GAME APPS
You want to make a mobile phone app game that will sell for millions? You could, but do you have a plan?
Game apps happen to be one of the most expensive apps to produce. So why not build your own?
"OH NO! THAT IS TOO HARD", you might say. It sure sounds impossible for someone of the general public to sit down and code out a game app with no practice. We will show you a few ways you can make games without learning any code and some options that do allow you to mix in your own custom code if you are so inclined to do so.
[A Start to Finish Detailed Story of Adam Hunt's Game App Journey]
Game Demo: Pumped: BMX
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You know, it is always great to hear stories about these sorts of things. Adam Hunt has such a story posted on his blog. His reasonably popular iOS game, Pumped: BMX, was the focus of his story and how he learned to develop and successfully release his mobile game app during the 2011-2012 time period. He details some of where it all went down and how he formed the idea.
He goes into a bit about what engines he used and why he went with what he went with. He provides some information on what types of learning materials he had used to educate himself a bit on the whole thing. Adam also talks a bit about how he had devised ways to solve his problems for the project.
His account is detailed enough to include how the months flew by and some of the processes he went through to get things together. Adam then gives some great insight into game testing, marketing, and how the submission processes work. He talks about release day and how he priced the app. Great information.
Mr. Hunt also gives an update about what has been happening during the present time (at his time of writing) and talks a bit about how the money situation is with the app. He says he feels like he not only learned a lot about programming but about outsourcing, marketing, design, finances, social marketing, and in general acting like a professional.
You can read more about his story here.
[The Jump Pack Story]
If you like game app stories that are this detailed, you could check out The Jump Pack Story. It is a documentary about Trey Smith with recorded video footage of the creation of Jump Pack. This mega hit game now has over 1.5 million downloads. It goes through the entire process of Trey's app journey. It has some valuable tips on coming up with good vs bad app ideas and how to discover the best art styles and sounds to use in your game apps. It covers how to make a mobile app on one DVD and it costs $19.
[Game Mechanics and How to Market Apps Well]
Trey Smith, the guy over at Game Academy has this great video that goes through the game mechanics and how to market and monetize and such. It is a great intro video to learning how to develop games for market. Games are one thing. Games for market area whole different ball of wax. The video is called The Truth About Apps. I would have embedded it but I could not find a YouTube video of it. If anyone ends up finding one, contact us and we will update the article.
[The Game App Business]
It is a brutal market. Everyone is trying to toss their hat into the ring. Because of the app stores, everyone has a chance to get seen and sell their item. With software games, people didn't have such an opportunity. Plus with apps, people are more willing to trust it because it came from a verified source such as Google or Apple.
Not only is it hard to get your app seen, it is hard to monetize it. The app market is very much like a wild west currently in 2014. Websites are just now picking up how to do it effectively in an easy way. It used to cost loads of cash to make a website and it took even more to advertise it. It will take a bit of time for the app market to get figured out. Many apps don't make any money and fizzle out.
Get a head start with the game app business by downloading Game Academy's App & Game Business Guide. It is a 72 page info-guide. That is 52 megs of info in PDF format for you to absorb. For free, that is amazing. The guy knows what he is doing when it comes to game apps. It will cover the essentials, teach you how to create apps people want to buy, how to get traffic to it, and monetize like the top tier developers in the app store do. App & Game Business Guide [72pg - 52MB - PDF]
He has two videos, App Code 2011 – How To Make Killer Games and App Empire Event 2012 – Creating Medium Tier Games, you can see over here. You can pick up a Free App & Game Business Kit there as well.
How to Make Games Without Coding Using Game App Builders
If you want to make game apps but don't know how to code and don't really care to learn how to, you can always use available app game builders. We are going to show you some. First check out this great comparison video we found of a few of the game development solutions available.
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[Construct 2] (recommended)
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Construct 2 by Scirra, is amazing tool as it is so clean and smooth and the best part is that it utilizes HTML 5 instead of flash which is not supported on many mobile devices. Not only is it HTML5 but it allows you to export to most major mobile device formats.
You can use PhoneGap for it or export it out to a bunch of other formats. You can see all of this and download it for free now by visiting their website. I personally find this one to be one of the best available mobile game making solutions as it is so robust and clean and able to do so much. The business license is even at a fair price point of $399. That is a great price for the functionality provided and how capable it is for making advanced mobile game apps.
[Stencyl]
Stencyl is another game maker and it doesn't require you to code either, however if you want to get the most out of it, it will let you. This one is great because even after your membership expires, the games are still good to go.
Pricing: Starter is free to publish to the web | Indie is $99/year to publish to web and desktop | Studio is $199/year to publish to iOS, Android, Web, and Desktop
[Game Salad]
See video here (couldn't embed it)
This mobile game app making solution is called Game Salad and you can get it for free. Just download the program and install it and away you go. They have some help available on their website too. The issue with this solution though is that the code is not yours. You made it with their tool and you pay to get the Pro version which still doesn't give you the code. It just means you have a bunch of things you are able to do with it such as monetize it and push it to Android in addition to the iOS platforms. Of course if you want to upgrade and pay them, they would be happy to accommodate you with that wish. Upgrading gives you a bunch of extra features, one being monetization capabilities.
[BuildBox]
See video here (couldn't embed it)
Each plan includes all core features of Buildbox like the menu editor, scene editor, actions, effects, logic, monetization, and creator with all gameplay possibilities. The main difference between plans is the total amount of worlds, scenes and export options you can have in your game. There are no game restrictions with any Buildbox plan. You can create as many games as you like, as often as you would like. Yes, Buildbox never takes a portion of the revenue you receive from your games. Everything you make is yours.
As of writing this at November 22 2019, the prices are: $199/year for Indie and $299/year for Pro.
Website link (BuildBox)
[Gamesonomy]
This is another game maker you could try but it seems you don't get to keep the code here either and isn't yet monetizable. Some say it is like PowerPoint in terms of how easy it is to use.
How To Make Mobile Apps
1) COST OF DEVELOPMENT
2) FUNDING DEVELOPMENT OF MOBILE APPS
3) GAME APPS
4) DO I NEED AN APP?
5) BEFORE DEVELOPING YOUR OWN APP
6) HOW TO MOCKUP AN APP
7) HOW TO MAKE A MOBILE APP WITHOUT CODING USING APP BUILDERS
8) LEARN TO CODE FOR MOBILE APPS EASIER THAN YOU THOUGHT
9) GET APP DEVELOPMENT HELP
10) HOW TO FIND AN APP DEVELOPER
11) TOOLS, RESOURCES, AND STRATEGY FOR APP DEVELOPERS
12) MARKETING MOBILE APPS
13) PAID ADVERTISING AND AD NETWORKS FOR MOBILE APPS
14) MOBILE APPS MONETIZATION STRATEGY AND WORTH