In this brutally honest episode, the 2.5 Gamers crew and puzzle expert Laura Taranto dive into Century Games’ match-3 ambitions, dissecting new titles like Family Farm Match, Party Match, and Truckstar. Once a 4X and farming powerhouse, Century is now flooding the puzzle genre with games and wild creative tests, but is there any real strategy?We break down:The copy-paste engine and meta behind Party Match and Family Farm MatchTruckstar’s unique angle and why it’s struggling to scaleUA and creative strategy: random, borrowed, or just desperate?Why failing to use rewarded ads and proper player segmentation is costing millionsPolished engines but way-too-easy level design, can this team ever push players to pay?What’s next? Will slow and safe ever beat bold and brilliant in match-3?Key TakeawayCentury Games has the tech, the team, and the budget, but without a killer UA and creative strategy and the guts to actually experiment, segment, and scale, they’ll keep missing out on match-3’s billion-dollar club. “Spray and pray” isn’t a strategy!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---------------------------------------Vibe. Vibe is the leading Streaming TV ad platform for small and medium-sized businesses looking for actionable advertising campaign performance.https://www.vibe.co/---------------------------------------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 yearsThey power top mobile publishers around the worldLaunch 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 Lancaric⁠Special Guest: Laura TarantoYoutube: https://youtu.be/LV1FK7kqLJcJoin our slack channel here: https://join.slack.com/t/two-and-half-gamers/shared_invite/zt-2um8eguhf-c~H9idcxM271mnPzdWbipgChapters

00:00 Epic intro

03:07 Exploring Century Games' Portfolio and Revenue Streams

08:54 Casual Gaming Strategy and Market Positioning

11:55 Discussion on Match-Three Games and Their Performance

18:47 Evolution of Match Games

20:28 Engaging Male Audiences in Gaming

22:24 Revenue Strategies and User Acquisition

29:39 Core Mechanics and Level Balancing

35:29 Challenges in Game Differentiation

45:23 Analyzing User Acquisition Tactics

49:34 Understanding Creative Strategies in Marketing

51:45 Evaluating Game Engine Performance

56:57 Final Thoughts on Game Strategy and Development---------------------------------------Matej LancaricUser Acquisition & Creatives Consultant⁠https://lancaric.meFelix BrabergAd monetization consultant⁠https://www.felixbraberg.comJakub RemiarGame design consultant⁠https://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