Giuseppe Lapenta, the co-founder of Balzo, talks to PocketGamer.biz concerning the studio’s journey within the hypercasual style and why it’s working with cellular video games advert skilled Growzee.
PocketGamer.biz – Inform us extra about Balzo and what you have labored on up to now.
Giuseppe Lapenta: Balzo is a hypercasual cellular recreation writer and developer. Since 2020, we have now revealed greater than 50 video games throughout the iOS and Android shops, which have both been developed internally or come from improvement companions throughout Europe/around the globe. These embody titles corresponding to Stick Journey, Tune of Pan, Shade Parking, Shade Your Stress Away and Alien Backyard.
PG.biz: How did the connection with Growzee come about?
Giuseppe Lapenta: Balzo first built-in Growzee’s resolution in 2022. We included it inside a number of of our video games, together with Mars Coloniser, Swerve Run, Swipe ’em All and Shotrun, to optimise monetisation. This helped us to extend the revenues for a lot of of our revealed video games and thus the income of the builders behind these video games.
PG.biz: How did working with Growzee profit you as a writer and the builders you’re employed with?
Giuseppe Lapenta: The gaming market is extremely quick and really aggressive. Initially, we tried launching a brand new recreation for a month and work on person acquisition on the similar time. It was not so easy, particularly when it got here to conciliating the retention price and an excellent degree of monetisation.
We discovered it quick, easy and environment friendly. Vastly totally different when in comparison with different monetisation platforms we have tried previously.
Giuseppe Lapenta
We tried lots of the normal in-house and inner options that builders and publishers have a tendency to achieve for. The mixing course of was additionally problematic: every platform has its personal tech necessities and the net documentation is usually incomplete.
It takes a whole lot of time to combine the software program improvement equipment (SDK) and regardless of having a number of extremely expert builders in our group, we nonetheless discovered it tough to get the sport and common updates out the door.
What recreation builders and publishers want in as we speak’s difficult cellular market shouldn’t be solely wonderful monetisation however a assure of strong know-how underlying the sport and help the place it is wanted on either side. Growzee has been splendidly useful with all of those areas.
PG.biz: What’s Growzee’s know-how wish to work with?
Giuseppe Lapenta: Growzee’s SDK is drag-and-drop, which suggests we have not needed to be taught any new code so as to implement it. The entire group can concentrate on integrating this new monetisation platform. It is a large win for us as a result of it cuts down on the variety of assets required for every replace, saving money and time. This mixed with the assist and help obtainable all through each a part of the operation was very useful.
We discovered it quick, easy and environment friendly. Vastly totally different when in comparison with different monetisation platforms we have tried previously.
PG.biz: Did you discover any advantages when it comes to advertising and marketing and value?
Giuseppe Lapenta: For every recreation, at each step, Growzee’s group helped us to decide on the suitable placement so as to give the absolute best viewability and person expertise.
The position and customisation of every placeholder can have a big impact when it comes to the picture proven earlier than the advert is served. Which means that we are able to protect the atmosphere of the sport and guarantee the absolute best person expertise.
An vital function of the platform that we’re utilizing when we have now to launch a brand new recreation is cross-promotion. We are able to determine for every placeholder which advert to indicate, what share of impression we want to reserve for our personal adverts and which to open to Growzee’s advertisers.
PG.biz: How have you ever discovered the fill charges and revenues working with Growzee?
Giuseppe Lapenta: Growzee works on open real-time bidding (RTB) and has labored with the Instal.com, RTB community since 2013. For a developer like Balzo, this implies having a excessive fill price and the assure of a gross sales group which works for masking the optimum nations throughout the international gaming market.
Furthermore, we obtain 90 p.c of income, which is among the highest shares throughout the market. That is solely potential with very tight collaboration with Growzee’s gross sales and advertising and marketing group, which is all the time on the lookout for new methods to extend revenues.
