7 ms·

I'm often shocked by how awful mobile games are, at least on Android. Whenever I look for games, all I can find is. 1) The popular casual F2P games, candycrush

by jiggy2011 12y ago

I'm often shocked by how awful mobile games are, at least on Android. Whenever I look for games, all I can find is. 1) The popular casual F2P games, candycrush, angry birds etc 2) Endless clones of 1 (this is at least 50% of the market). 3) Low quality games that were made to cash in on some trend like zombies , military shooters etc. In contrast , on Steam I could buy almost any of the cheap indie titles and find something original or fun. So I've basically given up on mobile gaming altogether. I wonder if this is a product of the app store model or something intrinsic about the form factor? Perhaps there just isn't any demand for good games on mobile because anybody serious about games uses PC or console?

panic 12y ago
People expect mobile games to be between 99 cents and free. The same game on PC might sell for $15. Why spend time making a quality game if no one is willing to pay?
- jiggy2011 12y ago
  But a good game is a good game surely? Why does the platform affect willingness to pay so much?
  - bunderbunder 12y ago
    The platform doesn't but the store sure does. In iOS, your game is sharing shelf space with: * Cribbage games that cost next-to-nothing to develop. ($1.99) * Hobby projects where the dev isn't looking to make money. ($0.99) * Free-to-play casual games like Candy Crush. ($0.00) On PC, all the Candy Crush and whatnot is relegated to Facebook, and your game is theoretically selling on Steam alongside games like: * AAA titles like CoD:MW3. ($39.99) * AA titles like Lego [INSERT_FRANCHISE_HERE]. ($19.99) * Re-releases of classics like Myst. ($5.99)
    - jiggy2011 12y ago
      That's what I feared, it seems the answer is to have either highly curated stores (Steam, traditional gamestores) or sell directly from your own website (Minecraft). I wonder if iOS had launched without being locked to a single store if things would be better?
      - bunderbunder 12y ago
        I'm not sure that 2nd option is really an option. Minecraft is a total black swan. I'm sure there are plenty of people trying to copy what Notch did, but, I think significantly, I've never heard of any of them.
- zanny 12y ago
  They may be just using the wrong business model. If you can pitch a good enough idea, I easily see either a kickstarter one time or ongoing patreon like project to support a games development would work, where the assets are CC licensed and the code GPL, and the community funds its development and anyone can play it for free. Think 0ad, for mobile. No reason the model couldn't transfer.
  - jiggy2011 12y ago
    0ad only raised $33,251 (21% of it's target) , not really a great model for success.
com2kid 12y ago
A few years back there were a fair number of quality RPGs coming out on Android. They typically cost money ($3-$5, sometimes a bit more), had decent gameplay and good graphics. Eventually to keep up they went F2P and things went down the proverbial drain. No one was willing to pay for good games, so good games are no longer available. We are victims of the world we have created.
m3mnoch 12y ago
doesn't that make sense tho? you're looking at the top list in the primary marketplace. that'd be like going down to best buy and browsing their ps3 aisle and complaining that all the titles are lame and derivative. do casual gamers shop on steam? no. people who are "real gamers" do. so, if you're looking for "real" games on mobile, you probably shouldn't browse the top 10 list in itunes. so, as a guy who likes to help folks out, here's a big list of pretty awesome games on mobile: http://www.grabitmagazine.com/blog/post/the-top-50-best-indie-ios-games-of-2014-so-far/ http://www.grabitmagazine.com/blog/post/the-top-50-best-indi... as to the inevitable question of "how do they make money if you have to special-search for them?", you can take the number of ratings and ballpark some rule-of-thumb average numbers.[0] downloads = number of ratings * 50 for freemium titles, revenue = number of downloads * .015 (1.5% of people pay on average) * $15 (freemium paying users average out to $15 per month) * 3 (lifetime in months, most folks say 6 month for the lifetime of paying users, but i don't feel that's a very reliable number) for paid titles, revenue = number of downloads * price. i'm sure you'll find them not being billionaires, but doing just fine. far better than earning out $7k. [0] please note these are wild, ballpark numbers based on industry average data from places like swrve industry whitepapers. really only useful for "magnitude-only" calculations.

panic 12y ago

People expect mobile games to be between 99 cents and free. The same game on PC might sell for $15. Why spend time making a quality game if no one is willing to pay?

jiggy2011 12y ago
But a good game is a good game surely? Why does the platform affect willingness to pay so much?
- bunderbunder 12y ago
  The platform doesn't but the store sure does. In iOS, your game is sharing shelf space with: * Cribbage games that cost next-to-nothing to develop. ($1.99) * Hobby projects where the dev isn't looking to make money. ($0.99) * Free-to-play casual games like Candy Crush. ($0.00) On PC, all the Candy Crush and whatnot is relegated to Facebook, and your game is theoretically selling on Steam alongside games like: * AAA titles like CoD:MW3. ($39.99) * AA titles like Lego [INSERT_FRANCHISE_HERE]. ($19.99) * Re-releases of classics like Myst. ($5.99)
  - jiggy2011 12y ago
    That's what I feared, it seems the answer is to have either highly curated stores (Steam, traditional gamestores) or sell directly from your own website (Minecraft). I wonder if iOS had launched without being locked to a single store if things would be better?
    - bunderbunder 12y ago
      I'm not sure that 2nd option is really an option. Minecraft is a total black swan. I'm sure there are plenty of people trying to copy what Notch did, but, I think significantly, I've never heard of any of them.
zanny 12y ago
They may be just using the wrong business model. If you can pitch a good enough idea, I easily see either a kickstarter one time or ongoing patreon like project to support a games development would work, where the assets are CC licensed and the code GPL, and the community funds its development and anyone can play it for free. Think 0ad, for mobile. No reason the model couldn't transfer.
- jiggy2011 12y ago
  0ad only raised $33,251 (21% of it's target) , not really a great model for success.

com2kid 12y ago

A few years back there were a fair number of quality RPGs coming out on Android. They typically cost money ($3-$5, sometimes a bit more), had decent gameplay and good graphics. Eventually to keep up they went F2P and things went down the proverbial drain. No one was willing to pay for good games, so good games are no longer available. We are victims of the world we have created.

m3mnoch 12y ago

doesn't that make sense tho? you're looking at the top list in the primary marketplace. that'd be like going down to best buy and browsing their ps3 aisle and complaining that all the titles are lame and derivative. do casual gamers shop on steam? no. people who are "real gamers" do. so, if you're looking for "real" games on mobile, you probably shouldn't browse the top 10 list in itunes. so, as a guy who likes to help folks out, here's a big list of pretty awesome games on mobile: http://www.grabitmagazine.com/blog/post/the-top-50-best-indie-ios-games-of-2014-so-far/ http://www.grabitmagazine.com/blog/post/the-top-50-best-indi... as to the inevitable question of "how do they make money if you have to special-search for them?", you can take the number of ratings and ballpark some rule-of-thumb average numbers.[0] downloads = number of ratings * 50 for freemium titles, revenue = number of downloads * .015 (1.5% of people pay on average) * $15 (freemium paying users average out to $15 per month) * 3 (lifetime in months, most folks say 6 month for the lifetime of paying users, but i don't feel that's a very reliable number) for paid titles, revenue = number of downloads * price. i'm sure you'll find them not being billionaires, but doing just fine. far better than earning out $7k. [0] please note these are wild, ballpark numbers based on industry average data from places like swrve industry whitepapers. really only useful for "magnitude-only" calculations.