Success stories
“Let that remain my little clown secret”
Inside Loppi Poppi, where a disarmingly naive mission to “bring joy” has connected 8 million players in the past year and quietly proved that sincerity can scale.
Founders’ story
Back in 2021, two developers from Minsk, Yaroslav Navrotskiy and Vadim Khamitsevich, still had corporate jobs but dreamed of making their own games. That same year, they met Pavel Golubev, CEO and founder of Appodeal, a potential publishing partner for what would become their first project.
Out of three early pitches, the team chose one: a digital version of a classic board game, Dominoes.
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“I am elderly, and it relaxes me. Using my brain helps me mentally, and I can work my puzzles better. I really can tell a difference in being quicker in my everyday activities, and it’s fun!”
Jeanne McLaughlin,
Google Play user review
Google Play user review
Dominoes:
When old-school plays All Five
Four years later, Dominoes has over 27.5 million installs, 800,000 monthly active players, and nearly five million dollars in annual revenue. Its biggest markets are the US, Mexico, and Brazil.
The mechanics are simple and familiar to anyone who grew up with a real domino set, adding a gentle note of nostalgia. More than half of the community is between 45 and 65, and here’s what it sounds like from the other side of the screen:
Apr 7, 2023
Javier Ruiz
As a Puerto Rican/American I grew up watching my family play dominoes as a youngster and then playing with them as I got older. This game, with the classic game, reminds me of the gold old days. Purchasing the rather inexpensive year of no ads was a no-brainer because ads are slow and annoying. With my cute elderly avatar and my dominoes with the spinner, I'm good to go. I really enjoy this game and true domino players, (no 5's) will too! Get this game!!
Developer Response
Apr 10, 2023
Thank you for taking the time to write this awesome review, Javier! It's so encouraging and inspiring for us. We highly appreciate it :)
What makes the game truly special is the chance to play with a real person, chat in the moment, and let off some steam. It’s unpredictable, messy, and human.
“We take full ownership of our process: experimenting, learning, and moving fast. What matters to us is that Appodeal trusts that pace and gives us room to grow,” recalls Yaroslav Navrotskiy, co-founder and CTO of Loppi Poppi. “We’re always looking for something no one has tried before.”
The game was built on the Unity engine and used Appodeal’s ad monetization from day one. The publisher was NewPubCo, which at that time was already part of Appodeal’s gaming division.
“As a survivor of three strokes, I play this game to help keep my mind active,”
Tacomataz,
Google Play user review
Google Play user review
Number Clash:
puzzle for the thinking mind
Number Clash is the second portfolio-defining game, a puzzle blending logic and math, driven by algorithms developed by the team. It has 4.6 million installs, 850,000 monthly active users, and over four million dollars in annual revenue, with its strongest audiences in the US, Germany, and the UK.
The core age group is 18 to 34. These are players who enjoy keeping their minds engaged while having fun, and who also seek focus, attention, and peace of mind.
But as the founders discovered, the game serves a deeper purpose. Players have written to share how Number Clash helped them recover from serious life challenges.
“As a survivor of three strokes, I play this game to help keep my mind active,” user tacomataz wrote in an email to the team, one of many direct messages they make sure to answer personally.
As the developers put it, you never know who will find the game or what they will find in it. A playful way to engage with numbers evolved into a tool for rehabilitation. Built for joy, it ended up restoring something far more essential: the ability to think and keep going.
Oct 6
Debbie Shpritz
Challenging, makes you think and can validate your math skills. Strategic thinking helps you get ahead. I find it relaxing
Developer Response
Oct 10
Thank you so much for your kind feedback, it's nice to see our game is so appreciated!
Aug 27
K. Moneak
While searching for mind stimulating games after my brain injuries, Number Clash is perfect, fun and kind of addictive 😀
Developer Response
Oct 12
So nice of you to send us your feedback! Keep on playing and sharing the love for the game!
