How many works to dev a game from zero

[Waigo21]

We're an indie game studio, with several games released on Appstore. After our new game published, we got few days to have a rest. I recalled the things we've done by the last 3 months. Maybe we can find some better way to accelerate our work next period.

According to our experiences. our work list of a game development is just like this:

Prototype phrase:
- Game dev doc
- Some simple materials, such as graphics, 3d models, sounds, etc
- Implement a simple demo


Alpha phrase:
- More art assets required
- Detail game logics and data structs
- Implement the basic game UI. Design and coding.
- Implement a playable game, with several scenes/levels


Beta phrase:
- Game Menu UI
- More game contents added. Such as tons of levels, more enemies, more arts of effects, backgrounds, props, etc.
- Background musics
- Score system
- Integrated with GameCenter
- Add IAP or IAD if needed


Production phrase:
- Icons, screen shots, videos
- Game descriptions, slogans, posts for popularize
- Test & debug
- Upload to Appstore
- Marketing. Popularize your app, send promotion codes, write posts, etc. Actually the cost of marketing is hart to estimate.

- Further upgrade.


Well, how much time did you guys spent to work through all the process?
Finally your game went out, featured by Apple, stand in Top 200 if luckily, even then your game might be replace by another very soon.

What I wanna talk about is, today the quality baseline of Appstore was growing too high, that requires much more work. The indie developers might be more and more difficult to afford this.

We might have to change the strategies.

[saymoo]

the strategy is studio dependent (looking at your list order). Some prefer a different order. It also depends on the project at hand. (diffuculty rates etc., project size)

[hippocoder]

What I wanna talk about is, today the quality baseline of Appstore was growing too high, that requires much more work. The indie developers might be more and more difficult to afford this.

yep it is now the domain of studios, and soon will be the domain of AAA studios and just as polluted as desktop. Once again it may be beneficial to get a publisher on board with serious marketing grunt.

[I am da Bawss]

yep it is now the domain of studios, and soon will be the domain of AAA studios and just as polluted as desktop. Once again it may be beneficial to get a publisher on board with serious marketing grunt.

I disagree (for now).

While it is true that the quality and quantity of good games in App Store has shifted dramatically in the past 6 months, as BIG studios such as Gameloft / EA / Chilligo / Activision really push high quality (art asset) games into the App Store especially considering games like 9mm, BackStab, Eternal Legacy, Silent Ops, Shadow Guardian, these are all beyond what a normal Indie is capable of due to enormous mount of high quality art assets required.

But if you look at the best selling games currently on chart right now, its still mostly indie developers and mostly 2D games - eg. Cut the Rope by ZeptoLab, Angry Birds by Rovio, Fruit Ninja by Halfbrick, Tower Defense : Lost Earth by Com2us USA, Tiny Wings by Andreas Illiger, Stickman BMX by Traction Games, Zombie Gunship by Limbic Software, Doodle Jump by Lima Sky, Zombie Highway by Renderpaz...etc etc. Almost 80% of top 100 are still indie developers.

So I agree the quality is growing in App Store, but its still not unreachable for average Indie developer yet - reason being for majority of those high production games - they are usually priced at ridiculous $7 ~ $20 range (so they can recuperate the cost of development) when average App Store consumer mostly buy at price range of $1 (and lower - FREE is soon to be the new standard - see "Freemium") !!

Established big studios like EA / Gameloft cannot survive on $1 - they will go bankrupt if they do.
The math is very simple. Big studios have shareholders to answer to - they are expected to get massive profit or their share will tank. The teams that works in big studios are being paid salaries usually in $45,000 USD range (game artist, 3 years experience) and upto $120,000 (Game producer / senior programmer). For App Store games that usually sells for $1 - even a single artist's salary of $45,000 is enormous to overcome - the risk is enormous for them when they have investors/shareholders to answer to.

So their high quality high cost games will continue to be pushed aside as people continue to favor the $1 indie games - which is great for indie developer.

[I am da Bawss]

What I wanna talk about is, today the quality baseline of Appstore was growing too high, that requires much more work. The indie developers might be more and more difficult to afford this.

We might have to change the strategies.

Most people spent majority of their time making the game, but very few spent time polishing and making sure the game runs.

So, What I would suggest is to focus on the quality part - polish polish polish! Make it 50% of the total time you spent making your game.

Also, make the game extremely simple to play (look at the wild success of Doodle Jump, Cut the Rope) with as little art asset as possible. Then focus on polishing, get rid of bugs - there is nothing worse than non-working / crashing game when you get few bad reviews and it will send you out of Top 500 faster than you can say "OMG".

A simple game that plays very well, very smoothly, that doesn't crash, is better than a big game that doesn't work. So always remember, make sure your game runs on every hardware imaginable, under any situation.

Another thing is to keep upgrading your game. New content always keep people interested - and it will keep you in Top 100 chart if you keep updating. Look at MiniGore for example, it has over 13 updates (5 episodes), while Pocket God has 40 Episodes (!!!).

And lastly, always read the customer reviews. The most valuable lessons you will learn is actually not from us, but from YOUR CUSTOMERS. If your game crash, FIX IT. If graphics is bad, IMPROVE IT ! Its that simple. The old saying goes - "The customer is ALWAYS right."

[onllm]

i agree with DA boss

[aiursrage2k]

Updates can help a bit, keep you in the top or climb somewhat. I would try to add more content to increase the likelyhood that people will update but they might have just updated all apps and it got updated anyway.