6 ms·

When it comes to games, originality is a crucial factor that's frequently overlooked. It's difficult for indie devs to compete against licensed properties (e.g.

When it comes to games, originality is a crucial factor that's frequently overlooked. It's difficult for indie devs to compete against licensed properties (e.g. Temple Run: Brave) or against freemium games that can throw a lot of money on user acquisition. Creating truly original or interesting games is one way to compete against them. Unfortunately, the typical reaction is to just do a spin on high grossing casual games (e.g. Fruit Ninja) leading to a price war and generally low revenues. When we made our running game, Zombies, Run!, we had absolutely no interest in competing with the freemium or 99c games - we don't have the properties or resources to do that. Instead, we made a game that straddles the fitness, gaming, and storytelling genres. We also charged $7.99, making it the most expensive game in the Top 200 Grossing today (even more expensive than Minecraft). Part of the reason why we can do this is because we basically have no competitors - although obviously that made it a little harder to educate the market. I'm sure we will get competition, but the skills required to make the game (iOS dev, web dev, award-winning author, voice actors, sound producers, community support) are not trivial to find and organise. Contrary to conventional wisdom, people will pay for an app that they think is original and worthwhile, and not just on iOS but Android as well (we're very happy with our Android sales).

debacle 14y ago
I completely disagree. Angry Birds, quite possibly the most successful mobile game to date, is a completely unoriginal title that just looks prettier than most of its competitors. You cannot simply attribute your success to originality, without looking at the other 650,000 apps and ranking them by originality as well, and then correlating that with success. I would predict that originality falls behind a large handful of other factors when it comes to calculating the success of a mobile game. I would not be surprised if originality was not a statistically significant factor in a game's success.
- adrianhon 14y ago
  Of course I think that other factors such as marketing, quality, and brand also matter a lot, but I think that smaller game studios would do better to see how they can differentiate themselves from the competition. Originality is one metric that doesn't need to cost a lot of money.
- jcromartie 14y ago
  Angry Birds was the first game of its kind that tons of people actually played. The fact that it looks prettier than the competitors is the reason why people actually played it. They pulled an Apple. If there is an original game out there that is not catching on, it's likely that you can take it and do it better, and finally get traction. This still means it's an original game to the players.
qq66 14y ago
Did you develop two separate codebases or did you use PhoneGap et al?
- adrianhon 14y ago
  Two separate codebases. PhoneGap can't do the stuff we need our game to do.
  - giulianob 14y ago
    Why not something like MonoDroid/MonoTouch or Unity?
- jcromartie 14y ago
  I have never heard someone who built a killer app say they were glad they went with PhoneGap.
herval 14y ago
As both a game dev and a gamer, I don't think originality plays such an important role. All the games I paid for in app store so far are basically VERY GOOD clones of old and repeated ideas I've seen/played in the past: Kingdom Rush, Jetpack Joyride, Angry Birds, etc. IMHO, it's how polished the game is, not how original...

debacle 14y ago

I completely disagree. Angry Birds, quite possibly the most successful mobile game to date, is a completely unoriginal title that just looks prettier than most of its competitors. You cannot simply attribute your success to originality, without looking at the other 650,000 apps and ranking them by originality as well, and then correlating that with success. I would predict that originality falls behind a large handful of other factors when it comes to calculating the success of a mobile game. I would not be surprised if originality was not a statistically significant factor in a game's success.

adrianhon 14y ago
Of course I think that other factors such as marketing, quality, and brand also matter a lot, but I think that smaller game studios would do better to see how they can differentiate themselves from the competition. Originality is one metric that doesn't need to cost a lot of money.
jcromartie 14y ago
Angry Birds was the first game of its kind that tons of people actually played. The fact that it looks prettier than the competitors is the reason why people actually played it. They pulled an Apple. If there is an original game out there that is not catching on, it's likely that you can take it and do it better, and finally get traction. This still means it's an original game to the players.

qq66 14y ago

Did you develop two separate codebases or did you use PhoneGap et al?

adrianhon 14y ago
Two separate codebases. PhoneGap can't do the stuff we need our game to do.
- giulianob 14y ago
  Why not something like MonoDroid/MonoTouch or Unity?
jcromartie 14y ago
I have never heard someone who built a killer app say they were glad they went with PhoneGap.

herval 14y ago

As both a game dev and a gamer, I don't think originality plays such an important role. All the games I paid for in app store so far are basically VERY GOOD clones of old and repeated ideas I've seen/played in the past: Kingdom Rush, Jetpack Joyride, Angry Birds, etc. IMHO, it's how polished the game is, not how original...