Crushing Hyper Casual Games: The Book by Trey Smith

By July 19, 2018Buildbox
Crushing Hyper Casual Games

 

GET THE BOOK

Want to learn how to create successful Hyper-casual games?

Buildbox founder, Trey Smith, has written the ultimate book to teach you how to do just that and much more. It’s called, “Crushing Hyper Casual Games: How to conceive, create, and launch Hyper-casual games to the top of the App Store.”

In this comprehensive guide, Trey shares the exact steps that he took to build a successful hyper-casual game business with over 65,000,000 downloads and counting. You’ll learn everything you need to know about not only building hyper-casual games but the secret to turning these type of games into hits.

Why Hyper-Casual?

Hyper-casual games are those really simple games in the App Store that are hard to win and even harder to put down. And right now, these games are dominating the App Store. In fact, most of the top games are hyper-casual. So, if you want to have a real advantage in the mobile game market today, hyper-casual games is the key.

In the 110 page digital book, Crushing Hyper Casual Games, you’ll learn every aspect of the hyper-casual game business from brainstorming ideas to effective launch strategies. There are four major sections: The Idea, The Build, The Game, and The Launch. In each chapter, Trey walks you through the concept and entire process you need to follow step-by-step.

In the book, he shares the same actionable system he used to create top games like The Line Zen, The Pit, Bounce, Phases, Endless Sky, Jump Pack, Blue Edge, Wall Switch, and even huge celebrity games like Bruce Lee: Dragon Run.

You’ll learn techniques to help you come up with killer game ideas capable of making it to the top of the charts. He’ll explain why it’s important to create games with wide demographics in mind and tips to help you in the early phase of development. Trey also reveals two unique ways you can build games without writing a single line of code plus a method to make all of your games without spending a dime!

Crushing Hyper Casual Games

If you’re an indie developer working with a limited budget, this book is essential. It also includes actionable tips and tricks to help you create your own game art. These tips will work even if you don’t have an artistic bone in your body. Trey used these same techniques to create all of the art in two of his popular games, Phases and The Line Zen. Both of them topped the charts.

In Crushing Hyper Casual Games, he also reveals the five essential rules you can’t break if you want to have success with hyper-casual games. These cardinal rules when followed will always lead you in the right direction. There’s tons of inside tips and tricks in this book.

You’ll learn the design as well as the marketing side of making games. Trey Smith shares his strategies for accumulating millions of downloads without paying a single penny in promotion. He also reveals tips and tricks that anyone can do to get more downloads for their app. You’ll learn launch mistakes to avoid, how to get signed to top tier publishers like Ketchapp, Voodoo, and Fortafy and more.

You won’t find a book like this anywhere else. It’s not on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Books-A-Million. In fact, there isn’t a single book about hyper-casual on Amazon. Crushing Hyper Casual Games is the first of it’s kind.

If you want to learn how to make hyper-casual games and crush it in the App Store, Crushing Hyper Casual Games will make you an expert.

GET THE BOOK

Tiana Crump

About Tiana Crump

Tiana Crump is a journalist and social media manager at Buildbox with a passion for inspiring others and driving brand awareness. As a gamer and creator, she enjoys sharing game development insights, tips, and success stories from the Buildbox community.

35 Comments

  • Avatar Mohsin says:

    Email me the copy

  • Avatar Nikola says:

    Its a PDF file no book, what a rip off he shows the book in the videos and when you buy it, it gives you PDF file

  • Avatar A K says:

    It’s not a book. Its a leaflet of some random tips about gamemaking. Absolutely useless. Better watch a couple of youtube videos on the subject than waste your time reading this thing. 0/10

  • Avatar Isaac says:

    Hi. I live in South Africa how long will the book take to get.thx

  • […] let’s talk about where to find them. In this cool episode of Inside the Box, Trey shares the top hyper casual game publishers that he’s worked with and gives some great advice for devs who want to get their game […]

  • Avatar Lindsey says:

    What a rip off…. ordered over a month ago, moneys left my account with nothing to show for it. Emailed support, no reply, just loads of spam! I wouldn’t bother!!

