Hyper-Casual Trend Digest #13
Greetings! Jump straight into the pulse of the gaming scene with concise summaries of the most crucial news. This month’s Trend Digest is your shortcut to staying in the know about all gaming things.
HYPER NEWS 🗞
🔗 Unity lays off 265 as it restructures its deal with digital effects creator Weta
Unity announces a “company reset” with a focus on its core business, resulting in the elimination of 265 jobs, representing 3.8% of its total workforce.
🔗 AppsFlyer has acquired devtodev, a full-circle data analytics solution for app developers
Devtodev provides a data analytics solution for developers to analyze games and apps, offering data-driven insights for user retention optimization, conversion maximization, and personalized experiences. The financial details of the acquisition remain undisclosed.
🔗 With Muse, Unity aims to give developers generative AI that’s useful and ethical
Unity Muse, an AI assistant, is introduced with three components: Muse Chat for code generation, Muse Sprite for quick 2D sprite creation, and Muse Texture for high-quality texture generation.
🔗Analytics specialist Sensor Tower are producing AI-driven insights reports
Timothy’s reports follow a pattern of presenting simple data, including top 10 lists and brief commentary on each entry. The reports also include graphical elements, such as graphs, and provide basic insights into the performance of games on the Android platform.
🔗Apple announce App Store Awards 2023 finalists
Apple has released the shortlist for its annual App Store Awards, featuring 37 games, apps, and developers across 10 categories. The finalists include apps and games such as AllTrails, Duolingo, Flighty, Afterplace, Honkai: Star Rail, Vampire Survivors, etc.
🔗 A timeline of Sam Altman’s firing from OpenAI — and the fallout
A story that probably everyone has heard of, and needs to be parsed in detail was paired by TechCrunch.
And some fresh stats for you 👀 :
- The in-app purchase revenue in the South Korean market for mobile games reached nearly $3.6 billion in 2023, with over 40% of the revenue coming from overseas developers, Sensor Tower reports.
- China generated over $42 billion in mobile user spend in 2023, Xsolla reports.
- Can legacy titles save the mobile game industry? SUPERSCALE reports.
- Mastering SKAN 4: The essentials for iOS success – report by Adjust.
HYPER TRENDS 📱
Time for movies and TV series
We’re sure you’re already looking out for a selection of popular and cool Christmas films 🎄, but we’ve got some equally interesting film new releases.
Having pulled off an escape from Tweedy’s farm, Ginger has found a peaceful island sanctuary for the whole flock. But back on the mainland the whole of chicken-kind faces a new threat, and Ginger and her team decide to break in.
A young boy named Mahito yearning for his mother ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning.
In this reality competition show inspired by “Squid Game,” 456 players put their skills to the ultimate test for a life-changing $4.56 million prize.
With dreams of opening a shop in a city renowned for its chocolate, a young and poor Willy Wonka discovers that the industry is run by a cartel of greedy chocolatiers.
What other interesting things?
- The trend for #joshhutcherson was back to the top on TikTok after the release of the Hunger Games prequel. Mostly his photo was used in the most unexpected situations and things in the video.
- “The Amazing Digital Circus” series came out in October, and the characters have already gone viral on YouTube, and you can also see fresh games on the theme.
Trends on YouTube, TikTok, Imgur, etc.
Which to choose, mechanics with inflating rubber toys, the trend of making things ANGRY with AI or a watermelon theme? All the trends are cool, no need to choose 😎
Every month the guys get more and more views on their board game reviews, here are some cool examples: Word Wipeout, BurgerMania, Flyfecta.
games4two | games4two | games4two
As they say, a little more color and art ideas: satisfying print creation, wiring an electrical panel, chemically removing paint.
Come2Japan | aloofloofah | theredeemabl
New TikTok effects
Where would we be without CapCut’s new trending templates?
helena.coaching | carolehooks33 | jordan_bams
A filter with Shrek kissing appeared on TikTok and immediately took over the platform, becoming a new trend. And Grinch, of course.
Trend-based projects
Some of the trends we showed in previous digests, but we have some of the new things for you. So less words and more examples!
Streamer Merge: Go Viral! → Trend | Pink Star: Fashion Merge → Trend | Swifty Arrows → Trend
Magnetic Chess Game! → Trend | Tanghulu Recipe – ASMR Mukbang → Trend | Survival Run – Clown Adventure → Trend
And a little bonus: a guy from Reddit made a mobile game based on the “This is fine” dog meme: iOS, Android.
💡 Spotlight on …
Yeah, it’s a new section in our digest. Here, we aim to direct your attention to sometimes overlooked yet genuinely interesting game projects. It could involve a trending mechanic or a lesser-known game with a creative idea. The goal is to inspire your creativity and encourage you to try something new.
This time, the focus is on the trend with the Puzzle Fruit Merge mechanic. We’ve selected popular fruit merges and even more niche must-see meme/animal merges. All information is provided based on Sensor Tower statistics.
