TWIG #385: $100M for Indies, Lilith Goes Casino, Google Play Changes and Toon Blast Breaks Bad

TWIG #385: $100M for Indies, Lilith Goes Casino, Google Play Changes and Toon Blast Breaks Bad

May 28, 2026 · 1h 1m

About this episode

The episode discusses recent developments in indie game funding, mobile game trends, and marketing strategies.

Griffin just handed $100M to indie developers, Lilith is back with a pachinko creature collector that's turning heads, and Toon Blast hired Gus Fring for reasons that actually make sense. In this episode, we break down: ● Griffin Gaming Partners' $100M indie fund and why project financing beats VC math for games ● Why the tourists are gon,e and the OG gaming VCs are back ● Embracer's endless restructuring and the Fellowship Entertainment spin-off ● The full Embracer collapse timeline, 44 studios closed, 80 projects canceled ● Google Play's AI-powered game discovery and what it means for your ASO strategy ● Why keyword stuffing is dead and how to write for Gemini ● Clash of Critters: Lilith's pachinko-core creature collector and the casualization of mid-core ● Why Chinese studios didn't invent advanced casual — they just perfected it ● Monopoly Go's decline and what levers Scopely has left ● Coin Master Board Adventure vs Monopoly Go, is there any real competition? ● Toon Blast's Gus Fring campaign and whether celebrity UA still moves the needle ● Why re-onboarding lapsed players matters as much as acquiring new ones CHAPTERS: 01:39 Banter Roblox and Xbox Takes 02:47 Roundtable…

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Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Griffin Gaming Partners, Lilith, Embracer, Google Play

Products: Toon Blast, Clash of Critters, Monopoly Go, Coin Master Board Adventure

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