  • Avatar Asaf shpigler says:

    The book is good. It answered the question of how to startup a game

    And the ads bit is weird

  • Avatar Jesus says:

    I was about to buy it before I read these, fortunately I was willing to get it on paper instead of PDF, and I found all these comments, the majority bad. And I’m thankful it seems this book is not what I was looking for, thank you everyone for your honest replies.

  • Avatar Raghav Anand says:

    I buyed this book but this book will teach you nothing. You can’t make game by this book. You have to buy subscription for buildbox which is too costly. I felt like Trey smith have cheated me. I don’t find anything worth in this book. It’s just a useless book. Don’t buy it . You will feel weired after buying this book.

  • Avatar Moksh says:

    Hello I am school student I love game design so can you tell me the programming app which you use to make games

  • Avatar Paskal Stoyanov says:

    Okey, that was incredibly quick read and I will have to get back to it a few times. Truthfully- I enjoyed it.

    What you are NOT going to get with the book – instructions, programming, technical pieces, deep analysis or similar things. That is good for more than one reason even if it’s not what you may be expecting.

    What you are getting are good general advices as to what to look for, quite a few mentions to use references (!) which is great and overall good summary of the current state when it comes to casual mobile games and good recommendations when trying to check the trends.
    There are general advices when it comes to outsourcing work, that would be great tip for indie devs.
    The references for sourcing either art or sound is something that I will dig into. I’m already familiar with half of them but seeing something new without trying to search for them myself is great! Especially for sound and music.

    There are a few mentions about Buildbox and the services, which is fine. A few more paragraphs about the publishers at the end would’ve been great. I will have to watch the webinar before giving any judgement.
    While the exposure of the services (like Buildbox) feels natural in the book, that last push at the end of the book to go to the webinar felt a bit too pushy for my tastes.

    A few words about the buying experience.
    While I understand why Stripe is the preferred choice, giving the option to use PayPal as well would be better.
    As one of the other users who posted, giving the discounts only before the user can download the book from the website (not counting the email) is something that leaves sour taste for a few reasons.
    Not sending a discount code (which can easily be time limited) along with the book, screams of marketing.
    Having the discount codes after the payment feels unnatural just as Heather Meloche said. I would much prefer for the adds to be presented *before* any payment has been made.
    Presenting the services could’ve been done with a smoother transition and this ties with the above. It looks too forced and trying too hard, which is sad as I’m sure some could otherwise consider the services otherwise.

    Overall, was it worth it the $6? I would say, yes, I enjoyed it. A quick nice read for the price of two coffees seems good to me.
    With a few improvements on the purchasing flow, I am sure others would be happier and would be able to focus more on the book rather than how they got it.

  • Avatar Paskal Stoyanov says:

    I don’t get why other people are irritated at the ads. You do get an email with the book as well.
    On the advertised products – they look okey and some will find them useful. The music creation one will definitely catch the eye of developers who aren’t feeling like investing the required time for music creation from scratch.

    Will post an update after I go through the book itself.

  • Avatar Tom says:

    Yeah, I’m a pedant – but literally the only page of your book you show in the promo video (for a whole 1.5 seconds) has a grammatical error on the very first line. That doesn’t bode well…

  • Avatar Logan Lux says:

    I was afraid it was just a Buildbox promo laced with some useful nuggets, and it sounds like that’s the case. Buildbox may be great, but I’m not looking for yet another app-building solution to dive into right now. I’m looking for everything else for being successful at it, which is what his promo said the book would be about.

  • Avatar Carp says:

    Well based on these reply’s I don’t feel safe buying your book even if it is only $5 and i suggest nobody else purchase until they fix this not showing the full purchase price before I give my credit card info is a big no no

  • Avatar Heather Meloche says:

    Just bought the book today because I’m interested in the info about marketing apps. Found it via an ad on Youtube – I’d never heard of Buildbox before now. I have to agree with other comments that the ads are a little over the top and aggressive, though at least right now there are “no thanks, skip” links at the bottom of the page to move you on past them. I actually do appreciate hearing about Buildbox and Soundbox because I didn’t know about the software before, but by the time it hit the second “you don’t want that deal? let me offer you a better one!” iteration I was actively rolling my eyes. Really?

