There are many game development companies that are not using Javascript anymore but have understood the enhanced graphic capabilities that come with WebGL, which is a Javascript API. An API that renders 2D and 3D graphics within any compatible web browser without the use of plugins. This lets developers create games that deliver engagement and entertainment and having said that, gamers play HTML5 for immersive gaming experiences. Thus, under-mentioned are 5 best HTML5 game development frameworks for every game app developer to score an ace at game development and understand why html5 is the future of global gaming business.

Phaser 2D game framework

Phaser is a free open source HTML5 game development frameworks created by Photon Storm in 2013 for developers to build interactive and entertaining video games. The good thing about this HTML5 game engine was that it worked well on both desktop and mobile browsers. This let people create games that were multiple platform friendly. It works on two technologies that is Canvas and WebGL, the former supporting multiple browsers allowing it to create in-browser graphics and when paired with WebGL (a Javascript API) one is able to create visually appealing and immersive environments for players. Why Phaser?

• • Phaser lets you build all sorts of games, even complex games and this well-designed HTML5 game engine gives the developers the access to a great library and also the code behind it.

• • Phaser’s built-in asset loader has the capability to support spritesheets, sprites loading used for animation, etc. and load images, audio files, data files, tiled maps, and javascript files. These assets are used by users to develop operational games. 

• • Phaser goes back and forth between Canvas and WebGL for fast rendering based on browser support and uses PIXI.js library for internal rendering.

• • Phaser supports the Web Audio API and other than that, it already uses Web audio and HTML5 audio and allows node-based audio support and automatically takes care of audio sprite creation, mobile device locking, looping, streaming, detuning, and more.

• • Phaser supports touch inputs that include single touch as well as multiple touch and it also supports non-touch inputs like keyboard, mouse, touch and their combinations as used on window surface devices.

• Matter.js (a system with springs, constraints, and polygon support), Arcade Physics (a light weight AABB library for less powerful devices), and Impact Physics (a system that provides advanced title support) are the three powerful physics engines that Phaser supports. For managing everything, Phaser has a smart plugins system that allows users to perform all kinds of tasks. One can also create their own plugin and can share it with others if they like to.

Babylon.js 3D game development framework

This real-time 3D HTML5 game engine was developed by two Microsoft employees, David Catuhe and David Rousset in 2013 and later in 2015, it was finally introduced to everyone at a WebGL conference in Paris. It came to be as a simple yet powerful open game and a web rendering engine packed with countless features. Playground is one of its tools whose code is used to start the whole process. It uses a javascript library to display 3D graphics in a web browser through HTML5 and is free and completely open to all. Its source code is available on GitHub and is distributed under the Apache License 2.0.    

• • Babylon.js 4.2, the newest version brought a load of new tools and features for improved workflows and experience with its code-first approach.

• • Babylon Native is a system that is used to  build native applications while the Babylon React Native in Babylon.js 4.2 has a React Native framework that comes with the power and simplicity of Babylon.js.

• • There are many new features added to the Inspector to improve the Node Material editor which saves the developers time. Its particle editor lets you create and configure particle systems and render scenes with Physically Based Rendering (PBR) support. Other than photo realism, there is ShaderMaterial that lets developers write their own shader giving them the ability to display creativity.      

• The newest version of Babylon.js comes with advanced reflection and refraction, real-time PBR filtering, and pre-filtering .hdr files support. Also, the render soft transparent shadows for transparent objects optimizes environment lighting and the shadows.

Kiwi.js 2D game engine

Kiwi.js was created by Chris Colbert and then was later redesigned to make it fast and easy to maintain. It is considered one of the easiest to use HTML5 game engines or game development frameworks for developing mobile and desktop games. It’s WebGL rendering and complementary game development tools work great to create interesting and entertaining games. Kiwi.js uses CocoonJS to create fast native apps and deploy games to mobile devices as native game apps on AppStore. CocoonJS and Chrome Webstore are great platforms that are used to make games for iOS, Android and Chrome apps.

• • 2D Canvas for older browsers and WebGL rendering for the latest browsers helps build fast native games.

• • It’s touch device is capable of letting developers build single touch as well as multitouch games.

• The template of the game comprises of Kiwi.Game object and multiple states that perform different functions like preloading the assets, transformation, animation, and updating the canvas with new information.

CreateJS game framework

CreateJS is another HTML5 game development frameworks that has a suite of libraries or tools that are used to create valuable and bilateral content on the web, interactive mobile and web games using HTML5. It was created by gskinner and officially sponsored by Adobe, Microsoft, AOL, and Mozilla. There are several javascript libraries that are part of the CreateJS’s suite that are used individually or as a suite by creators, some of which are mentioned below. 

• • EaselJS for easily working and drawing on a canvas by providing an HTML5 Canvas that is rich in media and other application solutions.

