow your game faster and stronger.

Speaker 1 Don't wait, call to pvxpartners.

Speaker 2 That's exactly. And I think like that was the main kind of purpose of like how to build this game.

Speaker 2 Because I think like the other games he did, they're not that big of a potential for like the same viral effect.

Speaker 1 But who do I know?

Speaker 2 I mean, I think people played level that will be like before us.

Speaker 1 Well, first game, sure. Duava Board started in 2014.
So he's been doing this for 10 years. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 There's always overnight success 10 years in the making. That's always how these things work.
You know, like you don't build a tower in like a year, right? Yeah.

Speaker 2 But I mean, is this actually like a marketable in terms of the UA?

Speaker 2 Probably.

Speaker 1 I think if you focus it more on the monetization, there's a lot of things you can do to drastically increase the LTV and then you'd you'd be able to do it in its current format.

Speaker 1 I don't think it's possible. Exactly.

Speaker 2 No, that's exactly what I want to say. Because in current format, absolutely no.
With improvements on the LTV side, absolutely yes.

Speaker 2 Because honestly, like, this already has such a discounted CPI because of all the organics and all the optic-to-gidos.

Speaker 1 Should I?

Speaker 1 Yes. Yeah.
Yeah. Should I show the stats to begin with? So this is why we're getting excited and this is why we had such a good intro.

Speaker 1 This came across our radar because we're keeping track of everything. And then there's this game called Level Devil and it's got 3.2 million downloads in the last 30 days.

Speaker 1 Review radar or softloud. Softlaw sonar.
Or whatever was the third bullshit name you Steam Scanner.

Speaker 1 Steam scanner. Steam scanner.

Speaker 2 It sounds like a utility app that is killing it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but look here, right? So before Jakob goes crazy, here is kind of, yeah, the daily active user base, right? And nearly a million DAU. Yeah, nearly a million DAU, right?

Speaker 1 And sure, it's not tier one geos only but it's quite a lot of us user base but like if it's a million people and if you're monetizing on ads as if you're listening to this podcast you're gonna be making money yeah exactly million people a day that's a lot of people playing the the game and you know probably with the sadness multiplier it's probably a little bit bigger right so yeah yeah i would say where do you go that that's it for the numbers all right what else do you want to look at i thought we want to play the game yeah

Speaker 1 there is also a steam version yes which you found out before the recording right yes because i told you which is really rare yeah it's very rare you didn't mention it so i'm taking this shot yeah yeah yeah and the steam concurrence is

Speaker 2 not yeah not really big based on vgr it's a mobile game no it's a mobile it's i mean it's yeah it's like

Speaker 1 there was the speak but like again whatever like it's people play the mobile yeah people play the mobile it's it's a mobile game it's literally adjusted to mobile and everything so

Speaker 1 no opinion.

Speaker 2 It's adjusted for Steam.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. I like it on PC because even the emulator always map on key bindings, but whatever.
Yeah, let's actually play the game.

Speaker 1 Yes. So the tagline of this game is: it's not a troll game, which is, you know, very tonguey-a cheese because it's the biggest troll game in the world.

Speaker 2 So I told my boss I made a playable app and playable maker.

Speaker 4 And he said to me, What language did you code it in? And I said, I don't know. With Playable Maker, all you do is drag, drop, click, and it does it all for you.

Speaker 4 So again, he said, What language did you make in? And I went, I don't know. English? At the end of the day, as long as Playable Maker does it all for you, why do you care? It's just like magic.

Speaker 1 So we have our character, which is here. There's no timer, there's nothing, basically.
So you just go and you need to get to the portal.

Speaker 1 Like very easy, reminiscence of these very old, like DOS games or whatever.

Speaker 1 Yeah, arcade stuff, like whatever uh very easy art like there's literally like just different shapes added into the background or whatever yeah it's all you need like minimalistic excellence i would say

Speaker 1 and then there are these mechanics and there's lots of mechanics there we go there's no rules basically because like you couldn't be running and then you just die because Because somebody said so and put a pit right in front of you that just opened.

Speaker 1 So a lot of times, the deaths that you get, they are like, how about you die now?