    I may, possibly, consider Buildbox at a later date. But honestly? You’d have an assurance of my business if you’d just completed the sale of the book and sent me an overview of the software packages with a coupon for the discount to be used in the future. Because the ads and discount offers pop up AFTER I put my CC info in and the card I put in for a $5 book purchase is NOT the same card I’d use for a large purchase like a yearly software subscription. Poor planning/flow of the sale transaction, and the aggressive “you’ll never see this again” is just salting the wound when I might very well have opted in if you’d let me know up front and plan accordingly instead of popping a surprise high-dollar add on to what was supposed to be buying a single book.

  • Avatar jean says:

    I’ve experienced the same as Glenn K. I’m fairly disappointed.

    Do work on improving your site.

  • Avatar Russell Nagel says:

    I tried to buy the book but got an advertisement shoved in my face. I am not going to watch an ad when I am already buying. I don’t know if the order was completed but now you have my credit card information. You have my money, send me the book without subjecting me to an advertisement.

  • Avatar Glenn K Brown says:

    I just sent an email to support@buildbox.com due to an issue while trying to make purchase. It would appear that the payment processing page is set to
    Test Mode and not Live mode! information below…

    At the top of the page I get a pop-up message: ” Warning: Test Mode Enabled for Funnel – With Stripe use Test Card #4012888888881881 ”

    I also got this message after trying to make purchase also: ” No such token: tok_1CsnWhAY94IFI23O9SLbte05; a similar object exists in test mode, but a live mode key was used to make this request. ”

    Please let me know when this issue has been corrected so I can try the purchase again please!

  • Avatar Brian Nod says:

    Besides the ads, how is the book itself? Good information?

  • Avatar Dominic says:

    Same here: worst sales UX ever! You let me watch three unskippable ads (without timer) after paying but bevor I get the product. You should pay me for watching this.

  • Avatar Ratman says:

    Can you get an actual paperback book? I want to buy this as a gift for my nephew…he likes actual books though as his parents limit his screen time, so he doesn’t waste that reading.

  • Avatar Gene says:

    If the book was offered for free, I could understand making me watch these two unskippable commercials. But the fact that this stunt is pulled after I have given my credit card details, but before completing my order makes me feel like a hostage. Not classy at all.

    I have the same problem as Bernie above, stuck and can’t download the book. This stunt has turned me off anything Buildbox for good.

  • Avatar Aleksey says:

    Bought the book. It started to play me an unskippable commercial for buildbox game engine. So basically I’m paying $6 to watch an aggressive commercial with all that “order now or lose this deal” jazz.. I can only imagine now how “useful” the book must be, if it’s whole goal is to lure you to pay for a commercial…
    P.S.: While I was writing this and googling this site, the commercial is still going on and I can’t dowlnoad the book…

    • Avatar Aleksey says:

      Now it’s forcing me to see a music maker commercial… I’m a composer of 20 years and a paid game music maker and sound designer of 7 years, I don’t need this, and I can’t skip this, and I still can’t download the “book”… This is painful. I can call this a scam at this point, and you will obviously delete my comment.

    • Avatar Tiana Crump says:

      Hi Aleksey, please email our support team at support@buildbox.com and they’ll make sure you get your copy of the book.

  • Avatar Bernie Asis says:

    Worst is I have to watch that promo video in step 2 over and over then Im still stuck again at step 2. My order doesnt go to step 3.
    it just say “working” and thats 30 minutes. You shoul email the copy instead

  • Avatar Bernie Asis says:

    Cant complete the order
    its stuck at step 2. Frustrating. I have been billed and yet no book

    • Avatar Tiana Crump says:

      Hi Bernie, please email our support team directly at support@buildbox.com and they’ll help resolve this issue and ensure you get your copy of the book.

      • Avatar Lindsey says:

        They don’t help though, the same happened to me, I have a receipt, and order number, and everything. I emailed support with all the details, and no one got back to me. Total rip off!