iPhone  for Indies!

iPhone for Indies! • the development of wurdle and fieldrunners   • no filter: giving the public what they want • a theory about successful iphone games • the fieldrunners forums: developing, publishing, be prepared • questions?

Adam (Atomic)

developing wurdle > word find games had bad input mechanisms, were not fun and not designed for iPhone really > Not having a main menu was good from a production perspective and great from a gameplay perspective > Lots of tech designed to get people into the game faster - custom library compression, multi-threaded loading, etc. > Threw in some weird features like the transparent tiles + photo roll wallpaper.  Only a few people really dig that, but they REALLY dig that.

 

developing Fieldrunners So you are your own boss. Now what? DEVELOPER Origins of the game and our first ideas (Silly early ideas) Establishing design objectives early (Locking the scope) Creative and clear visual aesthetic (Screen size) Beyond iPhone development Clean and well thought out technology Moving things along (Scheduling and time management)   Game Development is hard work and if you are still doing it after all these years, that means you must enjoy it.

publishing Fieldrunners Things they did not teach in developer school. PUBLISHER Public relationship (Forums and E-Mail) More public relationship (Websites and Interviews) Business and Legal (NDAs and liabilities) Financial analysis and advertisement (Investing in your game) Dealing with the distributor (Apple) Being responsible to yourself and others Publishing a game is not for everyone. A creative individual may find it uninteresting. Be prepared!

The 5 Second Rule VS > The 5 second rule is based on the idea that people aren't exactly super patient when it comes to finding iPhone apps.  It seems like people are vastly more likely to purchase an app if they understand it, even if they are 95% sure it won't even be that great. > It is also based on the idea that you won't bother listening to your friend about this app he downloaded for more than 5 seconds either. > The powerful thing about this viral process is that right now the iTunes store is run by HU-MANS.  They are susceptible to the virus that is your game.  This creates a massive positive feedback loop!   > App Store TV ads only show apps for maybe 15 seconds each, tops.  This is not a coincidence! > The 5 Minute Rule - your game probably needs at least 5 minutes of entertainment in order to entice someone into spending 5 seconds to tell their friend.

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