I found a use for the Instagram Reels feed. It has ads, and there are many ads for non-existent games. I realized that this provides great insight into what players crave and will enjoy playing. Ads cost money, so they have to work; otherwise, it’s a waste of money for the company investing in ads. This means ads are optimized for people’s reactions to click and install the advertised game. That means the game in the ad was appealing to the player. The company removes ads that are not working. On the other hand, games in ads do not make money, so companies do not implement the game.
Here is the list of games I’ve gathered from ads so far:
Age of Origins
Shoot zombies; they drop coins. Collect coins, build towers that also fight zombies.
Kingdom Guard Global
Run away from the snake in the maze. Shoot parts of the snake to make it shorter. Snake segments have HP. Shoot at chests to open them for upgrades. Upgrades include leveling up and stronger weapons.
Upgrade Your Alien
You are a spider/octopus that looks like an alien. Your goal is to eat 99 humans. Go eat humans, give meat to the upgrade place, which will collect humans automatically. Fight with the crayfish-looking alien.
Whiteout Survival
A forklift collects logs in a pile and puts them in a truck. When it stays on the buy tag, it gets two small forklifts, which start collecting logs automatically. There is a pile of bigger logs with a price tag of $3500. It stays on the tag for a while and unlocks the bigger logs. When it tries to pick up bigger logs and cannot, it stays on the upgrade tag and becomes bigger. Now it can collect bigger logs. The buy tag appears in front of the big logs. The forklift stands on the buy tag and gets a big caterpillar, which starts collecting big logs. The forklift goes to a different pile, stands on the buy tag, and a transporter appears, which transfers planks automatically. Buying and upgrades cost money. Collecting logs and planks gives money. Staying on the Buy tag for the second time upgrades the automatic forklift to the truck.
Royal Match
The king enters the room; rubble falls on him, but he is saved by two planks yet cannot get out. Underneath the floor is a match-3 game. You need to open up the space so that the rubble will fall into the void and free the king. Then the king runs into a different room; acid water flows in, and the king quickly jumps onto an island but cannot go anywhere. You need to play a match-3 game to create a void and redirect the acid water to the pipe, which is timed because acid water fills the room. There are more scenarios with water and rubble to make steps, with the king at the bottom of the level unable to get up.
Triumph of Numbers
The game features an over-the-shoulder view. A small ant with the number 25 on its back walks in a field, accompanied by many other insects and creatures with different sizes and numbers on their backs. There are blue bubbles on the field, for example, a bubble with ‘x2’ inside. If the ant walks over a bubble, it becomes twice as big, and the number on its back changes from 25 to 50. The ant can attack the creatures. If the number on the creature is lower than the ant’s number, the ant wins and gains coins, becoming bigger, but the creature’s number remains the same. If the number on the ant is smaller, it loses and starts over as a small ant with the number 5.
Strategy and Brainstorming
You start with two blue regions, 15 and 40. There are four different regions, each with a number. You can connect your blue region with the other regions. The units start walking to the other regions, and numbers change with some unpredictable rules. As soon as the number gets to 0, the enemy region’s color changes to blue.