Although the global mobile game market has topped $ 99 billion this year, developing a chart-topping mobile game is quite a challenge – no matter how big your company is. Only 10% of mobile games achieve commercial success. With over 500 games submitted to the App Store on a daily basis, you have to go the extra mile to win users.
Top 5 mobile app success stories: how to build a hit game?
Tyson Ibele Tyson is an independent developer and full-time 3D animator who has so far released three successful mobile games including Jingle Moose (500 thousand downloads), Bean Boy (1.5 million downloads) and Quest Keeper (2 million downloads). His App Store titles are free to play and make money through ads and in-app purchases. Key factor behind his success:
Halfbrick Studios Halfbrick Studios, a team of independent developers from Australia, released their Fruit Ninja game in 2010 – just in time to take advantage of the newly-introduced touchscreen smartphones. Over the course of five years, the slice-and-dice game registered over 1 billion downloads. According to Shainiel Deo, the company’s CEO, Halfbrick Studios was[1] on the verge of bankruptcy in 2010 and decided to create a hit product no matter what. They started to have regular game idea pitching sessions and build prototypes. Their goal was to create an iOS game “your mom could play” (once again – keep it simple!). That’s how Fruit Ninja was born. In three months after its launch, the game sold 1 million downloads. It was mentioned on Mythbusters, and even the members of One Direction said they’d loved the game (a bit of influencer marketing never killed anybody). Besides the funny game trailer which featured several Halfbrick Studios’ employees dressed up as fruit and a ninja, the company didn’t do any marketing. Key factors behind Fruit Ninja’s success:
A lesson to be learnt here: the indie developer spirit gets killed by traditional big company management! Mediocre AB Mediocre AB is an independent game studio founded by Henrik Johansson (a visual artist) and Dennis Gufstafsson (a full-time developer). They’ve had a string of successful iOS games including Does Not Commute and Smash Hit. Key factors behind Mediocre AB’s success: Both Smash Hit and Do Not Commute were also featured by Apple. Here’s what the App Store and Google Play editorial teams expect:
Snowman and Harry Nesbit The independent dev studio from Toronto partnered with Harry Nesbitt, a prominent illustrator, to create Alto’s Adventure – an endless runner game where a young shepherd on a snowboard is trying to catch his obstinate llamas. The game is set in beautiful 2D locations. Snowman and Nesbitt did not go into detail about snowboard tricks; instead, they took[4] a more “stylized approach” and tried to recreate the feeling of being high up in the air. Although Harry Nesbitt did not have coding experience, he was the sole developer behind the project which took 18 months to complete (4 times longer than expected). Snowman took their time, waited for the right ideas and allowed Alto to mature at its own pace. Alto’s Adventure was launched in February 2015 and received rave reviews from critics and the general public (the game has a 92 combined score on Metacritic). Besides doing press, Snowman and Nesbitt attended the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Key factors behind Snowman’s success:
Dave Kerr Dave Kerr partnered with Big Blue Bubble to produce two of their most successful games (My Singing Monsters and Burn the Rope). Kerr urges game developers to keep it simple and look at their apps from a marketer’s point of view. In the free-to-play market most users give an app just one go; if they don’t understand what’s going on, they just quit and delete the application. Dave believes winning awards and getting positive reviews won’t help you generate more downloads (say goodbye to your Flappy Bird overnight success dreams!). Kerr’s advice: don’t blame your failure on external factors like bad timing or the lack of attention from the App Store and Google Play. Here’s how to get your game featured:
How to make a successful mobile game: summing it up
[1]https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/28/how-the-australian-gaming-app-fruit-ninja-reached-one-billion-downloads
[2]http://www.theage.com.au/technology/games/australias-most-successful-game-studio-is-having-an-identity-crisis-20161113-gsoi1d.html [3]https://www.statista.com/statistics/258160/number-of-new-apps-submitted-to-the-itunes-store-per-month/ [4]http://www.harrynesbitt.com/blog/the-making-of-altos-adventure/7 [5]https://www.appannie.com/apps/ios/top/
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