Hey, so as I mentioned before, I’m planning to start developing mobile games soon. I recently got a Galaxy Note 2 phone, or er, it’s almost big enough to be tablet actually. Anyway, I played a lot of games on it while I was in Sweden.
I’m trying to figure out what sort of games are popular, how controls are implemented on touchscreens, and how developers monetize and market their games. This post is mostly just some notes for myself, which others may find interesting or want to add to.
First of all, here’s a list of games that I played:
- Labyrinth 1 and Labyrinth 2
- Whale Trail Frenzy
- Rayman Jungle Run
- World of Goo
- Pixel Kingdom
- Cut the Rope + Experiments + Time Travel
- Pudding Monsters
- Ending
- Fruit Ninja
- Color Zen
- Can Knockdown 3
- Monster Cube
- Happy Fall and Happy Jump
- Jetpack Joyride
- Jewels Saga
- Nyan Cat: Lost in Space
- Shogun: Bullet Hell
- Space is Key
- Sporos
- Temple Run 2
- Unblock Me
They’re all pretty fun and you should check them out. There’s still a lot more that I’ve installed and have yet to play…
Touch Controls
I found that the more simple the controls, the better they worked. A lot of the games literally had one type of input:
- Rayman, Jetpack Joyride and Whale Trail have “tap the screen anywhere to go up”
- Sporos, Monster Cube and Pixel Kingdom have “tap objects”
- Fruit Ninja, Pudding Monsters, Unblock Me and Color Zen have “swipe objects”
- Happy Jump and Labyrinth have “tilt the device to move”
Games that try to use traditional gamepad controls with onscreen buttons weren’t very fun to play in my opinion. They feel a bit awkward to play without physical buttons to guide your fingers: there’s a lack of physical feedback. Meanwhile, the above listed controls can be combined easily, as tapping, swiping and tilting are very distinct actions.
Lesson: Use simple controls that are native to phones and tablets.
Adding Replay Value
A lot of the same schemes are used in mobile games as in web games, so there’s nothing too surprising here. Most games have achievements, level rankings, upgrades, highscores and the usual stuff.
Something which I found interesting was that a lot of the unlockables don’t even add to the gameplay. There’s stuff like new skins for your character, or wallpapers for your phone, or links to promotional YouTube videos. I guess this is because it’s a more casual market and kids like that sort of stuff? Maybe. I don’t know. Sounds fun to implement though.
I also noticed that a lot of games are updated with new level packs or other content to keep users coming back. Most web games on the other hand don’t usually add new content once they’re finished, unless they’re really popular. This is down to the distribution method I guess: mobile games can easily alert you to new updates, while web games are hosted on a lot of different websites and can’t be updated so conveniently.
Lesson: Add plenty of stuff to unlock, whether it effects gameplay or not. You can also update games.
Monetization Strategies
This is the most important section, for developers anyway. I’ve noticed a lot of different approaches to monetizing mobile games…
- “Pay for the game” – No free version, just a paid one. Not sure how these games are supposed to gain popularity if users can’t try them out for free. I guess this method relies heavily on good reviews to promote the game (that’s how I found them, anyway).
- “Try for free, pay for full version” – A single payment that unlocks a “full” version of the game, which usually includes extra levels, or removes ads. Great because the user can get addicted before spending any money, and it usually means there’s no microtransactions (but not always!), which a lot of users don’t like.
- “Pay to progress faster” – Microtransactions that give in-game currency or other upgrades to reduce the time spent grinding. I’m not a fan of this one because it means you have to make a grindy game. But on the other hand, it means players who don’t want to pay can unlock all of the content for free, but slower.
- “Pay for more content” – Microtransactions for level packs, new characters, upgrades etc. Good because it lets you keep updating a game and milking dedicated players.
- “Pay for cheats” – Microtransactions for, er… cheating. Pay to skip a level or to make it easier! Sounds really cheap, but most games have been quite careful with this, and make the cheats available for free too (although only a limited amount of them).
- “Disable ads” – Usually thrown in as a bonus with any other purchase, but sometimes it stands on it’s own.
- “Watch ads” – Of course, developers can earn money without taking any from the players. Not particularly profitable from what I’ve heard, but it can be if you have a really popular game. I’ve noticed that ads can usually be removed by disabling your internet connection (I wonder how many players have figured this out…?). Some games give out in-game currency for watching ads, playing the game once every day, and stuff like that.