Oct 16
Ellie B
I'm totally addicted to this game, great for making my number dyslexic brain work a little harder as I try to beat my last score. So simple to play, but to master I believe would take some serious forward thinking skills. Just brilliant. And yes, I'm subscribing 👍🏻😁💕
From time to time, the two founders set out on trips to shift context and take in new ideas.
“Appodeal brought together mediation, analytics, and decision-making tools that guided our product strategy.”
Vadim Khamitsevich,
CEO at Loppi Poppi
CEO at Loppi Poppi
Why Appodeal became the core platform
Before switching to Appodeal, the team had worked with several other ad platforms. They were easy to integrate into Unity and delivered stable results. Yet, as Vadim Khamitsevich, the CEO and the one responsible for the business side, explains: “The real game-changer and the reason Appodeal became our main mediation platform was the Dashboard.”
The Dashboard lets the team segment audiences and access forecasts for key metrics like Lifetime Value and Retention Rate, all in one place. With this data, they can quickly and confidently answer critical product questions — which version of the app performs better and should be released; how successful a new feature is and whether it should be scaled to all users; and what kind of revenue specific changes bring.
“Making games is a roulette wheel. You can do everything right and fail. You can do everything wrong and succeed. A game can have Paint-level design and still do great — or the other way around. Analysis improves your odds, but there’s never a guarantee.”
Yaroslav Navrotskiy,
co-founder and CTO
at Loppi Poppi
co-founder and CTO
at Loppi Poppi
Team of 13: Learning by building
Two co-founders from Belarus still live and work there, now as part of a thirteen person team. They say that truly experienced developers are difficult to find, so they invest in growing talent internally.
The studio’s human-centered mission remains grounded in logic. “We build on data, but don’t follow numbers blindly. Context and common sense matter just as much,” says Vadim. The choice of genre or niche depends on market research, competition, and the team’s own capabilities and creative strategy.
Usually, challenges in game development arise when each new project is treated as a standalone world, built from scratch every time. To prevent this, the team relies on proven approaches such as The Clean Architecture, MVC / MVP, adapted to their needs. This made development faster, more efficient, and scalable.
Experimentation that shapes the portfolio
This success story unfolded over several years of iterative work. Publishing allows Loppi Poppi to focus on creating games, while their partner leads on distribution and growth. Dominoes and Number Clash remain the portfolio’s pillars, while Yatzy, Gin Rummy, Water Sort, and Spider Solitaire serve as experimental grounds for marketing and monetization in close collaboration with the Appodeal team.
They examine SDK stability and performance across Unity and mobile platforms, track how updates affect ad delivery and retention, and test different waterfall and bidding setups to find the right balance between fill rate and eCPM. Using Appodeal’s Dashboard, they run segmentation and A/B tests to see how ad strategies impact different player groups, from new users to long-term players, and which ad formats work best for each genre.
The insights from these tests directly shaped Dominoes and Number Clash. That’s how Loppi Poppi optimized the waterfall structure, removed low-performing networks, and increased their average eCPM.
Why “Loppi Poppi”
There is no answer. As Yaroslav puts it, “A magician never reveals his tricks.”
What matters is the reaction. “When I go to a clinic and they ask where I work, I say Loppi Poppi, and they smile. So I know our magic works.”
Speaking of their mission to “bring joy,” Yaroslav says:
“We work to grow so we can build something bigger than ourselves, something that brings people joy and a sense of well-being. Making games is one of the ways to live that purpose. In a parallel universe, I’d be a clown, just bringing a bit of laughter and happiness to people’s lives.”
“We work to grow so we can build something bigger than ourselves, something that brings people joy and a sense of well-being. Making games is one of the ways to live that purpose. In a parallel universe, I’d be a clown, just bringing a bit of laughter and happiness to people’s lives.”
As for what’s next, Vadim says the studio plans to keep improving its current titles, staying focused on long-term product-market fit.
Loppi Poppi started as a two-person experiment and grew into a studio with millions of players worldwide.
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About Appodeal’s
Gaming Division
Formed in late 2019, it focuses on in-house development and scaling of titles across block, word, and solitaire genres.