Speaker 1 Exactly, yeah. That's the kind of death you get in this game.
So, yeah,

Speaker 1 it's very, very sadistic in its nature, but that's the part which makes it really, really fun.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 You see my point here. So, and every single level, it's basically like you discovering new funny ways that the designer will kill you.
That's basically it.

Speaker 1 Because most of the times the puzzles are kind of obvious. Like it's really nothing really to it.
So like you get stuff, you then activate stuff and then you go into it and that's it pretty much.

Speaker 1 That's it, yeah. That's there.

Speaker 1 Again, it looks kind of obvious.

Speaker 1 Oh, nice. You played this before.
You've played these before. Go to a new one.
Go to a new one that you haven't played yet.

Speaker 1 So there's this kind of a saga that's there there's a dead counter which is great there's actually multiplayer option which which you can play here and you can play with multiplayer with i think random generated levels or whatever so like two characters and stuff which i want for now

Speaker 1 some small options it's just languages and sound that's it and yeah that's pretty much it There are three saga segments basically level devil level deviler and level devilest and then on level i don't know what this kind of thing it says under construction you try designing levels quickly

Speaker 1 it just trolls you basically yeah

Speaker 1 last time i think it was telling me like go go like

Speaker 1 like hand it to your mom now she plays or something yeah patience is a virtue and okay every different everything is trolling trolling you basically but the interesting part and this is the genius part about it so not only the guy is perfectly designing the levels to literally kill you on the spot as you go.

Speaker 1 Like, the deaths are very, very

Speaker 1 play a new level.

Speaker 1 Play a level that you haven't played. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
When you just one last thing, there's this thing which is empty, but if you click on something, it actually says

Speaker 1 like the mechanics of that level. So, there's lots of level design into it.
So, it's like fucking hard to build these like sadistic levels, to be honest. Like, it's very hard.

Speaker 1 And again, let's build a new one. So, you see, see like this is the beauty of it it looks super easy yeah you just you just run to the

Speaker 1 door and then you

Speaker 1 yeah

Speaker 2 yeah i love it yeah it's just super funny basically you know like it's and that's not yeah that's what i want to say like this is not not the end

Speaker 1 well die die a couple of more times so we see the main main model

Speaker 2 now that's what I wanted to say. Like it's gonna just change again.

Speaker 1 Can you uh die a couple of times in a row so we see the main monetization mechanism?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Give me a second. I'm thinking.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Shit.

Speaker 2 You see like we are having so much fun and imagine

Speaker 2 imagine people are just watching this and look you're not gonna make it I look you know what's gonna fuck you're gonna fucking die on the on the on the way there I'm pretty sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 I'm pretty sure. Something's gonna happen.
Exactly.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you already anticipate, like, it's gonna.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Nice.

Speaker 2 That was pretty cool.

Speaker 1 So, so, basically, the biggest fun of this is

Speaker 1 you discovering how the level works, how the guy is gonna kill you, and what's the

Speaker 1 new debt that he's basically thrown at you. And the mechanics are and then the interstitial.
There's interstitial.

Speaker 1 And it's interstitial every three or four levels. There's no real thing.
So I I think it's on a cooldown and then he swears it off. Not every three, four levels.
Not every three levels.

Speaker 1 Every three, four. That's the important part.
It's counted by deaths. Not levels.
So he has a financial interest to kill you, which helps the game. Yes.
Yes. Yes.
I think it's on a timer.

Speaker 1 It's not really like

Speaker 1 every fourth or fifth death. It's some kind of a cooldown that once you hit the deaths, triggers it basically.

Speaker 1 But as you said,

Speaker 1 when you die multiple times in a row, there's a possibility to watch an ad and skip the level, basically.

Speaker 1 That's which, I guess, real shit. Yeah, so you can like when if you get super frustrated, you

Speaker 1 I remember

Speaker 1 in one level sequence, he literally changed the controls like that.

Speaker 1 It's the one where basically instead of jumping, the level jumps. Yeah, something like that.

Speaker 1 It's just so funny.

Speaker 1 This is, I think, like the pinnacle of level design, literally. Pineapple, pinnacle.
Yeah, pinnacle, pinnacle. Good little pinnacle.

Speaker 1 Riding on. I don't want to have a pineapple with my pinnacle.
There we go. There's a song but click it.
Click it. Click the skip button.
Skip it. Oh, too late.
Come on. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah.
So that's it. So, my fellow ad monetization specialists, what is it you've noticed now with the two ads that we've seen, which is also the main issue?

