Insights to Installs: Rebranding of an Iconic Puzzle Game

Pixel Federation, the studio behind Puzzle Adventure, faced a critical question: after improving the game itself, could they also reverse a recent drop at the top of the funnel and bring in enough revenue to meet management’s expectations?

Recognizing the high-stakes implications of this process, they sought an outside perspective to guide their next steps. This was a one-off test with major business implications.

AppAgent’s mission was to orchestrate a rebranding test for Puzzle Adventure by:

• Providing a strategic perspective to validate a rebrand approach.
• Developing new concepts to open distinct rebranding paths, grounded in market research and a deep audience analysis.
• Designing compelling creatives and using AI smartly to produce assets, ensuring the game’s presentation meets today’s high standards despite the lack of existing materials for the new brand.

The process was a strategic, multi-stage approach designed to validate the viability of a rebrand before committing significant resources, powered by our new and specialized Brand GamePlan™️.

First, a comprehensive market scan and competitor analysis looking at themes and production quality of different genres like puzzle, adventure, simulation, and merge games, helped identify market gaps and opportunities.

Concurrently, we performed a deep dive into the audience, identifying a potentially younger, millennial female demographic than initially targeted. A detailed player profile for this group, exploring their geographical and cultural preferences, led to a discovery of key insights and motivators for personalised targeting.

Based on our research and insights, we developed four distinct creative directions designed to resonate with the target audience.

AppAgent’s team worked simultaneously with the client's team to increase the chances of finding the optimal solution. Pixel Federation selected two of our creative directions to move forward with: Cottage Core and Seoul Bookshop, and tested them with another three developed internally.

With very few existing assets for a rebrand, we then leveraged AI to efficiently generate new visuals during creative production & testing processes such as game logos, icons, store screenshots and video ads. AppAgent also designed new game mechanics and gameplay puzzles.

The test resulted in Seoul Bookshop concept successfully drawing the target audience by resonating with both young and older players and achieving a 38% improved IPM over the original. Another unexpected outcome was the improved early retention (up to D7) in AppLovin on Android for both the "Seoul Secrets" concept and Pixel Federation's creatives. This was surprising, as only the creative and store assets were changed without any alterations to the game itself.