From Bangalore to global: Felicity Games AI-driven publishing revolution

In an interview with Anurag Choudhary, founder & CEO of Felicity Games, PCQuest explored how this new Bangalore-based publisher is looking at the casual gaming space differently using artificial intelligence, live operations, and cultural adaptations.

A new kind of casual game publisher

Of mobile games, less than 0.5% will ever become breakout hits. Felicity’s 2-year-old model is designed to avoid that high-risk reality. Instead of developing everything in-house, it will commission prototypes from independent studios, do controlled market testing in the US and Europe, and acquire only the games that show strong retention and monetization.

This model is already working. A recently launched solitaire game reached #50 in card games on the US App Store. But the team is quick to point out that this is just the beginning. The real bet is on AI publishing that can scale much faster and leaner than the previous models.

Why Unity is the engine of choice

On the tech side, Felicity is practical. Unity is its engine of choice, not because it wants to but because it has to. Most of the studios in its network already use Unity. Sticking with that choice means a bigger talent pool and faster prototyping. Using any other engine would shrink collaboration opportunities.

Beyond NPCs: How AI powers the publishing pipeline

While the industry often conflates AI with clever non-playable characters, Felicity uses it much more broadly. Executives describe AI as being throughout the publishing pipeline:

• Idea generation: Art and asset creation for designers with help from AI.

• Development & testing: Simulating player behavior, detecting where procedurally generated levels break the flow.

• User acquisition: Generating infinite ad creatives for campaigns at scale.

• Live ops & personalization: Modifying challenges, rewards, and content pacing for each individual player.

In this perspective, AI is not a sideshow but the central lever enabling a small publishing house to manage a global catalog with precision.

Change what you measure success by: retention, not downloads.

Felicity isn’t interested in download numbers, which they refer to as 'vanity metrics.' Instead, the real health of your game is measured by:

• Retention: How many players return on day one, day seven, day 30, etc.

• ARPDAU (Average Revenue Per Daily Active User): If players play daily, does that translate to sustainable revenue?

By focusing on these numbers, Felicity is betting on long-term loyalty instead of short-term spikes.

Going global is a cultural, not a technical, issue.

When talking about going global, Felicity said the barrier is not technology; it’s cultural context. AI translation tools like Papercup and Translation.io make text localization easy, but the themes, art, and motifs need to resonate with locals too.

For example, a retro Windows 95 skin will delight North American players, but a cherry blossom motif is more suitable for Japan. Success is about understanding these nuances and embedding them into otherwise universal mechanics.

Platforms: mobile and browser, not console

Felicity is not going after console or PC stores. Its focus is on mobile and browser gaming. The distribution is across the Play Store, App Store, and browser platforms like CrazyGames and Yandex. They also have their own portal called Felicity Play.

A recent addition is Laser Survivor, a fast-paced spin on the “bullet heaven” survival genre. Trend-driven prototypes like this highlight Felicity’s ability to test ideas quickly, with its analytics engine feeding decisions about which games to expand.

Cloud, data, and daily active users

Felicity now serves around 50,000 daily active users (DAU) across its mobile portfolio. Every session feeds into a cloud-based analytics stack. Events such as level completions, reward redemptions, or churn points are logged and analyzed for insights.

On the browser side, analytics tools are less developed. But the team is investing in deeper tracking to prepare for rapid growth in the web audience.

Looking ahead:UGC and hyper-personalization

Looking to the next decade, Felicity sees two big trends:

1. User-generated content (UGC): Low-code tools inside Unity that let players build and share their own levels.

2. Hyper-personalization: AI that adapts difficulty, pacing, and rewards so each player has a unique journey.

If those trends happen, publishers will become platform facilitators, not just distributors, curating constantly evolving experiences.

Expanding from Bangalore to Singapore

To fuel growth Felicity has launched Felicity Labs in Singapore and is aiming to double in size by 2026. Alongside nurturing prototypes, it is looking to acquire already profitable titles and then amplify their reach with its infrastructure.

The team says this dual-track approach of developing new games and acquiring existing ones reduces risk while compounding growth.

Editorial: Felicity and the future of casual publishing

Felicity’s story shows casual publishing is indeed happening in 2025. Leaner labels are using AI, analytics, and cultural nuance to respond to big studio dominance.

Retention, personalization, and live ops show a big shift from one-time download to engagement driven by community. Significantly mobile and web-first, Felicity is where the casual audience is: players who want to play short, repeatable sessions rather than long campaigns of console gaming.

For India’s gaming ecosystem, Felicity could be the blueprint. Amazingly, by local indie talent with access to global markets and layering on AI as an efficiency multiplier, it shows how a small talented team can exceed and rise above their station.

Conclusion: casual publishing with intelligence

From top-50 Solitaire games to experimental shooters, Felicity Games is building a place for itself in the world of casual publishing. Some of its methods broad testing of concepts, considered scaling, and depth of personalization give us a glimpse of what the future could look like for casual games.

For players, that translates to more adaptable and available titles. For indie studios, this creates new avenues for global distribution. And for the market overall, this means that the future of casual gaming might be governed by algorithms and cultural awareness every bit as much as by conventional design.

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