Speaker 2 Two ads that we've seen. No competition is the same ad.

Speaker 1 It's all from Unity.

Speaker 1 Basically, there's no ad of 6T, which leads me to believe they don't even have mediation. It's all done through community.

Speaker 1 Yeah, like meaning that I estimated

Speaker 1 with the ad revenue how much you'd be earning. So I think it's somewhere between 11 to 14.
But basically, because it's only one network, it's probably between 5 and 7k a day.

Speaker 1 Here comes the sad part. Yeah.
Yeah, it is the sad part because honestly, it's so much fun to play. It's

Speaker 1 so good. And it's so like many users.

Speaker 2 It's not even that aggressive with the ads, honestly.

Speaker 1 Not at all. It could have been way more.

Speaker 1 Like

Speaker 1 I know I've been saying a lot of times banners are dead, but like banners make sense here as well because you're getting so many organics. It makes

Speaker 1 if you're if you're not if you're only listening, please go to the video and look at this because it's just really funny. By the way, the sound effects are also priceless.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 1 What what what am I supposed to even do now?

Speaker 1 there you go sometimes i hope yes that's what i hope for yes that's what i hope for sometimes it's so intuitive i wanted to say like i'm pretty sure like this is gonna happen so that's perfect no honestly like this is the most fun i had with the video game in like last year or more

Speaker 1 yeah it's yeah that's true it's just so funny it's it's so funny And the dead, like, you've seen the last part when it killed me?

Speaker 1 Like, it was so unpredictable, but it was still so expected that there would be some kind of a catch. If that...
Shit.

Speaker 1 What are you doing, man?

Speaker 1 What are you doing? You're doing the same thing.

Speaker 2 We got the same thing all over again. Yeah, there you go.
Okay, let's see. Let's see.
Let's see. Let's see.
Let's see. Let's see.
Let's see. Jump.

Speaker 1 What are we doing?

Speaker 1 Okay. He made it.
And the new one comes in.

Speaker 1 Shit. Not the shit again.

Speaker 1 What game design mechanics would you add here, Jakob, to make basically monetize it better, right? What what?

Speaker 1 What would you add here to monetize it better from a game design perspective or monetization mechanisms? Uh more content

Speaker 1 definitely more content basically I would add maybe like hard mode or something but that is devilest at the end now no no it's just like harder levels I think

Speaker 1 like you add a new rule okay

Speaker 1 so stuff like that

Speaker 1 maybe I don't know

Speaker 1 something like to play with the the nature of the levels or I don't know what. So oh Vita Mahong, there we go.
Oh my god. Regular lady.

Speaker 1 so some kind of content stuff because, like, just to amplify the fun and give you a little bit more strategy and maybe lock that strategic choice behind an ad or something.

Speaker 1 It's not really something that you can do on PowerPlay side here, so it's just like you know, can't deal with it. So it's definitely production heavy.

Speaker 1 All level design games are production-heavy, but this is extremely heavy because you've seen like how kind of few levels to mobile game standards there are.

Speaker 1 Normal level-based games, they're like thousands of levels.

Speaker 1 This wall, like but you can't make thousands of levels like this, yeah, with this kind of a quality that it literally maps your every step and like in every step is like walking right behind you like now you die it's like okay so how so perfect exactly how do you design this so how do you design these yeah you know like

Speaker 2 you have kind of in your head

Speaker 1 should should die yeah okay should die and you're literally just designing traps like i think it's something similar to like portal

Speaker 1 At some point in my career, I was designing a game that was similar to Portal, which was like

Speaker 1 you are then playing the game game yourself like forever and all the levels and everything like counting with every single possibility then you're looking at so many people playing it for you to see like what they think what what's intuitive or not because these things needs to be like immediately intuitive it cannot be you know the fun part and everything it cannot be hard as for like punishingly hard it needs to be funny hard meaning that oh you died so next round you will avoid the trap and you go to next exactly it can't like the balancing needs to be very very delicate.

Speaker 1 Like, it cannot be just hard as for, like, we'll make it harder and nobody's going to go over it. So, they'll click the ad.
That would destroy the game, actually. It needs to be fun.

