SIX RULES FOR BUILDING A HIGH-IMPACT LIVEOPS TEAM
By Anna Hryshchenko, Game Design & LiveOps Team Lead at Plarium I
t wasn’t too long ago that mobile games were measured by their launch day, but now it’s almost exclusively defined by how long
a game can keep players coming back. With acquisition costs skyrocketing and competition fiercer than ever, retention has become the new user acquisition. The engine to this ongoing engagement is live operations (LiveOps), which is the steady release of events, offers, and content drops that turn casual players into loyal enthusiasts. A well-run LiveOps team can extend a game’s
lifecycle by years, while a poorly run one can cause even the best-designed game to lose momentum. As Team Lead for the Mech Arena LiveOps crew, I’ve seen firsthand how crucial it is to build a team that not only delivers content consistently but does so with efficiency, creativity, and resilience. Here are six rules I’ve learned (sometimes the
hard way) for building a LiveOps team that keeps a game thriving long after launch.
MAKE YOUR ROADMAP YOUR NORTH STAR, BUT KEEP IT FLEXIBLE A LiveOps roadmap serves as the strategic compass that keeps a game on course. Our team plans
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around key metrics to shape features and events to hit performance goals, while staying flexible. Midway through the year, the roadmap is
revisited and adjusted based on performance data, shifting priorities, or new opportunities that emerge. The team also balances reliable, recurring content like seasonal events with experimental initiatives that can spark fresh engagement. Equally important, maintaining visibility across all teams ensures smoother coordination, stronger alignment, and fewer surprises along the way.
BUILD THE TOOLS BEFORE YOU NEED THEM Players experience the excitement of events and offers, but they rarely see the backend effort required to set them up. For the Mech Arena LiveOps team, automation has become the key to reducing that hidden workload. Early on, a lot of our events were run by hand,
which meant plenty of late nights and repetitive setup work. As the game grew, we started building proper interfaces and automation, and the difference was huge, suddenly we could set things up in a fraction of the time. Now, whenever we plan a new feature, we think about the tools
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