What do you wish you knew?

Whether it'd be a mega hit before you even start working on it LOL.

Maybe in the unicorn world?

 

I wish I had started focusing on a marketing strategy before we released our first game. Currently I'm playing catch up trying to become active in forum groups, re-learning twitter, and posting videos and emailing review sites.

However, at the same time, I was very busy making art and levels for the game. Finding a balance would have been nice.

 

I too have come from large studio background and the thing I underestimated was scoping the game. Our first game ran wild and the scope grew to large and our latest efforts ran over time by 30% (it's nearly done, honest!).

It's easy to underestimate what all the other people in your old office did all day!

 

Whats your background? art? programming? design?

very few people are good enough at all 3 to make a great game. You'll probably need some help. dealing with contract work needs to be handled with care and dealing with partners requires even more attention. My 2 cents.

 

Like exec I'd say I wish I would have been more careful with the scope. The game is almost the size of a DS game right now, and instead of 3 months we spent 9 months on it.
On the other hand it's coming great and I'm very proud... we'll see if it's successful at release.

Something I'm grateful that I had, coming from a big publisher as well, is a big network. All my team is very experienced and they are people I met during my days with a big publisher. Without the network, I wouldn't have the game.

Something I still wish I'd know is wether it's better to go freemium or priced. Imagine you have a game with a design that can stand both, but the game is seriously high quality. Are you ready to make it free? Can it really be more profitable? And it's not about getting rich, it's about surviving as a company.

Something else I'd wish to anticipate is the assets resolution and prod pipeline. If we had done all our assets in HD (not iPhone HD, but TV HD like 1080p), and also made the game with a base in C++ and not objective C, the ports would be much easier. But again, would we be there if we had started with a C++ game? Having one platform for the preprod makes everything simpler, so I guess we have better quality thanks to that.

Also, something I wish I had known earlier: we started with a game without a solo mode (only local multiplayer). That was stupid on iPhone. I can't even remember how come I started with that. Again, the good side is that with a multiplayer mode, you focus on the controls and that's what matters. And you have your AI design just by looking at other players.

 

I want to know Apple's secrets!

 

I wish I knew that the many BS talking idiots, who "worked" for me until now, will only make big promises and deliver nothing before they disappear.

This is the worst thing as an employer. Finding the right people to work with.

What I learned in the almost 3 years of developing iPhone games is, that I will now only pay for a finished work for somebody, who could deliver in a previously fixed timeframe.

No more hourly payment, just project based. X ammount of money for X ammount of work in X ammount of time. Period.

 

I wish I knew that if you're making a paid app, you get your banking info as well as contract info and tax info ready to roll before your app is released. : ) Cause your app is not going to be released even if it's approved before all those ducks are in line.

Live and learn. It's ok, I learned. : ) It wasn't Apple's fault that I didn't know, it was mine because I didn't take the time to read everything --too happy just to have gotten through the submission process---and I love them.

 

I think the biggest thing for the devs (myself included) is learning marketing, because we generally suck at it!

This is something that is still a work in progress for me, but WOW there is much to learn and it is VERY powerful

 

I couldn't agree more with Luke. I've quickly learned that marketing is just as if not more important then the development itself.

It's the biggest reason I've finally decided to finally stop lurking iOS forms and start becoming an active member. Playing catchup for all that time I locked myself away from the internet while developing.

 

Welcome to the community

I've recently attended a number of conferences and meetings around game development and mobile development in general. Gotta say, it's quite an eye opener and I've met some really cool people.

If you haven't already take a look at the IDGA (international game developers association) site, they have chapters all over the world and are involved in some pretty big events.

 

oops, that would be the http://www.igda.org/ as opposed to the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement..... although I'm sure their events are equally interesting

 

Marketing... I still haven't cracked it.. All the usual things aren't working.. Trying a lite version of my game to see if that helps.

Also game selection.. I.e. Choosing the right game to do (so you stand out .. And thus make marketing easier)

 

Seconded. Without really any marketing I've made enough to buy a large pizza. I'm going pretty far out on a limb now to try and get some buzz going.

[thread=106877]BabyBubblez! **blush**[/thread]

 

Been to a few IGDA Toronto events. They're great and love the people.

One day I'll get out to one of the bigger yearly conferences. I've always wanted to goto something like iDev360, IGF or GDC. Usually finances or the day job schedule gets in the way.

Thanks for the welcome btw.

 

Translation, Usability

- iOS players expect more usability than regular console players. Regular console players did most of the testing on our first game. They never complained about usability. Sigh.
- The earth doesn't speak english. The need for translation can generate all kinds of overheads, so it's worth trying to reduce this at the design stage. But then translation is really worth it if your game is chatty. For several months we made 70% of our sales in Japan!

 

Just putting it out there; But have any of you guys looked into cross promoting your games with other developers?

Power in numbers

 

We do - but we're not expecting high returns... There's a story in Games from Within where a small network of cross promoting apps got a spike because Harbor Master got really popular and was part of their group.

When you write 'power in numbers' I think about exchanging expertise (market data, sample code...) and services (translation, skills, open source platforms...).
Expertise is expensive to buy, cheap to share and highly valuable - that's probably why we're posting on forums and stack overflow

Either way it makes sense because you can do it step by step (no need for contracts or long term commitment) and it's a lot easier to exchange tips than to pay consultants or contractors.

Back to cross-promotion, my outlook is that cross-promotion networks have limited visibility; the more apps in the network, the more the network is visible. Unfortunately more apps in the network means each app's visibility inside the network decreases. That doesn't sound great to me so I guess we'll stick to breaking deals on a case basis, where we feel that our target audience clearly overlaps so that 'if you liked X you will also like Y'.
Even with targeted cross promotion deals, I'd say it's something we do because it's fun, and we can spare the time.