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When childhood friends Mads and Oliver noticed the lack of real-time strategy war games on Android, they set about creating one to fill the gap. In the fall of 2019 and while still in high school, Mads developed what was to become the foundation for ‘Trench Warfare 1917’- An engaging and highly customizable real-time strategy game set during World War 1.
After agreeing on further development, they decided that their game had to be fun and engaging, with a high degree of flexibility for players. In terms of gameplay and monetization, they wanted to allow players to create teams, battles, strategies, and levels. It should have no forced ads, only those that would reward you. Also, the game should have no protracted fake waiting periods. Ultimately, this turned out to be a challenging set of criteria to fulfill, resulting in a low eCPM in their initial attempts to monetize. The team identified poor communications with their partners as a contributing factor, an issue that persisted until they found the MAS team at Yodo1.
Mads, Oliver, and Bertin became SimpleBit Studios ApS after meeting each other in their teenage years. Before living together as roommates, Mads was already programming games in his spare time and asked if Oliver wanted to join him as the game artist. While the duo made many small games on the weekends throughout high school, it wasn’t until the fall of 2019 that they started considering creating games as a serious career opportunity.
SimpleBit’s big game breakthrough came about while Oliver was traveling Asia with his girlfriend. Having identified a niche in the market, Mads conceived and developed ‘Trench Warfare 1917’- A game where players are able to decide their adversary, build custom battle teams and devise strategies to defeat the enemy. Oliver liked the idea, and, along with a good friend Bertin they set about developing the game further.
From the onset, the team understood their unique concept would take time for new players to master. They also observed that most games had too many ads. With this in mind, a monetization strategy with minimal ad distractions was necessary to encourage high player retention and engagement levels. Meeting this criterion would be a challenge, but making it work would reduce entry barriers and help the game become more attractive for new players to get started.
“We had ad challenges before we found the optimal solution.”
SimpleBit released a base game after three months of further development, and it was time to focus on game monetization. Their first choice was to align with a provider that offered quick and easy integration. Over time, it became clear that this solution would allow the company to reach its long-term business goals, as the eCPM they were getting was too low. Furthermore, SimpleBit was frustrated by the lack of personal support from their ad provider. After careful deliberation, the team decided to seek out better opportunities and found a third-party ad provider to better serve their interests.
In search of the perfect solution, it wasn’t long before SimpleBit enlisted the help of Yodo 1’s Managed Ad Services (MAS). In simple terms, MAS uses AI-powered tools combined with expert knowledge in maximizing Ad revenue from their own games to simplify the monetization process. With data-driven ad management, optimal ad injection points, and dedicated customer service, the MAS team aims to eliminate the frustrating task of growing revenue.
By switching to MAS, SimpleBit achieved an increase of almost 80% in eCPM from Trench Warfare 1917’s Android version alone. The fact that the team at Yodo1 are developers and avid gamers themselves helped significantly. “They understand us and our unique needs,” said SimpleBit.
“Overall, we experienced great customer support. Through Skype, they were able to answer questions very quickly. On top of that, Yodo1’s MAS team were good at setting up meetings to catch up on progress, in the case that we hadn’t talked for a while.” In conclusion, SimpleBit goes on to explain, “The MAS team at Yodo1 is definitely a great company to work together with, and provides good opportunities within a crowded market.”
Moving forward, Yodo1 will provide a consistently high level of service to build an enduring partnership with SimpleBit. Mads, Oliver and Bertin can expect regular feedback and advice regarding Ad monetization and player engagement as they strive to develop more advanced games in the mobile space.
MAS AI and accumulated knowledge have given Yodo1 over ten years of experience in growing and optimizing revenue. Not just for us, but for all of our partners.
If you’re ready to take your ad revenue to the next level, contact our expert team today and let’s get started.