Speaker 1 And you dying needs to be like, you need to be laughing after it. Not, not, not like cursing of like, fuck, like, this is.
Yeah, this is how you come.

Speaker 1 That's not how to make it. Yeah, you should, you should, you should feel it, like, ridiculous.
That's how you should.

Speaker 1 Like, we were like when we were laughing, yeah, like, that was great fun, you know? Yeah,

Speaker 1 exactly.

Speaker 2 So, I imagine this, like, okay, so you build a level, like like the actual, like how it's designed.

Speaker 2 The design, yeah, the layout. Then you run like the perfect way, and then you build traps into it.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 See? Oh, there you go.

Speaker 2 But at least now you know. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but there was the obvious bait with the trampoline there at the bottom.

Speaker 1 Exactly.

Speaker 1 Level design is a very specific category of game design. Like those two things kind of live in parallel.

Speaker 1 Game design is the systems and all these other mechanisms and features and like stuff that's like creates this kind of whole concept. Level design is communicating your ideas through environment.

Speaker 1 That's literally a different skill for people.

Speaker 1 Again, like building planes against building submarines. Completely different skill set that you need to have in order to do these things.

Speaker 1 Because you know, we remember we were talking about it multiple times with like match 3 games or whatever.

Speaker 1 They throw out 90% of the levels that are designed for there because it's just not good enough. And I would guess the same thing goes here.
Because it has so many downloads, so much stuff put into it.

Speaker 1 I'm guessing he also, like, he read that, like, you try designing these levels. It's really, really hard.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 What would you add here? Or would you recommend? Last thing, last thing. Again, Felix told me this,

Speaker 1 which is a proof of concept why this thing works because there's like a thousand copycats. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 it works. Some of those.
Some of those work.

Speaker 2 I saw it like number two, number three, number four, and it's like, wait a second.

Speaker 1 This guy's super persistent. Level two, three, level four.

Speaker 1 No shame. Devil games.

Speaker 1 And none of these work. None of these work.
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 So it's very hard to design. Very hard.

Speaker 2 You can copy, but it's like it's not going to work. But also, we didn't say if you go to Lava Bird and all the

Speaker 2 whole portfolio kind of,

Speaker 2 yeah, yeah, this is like not the only game you made.

Speaker 1 There's Lavabird, the first one in 2014,

Speaker 1 which is

Speaker 1 like the most similar to the current concept. Then there's U-ball,

Speaker 1 which seems

Speaker 1 okay, some kind of being bullish mechanic. Then there's Level With Me, it's called, which is what.

Speaker 1 Okay, some kind of scale game. Interesting.

Speaker 1 And then there's Unicycle Hero, which is

Speaker 1 we're getting to that fun moment. I guess he started here with this whole paradigm.

Speaker 1 Interesting.

Speaker 1 Then there's Unicycle Legend. Ah, yeah.

Speaker 1 He's definitely got a sense of humor.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 See, I guess he he he's just following in this very very similar level design actually. If you see it, yeah, very, very similar level design.
And I guess he said at some point, like, fuck this shit.

Speaker 1 I'm gonna, you know, push it even more.

Speaker 1 And you see how much like more production budget this game is like so he's just like this just level design and then then when you get level devil it's basically very easy

Speaker 1 like production like yeah it's like squares and

Speaker 1 and it's just level design like let's go even more troll on on the level

Speaker 1 yeah which that's what uh what sells the game pretty much so from my side here i would actually add first of all a mediation platform because you're doubling or probably increasing it by a lot more since it's only Unity ads.

Speaker 1 I'd probably also add app open interstitial ads because there's four sessions per day on average. I think it actually would work because it's still so funny.
And then I would also add banner ads here.

Speaker 1 It makes complete sense. In terms of rewarded ads, there's no real placements that kind of stick out because there's no real economy, right? That's the hard part.

Speaker 1 But yeah, more frequency and just, yeah, add up.txt file and an attribute and a

Speaker 1 mediation platform.

Speaker 2 So

Speaker 2 what if there is a

Speaker 2 situation where you have a mediation, you add, let's say, three different networks there and only Applevin is taking over because it's just like the bidding and nobody else is getting the impressions.

