Narcos: Cartel Wars

A lot has changed since the game's release: the technologies and approaches used in the project have become outdated, and distribution platforms (Google, Apple, and Facebook) required the use of fresh APIs and SDKs. To maintain the stability of the game, the team had to manageably update components, merge versions that were officially incompatible with each other, but after several months of managed changes, it was possible to update all components of the game to the current ones.

By 2020, all the main monetization mechanics were implemented in the game and the audience was gradually losing interest in the game. Thanks to the original ideas of the producer and attention to the narrative details of the project, the project performed well for another 4 years of our operation. The use of in-game events, interesting facts from the series, as well as competent UA, allowed us to warm up the audience's interest in the game.

The broad outlook and flexibility of the development team allowed us to cover the inherited wide stack of technologies (JS, Haxe, C#, Java, Objective-C) without rewriting the code base and thereby saving money for the customer.

From an artistic point of view, we managed to maintain the inherited art style in the production of subsequent content. Over 4 years, about 50 new characters were produced (from sketches to 3D models and 3D animations).

To ensure the stability of the game, critical areas in the source code were covered with unit tests. All game settings were covered with validations. The process of assembling binaries was automated and integrated into the general CI/CD process.

To rationally use computing power, an audit of server instances was conducted, options for optimal use of computing resources were proposed and implemented. As a result, monthly costs for computing power were reduced from $20k to $6k.

The game design team studied all balance tables and created a total of 20 more in-game events that fit perfectly into the existing balance of the game.

With each change to the product, we realized that they all added value to the overall experience, while staying in line with the initial goal that Tilting Point Media set out to achieve. The end result is a product that both Patterns and Tilting Point Media are extremely proud of.

This is also evidenced by the positive user reviews of the game: in the Appstore, the game has a rating of 4.6, in Google Play - 4.7.

As a result of the concerted team effort, it was possible to significantly slow down the natural outflow of the audience from the project and maintain the profitability of the operating product for another 4 years.