I am going to put this one out here for you to consider. Don’t be too ambitious with your first app. While I am not suggesting you treat it like putting toes in a lake to see how cold it is, you should aim to get your first project completed as quickly as possible.
Why?
Learn as quickly as possible. You come to a stage with learning where its time to “do”.
All the eBooks, courses, and instruction in the world can only help so much.
Until you actually go through the entire process of reskinning a game from start to finish there are going to be huge practical gaps in your knowledge.
Experience is the real trainer here. You will learn so much during that first app that you can then take the best parts out of and put into your second app.
This is why I’d recommend given a choice, to choose a smaller game because it’s all going to happen quicker. You should probably not be looking at a three or a six month project for your first app. Can you get an app into the app store within a month start to finish?
The answer is yes, but only if you are selective with the type of game.
A huge game with loads of functionality is more complex, and complex general means more work and thus a longer timeframe.
One other huge reason for you to get that first app done as soon as possible is confidence.
How much more confidence will you have in yourself (and hopefully the other people you have worked with during that first project) once the first project is finished?
Once that first app gets uploaded you have done it! You got your first app uploaded and are ready to take on the world, and can take that invaluable experience into the reskinning of your second app!
One of the things you will need to decide is whether to reskin games or general apps. I know I have been all over the “shop” here calling them apps, or games interchangeably.
Now I am assuming you know the difference between the two, but just in case lets look at a few examples.
Some Apple IOS games.
A few more for good measure
Can you spot the games I worked on 🙂 Seriously though, you should know that a game is all about entertainment, it does not service a “useful” purpose like email, or telling you the temperature in Dallas Texas.
What it does do is take a load off and allow you to smile and have fun (at least that is the idea with games).
People download games for a variety of reasons, ranging from reducing boredom, reducing stress, to “win” at something when life is knocking them around and tons of other reasons.
The big thing here is a game is entertainment, its purpose is to entertain, and if you are creating a game you better entertain!
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One of the biggest differences between a traditional computer game and mobile device games is the hours of gameplay.
Computer games often offer fifty to hundred plus hours of game play to finish a game, where a mobile device game can be quite short at 6-10 hours or even less of gameplay.
Mobile games are designed to load fast and to save where they are, and to allow the player to get back into the game quickly. The average mobile game player might fire up their favorite game while standing in a McDonald’s queue waiting for their cheeseburger to be glued together, or if they are on the toilet (yeah this one is true).
Who ever was using this app knows me well.
Apps are basically any type of app that is not a game.
A web browser on a mobile device is an app as well
Yes word processing, web browsing, email, downloading your stocks and how much money that have made, listening to music, to increase your personal productivity to name just a few examples.
People can and still do use these apps in queues or on the toilet 🙂
That’s the nature of apps. Who would have thought what games on smart phones would have enabled us to do.
The examples above are all about mobile devices (phones). Tablet consumers of apps are a different kettle of fish given that a tablet is not quite as portable as an smart phone.
These types of people tend to have a smart device they carry with them and a tablet for more serious “work”.
I have an iPhone 5, which is my portable mobile device, and have a variety of tablets, including an iPad 2 and the beautiful Google Nexus 2 tablet. You might be surprised (or shocked) if I tell you that I read a ton of eBooks on the Nexus in the bath.
So far I have not managed to electrocute myself.
Apologies for putting that picture in your mind, I promise I won’t do that today. I agree, it’s not pretty.
Ok we have a definition, what type of apps should you focus on?
Generally speaking I would recommend that you focus on game apps. In 2013 that is where the big money is being spent.
I mentioned earlier in the eBook that GTA 5 has made over one billion (with a “B” baby) of the green stuff back on this game 🙂
The costs rival that of blockbuster movies!
Bottom line: Without trying to say anything bad about boring “business” apps (sorry to all the business apps out there), games are where its at.
Your buyers (or downloaders) for your game apps, are not looking to balance a check (spelt cheque in Australia) account. It’s not about logic, its about emotions!
Yes games are emotional beings. They are impulsive! And they want their gaming fix right now! The bulk of apps income right now is in games and that’s where you should be focusing.
Of course with that comes a lot of competition, but that’s ok – competition is part of any huge economy, and its another advantage that gamers are fickle and will move onto the next game fast.
Yes games, go through a lot of games. More often than not you going to get a gamer who will play your game for a while and then move onto the next game, its a fact of life, and in my opinion not a bad thing.
It means you don’t have to write this massive incredible complex game like GTA 5 and capture peoples interests for months, you can go way easier and simpler.
Some of the best games have such a ridiculously simple concept that its not funny!
So your goal is to develop a game that is fun to play, that looks good, sounds good, and also makes you money. That way everyone wins, right?
Eliminate any of these factors (or focus too much on a given factor) can cause an imbalance that effects you and your players.
For example if you focus on the monetary aspects of your game and forget about the fun aspect, or save money and put average looking graphics in the game, that’s likely to be a huge turnoff for the player.
It’s ironic, but looking to save money on the graphics could actually have a negative impact on your bottom line – You end up getting fewer downloads because players do not get “into” your graphics.
More on quality in another chapter, but suffice to say games will gladly click some things for you that make you money if your game is a fun experience for them. So don’t forget the player!!
This is a very common experience with games! Don’t shortcut the player, because in the end its probable you will also be shortcutting yourself.
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