There was a time when I wanted to develop my own games for smartphone. I starting learning C# during college, and managed to fit this in to a project. I looked at a few tutorials, and by messing around and trying my own code I managed to make a top down space ship shooter game in the Unity engine. It was really simple, but I had a few ideas of how I would improve it. I managed to get it working on my phone, but after that I didn't really work on it anymore as I was starting uni, and wanted to focus on getting better at the art side.
I haven't touched coding since, but its still something I would like to be able to do, even just being able to make games that I wouldn't plan on selling could potentially help me get a job in in the future.
If I did get back into trying to create games, there is always the option of unreal 4 blueprints now. I'm still not fully sure how far you can go with them, and whether you could fully develop a game from scratch in blueprints, but it could still be useful and its something I am going to look into over the winter holidays.
I wouldn't be able to just make a game and nothing else, as I lack the skill and the money. So I would just have to get a job and try in my spare time. I would be constantly looking for jobs in the industry during this time.
I still read articles from smaller developers, and see what tips they have, and what problems they face.
http://www.mode7games.com/blog/2012/06/12/how-to-be-an-indie-game-developer/
This is a good one from Mode 7 games. He talks about the process of designing his game, Frozen synapse. There is some really good information on game design decisions, and he covers everything from level design to story, and even music.
Another one is by Derek Yu, creator of Spelunky who goes over similar points.
http://makegames.tumblr.com/post/1136623767/finishing-a-game
There is a good forum called "GameDev" on Reddit, and people post things like there experiences, what they are developing, and also get advice when developing there game.
http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/
An interesting one I found was on a game made by 2 people, which made the 1# spot on on the Itunes store across the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Canada, and Singapore. He shared his experiences, and shared the downloads throughout every month for a year.
http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/2ok3r7/ytd_revenue_for_a_dark_room_ios_a_game_that_made/
| [ Month ] | [ Paid Downloads ] | [ Free Downloads ] | [ Apple Check ] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2013 | 403 | 555 | |
| Dec 2013 | 698 | 943 | |
| Jan 2014 | 986 | 1,320 | |
| Feb 2014 | 2,288 | 8,612 | 1,760 |
| Mar 2014 | 15,428 | 15,172 | 11,600 |
| Apr 2014 | 305,000 | 214,000 | |
| May 2014 | 237,000 | 166,000 | |
| Jun 2014 | 101,000 | 70,700 | |
| Jul 2014 | 29,526 | 5,110 | 22,200 |
| Aug 2014 | 38,304 | 1,021,660 | 28,800 |
| Sep 2014 | 28,400 | 19,900 | |
| Oct 2014 | 14,900 | 10,100 | |
| Nov 2014 | 5,040 | 134,959 | 3,790 |
The game was originally $0.99, but he decided to change it later on.
"The November 2014 paid downloads is not a typo. I made a mistake by making the game $1.99 again, and it destroyed our ranking in the RPG section. Lesson learned. I also made the game free for the first week of November in celebration of the one year anniversary (which I was happy to do, but that didn't help our rank either)."
Amirrajann (2014)
This was the revenue breakdown from 1.96 million downloads (free and paid).
| [ Month ] | [ Amount ] |
|---|---|
| Gross income (less Apple's share) | 553,000 |
| My half of ADR (I happily give Michael his share) | 276,500 |
| 33% income tax | 91,245 |
| 12% self employment tax | 33,120 |
| Net | 152,135 |
| Net per month (16 months from development to today) | 9,508 |
| Hourly (40 hrs, 48 weeks) doing ADR "full time" | 59 |
| Net hourly rate when I actually was working full time | 51 |
| 16 month difference between ADR and 9-5 | 14,280 |
| Self employed medical insurance (wife was 1099 too) | 10,880 |
| Grand total for making a #1 App | 3,400 |
I always hear about games which get lucky and go viral, like the game Flappy bird. which was made in several days, and wasn't anything new, but somehow got so big it got over 50 million downloads.