- “Get sponsored” – Some games include a lot of branding in exchange for monies from a large sponsor. There’s a Skittles version of Fruit Ninja! I’m not really sure what sort of sponsorships are available yet, but I’ll have a look into those. Kongregate and Armor Games do mobile sponsorships too, though they promote the games rather than receiving promotion from them, and take a cut of your profits. I think.
The best monetization method really depends on the type of game and amount of content you’ve got.
Lesson: There’s a lot of different ways of making money!
Anyway, that’s all for now. I still need to do a lot of research (income and download stats for different games, if I can find those!), but that’s a good start.
I think that The Kitten Game and Brawl Royale have easy enough controls to be moved over to a mobile device but maybe that is just me anyway keep doing what your doing.
Not sure if you get notified of comments or just check manually – guess this will be a slight test to that, seeing as this is a bit old’ish post.
No idea if you know about them, but Extra Credits guys seem to make nice informative vids for developers/gamers/ect. Today they covered something that might interest you (though you already came to some of the conclusions they mentioned) – touch controlled games. Give’em a look if you think you can learn something: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBHircZu5EI
Oh yeah, I’ve seen some videos by these guys, and need to watch the rest!
Glad to have reminded you. Better update that checklist 😆
Have you ever tried playing the Zenonia series on your phone or tablet??, the games pretty good as well as it’s controls which is fit for an RPG game built for mobile or tablet. It’s also a pretty decent start to get some ideas and inspiration.
GOOD LUCK dude!
Have you tried any of the Zenonia games by Gamevil
Only briefly. Might try again.
Meh, the only thing Happy Jump and those others have going for them is that they’re free.
I’ll always be a Doodle Jump fan.
Your blog is very interesting, and I’ve been thinking on your awesome work and got some questions
Do you use a graphic tablet for your work? which one?
ActionScript 2 or 3?
What version of Flash Pro are you using?
Do you write the code on Flash or on another IDE?
In your opinion, which site is better for new developers, Armorgames or Kongregate?
I use a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet, Actionscript 3, Flash CS6, Flashdevelop, and Newgrounds.com probably.
Thanks a lot!
Your help is truly awesome and helpful.
One last question, are you planing to develop on Android, ios or both?
Both.
Even though I’m (obviously) not Matt, I should be able to answer your last question since I’m a pretty new developer myself. The answer is “both of them are fantastic in their own way.” Armor Games is quite generous with sitelock licenses if your game shows promise, and Kongregate users give fantastic feedback. Another useful site for fresh developers is FlashGameLicense (they’ll help you find a sponsor with a 10% finder’s fee, plus its useful for critiques and such before actually publishing) and CMPStar (high quality, decent-paying ads for your games).
FFS it’s “CPMStar” not CMPStar… D:
Thanks for the info Aesica, it is very appreciated, especially for a newbie like me.
Where did you started developing?
Btw I’m not a native speaker
By that, do you mean “which platform” or “which sites?” For the platform, it was AS2 originally, but because AS2 is terrible, it eventually ended up getting ported to AS3. (I found out that you can’t make a bullet hell game in AS2, rofl)
For sites, I had the game on FGL during development for useful feedback from fellow developers–just be sure to help them out as well when you can, too. For the release, Kongregate got it initially for the first few days so I could have the “exclusive” box checked and earn extra ad revenue–the first few days are when your game will get the most hits. The Kong players surprised me with their exceptional useful feedback–enough to get me interested in using their beta feature next time. Armor Games offered me a sitelock deal, so for about a week, only those two sites had it. Finally, I sent it out to everywhere else. (Newgrounds most notably, but there’s a big list of portals to upload to on FGL somewhere on the forums)
Thanks for the info, really useful, but
I actually meant how did you started, where did you learned?
hey matt
i liked about your blog
very interesting…
also, im about to start programming to mobile games, but i dont know where to start,
can you give me some tips ? :d
also im a programmer, not good as you but, i have some skills, you can find me at newgrounds btw
thx, this blog is helpful (:
and im about to buy the EBF4 in steam :D, just waiting the release!
I’m using Flash and Adobe Air because that’s all I know how. I don’t know if it’s actually very good compared to other stuff.
Unity is actually a good platform for making mobile games. I don’t know how well Flash can do it, but if you’re stuck you might get some mileage out of trying Unity.
Yeah, but I hear Unity’s best for 3D games. I’ll probably try it eventually, but I’ll go with what I’m good at first.