Mobile game development has become the talk of the town and developing your own game may be thrilling and financially rewarding. But where do you begin? Below you’ll find a brief guide on how to start designing a mobile game even if you have no experience in development. Check out this guide to learn how to create your flowchart, from the idea to the paper and a pile of tools that can help you.
Why Design Your Own Mobile Game?
Because billions of people around the globe already download and actively participate in mobile games, the app store is massive and dynamic. When you design a game yourself you have an opportunity to introduce unique features to the genre game that you desire to develop which can be a casual puzzle game, an activity game or a new one all together; besides, you will be able to make money as well as maximize the number of users.
Step 1: Choose Your Game Type and Audience
To first define your game, differentiate between genre and target market. Consider these popular categories:
Puzzle Games: Cute, uncomplicated, and designed for anyone who does not play video games professionally.
Action/Adventure: Needs significant effort in construction but provides users with an effective engagement experience.
Strategy: Suits those who like were long terms in goals and problem solving.
Educational Games: Used by parent for finding learning application for kids.
Understanding your target market and what kind of game you wish you develop will help inform many of the other factors you may consider when designing including gameplay.
Step 2: Conceptualize and Brainstorm Ideas
Some points to consider could include: It is also wise to assume that every idea is original, and begin thinking about a novel strategy for your game. Closely consider what spaces it will occupy and what will make it distinctive amidst so much competition. Consider:
Game Mechanics: The normal ways that players will be able to engage with the game?
Story and Theme: Will there be a plot or a plotline?
Core Gameplay Loop: This is the primary verb of which players will partake several times in a game, similar to solving a level or defeating an opponent.
You should use a paper and pen or individually selected electronic program for note taking. There’s no need to polish them—this stage is excellent for brainstorming and thinking outside the box.
Step 3: Create a Rough Storyboard
A storyboard can be defined as the representation of your game design and the stochastic phases. Ideally, think of it as a coarse-grained structure and where every level or stage is described, the characters’ design, the layout of the UI, and so on.
Characters: At least, try to draw the main characters or elements with dots or lines, it will help you a lot.
Scenes: Imagining scenes of a game, levels of a game, or specific areas in a game.
User Interface: Decide text location for push buttons, other controls and the navigations and the heads up displays (HUD).
This will be used while constructing your game and is a good guide to making you develop it with much ease.
Step 4: Choose the Right Game Development Tools
The choice of the game engine and software is therefore very important. Here are some beginner-friendly tools to consider:
Unity: Its flexibility has attracted numerous developers since it has many features, and it works well for the 2D and 3D type of games.
Unreal Engine: Able to provide great graphic display, and is more challenging as compared to other software or program.
Godot: It is a basic, beginning game engine that is free and is released under the GNU General Public License.
Construct 3: This tool works in browser environment and is perfect for developing simple 2D games without code writing.
This utility has many different engines each with its own characteristics, so regard this as a set of tools to experiment with.
Step 5: Start Building the Game Mechanics
With these foundations in place it is time to begin constructing the game mechanics of your product. They include our first iterations, which are simple versions of your game created with a distinct aim of providing a fast test of your possibilities.
Movement and Controls: You should code the main character’s movement; it could be swiping, tapping or tilting.
Game Objects and Interactions: There is apply on how players are able to influence objects in the course of the game.
Testing and Adjustments: I try to playtest often to get a feel for how mechanics expect and make slight tweaks from there if necessary.
If you want to avoid getting bogged down by boring details early on then focusing on a “Minimum Viable Product” or MVP is not a bad idea here at all.
Step 6: Design Your Game’s Art and Sound
Here graphic and sound components are crucial for successful game experience.
Art Style: Choose your art style depending on your theme. Pixel art is preferable but you can often see vector graphics, or even traditional ones that resemble realistic 3D graphics in side-scrolling games of a certain type.
Sound and Music: Additional sounds and background music continue a game, and a combination of them can improve the gameplay experience. For open-sourced sounds we have Freedsound and OpenGameArt which offers free audio or you can employ sound designer in cases when you afford it.
If the answer is no, then consult a freelancer or directly buy from such platforms as the Unity Asset Store for the assets.
Step 7: Test, Test, Test!
Testing is one of the important times in game design and creation process. Testing assist in identifying the bugs, and how to balance the game as well as whether the ostentatious game is suitable on certain devices.
Invite Testers: Ask friends or fellow developers that can try it and give an opinion.
Beta Testers: It is recommended to have a closed beta for receiving the response of the niche audience only.
Debugging: Check out all contributing factors that hinder play or game performance.
Pre-Release Testing will assist you in refining your game and increasing the chances of a good game experience for the players.
Step 8: Prepare for Launch
After the game is done developing it is only then that you need to think of the way in which to launch it. This includes:
App Store Optimization (ASO): App stores, keywords and a grabbing game description should be optimized in order to rank high and draw the user’s attention.
Screenshots and Video Previews: Dazzle your audience with the best features of your game through bright and clear graphics.
Marketing Plan: Promote the game in social networks, game forums, and create your site related to the game.
Step 9: Launch and Gather Feedback
After it has been launched, you should call for people’s opinions and ratings. The success of a product is in its popularity, hence positive feedback always contribute to more downloads; insights, however, should be used in the upgrade of the product.
Final Thoughts on Designing Your Own Mobile Game
It is not easy to design a mobile game from scratch but this guideline is a clear indication that everyone can develop a good game. Hey, game design is a learning process, and you do not need to sit down and design the perfect game from the start. The key advices I consider important for anyone who wants to create something based on this prompt would be to take every stage separately and be ready for critical comments, but at the same time, it is crucial to have fun while creating!