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A Guide to App Monetization in China

Reading time 5 min
Views 1.7K

Introduction and Context

So you’ve just finished developing the next mobile gaming smash hit. You’ve already planned to launch your game worldwide and win the hearts of gamers everywhere. But what you haven’t done yet is think about how you’re going to make any money from your success and hard work. Of course, you’ve imagined becoming an instant millionaire, but you just don’t know how to get there.  

Fear not, intrepid developer! Instead of just rehashing the tired headlines and beating the same old drum, we’ve tailored our Ad Monetization write-up for developers who are gearing up to publish their game or app in China. We’ve scoured the internet, grabbed insight from ad giants like Google, Smartyads, and PocketGamer.biz and combined it with our own hands-on knowledge of what works in China—knowledge that we have gained from the past  5 years in the industry.

We need to briefly explore how monetization functions as a utility within the context of game design. This is especially true when examining how developers in China have made meaningful design decisions that have both shaped and been shaped by user habits. Unpacking the utility of Chinese game monetization will help developers understand why Ads Monetization or Hybrid Monetization strategies have become so popular, especially in China.

Moving from monetization design, we’ll examine some of the best practices regarding Ads Monetization. Finally,  we’ll turn to specific case studies in the Chinese market that show how powerful Ads Monetization, specifically Rewarded Videos, can be in a well-balanced monetization strategy. 

Designing Monetization as a Utility

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What App Stores can you consider except Apple App Store and Google Play Store? Here are 6 Alternative App Stores

Reading time 3 min
Views 6.4K

Recently Epic Games’ Fortnite was removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The main reason being Epics bypassing of in-app purchases instead of using the officially sanctioned system for both platforms. While it is still possible for you to download Fortnite directly, this large scale case brings to light the duopoly of Apple and Google in the mobile market.

For most developers, these two stores account for almost all of their revenue and userbase. While Epic Games will be fine to go without, for the time being, what about the other 99% of developers who rely on these two stores for distributing and monetizing their apps. In this article, we’ll provide some of the alternative stores available for both developers and consumers for finding or distributing apps.

For one reason or another, you may have found yourself wondering, ‘where are some other places I can go to find and download new apps and games for my mobile device’? Or ‘are there any other marketplaces for me to share my apps’?

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Total votes 1: ↑0 and ↓1 -1
Comments 4

Case Study: How to Get Featured on Google Play and Adapt ASO to Different Countries

Reading time 13 min
Views 1.3K


Full HP Ltd is an international mobile game development company with 40+ employees and offices in Rostov-on-Don and Cyprus. Their portfolio includes 8 games, among them Mad GunZ (a Google Play Editors' choice) and Blocky Cars (a Catappult Editors' choice). Mad GunZ has over 12 million downloads on all platforms, and Blocky Cars has over 32 million.

The company is actively involved in the life of the IT community and is a sponsor of the Sunflower game devs festival.

The Full HP Ltd team translates texts for Blocky Cars and Mad GunZ using Nitro professional translation service, and agreed to share some of their lifehacks with us:

  • how to maximize ASO optimization results
  • how to get on the home page of Google Play
  • how to monetize children’s games
  • and the benefits of releasing a game on alternative platforms.
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Total votes 2: ↑0 and ↓2 -2
Comments 0

How to Localize a Mobile Game for the Asian Market

Reading time 7 min
Views 1.4K


With the Asian market rapidly growing, almost every ambitious IT product sooner or later faces the challenge of localization for this region. And without knowing all its facets any localization project is rather doomed to fail. That’s why we at Alconost have decided to translate and share with you the article on localizing games for Asia by Plarium, a global game developer with solid experience in game localization. We found here some useful approaches that are also valid for our localization projects and hope that you’ll like the reading, too.

For Western developers, entering the Asian market is like entering outer space, only 30 megabytes heavier. Localizing games into Japanese, Chinese, and Korean requires a Herculean effort. You need to account for certain technical requirements and scrupulously research the market and the target audience’s mindset. But if this is your dream, keep reading — our experience should stand you in good stead.

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Localization or Creative Adaptation? Case Study of the Game Streets of Rogue

Reading time 5 min
Views 1.1K


About the game Streets of Rogue


In 2017 tinyBuild released Streets of Rogue, a unique visual successor to the hit game Punch Club. Streets of Rogue is remarkable for the variety of its game features and genre elements. The developers combined an intense top-down roguelike, a retro pixel art style, an atmosphere of irrepressible excitement, classic character levelling, and questing. The game revolves around playing through a series of randomly generated cities. This can be accomplished via brute force, stealth, or hacking — it’s up to you!


How and why the game needed to be localized


Streets of Rogue quickly garnered a warm reception from gamers and the press alike, so tinyBuild naturally decided to bring the game to a wider international audience.

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Total votes 5: ↑5 and ↓0 +5
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How To Make Videos For Games. Practical Tips and Helpful Guidelines

Reading time 6 min
Views 912


Recently we at Alconost were producing several videos for games and, in the process of working with clients, we heard questions again that we had heard before: what should we show, should the video have a voiceover or not, how expensive is it to translate into multiple languages, what source materials do we need, how can we capture video of the screen of a mobile device… To answer these burning questions once and for all, we would like to share with you and give specific examples of how we make videos for games.

We think our experience will be useful both to anyone who is trying to produce video independently and to developers who are outsourcing creation of video for their games.

Written by Alconost
Total votes 4: ↑4 and ↓0 +4
Comments 0

Best Languages for Game Localization

Reading time 5 min
Views 1.3K


In the previous article, we discussed the most important languages for app localization. Soon afterward we received several requests to share our perspective on the key languages for game localization. That’s why we came up with this new post.

We’ve analyzed localization languages from the perspective of return on investment.

There are numerous case studies, research projects, and forecasts regarding the most promising countries and languages for game localization. In this article, we’re going to examine the game language issue from the perspective of the most efficient allocation of your localization budget.

What are the highest- and lowest-priority objectives when it comes to game localization?


We suggest raising this question first before selecting localization languages. Why? Because, depending on the type of game you’re localizing, your business objectives, and your audience’s expectations, there are several levels of localization.

You can do the minimum required and stop at the first level, or you can go further with a step-by-step localization and maximize outreach.

The first thing to start with is the localization of keywords and game description for app stores. This alone might work perfectly well if your game has little to no text or voice and its interface design is fully compatible with the standards of the country you are targeting.

Next, if your game contains text-based instructions, you have no choice but to translate them. In addition, other design choices will also need adjustments in terms of colors, numbers, and other local standards.

Finally, voice-over, if present in the game, must be translated as well, or at least subtitled. Or you can fully complete the localization process by rerecording voice-over in your target languages, thereby providing the perfect user experience.

Written by Alconost
Total votes 3: ↑3 and ↓0 +3
Comments 2

Top game development companies in the world

Reading time 21 min
Views 11K

The game industry is growing, especially among small, independent development companies. If you're looking for a game development company, let's take a glimpse at some top game development companies ranked, basing the list on games, as well as the number of existing players and uniqueness.


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Total votes 12: ↑10 and ↓2 +8
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