Hi All It's been a while since things went from bad to worse, and I am still trying to recover. The reason I've ended up considering returning to mobile is because I just unsuccesfully attempted to sell my Marmalade SDK "Indie" licence (with 198 days remaing) to fund Steam Greenlight. I don't want to waste it seeing as it is now non-transferable (management are being very harsh, at the time there was no problem). Over the several years since my last iOS release, I have worked on several projects (both Marmalade and Win32), and could with motivation put together a decent game without having to rebuild an engine - my engine efforts are now contained in a reusable library so I can focus on making a game most of the time But I don't feel so wonderful (times are overly harsh) and can't even decide which direction to aim anymore! For PC I would want to aim for Steam (Greenlight), GOG, and itch.io. But, here and now I still have the above licence (deploys to mobile and desktop), plus my account on The App Store until October. I just want to know if anyone thinks it's worth my return to mobile, or if I should stick to PC? Come October it will cost me the same either way to renew iOS developer account or to pay the one-of Greenlight fee. BTW, I no longer use this nickname as the original domain expired plus it just reminds me of a bunch of very low times. But my other account here (real name) was banned when this one was accepted. Sorry for the confusion, I didn't see any point in creating yet another account. (any chance of reversing the situ at all? @Eli) Thanks for reading. Hope anyone can help me to feel motivated again.
Defo! If u want some fresh ideas....ive always wanted to see a scary horror game with rpg elements and an awesome story...sorry im just trying to get you to make this type of game, as for mobile there is so much to do and so many ideas. It only takes that one special game, to get you noticed....
I personally do both, that's the best way to make a living out of it. PC is just as hard as mobile these days, since there are SO many games released. In favor of PC you can ask a fairer price for your games, so you can sell less to still make some money. But on mobile, if you create good games and get some coverage going, you can still make more money then you would like to leave on the table. so .. do both! design a game that can run on both mobile and desktop, and make it good
Hi orangepascal, thanks that's exactly the kind of post I was hoping for Doing both is the way then, I always wanted to but found myself developing native (both Windows and OS X -> iOS) over the years, without joining the dots. 'Shareware' back in the day had me wanting to focus on making games for life, I figured a few fivers dropping through the letterbox would be ideal and not much has changed! Coverage after releasing a game would be nice. For sure I try to make a good game and is why several years have passed between releases. I'm applying a lot of wisdom to the process of game development now. Not really thinking of it as a business at all though! I don't care about that disrupting flow. Anyway I've reactived the Marmalade licence and started to use the remaining 200 days. Played through years of projects and one stood out, the one which I worked on throughout 2012. So I've created a new project and will remake something along those lines, while recycling some new stuff. Cheers
It is hard to make a sustainable games business on any platform. 18 months to 2 years saw a lot of people try mobile, find it hard, then move to PC. A lot of those same developers found similar issues there with an escalating discovery problem, a rapidly climbing quality bar, and downward pressure on pricing. Turns out no matter what platform you are on, you have to reach the quality and value expectations of the audience AND find a way to let people know about your game and why they should check it out. Should you return to mobile? Hard to offer any meaningful advice without knowing a LOT more about your specific situation including your strengths, weaknesses, and your goals. If you do return to mobile, it is probably worth saying that the paid mobile model is extremely difficult to find success in. You end up being quite reliant on Apple featuring going down that path, and without it it can be very hard to get any traction irrespective or whether or not you have a good game. Free to play has its own challenges also, but you at least have the opportunity to build an audience organically if the quality is in your title. If you can take a look at what is featured on the App Store this week and realistically say to yourself "I'm open to free to play and I can make a game as good as the worst game being featured this week" then mobile might be worth a shot. If you feel you would prefer a paid model targeting niche genre audiences, then PC might be the better option. Hope this helps.
