Basic Steps in Android Game Development
Mobile development is possible on two main platforms, Android and iOS. When large companies can afford cross-platform options, many are forced to decide on only one platform. And most often it turns out to be Android. What is its strength and advantage over such a giant as Apple?
Android has more than 86% market share, primarily due to the widespread prevalence of the operating system on a variety of devices. There is no link to one brand here. Anyone is free to install Android on their device and download games to the Play Store. Accordingly, in terms of the number of downloads, the Play Store is the absolute leader. It remains to be seen how to create a good Android game. And here each Android game development studio has its own approach.
Key Idea
Any game, regardless of the operating system, starts with an idea. You must have a clear idea of what kind of game you want to make. This is the only way you can move on with the confidence of success. Of course, along the way, you will encounter many different problems associated with the process of creating a game. But knowing the goal, you can clearly plan your strategy and think about the best ways to remove obstacles.
How do you choose an idea? There is no specific formula. But top Android game developers know that first of all they need to build on market research. There are a lot of Android applications, and only a few achieve overwhelming success. Еry to analyze their components, highlight the mechanics that players like the most. It will be very useful to study comments on famous games. There, people often write how they would like to change the gameplay or what they would like to add.
By collecting all this information and putting it together correctly, you will get a killer idea for your project. It will combine your initial wishes with most of the success factors of popular games. It always works great. Once you’ve figured out the idea, you can move on to the next step.
Pre-Production
Moving on to this stage, your Google Android game development should already have a conceptual vision of the product that you want to see as a result. It is a fairly common mistake for developers to constantly change the original idea. Often this is the reason for insufficiently deep analysis of the market at the planning stage or the absence of any analysis at all. Then, during the development process, many different insights appear from different places, and it seems to each team member that this is the ideal option for implementation. In fact, this will only lead to confusion and over-complication of the game.
Pre-production is the systematization of all information about the game so that during production the team has as few questions and contradictions as possible. To do this, all of it is collected in a special file called a game design document. It usually consists of several sections. The first contains general information about the game:
- Intended name.
- Genre.
- Platform (Android in our case).
- The target audience.
- Setting.
- Key features.
- Game engine
The rest of the sections reveal as many details about the game as possible. They may include answers to questions such as:
- Who is the main character?
- Who is the main villain?
- What are the main mechanics?
- What is the purpose of the game?
- What are the obstacles to achieving the goal of the game?
- What is the approximate duration of the game?
- How many levels are there in the game?
The more information, the easier it will be for the rest of the team to work on the project. Therefore, any good Android mobile game development studio pays special attention to this stage and the creation of a game design document.
Production
This is followed by direct work on the product. The work is done by the character, environment, and interface artists, programmers, sound engineers, and everyone else who creates the game’s core. It is very important to work well at this stage. Programmers and technical artists must communicate with artists so that the art they create matches the technical constraints of the engine.
Testing is a mandatory stage of production. The game is checked for errors, inconsistencies, unbalanced gameplay, and more. This is very important before release. Remember that the competition in the mobile games market is very high, and the next raw product will definitely not arouse everyone’s enthusiasm.
Post-Production
The game needs to be supported after release. This can be basic monitoring for random bugs or a larger work to expand the gameplay. Usually, the latter is implemented in the form of downloadable content: new levels, quests, missions, skins and other elements that renew people’s interest in the game.
Wrapping Up
If you decide to create a game app for Android, then you have many different options with almost no restrictions. In addition to the fact that Android itself provides many opportunities for experimentation, the Play Store is very loyal to new applications and quickly approves them. So you just have to decide on the idea and find a good development team.
In an increasingly competitive environment, creating a successful gaming application is not easy. But with the Android game development studio Kevuru Games, this task is greatly simplified. Their portfolio contains many Android projects that have won over a large audience. This team knows what the players want and how to make a gaming application profitable. If you contact them, you will definitely not regret it.