Future-Proof Tips For Mobile Game Industry and Game Development

With the gaming industry on the rise and on the road to expanding its target market aimed at nearly every person with access to a smartphone an Internet connection, the overall capabilities that are needed to gain a competitive advantage are rising too.

For any game, its commercial success majorly depends on the collective opinion of the customers who interact with the game. One needs to understand that a mobile game can have a big budget, a successful franchise history, and even a cult following, but success can still not be guaranteed.  

On the other hand, games that do not have high budget, do not have huge commercially proven following, contain limited graphics and level design, can go on to become huge hits. 

Flappy Bird is one such example. It was a mobile game developed by Dong Nguyen. The game went on to attract $50,000 in ad revenue per day at its peak. And all this, with no formal promotion and a one man development team, not a mobile game development company.

You will never be able to find a foolproof formula to gain a commercial win in the gaming industry. A mobile game development company needs to create such game portfolios that will reduce overall risk and improve success rates for games that are in development.

One can reduce the portfolio risk can be reduced by enhancing art, inducing the risk of science and by conducting detailed innovation planning. Companies should carry out gamer analytics and live experimentation which helps improve the game’s probability of overall success. Since it provides a deeper understanding of consumers, and how they relate to content.

There are certain games that greatly rely on prolonged gamer interest like installments, franchise expansions or subscription-based games. With substantial improvements and increased responsiveness to data-driven insights, a company can stretch the lifecycle of a successful game or franchise.

Innovate with fresh storylines

If you develop a new story with new characters, it contains the potential to strengthen the company’s existing core base, acquire new fans and retain the ones who might have fallen off an existing franchise.

Clash Royale, a successful game by Supercell had gained major fandom overnight. It managed to gain popularity because of its previously successful game Clash of Clans. Supercell pulled a smart trick out of their sleeve by introducing similar characters of their previous game into an entirely new game. 

They changed the UI and overall gameplay, but kept the game characters same with as little tweaks as possible. Users immediately connected with Clash Royale and the game amassed millions of users in the shortest time.

Introduce revolutionary game mechanics

Let’s not forget the fact that by leveraging modern technologies or establishing the mechanics of how a game can be played are risky. However, if a company manages to pull this off well, the game can be a huge success. 

PUBG Mobile, currently one of the most popular mobile games, changed the face of ‘battle royale’ concept of mobile gaming. Users across the globe got hooked to the game. Not long back, Activision launched the mobile version most popular PC game Call of Duty for mobile. It was based out of the same concept of ‘battle royale’, however Activision went a step ahead and added a 5V5 endless mode, directly based out of their PC games, and this proved to be a gold mine. 

Users loved the new mode and couldn’t stop playing it. Looking at this success, PUBG was compelled to introduce a similar mode in their game.

Conclusion

For a good phase of sustainable growth and profit, game companies should be willing to innovate with new ideas and for new platforms. Meanwhile the focus should not shift from creating compelling franchise extensions which meet customer expectations.

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