two & a half gamers – 💡 How to create new mobile games 101, 2026 edition 😎

Summary

How do you pick the right core for your next puzzle hit?

Jakub Remiar breaks down the methodology behind some of the most successful puzzle launches of the last two years — Domino Dreams, Magic Sword, Block Out, Hexa Out, Arrow Gem — and explains the pattern that connects all of them.

The short version: stop trying to invent new cores. Find a puzzle sub-genre that already has massive download volume but is monetized almost entirely through ads. Take that core, wrap it in level-based design, blockers, and live-ops polish, and convert the ad-revenue audience into IAP players. Domino Dreams did it with Domino. Magic Sword did it with Water Sort. Block Out did it with Color Block Jam. Same playbook every time.

This is the video to send to anyone who asks “what genre should I build in next.”

Potensus is a premium ad network built by people who’ve actually been on both sides of this industry – game publishers, agencies, and successful exits. They get it.

Here’s the thing – Potensus has direct deals with Amazon, Apple, Coca-Cola, Vodafone. Not programmatic. Direct. Those budgets land in your game at premium CPMs, no middleman tax.

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Head to potensus.com to get started or check their creative portfolio here
https://vimeo.com/showcase/12093300?f…

📌 KEY TAKEAWAYS

— The opportunity isn’t in inventing new puzzle cores.
It’s in finding ad-driven puzzle categories with high
download volume and converting them to IAP via level
design, blockers, and live-ops.

— Domino Dreams isn’t a Domino game. Magic Sword isn’t
a Water Sort game. They’re level-based puzzlers with
a familiar core wrapped around them — that’s the trick.

— Category ceiling matters: Domino Dreams will likely
cap around $7–8M/month because the niche is finite.
That’s still a profitable, sustainable hit.

— Studios like Grand Games and Spyke have built a
consistent template: 80% finished metagame engine +
swap in the new trending core + 20% iteration.

— Lesmore’s Arrows is the current source code —
everyone is iterating on it (Hexa Out, Arrow Gem,
countless clones).

— The hard part isn’t copying the core. It’s the
level-based design expertise — knowing where to
add fail states, blockers, moves, and time pressure
to make IAP monetization work.

— This is a lottery. The winners aren’t the studios
with the best ticket — they’re the studios that
consistently buy the most tickets.

#mobilegaming #gamedesign #puzzlegames #liveops #f2p