So its interesting to hear the other side, where someone has spent a year on a game, and they were lucky enough to have it be downloaded over 1million times, but didn't really make much profit on it.
If I ever thought about making a game myself which I was going to sell on the app store, I wouldn't put everything into it as I know its a gamble. I would just make them for experience.
Even if your game is amazing, it could be buried under all the other apps that are put up constantly, and never even sell, Ive also heard stories of developers who have made a game, and had it copied by a larger studio, then there game gets taken down by the larger studio for copyright reasons, which is a scary thought.
I found some tips on what not do as a indie Dev starting out. There are some great points, I have picked a few.
"1. Do not fall for survivorship bias.
How does that apply to game development then? Well, when I started, I remember being really optimistic and enthusiastic about building an iPhone game. I was reading article after article of developers that were making good money out of the App Store and I thought maybe I could get some bucks myself. I didn't stop to think things through and it did not go well."
ROGER PAFFRATH (2013)
I found this point interesting, because the reason I started try to create a mobile game was because of all the success stories I had heard, but luckily I didn't get to far into it, and did read up on the not so good stories like the one I showed before.
"6. Do not underestimate the power of good planning.
Other positive aspect of good project planning is that you are able to focus on one thing at a time. You don't have to worry about those awful bugs, because you will have the proper time to deal with them later.
Some people might think that's only for larger teams or projects. That's OK. In the end, if you sit down every day and do the work you need to do, it all falls into place. Me? I like a good old fashioned deadline."
ROGER PAFFRATH (2013)
I have recently learned about the importance of planning from my advanced 3D project. I never really planned before as I thought, "well I don't know how long it will take". But really its just about trying to work to deadlines and having everything you must do down on paper, and not just in your head. This also is a must if your part of a team, as they can't read your mind.
"9. Do not start on the mobile market.
Seriously, if you are starting, with no fans, no press awareness and no big money to invest on marketing, forget the mobile market. This is something I learned the hard way. I saw months of hard work fall into the limbo of the App Store. Obscurity is a bitch.
Even if you forget the discoverability of games on the mobile market being all messed up, I really don't think you should start there. There are easier and faster ways to make and distribute games. Part of the reason we didn't play tested Little Red Running Hood accordingly was the fact that it was hard for us to send the app to people outside of our friend circles.
I realize there are two sides for that discussion and that there are down sides to any market, but I will remain encouraging people to start reading more about the problems of mobile and all the stories of other developers who fell for the mermaid's song."
ROGER PAFFRATH (2013)
Looking back, I don't think I would want to make a mobile game now, as this quote says there are more bad things than good. But its not just that, I don't like the limitations of mobile, how your only control is the touch screen. I would prefer to make a PC just because there are so much more you can do to make an interesting game.Plus I don't play many mobile games anymore, and don't have much interest in them.
I think If I try to create games again I will start of with really simple small games. Ones that could be completed in a short space of time. This is because I don't have the experience or skill to make a larger game, nor the time. I think having lots of little games to show with interesting mechanics could be a good way of getting a game design position, like the one from TT games.
I have also been looking at the games from Ludum Dare, which is a game jam website which does competitions like making a game in 48 hours. Its really impressive what some people do in such a short space of time. I think game jams like this are a good way to improve at game design. As you have to plan well and try and make an interesting, yet very simple game. I know many games have started as game jam games, and been so popular they were made into full releases. Its inspiring to see that fun games can be made without a massive amount of money, or resources, and in a space of 2 days.
http://ludumdare.com/compo/
References
Amirrajann (2014) YTD Revenue for A Dark Room iOS, a game that made the #1 spot in the App Store [Forum Post] Accessed at <http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/2ok3r7/ytd_revenue_for_a_dark_room_ios_a_game_that_made/> at 7/12/14
ROGER PAFFRATH (2013) Opinion: What NOT to do when starting as an indie game developer [Blog post] Accessed at <http://indiegames.com/2013/11/opinion_what_not_to_do_when_st.html>