Speaker 1 That usually only happens if you're on max mediation, right? But like you're still getting competition, right? So you're still getting a higher ECPM. Usually like the addresses

Speaker 2 networks and then they were just not getting any

Speaker 2 impressions. Like, how is that competing?

Speaker 1 Usually, when you're adding networks, if you add Google, they'll compete against Apple.

Speaker 1 Like, I've never had a situation where I'm adding, like, for example, Google and Meta, and it doesn't take up at least 10 or 15%.

Speaker 1 Why would you add banners, Felix, if you said... Of course, the second one was real.
Yeah, that's so funny.

Speaker 1 Why would you add banners if you said

Speaker 1 because honestly, it's so under-monetized, and you're actually spending quite a lot of time here, right? And at the bottom, I don't think it bothers too much to have the banners.

Speaker 1 Like, you can just add the black bar at the bottom.

Speaker 2 It does because not all the levels are designed to be the same.

Speaker 1 And you don't push on the banners even.

Speaker 1 Yeah, the controls right there. But, like, honestly,

Speaker 1 the lowest hanging fruit here is a mediation platform and just adding five networks. Like, he's more than anything

Speaker 1 in the menu. But that's not going to generate any impressions.
It has to be constant.

Speaker 1 But otherwise, it would break the break the no, but come on, like, add the banners and then slap on an iap to remove ads it's just a decor this audience won't buy that one ip no okay so okay what what what would you add but even even if no yeah you can you can do regional pricing even this audience like you can do like remove ads for for only

Speaker 1 banners we've seen it for two dollars yeah rumorscale 99 99 only banners not the interstitials and all of the other stuff because then that wouldn't really work no

Speaker 1 make more money on ads i would i would do as i said i would do more content stuff based on monetization, like new levels for an ad or whatever, or some kind of a yeah, something like more fun for ads.

Speaker 1 That's it. So you actually lock some of these levels behind ads? Not lock, but add extra ones or whatever or like the level of the same thing, right?

Speaker 2 Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 You still need to have like...

Speaker 1 So you have like a side path. You have a side path and you have a level that's an extra level and it's behind an ad.
So it's not on the main path, for example. So no, but you always have an open pad.

Speaker 1 That's that's the main idea. You shouldn't have a pad that's locked, like the main one.

Speaker 2 It's the same,

Speaker 2 it's the same thing, you just kind of visualize it differently. It's just still locked behind, let's call it a paywall.

Speaker 1 Visualizing differently makes the big difference. Yeah, okay, fair.
I like that that's actually quite good. A lot of things are just feelings here,

Speaker 1 to be honest. It's nothing really to it, yeah.
Yeah,

Speaker 2 I just wanted to, I just wanted to say

Speaker 2 you died

Speaker 1 now

Speaker 1 like you've died how many times and you haven't we haven't seen an interstitial yeah like you haven't seen an interstitial for a while you know yeah you died sixty times already since you started playing there you go this is so fucking great yeah

Speaker 1 he thinks so much out of the box yeah

Speaker 2 we only saw the

Speaker 2 One or two ads. Come on, like that's not enough.

Speaker 1 Yeah, exactly. Like a good rule of thumb here for a game like this Probably, since you're dying a lot, like, you can probably do an ad every 90 seconds here and still not lose that much.

Speaker 1 What do you think is the retention for

Speaker 2 90 seconds? Is too much, man. Oh, there you go.

Speaker 1 Finally,

Speaker 1 another Unity ad.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 2 There you go. I know.
I know this game.

Speaker 1 Which one is Train Station 4? No.

Speaker 1 I think this has nothing to do with trains, or does it?

Speaker 2 It does, but

Speaker 1 yes. Train Minor.
Yes.

Speaker 1 Azur. Oh, really?

Speaker 2 I saw it. I saw that.
Interesting.

Speaker 1 That's nice.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 But that's basically what kind of iteration on

Speaker 2 Golden Goal is.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's what I wanted to say. You want to check the retention? Yep.

Speaker 1 Let me check if there's anything.

Speaker 2 When did this launch, actually? Because we didn't talk about it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, this launched February 2024, so it's pretty young.

Speaker 2 It's pretty young. I mean, come on, like, it's a year-old game.

Speaker 1 For what, 35 million downloads for a single guy?

