Minigames Universe post release

The Good:

I like the gameplay diversity and use of vibration and accelerometers. I think most games don’t utilize those things nearly enough. Using the accelerometers add a lot to the gameplay, it allows much more variety to the usual swipe and poke.

Though subtle, I think the vibration adds a little to the game.  I actually can’t think of any mobile games that use vibration. Consoles use it and it can add a lot. The only reason I can think of to keep it out is users might think it a notification and not know it is part of the game. Some cheap tablets don’t even have vibration.

Each “minigame” is different from the next and has different gameplay mechanics. With that said, I could of made a separate game with almost each minigame. Every game required compartmentalized gameplay and graphics.

I did everything myself and didn’t buy anything or reuse someones assets  with very rare exceptions. I think  that makes the game much more unique.

The bad:
I  got a digital tablet about half way through and I already wasn’t a very good artist before. So some of the artwork isn’t very consistent. At  times there is  low quality pixel art and other times it’s higher quality stuff I did by hand.

It took about a year to get it to the form it’s in now. While it’s not completely terrible I feel if I were to start making the same game now it would be much better and done in less time. Of course over that year I gathered all the skills it took to make it.

I had to take a bunch of stuff out because it wouldn’t work with some devices. Some cheap/old tablets would have the sensors reversed or they wouldn’t work at all.

The ugly

Got suspended from adMob

I lost my keystore file and had to make a new game listing. it wasn’t a total travesty because it was only in beta, but it was still a bummer.The game wasn’t ready and I accidentally pushed it live from beta It turned out to be a good thing because it had me scrambling to get it fixed. Who knows how long I would of taken trying to get it “perfect”.

The game doesn’t show up at all on the play store unless you search for it exactly, and what’s the point of that? I paid for a service from Fiverr that researches keywords and writes/rewrites your description for the play store to boost the ranking. The service itself was $25 and it takes up to 5 days for the service and up to another 8 weeks for results to show. So who knows if it will actually work.

Starting a Game Company

So you want to start a game company and you think you have what it takes?  Great! I will be going over just some of the skills involved.

Assuming you are starting from scratch(like me) and you are planning on being a one person dev team, here are some many jobs that go into making just one game:

  • Programmer
  • Graphical artist
  • Audio engineer
  • Game design
  • Level design
  • Producer

And that’s just to name a few. That’s a LOT of work to put in for just one person and one game. There are also other things involved many might not consider:

  • Social media
  • Accounting
  • Advertising
  • Web design, web hosting, SEO,ETC.
  • Setting company up/legal info

Every one of these categories one could spend hours upon hours upon hours in a rabbit of of research and work. For example, to set up this website I had to buy a domain, pay for web hosting, learn how to set all of it up, learn WordPress and set it up. Just the website alone could be a full time job by itself, but It’s just one small aspect of the company for me right now. Once I start bringing in money I can probably afford to pay other people to do the work for me(if I choose). As of right most of my skills aren’t where I want them to be(this site included) but they are already much better than they were even a year ago.  I believe it’s a “jack of all trades, master of none” deal, But I honestly believe will make me a valuable asset now/in the future.

One good thing about all the work involved is that if i get burned out one one aspect of the company, I can switch gears and work on something else. There are a lot of things involved that I can obsess over. For example, if I get tired of trying to perfect the UI, I can get on the website and try  and figure out how to get more than -7 people a day to view it. I like the freedom involved knowing I can work on what I choose. So far the extra work seems worth it.

I’m not trying to discourage anyone to try their hand at game making, just trying to give a realistic view. That being said, this is a great time to be in the “game” (heh). Most things you will have to learn already have established communities meaning there are plenty of people wanting to help you through your problems.  I am always amazed that how weird or obscure my problem seems to be, I can almost always find a solution by making a quick google search. And if I can’t find what I need, asking a question in my community of choice will land me a quick solution.

While I currently feel pretty burdened with everything involved in creating a company I think it will get much easier because one only has to start a company once and overcome the hurdles involved once. After that, it’s just using the knowledge already gained.