I've just published first part of the "Smart business hacks" series where are my tips how to research the mobile space before you start coding new game or app: http://bit.ly/businesshacks Here are the headlines, more in the post: 1. Appannie for marketing potential 2. Sensor Tower for users feedback 3. Think Gaming for revenue estimates 4. Crunchbase for investment history and competition 5. Forbes, Techcrunch, Mashable for interviews 6. Industry related companies for insights 7. Quora for clarification Do you have any tricks which youre using? Is your research process different and if so, how? Please share your thoughts with others by commenting below or use Twitter @Flow_Studio. The next week: Part II - feedback
Part 2 - getting feedback I've published the second part of the "Business hacks" series, this time how to get a valuable feedback before launching new game. Read 8 new tips here: http://bit.ly/TFiV4n
Excellent read, FlowStudioGames. While I'm still in the middle stages of development, I'll be ramping up the business side very soon and will be putting a lot of your broadstroke advice into use.
My tip is to do something that everyone else cannot clone and specialise in an audience willing to pay for games. At True Axis our games are pretty much physics based simulations, using our own optimised 3D engine that delivers frame rates that Unity or any other 3rd party API cannot compete and our own physics engine that is pretty well much optimised for mobile. I have never seen Jet Car Stunts cloned and True Skate has only 1 game competing against it. Also, actually care about your audience and listened to what they have to say. Their feedback is very important because you as a developer should build up a trust with them.
My tip would be to listen to app the App related podcasts you can, MyAppVenture and MobileAppChat are 2 of the greats, with industry experts giving great advice on everything app related. Also to make an app successful you need to dedicate serious time and money into marketing, the marketing is 80% of the job.