Speaker 1 that's that's pretty good yeah that's pretty pretty like rocket rocket stage sure and especially in the last couple of months or weeks or whatever retention yeah that's like yeah kind of hyper casualish like you see you see the hyper casual monetizing like a hyper casual right like yeah exactly when we're playing uh when we're playing this studio game yeah like when playing uh what was it called flight what was it called i forgot

Speaker 1 something yeah plane yeah like you're watching already in the first 30 seconds your first interstitial out Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 But then they make what like 100K per day or what?

Speaker 1 And this is making it 100k per day, but like the retention there, like, yeah, it's not growing anymore, right? But they had UA, this is pure money.

Speaker 2 Yeah, that's true. But still, then.

Speaker 1 It's just sad to see that, like, he's probably making five or seven. The problem should be 14.

Speaker 1 Usually, the problem of the Cinderella stories that we always point out that these guys could be making much, much more, even in their current state, without any UA, without just basic optimizations.

Speaker 1 So that's just that.

Speaker 2 First of all, I don't think they care that much because it's making money. They don't know it could make more.

Speaker 1 Of course, since it's

Speaker 2 exactly since it's making money, they're not forced. It reminds me of our discussion when we talk about Supercell.

Speaker 1 Oh, anyway.

Speaker 1 I think, Matthew, you have a point, right? So like, if like, you know,

Speaker 1 the run rates right now, if it's like five or 7K a day, is like two and a half million a year, right? And, you know, that's money you're getting because it's ad revenue, right?

Speaker 1 So you're getting that every 30 to 60 days, and then for a whole year, two and a half million. That's this is one guy, you know, that's amazing.
Exactly, that's amazing.

Speaker 1 But it's just this could be like when you see it, it can be five or six million because, like, just by doing one simple thing when you install a mediation platform, just want to say that, like, compared to the current industry setup, or like, you know, we have now the platformer runner/slash download shared in front of us.

Speaker 1 So there's sub-way servers, of course because they're sitting there pretty much from start with time yeah

Speaker 1 temple run and subway princess whatever this is so our and then this geometry dash line thing this game i don't understand either like i'm always so confused when i play it it's kind of the same you've never seen this it's been

Speaker 1 many times yeah

Speaker 1 i don't really understand it because i've played it and you play muse yeah like i don't understand it's so undermonetized as well anyway we should do another episode

Speaker 1 Anyway, just saying that our guy here is on 12th spot, which I think is fucking amazing. If he's surrounded by guys like Outfit 7,

Speaker 1 which are both over and under him.

Speaker 1 Yes. So this is an amazing job.
Like, absolutely.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yes.
Here you have like 300, 500 people companies sitting around you

Speaker 1 trying to achieve the same thing. So yeah, it's like, oof.

Speaker 2 Yeah, don't get me wrong. Like, this is an awesome success.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so the game itself actually had its best months ever, it seems. No.
Yeah. Yeah.
So October was forming downloads.

Speaker 1 Active user base. This is what matters.

Speaker 2 In terms of downloads, yeah, but in terms of

Speaker 1 peak, basically. But why do, by the way, Felix, this is something a question for, like, why do to which to attribute this? Because there's like zero updates.
It's like zero.

Speaker 1 This must be some TikTok videos, right? Like someone posting something. This is all viral.
Just give give me the screen, man.

Speaker 2 Like, seriously, like, yeah.

Speaker 1 If I just show you this, I mean, we're doing like what? Like, guerrilla UA now?

Speaker 2 It's just, you know, the, the, it's just whatever. It doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 I'll try it. 9.7 million.

Speaker 2 Okay. That's only one.
That's only one video, man.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 2 See, look at this. You're scrolling down.

Speaker 1 3 million. to 1.25.

Speaker 1 Don't go slower. Go up.

Speaker 2 No, no, no, no, no, no. I want to say, like, this is not.
This is never ending.

Speaker 2 3 million. It's never fucking like this is this goes on and on.
I mean, maybe this is the end, but still, like, it's so

Speaker 1 9 million one. I want to see that one.
That was like the biggest one. I want to see all

Speaker 2 the Spanish video.

Speaker 1 Of course. Because Brad is the main demo.

Speaker 2 You speak Portuguese in Spanish a little bit more, so.

