The summary provides an overview of the key events and successes in the story of the indie game Transformice: Transformice was created in 2010 by two developers wanting to make their own game after working for Ankama on MMORPGs. It was an instant success upon launch, gaining players and attention on gaming forums. Despite server issues, the game continued growing internationally with translations. By 2011, it had 150,000-300,000 daily players and generated over $100,000 through effective ads. However, the developers were later banned from Google Adsense. After recovering, they tested new monetization like free-to-play in 2012, generating over $1 million. The game was further boosted by its

1. The Story of Transformice :
The 60 million players indie game
Mélanie Christin - Atelier 801
m.christin@atelier801.com - @Melibellule

2. Who are we?
● Working for Ankama on
their major MMORPG
● We want to make a
game on our own

3. First concept art
● The concept comes from a real life
experience
First prototype
Splasher art

4. Launching : May 1st 2010
● Launching on a French video games forum >
● Instant success!
● SomethingAwful (Goons) forums find us
● English translation
All the video game websites pick it up!

5. Scaling up
● Our server melted under the demand, but we can’t afford more
● Ads!
● Donate button > didn’t work that much (3000€ in 2 years)
2010 : 11 000€ 47€/day

6. Founding our own studio!
● We resign from Ankama one year later (April 2011)
● Playerbase doubles
● Translation in all languages: exotic country
distribution
2011 : From 150,000 to 300,000 visitors/day

7. ● Ads perform REALLY well!
2011 : 103,000€ 280€/day + pre-loader: 55,000$
● Hiring our first employee!
But suddenly...
We got banned from Google Adsense.

8. … Oops.

9. Getting back on our feet
● Google pays 60 days later > 13 500€ gone
● No way to contact Google
● We stop paying ourselves for 6 months
● Replacing with other ad networks
Until finally...
We get unbanned in February 2012.
Why?

10. Shifting economic models
● New ad banner doesn’t pay enough
● We don’t want to rely on ads anymore
We decide to go Free-to-Play
● Six months of development
● Choosing price points
● Re-drawing 200 items

11. … Success!
● More than 250,000€ generated the first month, 1M€ by the end of 2012
● Hiring 8 new people and moving to bigger office

12. Tackling year 2013
● We’ve seen too big, flirting with break-even
● Reactivating ad banners in November 2013

13. 2014 : Getting better
● We stop giving hats for free during events = better monetization
2014 : 929,025€ Benefit: 40,309€

14. 2015: Steam!
● Releasing on Steam on January the 30th
● New articles
● 1M downloads
● 800 000+ new accounts
● 100 000$ net

15. What Went Right
● Physics
● Real Time Multiplayer
● Accessibility
● Localization
● Two-people Team
● Graphics
● Players’ Feedback

16. What Went Wrong
● Two-people Team
● Read small characters
● Hiring too fast
● Disregard mobile
● Monetization
… we had no idea what we were doing

17. … Thank you!
Mélanie Christin
m.christin@atelier801.com
@Melibellule