Matt Welsh Portfolio

http://r-stylelab.com/company/blog/mobile-technologies/how-much-does-mobile-game-development-cost

https://venturepact.com/mobile_app_price_calculator

 

I may not be creating the game/ app fully but it is still very important to understand the budget that I would need to create the fully envisioned. And about how I would be able to fund the game.

 

By 2018, less than 0.01% of mobile apps will generate enough revenue to cover development and marketing expenses. The growing adoption of smartphones drives competition among vendors, and very few companies will eventually succeed. However, 2016 is going to be a turning point for indie developers – provided they bring their bright app ideas to life. What factors impact mobile game development and design cost?

Developing a mobile game: cost-by-type correlation

The cost of game dev is largely determined by the type of application:

• Casual. A simple solitary game that fits any genre and doesn’t require particular skills to play. A user can pick it up at any time and doesn’t have to save the score at the end of a session. According to James Portnow, the founder of Zero Games, the common features of casual mobile apps include repetitiveness and lack of finality. Most high-grossing freemium games like Candy Crush Saga and Clash of Clans are casual by nature. They employ 2D graphics and possess limited functionality. However, users can access additional features (like rich visuals, high-quality sound, extra lives and special currency) through in-app purchases and upgrades. A typical casual game costs around $ 50 thousand to make. Rovio invested $ 140 million in the Angry Birds app – a project that eventually brought over $ 200 million in revenues in 2012 and has been trending ever since. In most cases, casual apps’ commercial success is driven by clever marketing and easy distribution;
• Social. Such games are simultaneously played by multiple users on social networks like Facebook. They are similar to browser games, accessing limited amount of user data through oAuth protocols and mobile networks like OpenFeint. In terms of infrastructure, a social app incorporates payment tools and stats display mechanisms (to encourage users play & spend more). These apps are usually built with social networks’ development kits (like Facebook SDK), although post-development Facebook API’s integration is also possible. A social game application like Farmville costs $ 100-300 thousand;
• Cross-platform. The games can be played through social networks, mobile apps and web browsers. IT companies release applications for multiple screens in order to reach out to their target audience and expand market presence. Such successful games as Slotomania, Bubble Island and Diamond Dash originally became instant hits on Facebook and moved to iOS and Android later. Cross-platform custom application development requires great expertize in coding and software integration. Thus, a comprehensive gaming solution may cost up to $ 300 thousand;
• Games with complex graphics. Puzzles, shooters and adventure games with elaborate graphics are usually the mobile extensions of popular desktop franchises like Mortal Kombat and Need for Speed. However, there are some console-quality applications designed for mobile devices only – for example, the Badland app for Android, which employs detailed 2D visuals and an inspiring soundtrack. Developing a complex, visually rich mobile game is a time-consuming and expensive process. Thus, a game like Real Racing 2 apparently costs $ 2 million.

Other cost factors behind mobile game development process

• Vendor. Choosing the right developer is the most important business decision you have to make. The stages of game production include marketing research, prototyping, coding, UX/UI design, editing and, finally, testing. The US/EU bids for dev services can be estimated at $ 60-100 thousand a month (or $ 60-150 per man-hour). Thus, an indie shooter like Tower of Guns (3D engine, high-quality images) that took over 3800 man-hours to develop may cost $230-570 thousand. In order to cut dev expenses, many companies outsource game development to Eastern Europe. Countries like Belarus, Poland and Ukraine offer high-profile specialists with great expertise in coding and visual design. Their prices range from $ 25 to $ 50 per man-hour, while the quality of app development meets the high US/EU standards. If you consider outsourcing game dev, it is better to hire a dedicated team and choose the “time-and-material” pricing model. Since most game app projects are subject to changes, the TM approach will allow you to pay only for the actual hours spent on the task;
• Design. The notion doesn’t refer to visuals alone. Mobile game design, as well as development, is a multilayer process which requires assistance of such specialists as game artist, lever editor, UX and UI designers. A game artist sketches ideas and characters, draws scenery and applies textures. A lever editor creates architecture for various segments of an application, including objects and landscapes, and maintains the desired level of complexity. UX and UI designers improve the general feel and layout of a game, respectively. If your app contains two-dimensional images and doesn’t switch levels, you can do without level editing and 3D-modelling (these specialists charge $ 50-150 per man-hour). However, you cannot save on UX, UI and visuals. Every dollar invested in user experience brings $ 100 in return;
• OS. The choice of a platform naturally influences game design and dev costs. The integration of third-party APIs, payment systems and administration features for Android applications is usually 10-20% cheaper (in comparison with iOS). However, it’s not the main point. We strongly recommend that you conduct a comprehensive marketing survey to define your target audience and OS destination. Many successful applications like SongPop initially entered one platform and expanded its OS presence later. Despite the fact that SongPop is no

 

My app will likely come under the casual game category as this is the cheapest to make and would make the most outcome and get my message across quicker and more efficiently. The costs that I have found for the man hours depends on the developer and how much they charge typically the charge $60-100 thousand per month or $60+ per man hour.