• • TweenJS for animating and tweening HTML5 properties.

• • SoundJS with a simple API for working with audio on the web.

• • PreloadJS for managing and coordinating the loading of assets such as sound files, bitmaps, and more and data.

• It allows developers to add sound, motion, asset loading, and 2D graphics to their work.

Quintus game development framework

Quintus, a course created by Pablo Farias Navarro, the founder of ZENVA. It is a modular, lean and powerful HTML5 game engine that works on desktops and various HTML5 compatible devices. It is easy to use and it has a modular engine from which a developer can pull in a module that they need to use and set up an engine.

• • It supports an event-based, component-based approach, and also an object-oriented approach.

• • Quintus provides plugins, events and also has a concise javascript-friendly syntax.

• It has a flexible component model that makes it easier for developers to distribute its functionality into the games.

Wrap up

HTML5 Game development frameworks allow you to produce games with high-level functionality and added features. All things considered, Logic Simplified is a game development company in Dehradun that provides game development services in HTML5 and uses HTML5 game engine as per game’s and client’s requirements to create advanced games that are immersive for the players and fun too.

Almost every day, a new app is launched. With some, we see the hype, but after some time, they vanish. This pop and fizzle are because most game developers forget the importance of user engagement during the game development process. 

With billions of desktop and mobile apps as well as a higher expectation for a user-friendly interface, user retention and app engagement are vital in converting a first-time, curious user into a long-term active user.  

Speaking of retention and engagement, there is no clear distinction between the two in marketing apps. They instead complement and also sometimes interchange with each other. You might have your vision, but retention is often all about working with a current user base, which in turn involves a particular strategy and techniques to get them back.   

To some extent, user retention is difficult to achieve. The mobile gaming app market is brimming with applications, and with each day, they are skyrocketing. Like it or not, but for your own good, you must fight for your user retention.

Before we dive deeper into the strategies to boost user engagement and the tools used in user journey mapping, it is vital to understand what it is and why it is important for any web or mobile apps.

You may also read about: Fundamentals of game design & development

What is user engagement?

A user engagement simply means the number of users who are consistently engaged with your product over a given period. It measures whether the users find your product valuable or not. It is a significant factor of business success or failure.

What is user retention?

User retention is a bit of a subjective term. It is one of the essential metrics to track the success of gaming apps. It means how many users are still playing the game after a certain time from their first session date. It determines the size of the game’s audience, the average time spent, and the potential for growth

Why is user engagement important?

If users don’t engage with your game, they won’t remain for long. It is vital to invest in user interaction not just to retain new users but also to hold them. Below are some of the reasons why user engagement is important in the game development process. 

1. Increases satisfaction:

User engagement increases customer satisfaction by showing them you care about their experience post-sale. As per a recent onboarding survey, 63% of users say that the quality of post-sale service is a key factor in deciding whether they will purchase anything in the first place. When you focus on user engagement, your customers are more likely to use your app for longer, which increases the lifetime value of your users. 

2. Reduces user churn rate 

We’ve all had to download a game and delete it seconds later because we don’t understand how that works. In fact, 8 in 10 users delete them as they have no idea how to use them. To these customers, it does not matter whether or not the app meets their needs, as they are not going to spend time trying to find out how it works. So, an increase in user engagement means the users are enjoying the game, and its features are actually adding value to their lives. When they are engrossed in the games regularly, they are more satisfied, which in turn reduces the user churn rate.

3. Convinces ‘maybe’ users 

Although user engagement is mainly used to support current customers and make sure that they have the best experience, it can also persuade customers who are unsure about the game to leap from considering to converting. When the potential users see how easy it is for others as well to run the game without any hassle, either through referrals or reviews, they are willing to give it a try.

4. Results in positive feedback and referrals 

It may be self-evident, but the increase in user satisfaction also increases the chances of getting favorable referrals and feedback. Positive referrals and feedback are highly beneficial for increasing brand awareness, creating social proof, and attracting new customers. 

5 Best user retention strategies to increase mobile app engagement

Though the success of the gaming app depends on the user acquisition, and if your game is famous, it will attract a large number of customers. But maintaining user acquisition does not imply that the app should have more users. In fact, it is more about user engagement and retention. Of course, user acquisition is the most critical phase in any marketing strategy. But, the work does not end once you get more users. You should also implement successful techniques in order to retain them. 

The true success of the game depends upon how often users use it and come back to play on a regular basis. User retention and user engagement metrics offer an authentic insight into an application’s performance. Let’s take a look at the top 4 user retention strategies that will increase app engagement.

1. Simplify the onboarding process 

The first and the most crucial step towards successful app retention and user engagement is making the onboarding process simple and intuitive. This is where the users get the first impression of your app. The more complex your game app is, to begin with, the more likely the users will abandon it. Here are few tips to provide a seamless onboarding process:

• Allow the sign-up/registration process in fewer steps. Different multiple login options like Google, Facebook, and more will help to achieve this.
• Use demos to help new users in order to get a better understanding of the app’s features and functions.
• Teach through action to expose actions/gestures that are required in the app experience.

