AppLovin Investigated 🕵️, Xsolla Mobile Monetization 📱, CloverPit Record 🎮, Unreal Facial Animation 🤖
Strategy & Analytics 📊
Maximize Learning per Test: Information Theory’s Guide to Experiments
This post turns information theory into a practical playbook for experiment design. From coins to a “submarine” search and the 12-ball scale puzzle, it shows how -log2(p) ties surprise to bits and why evenly likely outcomes maximize expected information. The takeaway: when you must choose a test under constraints, pick the one that balances outcome probabilities. It’s a clean heuristic you can blend with fractional factorial design.
Mobile Monetization Rewired: Xsolla’s Q2 2025 State of Play
Xsolla’s Q2 2025 report charts a new mobile landscape as the Epic‑Apple ruling enables in‑app CTAs and links to third‑party payments, empowering web shop promotion. It details global regulatory shifts (China spending caps, Japan’s alternative storefronts), and market trends: IAP revenue up 4% with puzzle and strategy leading. APAC drives the longest sessions and installs, while LATAM, SEA, and Saudi Arabia show strong monetization potential. The report also tackles D2C hurdles and indie marketing must‑dos.
Regulation & Market Moves ⚖️
SEC Probes AppLovin Data Practices as Shares Plunge 19%
The SEC has opened an investigation into AppLovin’s data collection practices, examining claims of breached platform partner agreements for targeted ads. Shares fell as much as 19%, the steepest intraday drop in six months. AppLovin says it routinely engages with regulators and will disclose any material updates. Despite the scrutiny, the company is pushing its AI-driven Axon ads unit and expanding into web and e-commerce.
CloverPit hits 500K sales in 8 days, sets Steam CCU record
Slot machine rogue-lite CloverPit has sold 500,000 copies in eight days and hit a 25,190 concurrent player peak on October 5, per SteamDB. Developer Panik Arcade shared the milestone on Bluesky and says the game is currently Steam-only. The team also warns players about a “barely playable” mobile clone on the iOS App Store.
Real-Time Animation & Experiences 🎭
xADA Unveiled: Realistic Facial Animation from Audio in Unreal Engine
Epic’s xADA transforms speech into expressive face, tongue, and head animation for MetaHumans. The Unreal Fest session features a live demo, explains the ML pipeline, and shows how to deploy xADA for both offline and streaming speech. Choose fully automatic results or override emotion and blink timing for artistic control. Documentation link included for faster integration.
Inside Villain-Con: Film-Grade Animation at Theme Park Scale
Universal Creative reveals how Illumination’s Villain-Con Minion Blast achieved film-quality visuals running live in Unreal Engine. The session unpacks an asset pipeline that preserved cinematic fidelity, advanced lighting from concept to final shots, and design challenges for a moving-walkway, 16-player attraction. Expect insights on infinite-loop boss fights, multi-user synchronization, and the graphics hardware that powered the experience.
Engine & Rendering Tech 🛠️
Unity to Unreal for Mobile: Framework, Blueprints, and Performance Wins
A former Unity engineer (now at Epic) breaks down moving to Unreal for mobile: auto-initialized Gameplay Framework, class-based Blueprints that inherit and ship as DLC, and a unified renderer boosted by GPU Scene and PSO pre-caching. See practical workflows like Android Emulator support, Zen Streaming for instant on-device iteration, and Memory Insights for leak hunting. Plus, familiar tool parity and built-in ads/IAP/notifications to speed production.
KWS2 Dynamic Water: Realistic Waves, Foam, and Free Demo
KWS2 is Kripto289’s latest dynamic water system with physical flow, interactions, and multi-pipeline support. A free demo lets you try it hands-on. The September update upgrades foam and caustic rendering, improves simulation quality, and refactors code ahead of a forthcoming lite version. A solid pick for building convincing, responsive water scenes.