Designing a mobile game is a bit like walking a tightrope. You have a narrow path to tread, with perils lurking on either side and an ongoing struggle required to strike the right balance.
Knowing how to navigate this process involves understanding the necessities and avoiding common mistakes, so here’s a mix of both to make things simpler for aspiring developers.
Do: Keep things simple
The more complicated your game, the harder it will be to get new players on board. So even if your ambitions are lofty, it’s better to pare back the features and mechanisms you intend to include to the essentials, rather than shooting for the moon and falling short. Simply put, not every game can be Dark Souls.
Don’t: Blindly follow trends
You might be tempted to copy an existing game concept that’s already proven popular in the hands of another developer. This isn’t helpful, because you’ll potentially infringe on copyrighted material, and your effort will feel derivative and lazy, rather than exciting and fresh.
Do: Research the market
Market research is a must, no matter what type of product you’re launching. This certainly applies to mobile gaming, as you need to get a sense of the current state of play, and also the kind of audience you want to attract, so you can understand how to click with their expectations.
Don’t: Forget about the importance of testing
All games need to go through rigorous playtesting to check that they meet the brief, work as intended, and are stable across all the platforms where they’ll appear.
Most importantly, you must test throughout the development process, and not just at the end, to iron out issues early.
Do: Think about how you’ll get users
Without a strategy for growth, even the best games can flop. That’s where services like Upptic come into play, as they help web3 and mobile games and apps scale with cutting-edge automation, data analytics, creative, and growth marketing expertise.
Planning for future expansion sooner rather than later will help you bring in more players over time, and avoid stagnation further down the line.
Don’t: Ignore hardware limitations
Another thing that can scupper a mobile game early on is if the design is too complex for what can reasonably be achieved on the hardware you’re developing for.
Aiming for the best possible graphics and the largest, most detailed game worlds might seem sensible, but if you’re then left with juddering framerates, or you alienate players with older, less powerful handsets, a high-end presentation will be worthless.
This is where the aforementioned research into the market and your audience will help, as you’ll then know what hardware to anticipate being available to players in your niche.
Do: Push the envelope
So far it might sound like we’re telling you to lower your sights and keep your ambitions in a box, but what we’re really saying is that the most innovative and impactful games are those which are designed within the constraints of the technology of the time.
The original Super Mario games were graphically simple, and yet they still hold up to this day because they were innovative, and get the fundamental down pat; tight controls and engaging level design stand the test of time.
Final thoughts
The road to designing, developing, and launching a mobile game is long and arduous to travel, and you’ll definitely make mistakes along the way. Those that succeed are able to take hits and keep going, rather than throwing in the towel as soon as they hit a pothole, so resilience is a skill that all game designers need to nurture.
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