«Our most popular games are over 10 years old» – insight into the world of Innogames

Florian Bodoky

29.6.2024

Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

Pictures: Florian Bodoky

Some of Innogames’ browser and mobile games have out for decades – and met with great success. Head of Studio Nino Protic tells us how the Hamburg game developer does this and what else they’re planning.

Nino Protic is Head of Studio at the headquarters of game developer Innogames in Hamburg. He usually works from home, but he makes an exception for our interview. We talk in the office about his beginnings at the browser game company and how quickly everything developed.

Hi Nino, thanks for taking the time out to talk to me. Would you like to introduce yourself first and tell us what your job at Innogames is?
Nino: I’m Nino Protic, and I’ve been with Innogames almost since it was founded. I started out as a community manager in my home country of Sweden. At that time, we were mainly working on Tribal Wars. In 2009, I moved to Germany and became the game’s product manager.

Now I’m head of the studio that looks after our classics. These include Tribal Wars, Grepolis and Elvenar. Forge of Empires also belongs in this pot, currently our most important title. With these games, we’ve grown from what felt like four people to 350 employees.

Wow, impressive. What do you think Innogames is best known for?

Nino: I think Forge of Empires, it has by far the largest user base. After 11 years on the market, it passed the one billion Euro mark in total sales in summer 2023. So far, not even 100 games have ever achieved this.

Some may also be familiar with our launch product Tribal Wars. Although it’s already 21 years old, it’s never been as successful as it is now. We’re continuously working on both games and are constantly adding a lot of new items.

What are the basic processes when you develop a new game? What are the first things you need to think about?

Well, it usually starts with an idea for a game. The idea must be in line with our strategy, our vision and the values we have as a company. And then, of course, it has to fit our target audience. To this end, we carry out research in advance. The game should also be creative and fun, of course.

As soon as a pitch has been approved, we form a small core team. This core team essentially consists of one or two developers and game designers, an artist and a product manager. They then sit down to develop a prototype, which has to be ready as quickly as possible. We have these tested internally.

So the prototype of a game is a first, early draft?

Nino: Yes, a very early one. It focuses on core mechanics and the first day of gameplay. Nothing in it is final. Any tutorial will be very short – if there is one at all. It’s more about the core of the game. Is it really fun? Is it something that users would engage with? Then we try to get some kind of user feedback.

How do you usually get this feedback?

Nino: We do video calls with players and they tell us what they think. Or we put it in the App Store. Only a few files and only on the European market. We then pay attention to how people interact with this prototype and what reviews we get as well as the numbers, our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

How long does the process take to get here?

Nino: This is usually the first three to four months of development. Things happen quick.

Then the production phase begins with a team of 15 to 20 people. Game basics and game design are worked out here, in addition to all function descriptions. This work takes one or two, sometimes even three years.

At the moment you have nine games out. On which game was work completed the fastest? Or with which game were there significantly more problems?

Nino: Forge of Empires was the simplest production in my eyes. It only took nine to eleven months from the idea to the so-called beta version. We also continued to work on it after release. With more recent games such as Rise of Cultures, development took longer – two or three years until release.

I wouldn’t say the process was harder with Rise of Cultures. However, games launched on the market today are much bigger than they used to be. As a company, you have to go along with this; otherwise you run the risk of not winning over the audience.

Innogames’ titles are mainly strategy games. Is there a particular reason for this?

Nino: This is how Innogames started. Tribal Wars was the baby project of our founders. They launched it 4 years before they founded Innogames, from their childhood rooms. They were fans of strategy construction games.

This passion exhibited by the founders has also rubbed off on our employees and is the reason why we’re so good at the strategy construction genre. The fact gamers enjoy the product is an important indicator of subsequent success.

We’ve also moved out of our comfort zone and developed casual games – and still do. But we definitely don’t have the same experience there, so I think we’ll continue to focus strongly on construction and strategy games over the next few years, further strengthening our community this way. To keep games alive, you have to engage extensively with your community.

So you work a lot with feedback from your community?

Nino: Yes, definitely. We have a very large community management department at Innogames. A core value in our company is that we really strive to listen to our community and our players.

That’s what it’s all about. The community knows the games better than anyone else. It’s not about the next big release, but rather about how we can improve the product for them.

Most of your games are free to play. How do you earn money across your range?

Nino: Yes, our games are all free-to-play. This basically means we’re funded by in-game advertising, in-app purchases and optional premium content that players can buy to customise the game experience. In construction games such as Forge of Empires or Rise of Cultures, for example, you can buy a special building or cosmetics.

In addition, some of our games also offer the option of unlocking a specific feature or thing that makes playing easier. For example, Tribal Wars offers a premium subscription, making the game a little easier. It offers a better overview of your cities, for example.

This requires players who are prepared to spend money. However, we’re trying to find a good balance between paying gamers and those who play the game for free. I don’t want any of our games to go in the direction of pay-to-win. This harmony between player types is important.

Yes, subscribed gamers are the ones who help us pay salaries so we can continue to produce content. But free-to-play users bring life to our game worlds, which ultimately makes up our community. So both types of gamers are incredibly important, the balance wouldn’t work without both.

Mobile and browser games with in-app purchases have a reputation for deliberately incorporating addictive triggers. How do you deal with such prejudices at Innogames?

Nino: The problem is that people don’t know Innogames’ titles very well. If we look at the entire gaming market, there’s an estimated 3.7 billion players. Of these, around 90 per cent are (also) mobile gamers.

So to say that addictive triggers are the only way to keep players hooked on free-to-play games is like suggesting that millions of players are naive and constantly being manipulated by the games industry. In my opinion, this isn’t true.

On the contrary, we have to come up with good gameplay, especially in free-to-play games. And of course, we want the player to think the game is so good they want to spend money. But nowhere in our games do we force anyone to do this. A key difference to most full-price titles.

If you aren’t happy with a console or PC game you bought on a recommendation for 70 euros, you might be able to sell it on eBay for half the price. But in the case of purchased downloads, you’re completely left out in the cold. I think both types of games – full-price titles and free-to-play games – have their advantages. But with a free-to-play game, I already know what I’m going to get. If I like it, I’ll spend money if necessary. If I don’t, I can simply stop playing.

Speaking of PC or console games, have you ever thought about developing one?

Nino: No. I think we came closest with Bounty Hunters Online, a title that we licensed from Asia. But we gave up pretty quickly because we realised we weren’t really good at it. However, Tribal Wars is also available on Steam. We like trying these things. However, our main focus is on browser and mobile games.

What is Innogames currently working on?

Nino: The focus of my studio is on the games we already have. At the same time, new games are always in development, since we want to offer our players something new. We have to keep pace with the market. It’s why most work goes into games that are still in the pipeline. Our focus will continue to be on building strategies that require time and a certain amount of tactics to progress.

So things remain exciting. Thank you for your time and the insightful conversation!

Florian Bodoky

Editor

Florian.Bodoky@digitecgalaxus.ch

I've been tinkering with digital networks ever since I found out how to activate both telephone channels on the ISDN card for greater bandwidth. As for the analogue variety, I've been doing that since I learned to talk. Though Winterthur is my adoptive home city, my heart still bleeds red and blue. more

These articles might also interest you