Things You Need To Learn to Make Mobile Games — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00When I started making mobile games, I
2. 0:02thought the job was this. You make a
3. 0:03game, you release it, players download
4. 0:05it, they play it, they leave reviews,
5. 0:08and then you just fix some bugs, and
6. 0:10money comes in. Passive income. That's
7. 0:11it. And now, after making this for a
8. 0:13while, I can tell you that making a game
9. 0:16is maybe 20% of the job, or maybe 25.
10. 0:19The other 75 is stuff nobody tells you
11. 0:21about before you start. And I'll tell
12. 0:23you what are those in this video.
13. 0:25[music]
14. 0:26But before I start, I wanted to say one
15. 0:28thing, and don't worry, it's not
16. 0:29sponsorship. And I really mean this. If
17. 0:31this is the first time you're thinking
18. 0:33about making mobile games, and you're
19. 0:35watching this video, I don't want to
20. 0:37overwhelm you. I don't want you to hear
21. 0:39this list and think, "Okay, this is too
22. 0:41hard. I'm dropping it right away."
23. 0:43Because you don't learn all this at
24. 0:44once. Nobody does. You learn it as it
25. 0:47goes, slowly, step by step, one problem
26. 0:49at a time. And eventually, you just look
27. 0:51back, and you understand a lot of
28. 0:53things. And if you're working in a
29. 0:55studio, or you have teammates, then you
30. 0:57just split this task between people, and
31. 0:59it's much easier for you.
32. 1:00So, this is not a warning. This is just
33. 1:02a map. Okay? Let's go. And actually,
34. 1:05here's something I think about
35. 1:06sometimes. I think in some ways, it may
36. 1:09be a bit easier to make games for PC or
37. 1:12console than for mobile. Now, don't get
38. 1:14me wrong. On PC, you need much deeper
39. 1:16knowledge of game design and
40. 1:17optimization, and games are deeper, the
41. 1:20worlds are bigger, not always, but in
42. 1:21many cases. But on mobile, even a simple
43. 1:24game requires you to know a huge amount
44. 1:26of stuff outside of the game itself.
45. 1:28Especially if you're a small studio. And
46. 1:30if you're working solo, it's not hard,
47. 1:32exactly, but you have to learn a lot of
48. 1:34things that have nothing to do with
49. 1:35making a game. So, let me go through
50. 1:38them in order. The first one happens
51. 1:40before you make anything at all. You
52. 1:42can't just make whatever you want. And I
53. 1:44know how that sounds, but if this is not
54. 1:46a hobby, and if you're trying to make
55. 1:48some money out of it, and make a living
56. 1:50out of this, then you can't just build a
57. 1:53game that's in your head and hope.
58. 1:55Because the market is burning right now.
59. 1:57There are so many games. So, the first
60. 1:59thing you do is analyzing the market.
61. 2:01Which game is good game to make right
62. 2:03now? Is there a niche? Do you want to
63. 2:05follow a trend? Do you want to mix two
64. 2:08genres and be innovative? And to answer
65. 2:10that, you have to play games, trending
66. 2:13games, old games, all kind of games,
67. 2:15even games you don't like. Often, we
68. 2:17make games we don't like. And love comes
69. 2:19along while you're working on it. Well,
70. 2:22in most cases. But, that's part of the
71. 2:23job [music] now. Okay. Now you have an
72. 2:25idea. Now you can start making a game.
73. 2:28But, don't make the entire game. That's
74. 2:30a bad idea, and you might just lose
75. 2:32everything you put into and the most
76. 2:34importantly, you might lose time. You
77. 2:36make a prototype first, and it shouldn't
78. 2:38be big, maybe an hour, hour and a half
79. 2:40of gameplay content. And obviously, to
80. 2:42make anything, you need to know how to
81. 2:44animate, how to model, how to code, or
82. 2:47at least know basic of those things if
83. 2:49you want to make a genuinely good game.
84. 2:51Now, with AI, you can do a lot of
85. 2:53without knowing to code. That's real.
