Gaming, Monetization, User Acquisition
Back in 2018 at a European event, we were introduced to the founder of a small but mighty indie gaming studio called Suji Games based in Istanbul, Turkey. Co-founder, Ibrahim Kaya stood out from the crowd as his deep passion for gaming was almost tangible during conversation, so we invited him to participate in our AppLovin Academy. This program brought indie developers from all around the world to AppLovin’s San Francisco office to receive focused training on a wide range of topics including prototyping, user acquisition, and monetization.
During their time at AppLovin Academy, the Suji Games team shared an interest in developing hyper-casual games and held deep discussions with AppLovin’s business development team about the existing trends in the market, and how Suji Games could potentially become a larger player in the market. Since beginning to work with AppLovin in 2018, the teams have been able to collaborate together in several aspects of their business to propel Suji Games forward (and to the top of the charts).
It had always been a goal of Suji Games to publish its own games, but given they are a nimble team of six, they recognized they needed partners to help drive the company forward. The AppLovin team worked with Suji Games to make sure they were approaching monetization and user acquisition in the right way for their business. By leveraging A/B testing and building a competitive waterfall using the right bidders, we knew we had achieved the highest LTV possible. More than 50% of Suji Games revenue is generated by bidders, allowing the team to automate the manual work around managing ad networks. SparkLabs also built engaging playable ads to help propel Suji Games’ games to the top of the charts.
“Having a partner with the deep industry experience to market and scale our game on a global level has been essential in giving Suji Games a competitive advantage in a crowded, highly competitive space,” said Ibrahim Kaya. “Not only have we gained expert advice from the AppLovin team — the automation of our day-to-day monetization operations has left the team more time to focus on game development.”
Fast forward some time, and the team has created their very first self-published game, Hypermarket 3D. Hypermarket 3D is a game that puts the player in the shoes of a grocer with several tasks — some of which involve operating the scanning machines at checkout, sorting vegetables, and organizing shopping carts in the parking lot. In total there are nine different mini-games and the team has shared that there are more to come! The creative and compelling levels keeps users coming back to play so they can continue to unlock new items and maneuver their way between cars in the parking lot. Currently, Hypermarket 3D is dominating the AppStore charts, and in the first few days of release it received more than one million downloads in the US alone.
So what’s next for Suji Games? In addition to working on creating their next chart-topping game, the team is excited to be in the booming Turkish game market. Right now, the gaming scene is bustling with larger local and international studios of all sizes, like Lion Studios, Azur, and Homa Games who have taken an interest in the market and are investing resources for indie game devs. Suji Games in particular is all about growth right now through everything from creating new and exciting games to hiring.
