Tilting Point’s Hunter Bulkeley Talks Profits, Purpose And How To Keep Players Engaged

·34 min·3 clips

Hunter Bulkeley reveals how Tilting Point designs games to retain players in a $21.4 billion quarter.

The episode begins with host Peggy Ann Saltz introducing the mobile gaming industry's $21.4 billion Q2 revenue and the challenge of player retention. She introduces guest Hunter Bulkeley from Tilting Point, a company focused on data-driven game development. Bulkeley discusses the impact of Apple's IDFA changes on marketing, forcing product teams to build games that retain users longer, with LTV payback times extending to years. He breaks down game development into content pipelines (like new levels) and feature development (like new game modes), both needed for long-term retention. Bulkeley shares a specific success story from Terra Genesis, where introducing 48-hour limited-time events with unique terraforming goals increased retention by 20-30% and extended LTV by 30 days. After a break, the conversation shifts to Tilting Point's work with real-world causes, such as tree-planting through the game Terra Genesis in partnership with Ecology. He details a profit-neutral system where player actions like watching ads or making purchases trigger real tree planting, with anti-cheat measures via LeanPlum. Bulkeley mentions participating in the UN's Playing for the Planet Green Game Jam, which involved 50 studios planting 448,000 trees. He explains the importance of matching game themes to causes players care about, citing Terra Genesis (terraforming) and SpongeBob Crusty Cookoff (hungry children) as examples. The episode concludes with Bulkeley advising on engaging valuable players through personalized VIP programs and community outreach, and sharing his LinkedIn for further connection.

As heard by us

A Terra Genesis redesign turns a retention problem into a practical retention and LTV case.

Mobile games can make retention feel like a spreadsheet problem; this episode keeps it closer to product work. Hunter Bulkley of Tilting Point walks through how Terra Genesis, facing a long-term content constraint, used limited-time events to add levels, shift victory goals, and…

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Why you'd press play

You will hear how 48-hour planet events gave Terra Genesis players a fresh reason to come back, with retention lifting about 20 to 30 percent.

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