🎮 Playable Trends: The Playable that NEVER ends

Our monthly Playable Trends is back. Matej, Ondrej and Robin each bring three playables that caught their eye and take them apart. Matej opens with Royal Kingdom’s “harder than you think” ball-physics level (save three characters, no snakes for once), a raft-rescue survival playable that turns out to be a 4X game, and Paper.io 2 using a Pocket Champs-style hook without hiding which game it is. Ondrej brings three from Voodoo: a Pixel Flow-style conveyor sort that is honestly harder than you think (he still can’t beat it), a satisfying ball-drop sorter you finish just by tapping, and a room-based platformer that sent us straight back to Dangerous Dave. Robin shows a sushi reskin of Pixel Flow (Ondrej rebuilt it in Playable Maker), Car Evolve’s slingshot upgrade loop, which ran five minutes before the CTA appeared (Robin fed the source to Claude to start with 5M coins), and Last Asylum running four different mechanics for the same game: Township-style building, Kingshot-style tower defense, roguelike survival and 4X. Last Asylum has gone from a handful of playables to ~1,200 in 30 days, and Kingshot still makes far more money. We close by filtering Sensor Tower to Asia (spoiler: good playables work everywhere, maybe with more family drama and a bit more grind) and looking at seasonal creatives: Golf Clash running Halloween for a year, and a Christmas video still live in July because it was the best performer. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – Cold open: the playable that never ends 05:23 – Matej: Royal Kingdom’s “harder than you think” physics level 10:26 – The WTF pick: a raft rescue that’s secretly 4X, plus Paper.io 2 with a Pocket Champs hook 17:23 – Ondrej’s Voodoo trio: impossible color sort, ball conveyor, Dangerous Dave vibes 24:25 – Robin: Pixel Flow, but sushi 27:13 – Car Evolve: 5 minutes before the CTA, and we hacked it with Claude 32:25 – Last Asylum: one game, four mechanics, ~1,200 playables in 30 days 40:18 – Asia vs West playables, and do seasonal creatives actually work? 📌 KEY TAKEAWAYS — Reskin a proven mechanic (Pixel Flow → sushi) and you have a new ad — One game can be sold through four mechanics; each one attracts a different player — “Harder than you think” works only if it is actually hard, but finishable — Mechanics travel across markets; difficulty and grind may need tuning for Asia 🎙️ HOSTS Matej Lancaric, Ondrej Monsberger, Robin Kuyer 🙏 SPONSORS Potensus – premium ad network with direct brand deals (Amazon, Apple, Coca-Cola, Vodafone) and Playable Maker-built formats: https://potensus.com PVX Partners – fund your UA with PVX Card, credit that grows with your ROAS: https://pvxpartners.com/cards Kinoa – AI operating system for live ops, segments and game ops: http://www.kinoa.ai?utm_source=MatejPodcast&utm_medium=Link&utm_campaign=Matej+Podcast&utm_id=100 FastSpring – the no-drama D2C for mobile publishers: https://fastspring.gg Data courtesy of Sensor Tower Seen a playable we should cover? Drop it in the comments or the Slack channel. Subscribe for more playables, creatives and UA: https://www.youtube.com/@twoandahalfgamers #playableads #playables #mobilegames #creatives #UA #useracquisition #Voodoo #RoyalKingdom #LastAsylum #PixelFlow #PaperIO #PlayableMaker #SensorTower #twoandahalfgamers #Potensus #PVXPartners #Kinoa #FastSpring --------------------------------------- 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 Do you have UA questions nobody can answer? Ask ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matej AI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - the First UA AI in the gaming industry! https://lancaric.me/matej-ai