Lars Schmeller, Game Lead at Lotum, shares how GameRefinery has transformed their decision-making process.

At Lotum, we develop and operate games that engage millions of players worldwide daily. Our aim is to develop high-impact products by working in small but talented and agile teams. With our approach, Lotum has become a leading developer for games on iOS, Android and Facebook Messenger. Our 46-people team has launched products that have generated over 900M downloads globally.

We started working with GameRefinery in 2022 to support our product development with feature-level data and market insights.

The Challenge

Selected game teams at Lotum wanted to deepen their knowledge about the key feature trends in the casual gaming space. They wanted to support design decisions with reliable market and game feature data.

One of our main projects was introducing a recurring event framework to 4 Pics 1 Word—the world-famous puzzle classic with countless Aha! Moments. 4 Pics 1 Word has been incredibly popular since 2013 and is available in eight languages. Prompted by our guiding principle (small team, big impact), we wanted a hands-on solution that would help us identify relevant game mechanics we could adopt.

Solution and Results

The 4 Pics 1 Word team regularly relies on GameRefinery data to inform product decisions. GameRefinery has been a vital tool that allows us to dig deeper into gaming features and understand performs in the wider market. Here’s how:

Feature Popularity – Match 3 segment

With GameRefinery, we can view market segments with ease—for instance, level-based Match 3 games. The insights we gain about feature popularity help improve roadmap prioritization.

Feature Evolution  – Gardenscapes

By digging into features at the game level, we can see how popular games evolve and build interest. This way, we can generate ideas for game improvements.

Live Events – Recurring – Royal Match

Additionally, GameRefinery helped us reduce production costs by granting access to the vast collection of feature implementations and FTUE video.

Finally, GameRefinery played an important role in educating different Lotum teams about the aspects of free-to-play mobile gaming. The company-wide presentations about LiveOps in Puzzle Games and trends in Battle Pass design delivered by the GameRefinery team were extremely well received. They helped the team understand the latest innovations as well as market best practices.

I recommend using GameRefinery for every data-driven studio that wants to rely on accurate, up-to-date information to make informed game design decisions. With GameRefinery, we have access to a wealth of data at our fingertips. The data allows us to identify trends and patterns that we might have missed before. The dashboards and visualizations are intuitive and easy to use, and the GameRefinery team is incredibly supportive. 

Lars Schmeller, Game Lead 4 Bilder 1 Wort

Learn more about working with GameRefinery here, or contact us.