Chinese developer Lilith Games has achieved what few mobile studios manage: creating multiple billion-dollar global hits across various genres.

The company gained global recognition in 2018 with its 4X strategy game Rise of Kingdoms and followed it up with another billion-dollar success, AFK Arena.

Although Lilith is still on the lookout for its next big hit, it has consistently released titles generating hundreds of millions, including strategy games like Warpath, Art of Conquest: Airships, and Call of Dragons.

Not every release has been a blockbuster. Shooter Farlight 84 missed the mark, and while RPG Dislyte generates millions monthly, it hasn’t reached the billion-dollar threshold the company seeks. Nevertheless, Lilith’s games often stand out as flagship titles in the industry.

To understand how Lilith develops its global hits, we spoke with Vincent Ou, the company's head of strategy and investment. He shared insights into Lilith’s unique company culture, development process, and live ops strategy, including the use of special subsidiaries that allocate 20% of game profits to their teams, a greenlight process that combines top-down and bottom-up approaches, and their skepticism towards the fail-fast philosophy.

Source: adapted from an article by Craig Chapple, Head of Content for PocketGamer.biz.