As a new game developer, I'm interested in knowing what represents value for money in a premium game to average iOS gamer. Visual quality, content, length of engagement, originality and gameplay are all important factors. What is most important to you and what game have you purchased contains all the qualities you look for in a premium game. I'm starting to work on my next game and I want to know what's important to YOU! Bear in mind I'm a single developer working alone, so it would be most valuable if you mentioned games from smaller studios. For me, I'd like to point out two games that I feel represented great premium games (for me!)... Device 6 Yes, I know it's VERY short and probably only contains about an hours worth of gameplay (when you're not reading the story), but the quality of the content and the audio/visual experience was of such a high caliber that it didn't seem to matter. It just felt premium, and was such an enjoyable ride. Piloteer Another polarizing game, both for its visuals and gameplay. I'm not usually one to enjoy arcade physics games, but for some reason this just clicked. Simple interface, straight to the point, very easy to navigate the UI. Everything just seems well put together and streamlined. How about you guys?
Visuals are great BUT its not a showstopper for me. I mean retro games are so popular on iOS, many dont have 'modern day' graphics. I play tons of MAME games, again most look ancient. All about gameplay for me, you can have whizzy amazing graphics but if the gameplays poor it doesnt matter. Gameplay is #1 Same for originality, some games on iOS claim to be original but i've seen similar style games in the 80's or early 90's. I would look back to see what some of the big games did in earlier years, eg platform games are very popular, people are always begging for a 'metroid-vania' style game
Some of the best indie developers out there: Warwick Allison (Creator of WazHack,it is still being updated) Ryan Mitchell (Creator of mission europa,he is currently working on Mission Europa 2) The entire Redshift team which consists of 3 people + many dedicated Zarista games developers (The guys behind the best rpg ever released on ios - The Quest and it's expansions) Voncarp (The creator of Barren Roads) Foursaken media brothers (They make one of the best premium games on iOS) Gaspar Mereu (Creators/creator of Drylands and other really good titles) Game Dev Team (Creators/creator of Hardboiled - fallout inspired game and many other really good titles) Fireproof games?(Not exactly sure but I think that they're indie developers,well at least they had been before they got rich from all that The Room income ) Atypical games?(Seems like they are indie developers too yet they have created currently the best Far Cry/Rust experience on ios and I respect that) Kwangsam Kim (The creator of The Silver Bullet and many other great titles) Mdickie?(I think that they're indie developers,not sure though,anyway,they make really good simulator games on iOS) Crescent moon studios?(I think that they're indie developers,not sure though,but they still make one of the best rpgs on ios,I'm really hype for Aralon - forge and flame) Alex Alez (Space story developer,I'm half Russian and I speak Russian so I know him well) Fishlabs?(I think that they were indie developers when they were working on Galaxy on Fire,but,anyway,GoF 2 is still going to be the best sci-fi space game ever released on ios unless GoF 3 or Eve online releases on ios) Tenb?(The developer/developers of Zona Project X) Robert Topala?(Well he was an indie developer until he got all that money from Geometry Dash ) Things that i'm looking for in a premium ios game: Fun - I like certain genres like shooters,rpgs,maybe even brawlers,sci-fi games but if the game horribly sucks and there are other better games to play then I'll just skip them (I'm staring at you,Modern Combat 5,what an irony cause their Nova game is an absolute masterpiece compared to that piece of junk,it was bad since the day of release,even Mc4 was much better than that,believe me,I know) Content - I don't really need a LOT of content in a game,but I'm not asking for updates,but a medium amount of content for me should be good. Like look at "A Few Days Left" - it has only 11 missions overall yet the game is still amazing. Gameplay - gameplay should not be dull,linear,make sure that the gamer won't get bored quickly (Bioshock or Mission Europa as an instance - they are not your typical fps' simply cause they have things like atmosphere,story,PLASMIDS AND SPELLS/SKILLS,many beautiful locations and overall the gameplay is really fun) (Dead Trigger 2 on the other hand gets boring quickly,I hope I don't have to explain why,I'm SURE that their newest game called Unkilled will fail miserably compared to dead trigger 2 simply cause gameplay has not changed and it is still linear + now you can only play for 20 minutes then you'll have to wait for...umm...2 hours?)
Surprised nobody mentioned it yet, but the only thing I expect from a premium game is polish - in every aspect of the game. I don't think they were ever indie developers, but then again, the line is pretty blurry. Fishlabs were my favourite developers back in the java mobile games days, but sadly the majority of them got laid off and sold out to another company recently, so I don't know whether we can expect anything good from them anymore. (You've seen Galaxy on fire: Alliances, right?)
I have to agree, I'm a sucker for visuals on the epic blockbusters like the Uncharted series on Playstation, but for mobile it's all about the gameplay and overall polish (when I say polish I mean it feeling like a complete package).
Great list! Thanks for the response, I'll be sure to go through all of those and check them out. Not sure I can compete with some of those as I'm more the 'weekend warrior' developer but still really helpful.