San Francisco-based publisher Lion Studios is no stranger to the top of the charts. One of their titles, Happy Glass, reached number 1 in mobile game charts in 25 countries and with Fruit Clinic they’ve another hit on their hands.

By Andi Nuruljihad for Gamesforum

Fruit Clinic is a hypercasual game where players perform medical procedures on fruits. It plays a bit like the classic board game Operation but with a greater variety of tasks, such as stitching up patients and removing pests.

For Fruit Clinic, Lion Studios mixes interstitial and rewarded video ads with in-app purchases. Mixing ads with in-app purchases is a rare strategy in the hypercasual market, as it can come off as overly aggressive. Here we'll go into how Fruit Clinic is designed to get around this issue.

Taking on the Challenges of the Hypercasual Genre

The hypercasual genre distills video games down to their core element: an engaging mechanic. It's about removing embellishments and honing into what will spark player interest in an instant.

Lion Studios understands that intuitive mechanics and a tight gameplay loop are key for the hypercasual genre. In Fruit Clinic, progression isn’t complicated; levels are isolated experiences that the player takes one at a time. There is no complex character development system, no fancy menu or multiplayer. Naturally, this simplicity coupled with the come-and-go nature of its players makes for short game sessions and lower retention relative to other, meatier mobile titles.

Capturing an Audience with Clever Ads

Fruit Clinic, like all great hypercasual games, has a core mechanic that's easily conveyed. Its marketing strategy should be able to show players all they need to know about the game in 30 seconds or less -- the standard duration of a mobile ad.

With this in mind, Lion Studios uses interactive video ads to full effect. Fruit Clinic's interactive ads showcase the game's charming art. They also give the player a chance to try out the game for themselves by letting players perform "surgery" on a piece of fruit. Importantly, the ads entice the player to try out the game by rewarding them for a job well done with flashy animations and bright colors.

Monetizing Your Player Base

So, how does Lion Studios monetize their hypercasual games knowing that it won't stay on people's phones for very long? For Fruit Clinic, they've gone with a multi-pronged approach that mixes interstitials, rewarded video ads, and in-app purchases.

Fruit Clinic is designed to be played in very short but very intense game sessions. No stage takes longer than a minute to complete. Upon completing a stage, the player is rewarded with some in-game cash which they can spend on various cosmetic items from the in-game shop.

The player has two options: continue on to the next stage or watch a rewarded video ad that will multiply their winnings. Either way, Fruit Clinic serves up a short ad; if the player opted for the reward, they're served a longer ad.

On top of the interstitial and rewarded ads, Fruit Clinic also offers a one-off in-app purchase. With a single, small payment, players can remove ads from the game altogether. The pricing is no coincidence; Lion Studios analyzes user data to calculate how much ad revenue the average player generates and can price their IAP accordingly.

Mixing Monetization Approaches

Publishers tend to avoid mixing in-app purchases with ads for fear of turning off players. Fruit Clinic sidesteps these fears by ensuring the two strategies aren't running simultaneously. Most players won't spend money on games, and so Fruit Clinic shows them ads in order to generate revenue from this audience. For those who dislike ads and are willing to spend some cash, the in-app purchase takes ads out entirely.