I've been working on this pretty simple game for over a year now, mostly because i started from ZERO app development knowledge and a lot of the time was spent learning how to make apps at all. Now that i'm finally wrapping up development im thinking of a new strategy for this year, and im really really leaning towards making WAY SIMPLER games that take AT MOST 2 months to complete from start to finish. This way i can greatly increase my app count on the appstore and google play, and get more exposure for my company. Or i can put in more time to make deeper apps but itd probably take me at least 4 or 5 months to get something like that done. im GREATLY leaning towards the former. I'm trying to make MONEY so i can quit my job and be a free man, i personally LOVE deep games with epic story and whatnot but trying to do all that with a passions while also working a 40 hour a week job u hate is IMPOSSIBLE. it just feels horrible cause you know you have so far to go to finish your great game and meanwhile youre dragging yourself through hundreds and thousands of hours of work that you hate... I'm thinking of focusing on 1 unique mechanic per game to minimize complex scripting minimize tweaking time avoid complex interactions between different unique mechanics no realtime constant complex calculations(like physics,rendering, effects,AI) minimizes optimization time, if not completely removing that requirement.(my current game can have 50+ characters on screen plus fire effects and they all have their own AI, which required serious optimization) having a game essentially freeze while waiting for ur input simplifies EVERYTHING! barebones/simplistic/minimalistic artwork lets my artist partner focus full energy on LOGO,ICON which are super important for marketing Since he's just one guy, having minimalistic artwork will let him iterate on art faster to find a good fit for the game and meet that 1 month deadline. easy to implement cookie cutter social integration For the game im making now im implementing all social integration for the first time such as facebook sharing,score leaderboard,inviting,twitter sharing. It took a good month just to figure out facebook the first time. Once im fully done i can reuse the same buttons and functionality in all my future games. SIMPLE infinite games based on getting higher score OR SIMPLE "3 star" levels games OR SIMPLE puzzle games these 2 game types are the ones that will keep a player coming back, the infinite one is great because u don't have to worry about generating new content. The 3 star levels game type is great because u can quickly make 20-30 levels if u GENUINELY have 1 simple unique mechanic, and can use it to quickly create interesting levels. Puzzle games are great because once u invent an interesting puzzle mechanic on paper, the hard part will just be to code it into the game. Other than that there's usually no worries about performance. 1 simple control scheme(possibly the unique mechanic) Less polishing/testing time to get good "smooth" control feel, which i personally believe is one of the most important aspects of a game I'm obviously thinking of apps like flappy bird, 2048, cut the rope, doodle jump. Something like bejeweled clone is already too complex(making that unique mechanic can get complex since the game already has a unique mechanic of connecting pieces) angry birds is too much because there's a lot of bird types, the destruction, and the slingshot. They've all been polished to perfection which took time. Temple run is too much because ull have to make it engaging with something besides just running which can get complex to make it all work together nicely If a How To Play guide is absolutely required for your game, u've gone too far.. Any thoughts?