Hi PikPok, thanks for the realistic opinion. I too went PC after mobile except for different reasons (no fee deadlines), also trying native iOS but the Mac in use was so slow compared to the PC (effecting flow). Discovery has always been a problem for all. I'm not even sure that a great game would even get a fair chance anymore without friendly contacts, who I barely gotton two words out of for example! But I won't let that put me off, there must be some people who look at the game itself before it's credits. I originally asked if I should return to mobile because my iOS Developer account is due to expire in a quarter, which had me thinking should I renew or invest the money in the Child's Play one-of donation to enable Steam Greenlight submission. Designing for both desktop and mobile (as suggested by orangepascal) seems the way to go rather than one followed by the other. So I was thinking about it incorrectly by letting red tape dictate the process. The paid model does generate a trickle for the first year at least. I tried the free model and it was a lot worse; I think there is no chance of entering a free chart, plus I was put off when an advertising network blocked my app because I tested it on the simulator (which they identified as a web browser cheating a few hits ffs!), also Apple rejected that one (unlike Microsoft) and I never bothered to try the free model again. Better to earn a couple of quid than nothing, at least it pays the fees for it to continue existing. For sure I can make a game fit for being featured, it has taken me several years to appreciate the vibe required. The niche part will be gameplay difficulty, but tough about that because I still have to make a game that I love playing myself. For example, Super Hexagon would be boring if it was easier to play. I want to make this game groovy or die! Yes that did help, thank you, I shall keep an eye on the App Store's featured tab, ensuring that my game will be seriously considered there by any game lover.
Mobile is definitely a good idea! I know people making tens of thousands a month from serving adverts. They had a top ten feature once, a month or two ago and the retention has been amazing. They found success in an idle clicker game
Free is all good until it fails harder than paid! I'm not the type to just keep releasing simple stuff until one sticks, rather I'm here to put my heart and soul in to it. Indeed clickers are played by all sorts. I would rather just try to attract a medium-core+ fan base.
I asked not because of naivety but thanks for your opinion. Mobile is saturated with junk perhaps! There's plenty of room for decent original stuff but again it is only meaningful with a feature, luckily I aim to release on other platforms so that the focus won't all be in one place, alone!
If you want/need to earn any money from your games, don't. In fact, then you shouldn't be a solo indie game developer as your primary job at all. Doing it for fun, not profit: that's a different story. Like any other hobby (and mind you, you can get quite serious about those), your business alone. But ... your first post sounds like money is tight. If I cannot spend 100$ on my hobby - or pretty much anything - now (like it sounds from your posts), then I simply can't afford the expense and have to drop/postpone it, period.
There's place for decent original stuff. But if you don't 100% focus on mobile, I doubt that you can make that kind of decent stuff.
Experience? How good a coder are you? Maybe you should partner as others have ideas as myself I have to hire expensive coders to do my games using my hard earned crappy day job money, as I am just an ideas person and get artwork done. Thing is you might just win the app lottery one day if you keep going and I know its very depressing with all those failures but were not all Bill Gates and can do only certain things with our wired minds. I am starting to do another game right now getting artwork done and going to copy Crossy Road monetization. However, saying that minds CAN be rewired.
For sure money was never the attraction for me, none of my programming efforts ever made more than a few hundred (since the 90s), but I still code every day with the same consistant passion and will continue to do so long after every one else has given up. I can't spend $10 on a pair of jeans, let alone $100. Drop/postpone? Well I've dropped a ton of projects, they don't get postponed because I like to start from fresh so to speak, though some might see it all as constant refactoring.
I think my focus is more on mobile as when I deploy to iPad the feeling of pride is once again higher than I get from desktop. Also, it would take VR for me to focus on desktop but I haven't even experienced that yet. One thing that has changed since I was around mobile in 2010 is now I have toddler grandchildren, it is incredible to play mobile games with them. I laugh for example as they try to push/hurry GUI animations out of the way. Or enjoy when it's my turn (usually at the frustrating parts) and things go well they take the device right out of my hands, continuing the observed gameplay tactic/method - that is satisfying.
Well, I can do most anything engine-wise, but tend not to complete projects. That should turn around now that I keep my engine in a library, allowing new projects to be clean and have that head start. You're right I should partner with someone. But I wouldn't like to do it as a day job (or return to any day job; done my part!), it would have to be the main project for any partner involved. I'm not in it for the lottery! Yes our minds are wired, my priority was just to provide electricity for the computer rather than provide materials. But I must admit that it is time to start providing for my family, who deserve more comfort. Interesting about Crossy Road. Around that time I was deep in a couple of decent voxel projects, I rember thinking "if I had made that then I would've been done already". My mind is wired to working solo, but it has always been in the back of my mind that the right partner would be a force to be reackoned with. As for PAID vs FREE vs PAID vs ... I think Free requires more publicity than Paid, my time is better spent behind the scenes.
I have been making mobile games for around five years now, most years I don't make enough money to pay my Apple Dev license so I am not sure how much longer I will stick with it. I would say that if you really want to try mobile again and have the time/money to do so, go for it. I have seen amazing games bomb and crappy games succeed, so who knows how something will do.
