Game Spotlight: Cooking Max from Twizard Studios

Twizard Studios are a team of passionate engineers and designers based in Pakistan, specializing in cooking games.

Their two titles, Cafe Express and Cooking Max, have seen great success, achieving over 3 million total downloads, ranking the company among the best cooking game developers in Pakistan, and hitting the top 10 casual games on Android overall. This success can be ascribed at least partially to the team’s strong philosophy; “Believe in data more than anything” and “Discipline defines your future.”

The studio has recently integrated AdInMo’s in-game brand ads into both of their games, so we sat down with Sohail Khan, CTO and Co-Founder, to discuss their integration with Cooking Max, and his thoughts on in-game advertising in general.

In-Game Advertising Integration

Cooking Max features a solid line up of in-game ads, concentrating them in two key locations: the background during gameplay, and on billboards on the map screen. These ads are well-framed, appearing authentic within their respective scenes, and also well-placed, providing excellent coverage across the entirety of the play experience, ensuring a constant flow of impressions.

What were the main inspirations and core design pillars behind Cooking Max?

The main inspiration and core design pillar behind Cooking Max are the real life “Shinwari” chefs, who prepare some of the world’s most famous dishes. We have expertise in game development, and one of our friends had experience working on cooking games, so we decided to work together. We analyzed the data and found a gap in the market for a new cooking game, and decided to take advantage of that by developing Cooking Max.

Tell us about your experience integrating AdInMo ads into your game.

Integrating with AdinMo was super easy and simple. It took less than half an hour to implement it in the game.

Did you plan out an ad placement strategy? If so, what was it?

We didn’t plan a specific strategy for ad placement, but when we started the process things came together naturally. As the level map in our game is scrollable, we placed only one ad per screen there, to avoid irritating the player. We also placed two ad placements in the core gameplay sections, since there was available space there.

How well-suited do you think in-game ads like AdInMo’s are to cooking games like Cooking Max?

In-game ads like AdInMo’s are great for creating extra revenue. As they are neither clickable nor full screen, they take up a very small part of the screen, and don’t violate any Play Store policies. They work best when combined with traditional mobile game ads.

How do you think in-game advertising compares to traditional mobile ads?

There is no comparison of AdInMo ads with traditional mobile game ads. They’re completely different, and can create extra revenue without irritating your players.

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