App Store Trends! What do YOU think about it?

I don't believe you can predict what trends are coming up. Apps are so creative and the market is so large. When something captures enough people's imagination and becomes successful, everyone will jump on the bandwagon until it becomes saturated and thus becomes a trend for that moment in time. It stops becoming a trend when new entrants cannot make enough return on the idea and therefore creates a barrier to entry and becomes less worthwhile.

Anything that's good can become a trend if enough people believe they can make money from it. The initial trend setter should theoretically make the most from it, unless someone comes along and does it bigger and better or provides a novel or unique twist that in itself becomes and trend within a trend.

Good games and more so unique games start trends.

 

Do you mean game genres and elements that have proven to be repetitively successful? here are a few

stickman games
fishing games
anything to do with birds,
multiple function apps
tower defense

tons more!

 

Genres that drive away the app store? A totally new gaming ecosystem perhaps? I don't think the app store is going anywhere...

I do however think that there is a current trend potentially moving away from the cute and cuddly towards freemium games with in app purchases. With genres in the farm/build type category, though a few other genres are getting into it too (check out Jetpack Joyride for instance, which is an endless runner type game).

 

The next trend will be 'garden vegetables'.

Add potatoes and carrots to your app and you're sure to succeed.

 

The next trend will be something that came from something unique.

That statement my sound off the cuff but to make a trend you have to stop copying and make something original.

So what really is a trend?

I guess graphics can be trend setters... Doodle type games are good examples.
I guess characters can be trend setters... Birds are good examples.
I guess input methods can be trend setters... Touch games like Flight Control are good examples.
I guess clever uses of physics can be trend setters... Cut the Rope is a good example.
I guess using a retro look can be trend setters... League of Evil is a good example.

If you break down design choices with these observations then the next trend can be anything

Another observation is some trends can start off because the developer found a way to use cheap assets to keep the development cost down. These cheap assets can start trends off - A prime example is all those stick games.

But, we as developers, need to think out of the box to come up with the next big thing. And that is the challenge. To copy = fail!

 

From our perspective there are only two trends:
1) visuals
2) gameplay

Visuals:
People will buy everything what has amazing/polished visuals. They don't care if this is 2D or 3D but as everyone knows the 3D (on the newest hardware) is something like "self-seller" feature, but it costs a lot! Those costs are: time & money, so if a developer isn't a large team it can be very hard to make a game with amazing & polished visuals.

Gameplay:
From our experience (several years in the game industry, working on AAA products) this is the most important item/feature on every product's checklists. For mobile devices a critical thing is to have a gameplay as simple as (and as intuitive as) you can!
All players want to play game immediately and they don't want to waste their time on tutorials and/or trying to understand (for more than 1-2 minutes) how the gameplay works.
Gameplay itself can be more complicated but in the further levels and should be somehow introduced by a game as simple as it's possible (you can observe this how all "new birds" are introduced in Angry Birds)

Gameplay + visuals:
What can we add here? Nothing! Because this is so obvious...

 

While not totally new, I think the online multiplayer thing is a pretty big trend. Especially in terms of turn based games like words with friends and carcassonne.

Neither of these games have much in the way of visuals, but with decent game play and a human mind as your opponent you have a damn good mix!

 

Angry Birds, Tiny Wings, Zuma, DinerDash and countless other... all these hits are all copying previous game mechanism. The main difference is that they made the game extremely fun and polished.

I'll say the opposite, if you are trying to be too original, too weird, too different player probably won't even bother checking your game. It's isn't bad to use well know design blueprint.

Nothing is completely black or white (original or inspired) making a great game is a dificult recipes that need a clever mix of everything.

JC

 

I think that rule applies to anything that you create, not just apps... Building on ideas to make them better.

 

Any self-respecting game studio should study upcoming trends for one single purpose only : to steadily avoid them. Nothing screams mediocre like a "me too" concept.

