Andy Russell is the Director of Engineering at Kwalee, one of the leading mobile game publishers and developers with over 1 billion downloads. Kwalee was an early and exceptionally successful adopter of the hypercasual model in the mid-2010s – but as the industry evolved, so did their strategies. Today, they have a thriving portfolio of hybrid casual and casual games with longer lifespans and more effective hybrid monetization. We discussed why Kwalee chose Balancy to support growth and enhance LiveOps for their portfolio games with Andy.
The challenge: Building a robust LiveOps infrastructure to support hybrid shift
One of the core challenges for product teams is delivering the content and experiences that players need as quickly as possible. Some features must be delivered in time for a celebration, others aim to improve key metrics swiftly, and some must be launched before a trend fades. Timing is critical for achieving performance goals.
However, the reliance on spreadsheets, hardcoded solutions, and overloaded developer pipelines slows down prototyping, delays time-to-market, and complicates feature iterations. To overcome these roadblocks, the Kwalee team decided to use Balancy’s content management system (CMS). This solution introduces a unified yet flexible admin panel that streamlines collaboration between product and engineering teams, enabling faster delivery and smoother workflows.
Kwalee’s strategic shift to hybrid monetization also demanded advanced LiveOps tools to better segment players and personalize their monetisation journeys. Without this targeted approach, the team risked missing significant revenue opportunities. The Balancy’s LiveOps suite became a key solution, making it easy to launch new game events and in-game shop offers and to tailor them to individual players.
The solution: Seamless integration and unique solutions for publishers
Balancy has seamlessly integrated into Kwalee’s LiveOps ecosystem, enabling the team to deliver smarter, more personalised gameplay experiences across their portfolio. The integration was a straightforward procedure of integrating a lightweight SDK into games. The Balancy team provided all the necessary tech support and training along the way.
Managing custom game settings with Balancy’s Content Management System (CMS)
After the integration was complete, the Kwalee team gained access to a wide range of LiveOps tools. These include a content management system (CMS) for creating and deploying custom game settings, as well as features for managing special offers, events, segmentation, and A/B testing.
In collaboration with Kwalee, Balancy has launched a must-have feature for teams that actively work with LiveOps – branches. This allows teams to create separate versions (branches) of a project to develop new features, test changes, or fix bugs without affecting the live game. Once a feature is complete and tested, the branch can be merged back into the main project, ensuring the main version remains stable while new development continues. Balancy is currently the only LiveOps platform offering this essential tool.
Branches feature in Balancy
Another powerful feature used by Kwalee is packages. In Balancy, any feature or configuration can be saved as a package and reused in the same or other projects. This saves time for publishers and developers with multiple games by allowing them to quickly replicate successful features—like special offers, shop templates, battle passes, or ad setups—into new games with just a few clicks. The only step left is to fill in the template with resources and values that are relevant to the new project.
The results: Personalised experiences boost ARPDAU while the team saves development time
One standout example is Dream Build Solitaire, which recently transitioned its LiveOps platform to Balancy. Given the project’s complexity, the team leveraged Balancy’s advanced segmentation and overrides to design live events and offers tailored to each player’s behaviour.
This approach ensures that:
- New players aren’t overwhelmed by irrelevant offers or pop-ups.
- Ad-focused players (IAA users) enjoy uninterrupted gameplay without unnecessary shop promotions.
- Purchasing players (IAP users) receive highly curated shop deals at the moments they value most.
Here are the excellent results that the team achieved over a three-month period:
This meticulous approach has not only improved the game’s core metrics but also elevated the players’ overall enjoyment—a reflection of Kwalee’s player-first philosophy. As Andy puts it, “It’s not just about maximising metrics; it’s about making the most fun games for the world’s players”. This is what helps the Kwalee team continue creating games enjoyed by millions of players throughout more than a decade.
Would you like to see results like this in your game? Request a demo from the Balancy team.