Game Dev Podcast - The RisingHigh Extended Tea Break - Game Development Advice for Game Developers

In today's show, we answered Podcast listener Brad's question on should we add a Game Trailer to our Appstore product page. With this in mind, we put together our Top 7 reasons for adding an App Preview on the Appstore and the 1 reason why you shouldn't. Generally speaking, adding a game trailer, or App Preview Video, to your Appstore Store pages is a positive move. Although screenshots allow you to showcase your games best moments, there's really no substitute for seeing the game in action and watching a demo first hand. Motion is hard to convey in the static of the screenshots, and for this reason alone it's worth it. Your Appstore page is essentially your shop window and what all your hard work has been about. You've spent weeks or months creating your masterpiece, so don't fall at the last hurdle, grit through the final stages and put that video together. If your game deserves more than 1 video, then it's certainly worth doing we'd day, but there's no need to feel compelled to fill space just for the sake of it. Highlights, Quick Wins & Takeaways: 1. Apple allows us to add 3 App Previews, we should use them. 2. Conversion Rates are believed to be between 15 - 30% increased with games with App Previews. 3. You can show all the best and exciting parts of your game, explosions and effects. 4. Showcase your games personality and the actual speed of the gameplay. 5. The use of Music set the overall tone of your game. 6. You can add additional marketing messages and calls to actions. 7. You'll need a video for your game regardless, so you might as well! Bonus! If your game is so simple or is in essence not at all visually compelling, we highly recommend not including an App Store Preview Video in your store listing. It could well be that a poorly executed video may hurt your downloads. Links mentioned in this Episode: Best Fiends App Preview Video Creation Software Camtasia iMovie Screenflow ( Mac ) Courses Create an Appstore Preview Like A Boss! Course Included Free inside the RisingHighAcademy Membership.

In this episode, we compiled our Top 16 mistakes that we see many new game developers make when first starting out.

We break down each part we identified and discuss what to look out for and how avoid these common game development pitfalls when you’re learning how to build, design and structure your games.

Highlights, Quick Wins & Takeaways:

• Cloning existing games way too closely
• Buying stock and mix and matching artwork / styles
• Making your game too big & too complicated
• Creating your game characters too big / Over Scaled
• Aiming for ultimate perfection and getting lost in the small stuff
• Your Game speed is either too slow, or too fast
• Project surfing – Shiny Object syndrome
• Making your game way too difficult / too easy
• Getting feedback, show people your game early on in development
• Trying to run before you can walk – GTA versus Pong
• Getting too good at, & falling in love with your own game
• Trying to please everyone, not the demographic of the game
• Feature creep – adding so many features that it over complicates the game
• Expecting knock out success with your first game
• Ad Overload
• Assuming people will care about your game

Links mentioned in this Episode:

Super Mario Run

Dragonlings

Parallels

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Today I sit down with Academy Member Chris Trudeau of Boston Trudeau Studios, who landed himself a Voodoo publishing deal with his latest game title Twenty48 Solitaire, so huge congrats to Chris, super excited at such an awesome success story.

Download: Twenty48 Solitaire

In our conversation, we discuss how Chris made the leap from being a professional finish carpenter, dabbling with selling print on demand t-shirts from his 2 Etsy shops as a side hustle, to stumbling across Buildbox and ultimately creating mobile games.

Using a deck of cards to brainstorm game ideas, thinking how to twist this classic card game, and grabbing tons of feedback from family and friends, the first versions of twenty48 Solitaire was born.

Chris hired someone on Fiverr to create his first prototype ( made in just 12 hours ) in unity. Soon after that, he made the transition to the new engine and he quickly starting learning for himself, and has never looked back.

After contacting Voodoo with his idea, within a few months he had secured what would become a life changing publishing deal.

Chris tells us why he loves Voodoo so much and how he’s constantly learning from the publishing support team. He loves the fact they are genuinely excited about building games and make you feel part of team. Voodoo have patience with small dev’s, are pro-active and get things moving fast.

Although Twenty48 Solitaire is not the ‘normal’ hyper casual game we are used to seeing from this publisher, Chris explains they are always open to new games that go against trends, something different that will stand out from the crowd.

Next on the agenda for Chris in the coming months will be the maintenance of Twenty48, making sure it performs well and carrying out further game test ideas with the Voodoo team. There are also thoughts of team expansion within Boston Studios, but the main focus will be with Voodoo and coming up with that next great game.

It’s fantastic to have Chris inside the Academy and it’s been an absolute pleasure to celebrate his Voodoo signing. It really couldn’t of happened to a nicer guy. I asked Chris what he enjoyed the most about being a member, and unsurprisingly ( as everyone says the same ) it was the Friday Live Sessions where we keep up to date with research and App Store trends that bring the most inspiration.

I’d like to thank Chris for joining me in today’s special podcast and for sharing his game Dev story, I wish him every future success.

Website: https://bostontrudeaustudios.com/

Thanks so much for listening.

Website: RisingHighAcademy.com

We truly do appreciate you taking time out of your day to listen and hope you got some value.

If you enjoyed today’s show, it would go such along way if you hit that Subscribe button.

We’d also be forever grateful if you’d consider sparing just a quick minute to Leave us an Honest Rating & Review.

We always read each and every one personally and it always makes our day!

Thanks so much, Kevin & Jilly.

How long is a piece of string when it comes to figuring out how much time you need to put aside to make, develop and actually ship your new indie game? In this episode, we reveal our process for setting internal deadlines and timescales when we start to make one of our "snackable" casual mobile games. It will always depend on the overall size and scope of the game you're building, which is something to consider in the very early planning stages, and can really influence the overall games content. Will you make a level based game or an endless random game? Will you have characters to collect? If so, how many is the least amount you could actually launch with? These core decisions early on can be the difference between 6 weeks and 6 months. Highlights, Quick Wins & Takeaways: Setting deadlines is crucial to actually complete your game We head for a 6 week turnaround time Set aside dedicated, focussed time to work on your project Allow 4-6 weeks to pitch the Appstore Feature Teams Building endless / randomly generated games are the quickest type to make Keep the amount of characters down to a minimum to launch with Re-evaluate the timescale after a few days of building Save all the "nice to have" content for future updates Take the deadline serious, even if you go over, you'll still be further along

Defining Fun is certainly and tricky one for sure. What is fun for me, could quite possibly not be particularly fun for you. So how do we define fun when it comes to Game Development and in our games?

Rather than thinking of the word "Fun" in the traditional sense, we should be thinking about our Games as being an experience, to which fun is an aspect.

For instance, let's say we have built a Horror themed game where there's spooky moments, creepy music and scare jumps a plenty. Whilst there may not be too many "fun" aspects, it's still completely enjoyable. When we boil everything down, each and every game we'll ever play will consist of training us in some aspect.

We'll learn mechanics and gameplay systems, master timing and "hand to eye" co-ordination. The achievement of completing levels can be motivating and engaging and have positive reinforcing side-effects.

These, and many more aspects, amount to certain levels of fun even if we don't really realise it. Use our list below to see how you can weave the 5 Factors of fun into your game.

Highlights, Quick Wins & Takeaways:

1. Overcoming Challenges and Problem solving

Challenge > Adversity / obstruction > Goal - Satisfaction

2. Leveling up / Progression

Achievements / Rewards

3. Interest and curiosity

4. Wonder and surprise

- The unknown is fun - ( check out Episode 7 - The Top 10 ways to add Surprise and Wonder to your games )

5. Balance / Pinch Points

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