If you invest your efforts and skills in a product and put your name on it, it's worth it to put your heart and soul into it. A personal product contribution on a promising market should try to advance the state of things, to elevate its culture. Go big or go home.

 

I agree that building a game directly off the concept of another is wrong. However, the original question asked in the thread was more about themes that play out well with consumers.

I.e graphics types such as "cartoonish", "stick man", etc
And gameplay mechanics like "turn based", "endless high score" etc etc etc.

 

I see. Thanks for the correction.

Still, when it comes to themes, I understand how one could try to fit with popular concepts, but I personally believe a title has more promise of long-term success by aiming for timeless themes that fit closely with the gameplay at hand. That, and choosing a theme style with as wide an appeal as possible, not gender specific. We all have different ideas of what one gender finds more appealing. I personally find that cartoon styles that brush too close to "cuteness" are too feminine, borderline childish and a bit too popular right now, but still I tolerate them since it often permeates otherwise well-realized titles (Angry Birds, Glowfish, Cut The Rope...)

 

The next Angry Birds won't be an Angry Birds clone. It will be something else that does something new in terms of gameplay or style or marketing.

 

I really don't think you can predict the next trend - if we could then we will be all rich

But you can use certain formulas to make a game.

1. Choose a unique graphics style (this is harder than you think - I've spent months looking into this) - one that has never been done and is appealing to look at.
2. Choose a popular game formula... Half Brick chose the cave flyer but injecting fun into it - but the secret here is to ramp up the quality and polish the concept.
3. Choose something that is fun to make because you will be spending probably about 6 to 8 months creating the game and boredom can kill projects.
4. Put every bit of your soul into creating - the end product is a good sign that a dev has done this to the public (they certainly know when a game is hacked together).

These points can certainly start a trend but it may well fall flat on the ground - as no one can predict trends.

 

6-8 months is a heluva time to spend on a game that may or may not start a trend.

What sort time do most of you devs spend on creating a game anyways?

 

I believe we're basically seeing a repeat of history: games developed by an individual or small group, who handle everything from design to audio, creating a product that represents a personal vision compared to the blockbusters that have dominated every other aspect of gaming for some time.

We've seen the games return to their lo-fi roots, with an emphasis on style over the sort of raw-power graphics toward which technology has a natural tendency to escalate.

One can already observe the trend on the hardware side, as these companies work to add more processing and more memory to devices. Now all that's necessary are for games to take advantage of it, in the same way they did as we moved from 8 to 16 bit, then to 64 bit and the rise of 3D games, and so on.

Therefore my prediction is that games will follow the same overall path they did before. Already, we can see a massive audience ready to jump on just about anything produced under the Unreal engine. It seems that games will inevitably shift toward increased complexity and graphics.

That also means the price of games will rise, something which we can already see companies like Square working toward. I have no doubt that people will look back on the $1 app much as the 10 cent comic book.

 

Hey dib, sorry but I'm going to have to disagree with you on a couple of points and share my opinions.

Yes, mobile processing performance is advancing at an alarming rate and there are some great 3d engines such as Unreal and Unity to take advantage of them. But if you look at the top 5 games you will find that they play just fine on an old 3G iPhone, much the same as they do on the latest hardware.

I think that simplicity, ease of use and addicting gameplay are the current trends and are the most mainstream traits you will find in these sorts of games. Take a look back 20 or even 30 years and the premise remains the same. These are the most consumer friendly games and will remain so, because people in general like things to be easy.


As for the cost of mobile games, as a dev I wish it were true that things are going to get more expensive and thus generate more revenue. The trend here seems to be not with more expensive games from the outset, but instead free games with purchasable content in game. Just take a look at the top grossing games, a lot of them are free. And most of them have in app purchases.

So in one sense, yes you're right. Mobile games are getting more expensive, but not as outright single purchases. They are getting more expensive through repeated purchases for the same game.

Just my 2c