Pocket Gamer Connects London 2022 saw over 1,600 delegates representing more than 900 companies return to central London to celebrate the global mobile games industry, share in our experience and expertise, and finally get back to networking in person in a rousing return to live events.
In his Connects presentation, When the shit hits the (RGB) fan: what can go wrong when making multiplayer games, Mathieu Duperré, CEO of Edgegap, discussed avoiding the most common pitfalls when making and launching multiplayer games and preventing loss of revenue.
We spoke with Duperré after the conference to get his broader thoughts on the mobile games industry – the most common mistakes made and the future of live events in light of the COVID pandemic.
What’s the most common mistake you see being made in the games sector?
Falling in love with your game. This is directly related to very very fast iteration, testing as many times and as quickly as possible, and getting feedback. You have to adapt to what players are saying, asking, and providing feedback on.
To do so, you need to be able to adapt and change quickly. Fast development is done with automation and being able to release within minutes, whether to do A/B testing, fix bugs, or implement changes in the mechanics.
What developments do you think have been undervalued by the mobile games industry?
AAA quality-like games. We see growth around high quality multiplayer games like PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty Mobile. Mobile is getting into the esports arena and the content of those games is getting to par with what consoles and PC are doing. Hypercasual games are good, but younger gamers are looking for the same experience and adrenaline they get with the home setup.
What’s your favourite ever mobile game?
Mini Metro from Dinosaur Polo Club. It’s a hypercasual game with a traffic steering mechanism. I’ve played a lot of ‘flight control’ games where you control planes landing at an airport, but Mini Metro took a sheet from this game and implemented a very beautiful, minimalistic game.
What key trend should we be paying attention to in the next 12 months?
Crossplay. We have seen crossplay between console vendors, and we will see crossplay across any device, anywhere. From PC, consoles, mobile and cloud gaming, you will connect to something to interact with people. This means play, but also simply socialising, etc. It will be hard for a vendor to ‘garden lock’ as they are use to.
What was the fundamental appeal of the mobile games industry that brought you to it?
As someone who worked for wireless carriers, I saw first hand what new devices and evolving networks were going to support. Being connected wirelessly is allowing things impossible in the past, and gaming in general is becoming the bridge between peoples to interact, the same way social networks did 10 years ago.
What would you like to see more of from events in the future (such as resources for neurodivergent people or more allocated spacing for meetings and networking)?
More synergy between online and in-person events. COVID is here to stay, and we should be able to have both world in sync more than they are today.
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You can see all of PocketGamer.biz’s coverage of Pocket Gamer Connects London 2022 through this link, and we are raring to go with the next Pocket Gamer Connects event in Seattle on May 9-10 – tickets are now available – and we hope you’ll join us there too.
