How Voodoo have perfected the art of hypercasual to hit the target with Bullet Rush!

By Andi Nuruljihad for Gamesforum

There are lots of movers and shakers in hypercasual, but one publisher that sits at the top of the heap is Voodoo. The Paris-based company has published more than one hundred hypercasual titles with 2.6 billion downloads and more than 1 billion individual players across their library of games.

Bullet Rush is one of Voodoo’s newer titles. This addictive run-and-gun shooter showcases Voodoo’s deep understanding of the hypercasual genre. It has satisfying-yet-simple gameplay and a carefully designed reward loop to keep players gaming as long as possible. Here we’ll get into how Voodoo has designed Bullet Rush to work around the unique challenges of hypercasual and maximize revenue.

The Issue with Ads

In a talk with Games Forum, Goncalo Martins of hypercasual publisher Homa Games revealed that 95-98% of revenue in the genre is ad-driven. Yet a growing share of ads on mobile apps are for hypercasual games, which puts publishers in the awkward position of having to play ads for titles that could potentially steal their audience.

Voodoo knows that the hypercasual market isn't looking for a long-term investment. When your audience is temporary, you need to design your titles to keep your players engaged for as long as possible. This means high-intensity sessions with simple but addictive mechanics.

Gameplay First

In hypercasual, gameplay comes first, and this principle dictates every facet of Bullet Rush's design. Bullet Rush's controls are simple enough that you can pick up the game and start playing right away. In Voodoo's own words, it's a game that can be played "easily with one finger, without really thinking about it."

Voodoo knows that when your game is fun, graphics can take a backseat. Bullet Rush is visually simple and its bright colors and cute animations keep the experience fun and light.

Hypercasual relies on a high frequency of ad impressions to generate revenue. Bullet Rush is designed for "snackable" game sessions -- this means they're short and highly rewarding for the player. Shorter sessions also means there are more opportunities to show ads to your players. In Bullet Rush, levels never take longer than a minute, and each stage is bookended by short ads.

Increasing DAU with Data-driven Advertising

When your game lives and dies by the number of ad impressions, a large player base is vital to making a profit. This requires a creative, data-driven approach to ad design that can improve the number of Daily Active Users (DAU) and boost revenue growth.

Voodoo knows that Bullet Rush has intuitive gameplay that is immediately understandable by their target audience. This is why their marketing focuses heavily on playable ads. Playable ads offer a super-short vertical slice of a game. They give people the opportunity to not only see how their game works, but also how it feels to play it.

They also keep detailed data on how their ads are performing so they can tweak and make adjustments for different markets. This data-driven approach allows Voodoo to craft the perfect playable ads for Bullet Rush, reach new users, and improve click-through.

Hypercasual Explosion

The explosive success of Voodoo is turning the heads of those with deep pockets, with Goldman Sachs investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the future of the company. This success comes from an unrivaled understanding of what makes a hypercasual game work. Bullet Rush ticks all the boxes: highly-satisfying mechanics; short, intense sessions; lots of ad impressions; and a data-driven approach to advertising to keep new players coming in.