A Beginner’s Guide to Developing and Launching Your Own Mobile Game

We have all witnessed the success in the mobile game industry. This might make you want to build your own mobile game to tap into the money in the industry. However, do not just jump in! Building a mobile game app is not a walk in the park.

In addition, it is going to take you more than just your development skills for you to build a mobile game app that sells. We have all played mobile games at some point in our lives. Some of us have even been addicted to games such as Subway Surfers and Candy Crush Saga.

So, do you think you have all it takes to develop a mobile game that your target audience is going to love and possibly get addicted to? This is something you can do even as a beginner if you follow these guidelines.

1. Build a Plan for Your Mobile Game App

Your aim should be developing a game that will keep people at their feet when interacting or playing it. This is not going to be a walk in the park, even for the most experienced developers. Most people fail at this phase. It explains why we have many games that do not have players.

As a beginner, you should understand that this phase can make or break all the other phases you are going to go through throughout the lifecycle of your mobile game. You will come up with all the requirements of your game at this phase.

You should also choose the niche for the game you want to develop at this stage. While at it, ensure you have clearly documented your mobile game project. You should also validate it to ensure that it is a viable idea.

Did you know game development is one of the trending business ideas to start a business?

If you answer all the questions that you might have at this stage, your vision will be transparent, and all the other phases will be easy to handle.

2. Understand Programming Languages

If you ask any experienced mobile game developer, they will tell you that you can use different tools to build your game without even writing a single line of code. Great, right? Well, do not be very happy. 

You want your game to stand out. In addition, you need to find out how to integrate custom experiences for your gamers to keep playing your game. For you to achieve this, you will be forced to write code instead of relying entirely on built-in conventions and tools.

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As you can see, understanding programming languages, not necessarily all languages, is very important. Different people prefer different languages. You can start by looking at languages such as Kotlin, JavaScrip, C++, and Java, among others. 

If you are not sure about the language you should use for your mobile game app, feel free to consult experienced game developers. Find out about the best languages and those that are easy to learn. Even if you intend to hire developers, ensure that you have gained some basic understanding of the language they will be using.

3. Start Development

Now that you have a plan for your own mobile game and have understood the programming languages you will be using, it is time to start development. This is one of the most essential phases of the entire project, and you should ensure that you have not committed any mistakes.

To ensure that you are on the right path, start building the small but most important parts of your game. Keep building and testing each of these parts to ensure that any mistakes are eliminated. When writing code, remember updates and how easy you should make them.

If your game will have different levels, something that we see in almost every other successful game, you should plan the difficulties here and get an algorithm that makes it easy for you to write code for each one of them.

You should also incorporate the rules of your mobile game when writing your code. At the end of this phase, ensure your code is easy to understand. If another developer is asked to add a feature, they should not struggle to understand your code.

4. Develop Your Graphics and Gameplay

Imagine playing the most popular mobile game, such as Candy Crush Saga, and you cannot see some elements due to poor graphics. Would you still keep playing this game?

Chances are that you would even delete it from your device. This tells you that graphics are very important if you want your game to stand out. These are the elements, such as game characters, that players see when interacting with your game. If you doubt yourself at this stage, feel free to hire a professional graphic designer.

You can use 3D design tools such as Maya and 3Ds Max or photoshop if you are building a 2D game. In addition to the graphics of your game, you should also fine-tune the experience gamers go through when playing your mobile game.

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You should remember that you will be competing with many other games. So, how do you make your game addictive? How can you make sure that your game is popular even among those that are not good with mobile games? Graphics and gameplay are your key assets.

5. Soft Launch Your Game

You have now done everything discussed above and feel that your mobile game is now ready for the market. Well, do not release it just yet. What you need at this stage is a soft launch of your mobile game.

Soft launching means that you will be releasing the game to a few users before officially launching it. Doing this allows you to evaluate the performance of your game in real life. It also allows you to minimize deficiencies and bugs.

You do not need to worry about adverts at this stage. Advertising mobile games costs a lot of money, but this is something you need to be ready for since users will not just find your new mobile game in app stores.

While soft launching your game, test it under different scenarios. How will the game handle a certain number of players playing at the same time? Does it have bugs that might affect the experience of gamers? Ensure that the game passes every requirement listed in the first stage above.

6. Launch the Game Officially

This is the last step when developing and launching your own mobile game. If your game passes every step discussed in this article without any problems, you can release it to the market.

You can create a website with details of the game and the proposed launch date. In addition, start campaigns and online adverts to create awareness around your mobile game and ensure that you will have people waiting to download and play the game.

Make Money From Your Game

As you can see, you can make a lot of money from your game, even if you are a beginner. However, you have to make sure that your game stands out. Gamers should always look forward to playing your mobile game. If you follow the guidelines discussed in this article, the entire process will be easy for you.

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Jonathon Spire

Jonathon Spire

Tech Blogger at Jonathon Spire

My diverse background started with my computer science degree, and later progressed to building laptops and accessories. And now, for the last 7 years, I have been a social media marketing specialist and business growth consultant.

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Jonathon Spire

I blog about a range of tech topics.

For the last 7 years I have been a social media marketing specialist and business growth consultant, so I write about those the most.

Full transparency: I do review a lot of services and I try to do it as objectively as possible; I give honest feedback and only promote services I believe truly work (for which I may or may not receive a commission) – if you are a service owner and you think I have made a mistake then please let me know in the comments section.

– Jon