Quality vs. Quantity

[CharredDirt]

Rubicon, thanks for the link. I'm going to watch this on my lunch break.

This actually isn't my first game, just first mobile game. The original Charred Dirt was a free tank game we made for PC. Took us 3-4 years to make it but on a very casual part time schedule. I'm working a lot faster on the new game but still doing it part time. If I did it full time, I think I'd have it done in roughly 4 months.

I just think that a 2 month (working full time) project is going to be fun on the surface but wont have that deep level of gameplay that most dedicated gamers crave.

I can't speak too much about marketing, it scares me but I don't know how much cash I'll have to get a PR firm. I started my FB and twitter campaigns early which seem to be paying off.

[Balloon Loons]

Oh cool. Thanks rubicon. Hey. What pr firm did you use if you don't mind me asking. I get a whole lot of emails from people offering such services but I don't know if it's a scam. So if you had a good experience with someone would you mind sharing who? Thanks so much.

[Rubicon]

It was them, and certainly no complaints here.

[NickFalk]

Originally Posted by Rubicon

If you make quality, it's not guaranteed to fly. If you make crap it is guaranteed to fail.

Fairly obvious, but not often (enough) spelled out so clearly.

As for the original post, I don't necessarily think short development time means developers are sacrificing quality on the alter of quantity. It might however mean that they scale down the scope of their games. I think this makes sense, particularly if you consider the average price and competitiveness of the AppStore.

[Balloon Loons]

Originally Posted by NickFalk

Fairly obvious, but not often (enough) spelled out so clearly.

As for the original post, I don't necessarily think short development time means developers are sacrificing quality on the alter of quantity. It might however mean that they scale down the scope of their games. I think this makes sense, particularly if you consider the average price and competitiveness of the AppStore.

Yup exactly. Plus I think people are realizing more and more that iphone games are not popular because of depth. Simplicity is key and also you have to preserve the game snack idea. So forget making an indepth storyline or adding all kinds of crazy characters. Stick with basic, get it done, and get it out. Look at tiny wings LOL No story, no depth, yet it's making millions. Go figure Good for him! Remember iphone gamers are casual and chances are they will download and play a game for like a week and be on to the next. I mean honestly how long can you play tiny wings for?

[Rubicon]

My biased response would be to avoid that like the plague.

Our game series is ludicrously fat on content for the $2.99 price and this fatness is at least partially responsible for the games (mild) success. Possibly largely responsible.

We have a couple of small games out there (a yahtzee game and a match-3) that have been reviewed well - they're not percieved as crap. However they make no money because there's nothing special about them to get people talking. There's a million other match-3 and yahtzee games.

There is a niche for bigger games and they can make money, but casting your net into the "snack gaming" audience more or less guarantees obscurity imo - that's where almost all games sit and there's already thousands of very good ones.

[jasondask]

Some great discussion in this thread and something I have too been thinking about as our website looks towards launching it's first mobile app (traditionally we've been focused in the flash space)

I personally think less is more, however it is very much based on circumstance and need. A developer might have the best game ever and invest 2-3 years in development only for it not to really take off on the app store, which can be a significant financial burden.

For a textbook example, a company like Half-brick studios; the less is more approach works well in their favour as their titles are virtually guaranteed to be top 5 hits on the back of reputation and the quality built into their previous successful titles.

However for smaller developers that don't have reputation or solid publisher agreement/support, I can definitely see why the more attractive option would be smaller, but more frequent projects.

[Balloon Loons]

See I'm going to disagree there a bit. What your game has going is the graphics. It looks fun and interesting before you ever even play it. That's where your game's strength is. No one buys an iPhone game for depth. It's like a friend of mine said. If I want depth I'll play Xbox. If I want to play a game while I'm taking a shit I'll play with my iPhone. I'm sure out there you'll find a handful of hardcore iPhone gamers out there but they are by no means the majority. You have to cater to your audience. You're obviously not going to create diablo 3 for an iPhone because of space, pricing, and competition. And if you do create it it's going to be watered down with a hose lol. Just my opinion as a gamer.

[Rubicon]

Don't forget the iPad (and Android and MS equivalents).

We admittedly do much better on that device, but it's not to be underestimated. A lot of pad owners play on their sofa, not the subway.

[Balloon Loons]

Originally Posted by Rubicon

Don't forget the iPad (and Android and MS equivalents).

We admittedly do much better on that device, but it's not to be underestimated. A lot of pad owners play on their sofa, not the subway.

Yup sure this is true. But this says nothing to the games depth or length. People tend to download 3d games more for iPads simply because of the look. But no gamer will choose the iPad over their Xbox. Think about how uncomfortable an iPad is to hold for more than 30 minutes at most. Again I stick with the point that these platforms remain time killers and not the go to item for a real gamer. The only way that would ever happen is when they start to ship with Bluetooth controllers and dramatically increase storage and change the way games are downloaded. (no 50 mb limit). Until then these devices remain time killers. Not to say of course a programmer isn't welcomed to put as much content as they want in the app. You did and good for you. My point is you may have had the same results from doing less but keeping the look of them game. I remain certain that your graphics are what sold the game. I too feel like we put some decent amount of content in our game and made it fun but at the end of the day the graphics are not on the level of your graphics and it flopped. I can almost bet my life that if my game was rendered in 3d it would have been a huge success.