I also found a price calculator to help with budget

Total

$73,970

 

Platform

 

Android+$3900

IOS+$3900

 

Design

 

Animated UI+$7800

Game Animations+$13000

7 – 12+$5200

 

Security

 

Via Social Networks (Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter etc)+$2600

Security Not Important (For initial MVP versions)+$0

 

Data

 

Social Networks (Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter etc)+$3380

eCommerce (Payments, BI, Salesforce etc)+$4680

Cloud Database (Fit for simpler MVPs)+$4550

 

Admin & Other Features

 

User Management (Manage user’s roles & permissions)+$6370

Reporting and Analytics+$6500

Notification Control+$10010

In-app purchases (Economist, Angry Birds)+$1950

Integration (Marketing automation, CRM)+$130

 

 

This data shows that making an app is an expensive process to get a fully realised concept to the market and that is just for making the app the other costs such as marketing is something else.

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/young-adults-ux/

Today’s young adults (aged 18 to 25) are a subgroup of the Millennial generation (which includes people born from 1980 to 2000). Most of them are digital natives, meaning they grew up with access to digital communications technology. They are a critically important user group: many of them are studying for degrees, or beginning careers. Some of them are starting families and buying homes. They’re starting to earn more money, and they’re comfortable with spending it online.

 

How Young Adults Differ from Teenagers

It’s tempting to assume that the guidelines provided in our report on how to design for teenagers would apply just as well to designing for young adults — particularly since the youngest young adults (aged 18) are technically teenagers.

However, we found that young adults exhibit different behaviors as compared to the teens we’ve studied.

• While teens enjoy sites that provide interactive features like games and quizzes, young adults like interactivity only when it serves a purpose and supports their current task.

• Teenagers tend to be poor readers, and they prefer nontext alternatives like multimedia content. Some young adults, particularly college students, are strong readers, but they still don’t enjoy reading large amounts of text online. They prefer content that is easy to scan.

• A site targeted to teenagers will not hit the right tone for young adults. Young adults are sensitive to tone. They will feel insulted if they suspect the site is talking down to them, and will notice if the site is trying too hard to appear cool.

• Young adults are much more skeptical of the information presented on websites. They demand more evidence to support claims than teenagers do.

 

 

What I have learnt from this

I have learnt that if I want to make something that is targeting the young adult audience, I will have to make sure it isn’t patronising and too simple for the audience, Whilst also I need to be more sympathetic to them and also not just explain things too directly as they are smarter than others which I need to be aware of.

No one dies tonight

Run, stickman, run! But watch out for the deathtraps!

The stickmen’s lives depend on you! One stickman is not too hard to control – but 5?! If just one man dies, they’re all screwed – can you take the pressure?

Save your stickmen as they run for their lives, trying to avoid falling into treacherous worlds of hell fire, ice spikes, hungry sharks, terrifying demons and flesh-eating plants.

Can you get your men through the night without dying?

 

An endless game that is addictive and fun, the concept around this I really fun and quite frustrating. From playing the game, I found myself trying to beat my score and trying to make the little characters survive longer and longer, the game relies on very simple yet intuitive controls which is just tapping on a certain part of the screen.

• What has the developer done well?

The game itself was marketed on snapchat as a story on mashable which initially made me go to the app store and download it. I found the app easy to learn and hard to master like most games that are on the app store now. The style they have went for is simple and clean. The colour pallet they have used is cohesive and pleasing to look at. On an addictive scale, they have the right balance between being impossible and fun, the game requires you to not only beat your own score, but that of others. I like this concept as it is always pushing you forward and making you want to play more and beat others as well as yourself. They have multiple levels of difficulty in the game which shows how fleshed out it is and how they have thought about creating more challenges in the game.

• Are they missing anything?

Yes, they could have a simple version with one track which could be for the very beginners in the game making it more immersive and then they could have another track appear and make it more of a buildable challenge.

 

• How does their product look and what do you “feel” when you use it?