86. 2:55But, it's still good to have some basic
87. 2:57knowledges of all of those parts because
88. 3:00when something breaks, you need to
89. 3:01understand what you're looking at. Next
90. 3:03thing is game design best practices and
91. 3:06the economy.
92. 3:07Your game has to be challenging, but not
93. 3:09too challenging. And at the same time,
94. 3:11it can't be too easy because easy is
95. 3:13boring. So, you're always balancing
96. 3:15between those two. [music] There are
97. 3:17different ways to do this, and let me
98. 3:19tell you my way. I balance everything
99. 3:21based on time. So, for example, I say,
100. 3:23"Okay, my players need to spend not more
101. 3:25than 2 minutes building this thing." Or
102. 3:28player needs to be able to kill this
103. 3:29enemy within 1 minute. And from this
104. 3:32number, I go and balance everything else
105. 3:34around it. The character's movement
106. 3:35speed, the price of the building, how
107. 3:37fast player earn resources, or how much
108. 3:40health enemy has, and what's player
109. 3:42damage, all of it comes from that one
110. 3:44time target. And the reason I like this
111. 3:47approach is the player never actually
112. 3:49feels numbers. The player feels time.
113. 3:52They feel whether the game is too slow
114. 3:53or too fast when they do something. So,
115. 3:56if you balance from time, you balancing
116. 3:58the thing that they actually experience.
117. 4:00So, the prototype is done and you
118. 4:02release it. Now, you need analytics.
119. 4:04Because without data, you have no idea
120. 4:06if the game is good or bad. And you
121. 4:08cannot just ask your friends and family
122. 4:10because they are biased. They are going
123. 4:12to say it's great. You need real players
124. 4:14because real players don't care about
125. 4:16your feelings and the data tells you a
126. 4:18lot. How long they play, whether they
127. 4:20come back today, whether they come back
128. 4:22tomorrow. That tells you if the game is
129. 4:24actually interesting. So, you need to
130. 4:26learn how to implement analytics and how
131. 4:28to read a player funnel. It's not
132. 4:30difficult, but it's something you have
133. 4:32to learn. Here's an example. Let's say
134. 4:34you have an RPG and in the data you see
135. 4:36that at level two, 50% of players drop.
136. 4:39Okay, now you have to figure out why.
137. 4:41So, you go into game and you make
138. 4:43assumptions. Maybe the enemies are too
139. 4:45difficult, maybe it's too hard to find a
140. 4:47new weapon, maybe they missed something
141. 4:49in the previous level. So, they arrive
142. 4:51at level two unprepared and they can't
143. 4:53play it properly. Then you fix those
144. 4:55things and you iterate and you analyze
145. 4:57again. And you keep doing that loop
146. 4:59until you're happy with how players are
147. 5:01playing and how long they are playing.
148. 5:03Only then you continue forward. Now, UI
149. 5:06and [music] UX principles. And on
150. 5:07mobile, this is huge. The attention span
151. 5:10of mobile players is very, very short.
152. 5:13And here's the thing that people forget.
153. 5:15The game is free. They didn't pay
154. 5:17anything. [music] So, there's no
155. 5:18incentive from their side to give you a
156. 5:20second chance. They can just close it
157. 5:23and delete it and it cost them nothing.
158. 5:25So, you have to catch their attention
159. 5:26fast, which means all your UI, your
160. 5:29tutorial, your gameplay, it has to be as
161. 5:31intuitive as possible. If you have a
162. 5:34long tutorial with a lot of text, they
163. 5:35are gone. It has to be simplified. And
164. 5:38this is the important part. You cannot
165. 5:40show players all of your features at
166. 5:42once. The game has to unfold slowly. You
167. 5:45introduce one mechanic, you let them
168. 5:46play it some time, and then you after
169. 5:49they played it and understood it, then
170. 5:51you unfold a little more and introduce
171. 5:53the next mechanic. So, you're building
172. 5:55these triggers through the game where it
173. 5:57keeps opening up slowly, but not too
174. 5:59slowly. Because if you show everything
175. 6:01in on minute one, they get overwhelmed
176. 6:04and they drop [music] it. Okay, now the
177. 6:06metrics look good. Players are playing
178. 6:08and now you need to add monetization.
