The Game Growth Program is an accelerator program developed for free-to-play mobile indie games. As an indie developer, you can get access to amazing tools for your game and a team of game operations experts. Unity will cover the cost of bringing in new players and improving your game, and as payback, you share your game revenue 50/50 with Unity.”
Currently, small game development teams are always trying to find the right audience for the platform they create. The competition is fierce and finding the target audience that will like your game isn’t as easy as it seems. Making an amazing game is just the first step of the journey. If you manage to launch it successfully, how will you acquire new players for your game? And how will you keep them engaged? That is why Unity has come up with the Game Growth Program.
Game growth program is currently in the early-access phase and it works as an accelerator program for mobile indie developers. Unity partners with selected Indie game developers to help them scale their game quickly and effectively, while they remain completely independent.
By partnering with Unity, you can get access to industry-leading tools and a team of experts dedicated to player acquisition, engagement, and monetization of your game. All while you stay independent and have complete ownership of your studio and your intellectual property.
The Program Basics
The Game Growth Program is available for already published, free-to-play indie mobile games. There are limited partnership opportunities available. So you should check out FAQs for specific requirements.
If you meet the mentioned criteria and get accepted into the program, Unity will provide necessary fund for user acquisition and offer technology and Unity experts who will help you manage player engagement and monetization of your game. This program is designed to care of the process to help you grow while you focus on developing and improving your game.
Game Growth is a revenue-sharing program, Unity and the Indie developer team split the revenue generated from in-app purchase and advertisement after the user acquisition spend has been recovered. To put it simply, Unity takes care of the cost for brining in players to your game and while it shares the revenue.
To help you decide, we want you to be clear about the terms and condition so you can be sure if Game Growth program is a good option for you. Below is a break down of revenue sharing with an example:
An indie developer who has applied to the program has a game that generates a revenue of $3,000/month. Unity spends specified amount a month to acquire new users for the game, retains those users using live support operations and increases the revenue to $130,000/month. *
Unity will first recoup their $100,000 they invested in monthly user acquisition costs, that leaves you with revenue of $30,000/month. The developer and Unity would share that $30,000 in revenue equally, giving $15,000 to Unity and $15,000 to the developer.
*The above explained model would continue throughout your partnership via the Game Growth program. This is an example model to explain the revenue sharing only. The exact investment/revenue amounts can be inconsistent month over month.
The goal of this program is to help independent creates set on a path for long-term success. Besides helping your game grow during the partnership, Unity Experts also work with you together to integrate tools and practices that will benefit you for years to come. The objective is to help developers outperform the program. Once the partnership ends, you will still have the complete ownership of your game and intellectual property – with no permanent revenue sharing restrictions to Unity once the program ends.
Here’s how Unity aims to grow your game:
Create and operate a user acquisition strategy campaign that will bring new players to your game.
The team of Unity experts analyzes the economic state of your game platform and suggests and implements optimizations.
Game Growth experts with you and your development team to improve and operate in-app purchase and ad placement.
Work with you to apply tools and strategies to keep the players engaged.
How Does Game Growth Program Work?
It is an ongoing process where you work closely with Unity to improve and grow your game. You’ll get access to high-tech Unity products and industry professionals to improve your game, as well as get funding for user attainment. You can go to Unity Dashboard to apply if you are interested in the program. Start by introducing your project and development team. From there, you can integrate the Game Growth package via the Unity Editor. The package includes a set of analytical tools that can be used to help measure important metrics in your game.
Once you have installed the package, Unity will examine your game to determine if it is an acceptable candidate for testing. Along with other factors, your game’s key metrics will be studied to determine success, specifically, D1 retention, D7 retention, average session duration, average sessions per user, install conversion rates, and cost per install. If your project meets the mentioned criteria, the next step is the user acquisition testing stage. This is an important step as it will help Unity decide if your game can be accepted in the program and establish partnership. Also, Unity will cover all costs associated with this stage of the program.
Once you are authorized as an official partner, the team will work with you to enhance key factors of your game and begin user acquisition campaigns. This comprises of helping you design and operate new game features, integrate important business services, and optimize player engagement and monetization.
Game Growth will perform as your additional team of experts throughout the partnership. This gives you the access to a dedicated group of game professionals who are currently working on growing some of the biggest games in the industry!
How Can You Apply?
The application process is easy. All you will need is a valid Unity ID and your game should be made on Unity Live on iOS or Android. You can proceed to the Game Growth section on the Unity Dashboard to start the application process.
The application process will also require you to submit details about your game, development team, and a few general details about your complete project. You will also be required to upload creative assets (images and videos) and integrate the Game Growth package via the Unity Editor as mentioned.
For question, you can visit our FAQs page.
Just because you’re a small team doesn’t mean you can’t dream big!