 

The app is responsive on ipad, which is where I was using it, the way the characters move and create a bond with the user is also a good aspect, I must have lost 20-30 minutes to this game without realising and that is something that is a strength. Although the ad placement in the game is rather annoying and too often like most free app models on the app store the ads are normally after every other game which can get annoying when all you want to do is play the game, the way in which they got around this is to include an option for no ads which costs money, I feel like this is a good way and feels like a natural progression if you like the game and want to support the creators work.

 

 

http://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/viral-marketing.html

What is viral marketing

Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product. Its name refers to how consumers spread information about a product with other people in their social networks, much in the same way that a virus spreads from one person to another.

The basis of viral marketing is in the spread of information by word-of-mouth, but modern technology has allowed the viral effect to include many Internet-based platforms as well.

 

Viral marketing typically supplies its audience with something of value for free. This can be something as simple as an amusing song or game. Whatever the viral content is, it must encourage people to share with others so as many people as possible receive the content’s message.

 

 

 

 

Implementing a viral marketing campaign

 

There is a common misconception that viral marketing depends on the ability to reliably create something extremely popular. In reality, a successful viral marketing campaign rests more on understanding how to connect with specific demographics by presenting them with valuable content.

 

Viral marketing is a customer-focused approach, so the first step is to identify the target demographic for a product and what they value the most in products, requiring marketers to research and analyze demographic data. During the Blair Witch campaign, the filmmakers and main marketing agents for the movie were accomplished film students. They examined what made horror movies compelling for the demographic of teens to young adults they were targeting, as well as explored how that demographic shared information. They used this information to focus on their product’s mystery, and they concentrated their early efforts on the Internet where they knew they would have the best chance of reaching a younger audience.

 

 

Once a company knows what its target demographic wants and how they communicate, they begin creating content those people will want to share. The Blair Witch team created websites, message boards, and fake news stories that heightened the horror and mystery of the movie’s story. The content encouraged people to look for more information about the story, and even collaborate with their friends in their investigations.

Viral marketing is a continual, interactive process. A company that implements a viral compaign shouldn’t simply let it run its course without adjustment. The Blair Witch campaign remained active on Internet message boards, interacting with real fans and regularly updating websites with more information based on fan discussions. It, like most viral campaigns, succeeded because it grew along with the interest in the product.

 

How will this benefit my project

Through my project I want to create a campaign video that would be viral. The virality of the project would be the fact that people would share the project and make sure that it spreads from person to person. Knowing my target market and how they would react to viral marketing such as being used in Facebook and other social media on a daily basis.

I wanted to focus on going green and Global warming as these are two of the main issues that are facing us in the year 2017. The fact that the earth’s temperature is raising at an alarming rate over the last 50 years and the fact the earths population is rising just as fast meaning more resources are needed and thus creating more problems for the planet.

 

 

            Q: What is global warming?

A: Here’s a simple definition of global warming. (And yes, it’s really happening.) Over the past 50 years, the average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate in recorded history. And experts see the trend is accelerating: All but one of the 16 hottest years in NASA’s 134-year record have occurred since 2000.

Climate change deniers have argued that there has been a “pause” or a “slowdown” in rising global temperatures, but several recent studies, including a 2015 paper published in the journal Science, have disproved this claim. And scientists say that unless we curb global-warming emissions, average U.S. temperatures could increase by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century.

Q: What causes global warming?

A: Global warming occurs when carbon dioxide (CO2) and other air pollutants and greenhouse gasses collect in the atmosphere and absorb sunlight and solar radiation that have bounced off the earth’s surface. Normally, this radiation would escape into space—but these pollutants, which can last for years to centuries in the atmosphere, trap the heat and cause the planet to get hotter. That’s what’s known as the greenhouse effect.

In the United States, the burning of fossil fuels to make electricity is the largest source of heat-trapping pollution, producing about two billion tons of CO2 every year. Coal-burning power plants are by far the biggest polluters. The country’s second-largest source of carbon pollution is the transportation sector, which generates about 1.7 billion tons of CO2 emissions a year.

Curbing dangerous climate change requires very deep cuts in emissions, as well as the use of alternatives to fossil fuels worldwide. The good news is that we’ve started a turnaround: CO2 emissions in the United States actually decreased from 2005 to 2014, thanks in part to new, energy-efficient technology and the use of cleaner fuels. And scientists continue to develop new ways to modernize power plants, generate cleaner electricity, and burn less gasoline while we drive. The challenge is to be sure these solutions are put to use and widely adopted.

 

 

So therefore we should think more thoughtfully towards the way that we live and the way that we consume things that help speed up the effects of global warming.

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