This guest post is contributed by Joey, the author of The iPhone App Development Blog. Angry Birds, Doddle Jump, Pocket God, Flight Control…. Is it just luck that made these games so successful or is there a pattern any developer can learn and apply? In this article I am going to go through the top [...]
This guest post is contributed by Joey, the author of The iPhone App Development Blog.
Angry Birds, Doddle Jump, Pocket God, Flight Control…. Is it just luck that made these games so successful or is there a pattern any developer can learn and apply? In this article I am going to go through the top 3 tips for making an iconic iPhone game.
Obviously, planning is everything. The planning process starts right before you open up X-Code. So before you dive into the coding make sure you have a solid idea. We will go into how to market your app and create hype in later posts.
Tip 1: Controls
Implement Elegant Controls That Apply to Your Game Intuitively
One thing in common for all these successful iPhone games is that they use the iPhone’s unique controls in an elegant fashion. Unlike the ports of big games like Avatar, individual developer don’t have the resource but still can compete with these big companies by exploiting the iPhone’s controls. The reason why the Wii or the iPhone were so successful is that they revolutionized the way we interact with our devices. Hence why PlayStation Move and X-Box Kinect followed suit. The iPhone 4 has a touchscreen display, dual microphones, 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis accelerometer, digital compass, proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor. There is so much untapped potential to make use of.
Tip 2: 3D is so last decade
It’s Best to Make Your Game in 2D
Honestly, the 3D graphics on iOS devices are far from great. As most people have become accustomed to Playsation 3 graphics, theatrical CGI blockbusters, going back to crappy 3D graphics aren’t too pleasant. Hence why Flight Control, Angry Birds, Cut the Rope are all in simple 2D. I’m sure there’ll be a time when 3D looks gorgeous on an iPhone and when that happens, by all means make a 3D iPhone Game. That would be a perfect time to do so. But with the graphical power of the existing iPhone you don’t have much leverage and choice as you do with 2D-based games.
That said, Epic Games released a visually stunning demo of their Unreal Engine on the iOS platform. However we’re talking about multi-million dollar company here, plus it takes a lot of time to make this type of games. Is it worth to do so when you’re only hitting a niche market?
Tip #3: Flash Game
Turn a Flash Game Into an iPhone App
For those developers with some iPhone development experience, I think you’re going to find this tip useful. During the planning stage, scout the web for old or current popular flash games. Get in contact with the flash game developer, and in case they haven’t read various blogs about how to make an iPhone app themselves, suggest to turn their flash-based game into an iPhone app. You can either negotiate a flat out fee. Or as a safer alternative for low budget flash game developers, you can suggest to take a cut of the app sales.
One more thing…
Bonus tip: The Brag Factor and the 99¢ Rule
Implement Social Media and Sell at a Dollar
The App store mostly consists of ‘mini games’ (I can’t find a better word to describe them). Commonly, iPhone users play the games while on public transport and before going to bed. So it makes sense why all these mini games are so successful. Another thing that made these games so successful is the implementation of social media. Let’s face it. ‘Mini games’ have been around for a while, but with the iPhone it brought this genre to another level. Before the era of Facebook or Twitter, it wasn’t so convenient to share your new high score with your friends when you won a game. By adding social feature to your game you’re allowed to do free advertising. When someone sees his/her friend gets 1000 points on a random game they’ve never heard of, they’re likely to check it out, and probably buy it.
Joey is the author of The iPhone App Development Blog, an upcoming blog inspiring and helping aspiring and current iOS developers make and sell there apps. Tips rooting in various fields such as simple psychology to gain an edge from making an app efficiently to marketing it.
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