I don’t program as much as I used to. Even though I looked into Objective C a bit ago, I decided that iPhone development would be too much of an investment to learn properly and gave up. However, after dusting off Xcode and having a closer look at the brilliant Cocos2D framework, I’ve decided to go back to app development.
Yes, I’ve left this a bit late. The “app goldrush” was about three years ago and the market is pretty much saturated. But for something to do between projects, this at least has a chance of making some residual income.
The idea for the game came to me a few months ago and is a puzzle with a twist. I won’t reveal what until I have something to show and I can fully take people through how it works. “Puzzle with a twist” sounds like a billion other apps, but I reckon this will be an easy gameplay idea to sell so why not give it a go?
Interestingly, the market really seems to have moved on since I first looked at app development in 2009. From what I’ve read on forums, people appear to find less mileage in releasing a lite and full version next to each other. In the current market, it’s harder to get in the free charts due to the large amount of free apps, and it’s harder to upsell to the full version. What people report now is that they find it easier to release the paid version and make sure that’s got as much value attached to it as possible. It doesn’t look easy. However, it doesn’t seem impossible for a lone developer to make a few quid back so I’m willing to take a punt and see exactly how this thing works. I think the rule is to make your game as high quality and commercially appealing as possible, and then promote, promote, promote!
After a great start and a full gameplay prototype, I’ve slowed down completely this month as I haven’t figured out the game’s visual style yet. This will (to some extent) affect the reward structure of the game so I’d like to plan some of that as the next stage. If I was doing this for a client then I’d be busy doing market research, brainstorming and making some decisions. On a personal project it’s very easy to just wait until the idea pops into your head.
Time to lock myself away with a sketchbook I think.
