IMAGES SUPPORTED BY GOOGLE [dropcap style=”style1″]G[/dropcap]ame developing – this sounds so simple but actually it’s totally not sunshine and candy for anyone. An AAA game such as Watch Dogs or Titanfall could take around 3 – 4 years to finish, with the hard work from a team of thousands veterans – and this will make any daydreamer who thinks they could simply make a game on a whim shudder.

From several years ago until now, the process of developing a game was simplified quite a lot, and this created a chance for independent developers to shine. With a team consisted of a few individuals, they could provide awesome works with good quality. But of course, money makes the world go around, so in order to do so, they will need somebody funding them – and here’s the part where crownfunding programs such as Indiegogo and Kickstarter step in.

Sacrificing so much to develope a game, but not everyone could success – depending on the trend of the market. Inevitably, the majority wants to find a viable exist, and that’s when they find the new haven named “mobile platform”. Indeed, there’s none other platform could bear easy fruit with lesser efforts such as mobile games. And how do you make a mobile game?[space space_height=”40″][su_heading style=”flat-blue” size=”35″ margin=”50″]CONDITIONS[/su_heading]Just like any other electronic product, mobile games would have to undergo these processes to bear fruits:

1. CONCEPTION

To make a game, of course we need an idea of what would it look like? And an idea could pop out anytime when we expected the least: during a brainstorm, somewhere in the natural process of recycling food (well, if you know what I mean…), in the deep sorrow of being flat broke… but, for sure, it will never come when we just sitting at the desktop, staring at the blank screen of Word 2010.

An idea doesn’t need to be epic nor philosophic, since as long as it’s interesting and unique, you could expand it into almost everything later. Just think back, we’ve already seen the brilliant success of a game in which we control a stupid bird flying through poles – or another silly game where we keep shooting innocent pigs with crazy birds.[su_quote]The gaming industry has been celebrating its 40th birthday for a while, and that makes any common idea that you could think of by doing the traditional methods seems lame[/su_quote]We’re very close to the secret of what should an idea be: unique – one and only. The gaming industry has been celebrating its 40th birthday for a while, and that makes any common idea that you could think of by doing the traditional methods seems lame. The players need something really new, even if it’s dirty, weird or dumb. [su_divider]

2. STRUCTURE

Building a house or painting a potrait both needs a blueprint – something that could make us imagine roughly the final product, and also a guideline for us to edit, improve and expand. The same goes for game developing, it’s a must because we just can’t progress without one.[su_quote]Imagine about the human skeleton: we need one to place the meat, the fat, the blood veins, the skin… on[/su_quote]Using the concept as the root, the first stuff to place in this blueprint must be the stages and environment – and of course they should be fitting to the storyline. We need something to place other stuffs on, no?

This part is important, since it’s the decisive factor to determine the length, the difficulty, the layout… of the game. And we can’t make something perfect right on the bat, so this should be made in the way that it could be edited easily later.

Imagine about the human skeleton: we need one to place the meat, the fat, the blood veins, the skin… on. And actually when everything were put in place, we will realize that there’s always something off – and so, redoing everything from scratches should be faster than fixing here and there. [su_divider]

3. GRAPHICS

The eyes lie before the ears, so it’s an unanonymous rule that everyone would agree: a good product must be beautiful. This is the solid rule for everything: food, clothes, girls, and games. And so, the graphics of the game is the main factor to decide whether it could be success or not – as history could be the best witness: as long as it looks nice, people will still play it even if the game sucks.

And how to define the meaning of “beautiful” is indeed a hard question to answer. It belongs to personal sense, so we couldn’t simply go around setting up standards. But whatever the styles or methods, there’re some rules that one must abide by all cost: the layout and everything within, like contrast, lighting, size and color. We couldn’t point at a pile of garbage and tell everyone to agree that “this is art”.[su_quote]History could be the best witness: as long as it looks nice, people will still play it even if the game sucks[/su_quote]Another thing is general graphics: 2D, 2.5D or 3D? 3D games sound fascinating at first, but think again: would a work made by a noob be good? Doing something half-hearted only yield bad results – rather than that, we should focus on what we’re good at, and what we really want to do.

It’s not a problem if you’re good at modelling 3D textures and animations – but what it you aren’t? Trying to do something tough without real skills and determination would only ruin the work. There must be a reason why 2D games are dominating the mobile platform.

And then, choosing the art style for your game: realistic or cartoon/ anime? This entirely depends on the taste and the nature of your game. Finally, the color scheme is also a major factor: brightful, dark or retro? [su_divider]

4. PROGRAMMING

Where every stone was set in placce, it’s time to put it into practic – and this mean the actual programming and coding. This phase should be done at the same time of graphics and interacting between each others frequently. We could do programming with any coding language that we see fit: C++, Java, Python, Ruby RGSS, AGK…

Another stuff to notice, is the programmer also need decent knowledge about the graphics and the style, and on top of that, how should the game be in the end.[su_quote]The programmer also need decent knowledge about the graphics and the style, and on top of that, how should the game be in the end[/su_quote]Teamwork is a must, because we can’t progress unless we’re well awared about the process of every individual in the big picture. And the programmer needs to be flexible in thought – since a problem could be solved via many methods, sometimes using basic, simple ones could yield better results than try to do it the hard way. [su_divider]