179. 6:10And you cannot just drop ads and in-game
180. 6:13shop right in their face. They will
181. 6:14quit. All of it has to unfold slowly,
182. 6:17the same way the mechanics do. And the
183. 6:19best practice is that you show the offer
184. 6:21at the exact moment the players needs
185. 6:23it. So, the player gets stuck at some
186. 6:25point, they need resources, they need a
187. 6:27better sword. That is the moment you
188. 6:29show the pop-up or point them to the
189. 6:31shop because now you're not selling them
190. 6:32something random, you're showing them
191. 6:35the thing that they already want. And
192. 6:37how do you know when this moment is?
193. 6:39Analytics again. It comes from the data
194. 6:41and then from how you structure your
195. 6:43code so the right thing appears at the
196. 6:45right time.
197. 6:46>> [music]
198. 6:46>> And it's exactly the same approach with
199. 6:48ads, same logic. You don't throw them in
200. 6:50their face, they'll just drop the game.
201. 6:52So, really the whole part is player
202. 6:55psychology and the psychology comes from
203. 6:57analyzing their behavior in the game,
204. 6:59which is why analytics is the base of
205. 7:01everything. And once you're happy with
206. 7:03how much players are spending and how
207. 7:05many ads they're watching, then you add
208. 7:07more content to the game.
209. 7:09>> [music]
210. 7:09>> And now the next part, getting players.
211. 7:11Because the market is saturated, nobody
212. 7:13is just going to find your game. So,
213. 7:16first there's ASO app store
214. 7:18optimization, making the best
215. 7:19screenshots for your game, writing the
216. 7:21best description, using the right
217. 7:22keywords so the store actually shows
218. 7:24your game when players search for those
219. 7:26keywords. But because there are so many
220. 7:28games, even really good ASO is very hard
221. 7:31to win on its own. So, then come paid ad
222. 7:34campaigns. And now you have to learn how
223. 7:36to build and run ad campaigns on Google
224. 7:38Ads, on the Facebook Ads, on AppLovin,
225. 7:41on other ad networks. That's how you
226. 7:43promote your game inside other games.
227. 7:45And you have seen those ads thousands of
228. 7:47times.
229. 7:48>> [music]
230. 7:48>> And here's the part that catches people
231. 7:50out. You also have to learn how to make
232. 7:53these ads. Because if you're a small
233. 7:54studio, you're making them yourself. And
234. 7:57there are best practices for that, too.
235. 7:59You have to catch the attention of
236. 8:00players in the first 5 seconds because
237. 8:02after 5 seconds, the X button appears
238. 8:05and they can close it. That's for
239. 8:07interstitials. For the rewarded, it's
240. 8:09different. They have to watch. But
241. 8:11interstitials are the intrusive ones and
242. 8:13you get about 5 seconds. So, it has to
243. 8:16be funny or catchy or satisfying or
244. 8:18intriguing
245. 8:19>> [music]
246. 8:19>> immediately. And on top of that, you
247. 8:22need to understand how this whole
248. 8:24economy works. Because to make a game
249. 8:26profitable, you need to bring users at
250. 8:28the lowest possible price and then get
251. 8:30them to watch enough ads and make enough
252. 8:33purchases then they're worth more than
253. 8:35they cost you. [music] That's the actual
254. 8:37business and that's skill on its own.
255. 8:39So, yeah, that's how many things you
256. 8:41have to learn to make mobile games.
257. 8:44>> [music]
258. 8:44>> And I know it sounds like a lot and it
259. 8:46is a lot, but again, you don't learn all
260. 8:48of that at once and you don't have to.
261. 8:50It comes step-by-step and if you have
262. 8:52someone else that can help you out with
263. 8:54this, it's even better. So, let me know
264. 8:56your thoughts in the comments if this is
265. 8:58too overwhelming for you and if
266. 9:00something that I said it wasn't clear,
267. 9:02just drop me a comment so I can explain
268. 9:03it properly. Thanks so much and I'll see
269. 9:06you in the next one. Bye.