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发帖数: 1034 | 1 By David Bolton | May 8, 2014
Posted In Mobile Development, Working in Tech
Tags: Apps, Mobile, Mobile Games
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Flappy Bird
The developers who got into iOS a few months after the App Store was
launched had it a lot easier than their brethren today. A few months after
the store opened, there were just 10,000 apps available. Today, that many
are launched in two weeks. That means more than 1,000 new apps appear each
day. That’s a phenomenal figure – and not what anyone with a low marketing
budget wants to hear.
Another challenge: Roughly one in five players who try your game will play
it only once. Within 24 hours, two thirds of the people who’ve tried it
will have given up.
In a nutshell, the problem is that with so many apps out there, getting
yours found is a tough proposition. Figures released by Apple show that as
of January 2013, there had been 40 billion downloads from the App Store for
over 1 million apps. Similar figures have been reported for Android.
Combined, app store revenue for iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows equaled
some $9 billion in 2013. But it’s harder for small, independent developers
to get a chunk of that.
Developers who have big budgets can pay for advertisements to push their
games. A lucky few get highlighted by Apple, which can dramatically increase
their sales.
One game I play a lot is Pocket Trains, where you gain game currency (Tower
Bucks) by watching game advertisements. Most of these come from Vungle,
which says that 100 million people see one of its ads each month.
So what’s a low-budget indie developer to do?
The first thing is obvious: Try to come up with something that’s at least a
little bit original. Flappy Bird wasn’t exactly new, but it was considered
addicting. Another tip: Try not to compete in an existing sector, but
create your own niche and own it.
Next: Flappy Bird was a simple game, and maybe there’s a lesson in that:
Simple is better. There are some incredibly complicated and sophisticated
games with beautiful graphics out there, which probably cost a shed load of
money to develop. They may make money only because the developers spent
several more shed loads of money on marketing them. If like many developers
you don’t have a large development or marketing spend, then you need to
innovate.
Third, make your game as slick as possible. At the least, it should be easy
to learn and have tutorials. But if you give it well-thought-out controls
and make it easy to play without lessons, maybe you won’t lose 20 percent
of your players after one session. Smartphones allow you to create some
sophisticated gesture-based interactions, so experiment and be
unconventional.
And take heart. Even if your app isn’t a success, it’s something to put on
your resume. It can show off your skills in the best possible way – with a
finished app that you shipped out into the real world
I still believe that it’s worthwhile developing for Android and iOS, and
maybe Windows as well. Regardless of whether or not you make a pile of money
, you’ll gain experience that can open doors for you. |
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