Speaker 2 I mean, it's so funny.

Speaker 1 It's so funny to listen to this.

Speaker 1 but but the thing is that it's it's very enjoyable to view because exactly it's just watching it's all based on surprise and like out-of-the-box thinking so it basically all these streamers and content creators they just apply and the content is made by itself exactly and also if you if you really listen to this voiceover it's just like spanish like shouting

Speaker 1 it's it's so fucking funny

Speaker 1 it's so funny

Speaker 2 yeah of course it's literally shouting exactly like it's like you you see the football commentators and someone shoots a car. It's like, oh my God,

Speaker 2 it's so funny. It's so fun.

Speaker 1 Basically, free UA.

Speaker 2 Exactly. Yeah, exactly.
Like, this is

Speaker 2 no UA whatsoever in terms of the actual paid channels. But I mean, all of these

Speaker 1 state

Speaker 2 just make it by themselves because why not?

Speaker 1 So this is the Gen Z game.

Speaker 1 Like a Gen Z game.

Speaker 1 I think this is everyone game. Everyone finds this funny.
This is so original. To communicate the idea, like you were just trolls.

Speaker 1 Yeah. To all of it.
Yeah. Everyone's original.
Like, this is the best original game. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Super unique.

Speaker 2 Exactly. It's super unique.
It's like people wanna wanna watch it and hear like it's like so like 1300 comments.

Speaker 2 This is exactly like what you need. And it's like so many of these YouTube chat YouTube videos as well.

Speaker 1 Again.

Speaker 2 It's yeah, exactly. It's super funny because it actually happened to me as well, right? So you can relate to this.
So and then you don't you don't really need anything else. So the thing is,

Speaker 2 you remember we talked about it all the time when you have so many views, it just catapults you to top ranking immediately.

Speaker 1 It's the granny setup.

Speaker 2 Yeah. It's the Duolingo setup they had before or not dual Duolingo, sorry, not Duolingo, the Dumb Ways to Die setup.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 Dumb Ways to Die setup, it was the same. They had millions of views suddenly on TikTok and then it just, you know, they they were were top one game in the in the downloads chart.

Speaker 1 So this is all you need. What's the estimated overall revenue that you

Speaker 1 2.5?

Speaker 1 It's on a run rate around two, two and a half a year right now. But basically if they made the mediation platform, it'd be closer to six.
You're better call, Felix.

Speaker 1 I mean, you don't even need me to tell them that. Like, it's just do it, you know? Like, yeah.
But the thing is, I liked your point.

Speaker 1 Like, if you take every third level and put it on a side path, that's not off the beaten path. So you have to watch.

Speaker 1 So you run out of levels, but when you do, you can go back and watch rewarded videos to keep playing. Like, that's really clever.

Speaker 2 I don't think that was the main point. It was just like extra content for just an ad.
Yeah. That's like, that's the point.
Which is, yeah, I can see that

Speaker 2 working. Because

Speaker 2 you can choose if you want to watch it or not.

Speaker 2 It's not forced. And it's like so many memes and then the videos.
I mean, I mean, we can see like why Brazil is the top, obviously, but still, come on,

Speaker 2 I could still watch this for a long time.

Speaker 1 I mean, when Yaku was playing, that's I think that's one of the funnest moments we've had on this podcast. Yeah,

Speaker 1 that was great, yeah, that was great.

Speaker 1 Yeah,

Speaker 2 another troll game, not at all.

Speaker 1 So, so, yeah,

Speaker 1 applause. This is uh, yeah, wow, great game.
Adam, yeah, good for 10 out of 10 product, definitely out of ten.

Speaker 2 Yeah, yeah. I know this is perfect.
I was digging a little bit and then I found this Instagram and all of the fun around the level devil games. So it was

Speaker 2 awesome, Cinderella story and also awesome level design. Yeah, this is great.

Speaker 1 So I don't think I can say anything else about this, but yeah.

Speaker 2 That's it.

Speaker 1 That's it pretty much.

Speaker 2 Thank you very much. Go play the game.

Speaker 1 Enjoy as much as we did. Die.
Have fun. Die.

Speaker 2 Die a lot. Send some love in the comment section and join the Slack channel.
See you, see you next time.

Speaker 1 Bye-bye.