Who here is brilliant at making iOS games / apps?

Business and Project Management Discussions
#21

If you are going to end up with a portable C++/OpenGL code base and given that if the iOS device sales pays for the port it makes sense to consider android via the android NDK. The port of the C++ code to android would probably be fairly quick and hopefully mitigate any android VM performance worries. You don’t need the sales to be as big as iOS devices to make it worth while.

I agree if I had a good/popular PC game that would be suitable for tablets I would be rushing to the iPad as fast as possible, then figure out if it works on the small screens of iphones and finally a port over to android using that code base. It seems like a sensible business strategy.

#22

While I really love my rooted samsung galaxy (and would never change it with something from that bitten company), I can’t think of revenge working on a phone sized device - on the iPad it seems like a great fit - even the hectic scrolling, reloading and collecting could be fun on a relative big smooth touchscreen device.

Since current android tablets are more or less rubbish or too small, I also think it wouldn’t make much sense to target these devices.

BUT there is honeycomb on the way and with it quite a nice lineup of devices. With an ETA of 6 months for them, it “might” be profitable to target those android device, too.

#23

Revenge targets all high-end touchscreen devices… it’s just that some targets will make 100x more money than others.

Cas :slight_smile:

#24

I wonder how other markets such as the Wii compare? It would make sense to target the market with the most potential first if the work to do so is similar.

How do other indies handle releasing for many platforms? I imagine you start with something portable and introduce abstractions where necessary. After doing the same game for each platform, I bet you’d have some nice tips and the second time would go a lot faster.

#25

Most indies probably don’t do multiplatform at all.

#26

FWIW, Super Meat Boy is on Windows and (the very similar) Xbox360, with an upcoming release for Mac. Wikipedia has this about a Wii version:

[quote]The WiiWare version was ultimately cancelled due to the challenge in meeting the filesize limitations. Team Meat have stated “they are looking into a retail version [for the Wii], but it’s also looking grim.”
[/quote]

#27

So they probably started out with XNA (hmm, maybe libgdx should have a J# XNA backend ;-)) and now completely rewrite/port it to Mac/Wii.

I suspect that most indies don’t think about multiplatform when starting a game, but use the environment they are comfortable with. Probably only if they succeed to make something profitable, they think about porting…

#28

ExEn even works on IPhone…

#29

Wierd project, or I guess it is RocketHub that is wierd. He wants people to cough up cash before he releases the project. You get different support based on how much you pay. What you get support-wise is a joke compared to the level of support I provide on my projects for free. From the tiny bit of the video I could stomach and from a few comments on the conversation page, I have very little confidence this guy can actually deliver. Android support is a single line item, “android support”. If he gets $2k more than his goal then he’ll toss in OSX support. Somehow he has raised $2660 already!? Unreal.

#30

Hmm that’s a novel way of doing it, interesting. Andrew Russel is actually quite clever, I think he could deliver on that project. He was my hero for a while for figuring out soft shadows in this game of his:
http://www.gamedev.net/page/reference/index.html/_/reference/105/interviews/spotlight-interviews/andrew-russell-studios-r2703

Sorry for the thread hi-jack.

Congrats with the success of ROTT which lets you do this port

#31

I didn’t know he had a reputation. I read ExEn is based on a fork and just the way he writes doesn’t instill confidence.

#32

Hm, having a bit of trouble finding a willing victim for this work. Riven?

Cas :slight_smile:

#33

[quote]Hm, having a bit of trouble finding a willing victim for this work.
[/quote]
Isn’t blah^3 in the iPhone/iPad biz these days? He might have names for you.
Just a thought.
Simon

#34

Yeah, but he’s hideously expensive, though I’ve yet to ask him. He might be on hols.

Cas :slight_smile:

#35

I believe the original Meat Boy was Flash. Certainly I’ve played it on Kong. Whether they’ve ported or reimplemented from scratch for XNA, I have no idea.

#36

I can’t argue that iOS will make you more money, but there’s still money to be made on Android. And the performance issue is mostly a non-issue if you want to port it to C++ anyway.
As for fractured, just target 2.1+ devices and factor in some variations in screen sizes and you’ll be mostly fine.

But I agree it would make much more sense to target iOS first, and if it’s a success, consider targeting Android later.

I’ve worked with a team of Chinese game developers who specialise in iOS and Android (mostly iOS). They ported Hyper Blazer for me to Android for $300 and I think they did a good job, even though I did have to put in quite some time and effort to manage things. It was a bit of a testcase for me, but I got my investment back so I consider it a success. Not sure if they still do outsourcing work though, but if you want I could point them to your project?

#37

$300 to port a game? Jeezus that’s cheap. I’d charge like $5,000 at least probably. The standard rate around here is $100/hr.

#38

It was ridiculously cheap, and I think they might have underestimated the work a bit when they took the job. For example they had to rewrite the complete rendering engine because I was just using brain-dead immediate mode rendering which is not supported on Android. I actually felt a bit like I was ripping them off towards the end, but they never complained and finished their job as agreed.
We did agree that a next assignment would be for an hourly instead of a fixed price, which was still cheap (but very reasonable for talent by Chinese standards) and I didn’t even have to negotiate on that rate.
I’d still hire them at that rate without hesitation (they’re talented, and very nice guys to boot), but you always have to factor in the extra time and effort: Outsourcing is not easy and don’t expect to be able to throw your project over the fence and get a perfect product back without putting in the effort to manage things like cultural differences in things like expectations and such.

One thing to remember if you’re going to opt for outsourcing: Don’t do it only to save money, do it because there’s a lot of talent outside of the western world! It already cost me quite some time and effort to find these guys in the first place, but in the end it was a good experience.

#39

Andy Moore, the dev behind Steambirds, made 1/3rd of his income off the Android version of the game. Nothing to sneeze at there.

#40

A typical estimate is that Android makes 1/5 of what the same app should make on iShit.