2. Push notifications 

Push notifications are essential in every mobile app. The mobile apps use them to provide timely updates to the app users, thus increasing the retention rate. A user does not receive them daily; it is likely that the app will be easily forgotten and will eventually be uninstalled from the device. Push notifications are a fantastic tactic for leading users to come back to your app to take the action you have suggested. 

When push notifications are combined with rich media such as GIFs, images, and videos become more effective. These elements help users become even more engaged. It is vital to ensure that the notifications are sent timely and customized based on the user’s behavioral activity on the app. But remember, don’t bombard them with tons of notifications. This might be a turn-off for them which will only lead to the opposite i.e. uninstallation of the app. So, be careful not to annoy them.

3. Two-way communication 

Engaging and interacting with your users is important for user retention. Users want to form bonds with brands. Specifically, they want to feel appreciated and valued. This is why it is essential to establish two-way communication. How do you know what they want if you don’t get any feedback from them? So, such messages help apps in gathering feedback, resolving customer issues, and gradually improve product functionality.

4. Offer rewards and incentives 

Offering rewards and incentives are the best way to keep your users hooked. It is the most efficient way to generate more impressions and increase engagement. This works best if you offer incentives to users for daily visits. This benefits not only in the long run but also help attract new users. For instance, offering a reward whenever a user returns to the app during the first seven days of use. 

Applications that use in-app purchasing as a monetization model can benefit from time-sensitive discounts, and freemium apps can use bonuses as incentives. In this competitive market of mobile apps, users always search for an application that offers more incentives.

5. Regular updates

If your game is doing well, you should try to offer something new regularly. By default, players will be unaware of new content when it is released. As a result, you can send in-game notifications within the game regarding the new game content. This will excite the user’s interest in the new content, pushing them to play your game for a longer duration. Updating your game frequently is beneficial in long-term user retention.

You have implemented the strategies to boost user engagement; now what?

Well, now comes the point that how are you sure that your app or brand is meeting its expectations and ensuring a smooth customer experience? Various tools can be used to understand as well as optimize the customer experience. This process is known as a customer journey map.

What is a customer journey map?

It is a visual representation of the user/customer journey from start to finish. It helps in telling the story of your customer experience with your app across all your touchpoints. Whether they are communicating with you through social media, live chat, email, or other channels. Mapping the user journey visually ensures that no customer gets unnoticed. Here are the following tools that can be used to map the journey of the user.

1. UXPressia 

UXPressia is a map for the design-conscious. It is a perfect tool that helps in building actionable and engaging journey maps. They provide features such as integrations with a variety of data sources, collaboration for multiple users, and a modernized interface with an intuitive drag and drop environment.

2. OmniGraffle

This user journey mapping tool can be used for anything from wireframe design to interior design. This tool allows users to create precise and neat user journey maps, which can be shared with colleagues. Omnigraffle can be used by anyone from expert artists and game designers to casual data mappers as well as beginning diagrammers. What makes this tool special is how simple it is to get started. You can even try the free version of it. 

3. Gliffy 

Gliffy is a visualization tool and a web-based editor that allows you to make and edit diagrams. This tool is quite lightweight for the task of creating highly technical diagrams, particularly those that involve teamwork. It offers a number of basic features like organizational charts and Venn diagrams.

4. LucidChart 

With customizable templates and advanced formatting choices, LucidChart user journey map tool makes it simple to visualize and share your findings, allowing you to target specific personas, boost customer engagement and eventually increase your organization’s sales.

5. Visual Paradigm

This tool helps you simplify UX initiatives and automate the entire data acquisition process. A single customer journey in a particular channel can also be zoomed-in in the visual paradigm tool. Analyzing and understanding the customer journey can help you in improving customer retention and increase conversion rates. Visual paradigm also includes many agile project tools like Agile Process Tool, Online PM Process Tool, and many more.

It goes without saying that user engagement is one of the most critical factors to consider. More active users form a personal connection with your brand and, as a result, end up becoming long-term users. With well-designed user retention strategies, you can better understand the needs of the customer and improve customer loyalty. Even if you have already spent a considerable amount of money to create an app that too with excellent user experience, user engagement and retention are something you should constantly focus on. 

Have a game application idea? Want to make an app that is engaging for users and staying in touch with them throughout the journey? Then it’s time to contact mobile game app developers and bring your idea to life. Logic Simplified is a game development company in India which houses a dedicated game development team of app developers to create a feature-rich app while keeping in mind the latest design trends. To know more, you can contact us or email us at engquiry@logicsimplified.com.

(Source: Neit)

An introduction to the gaming market

The gaming market is growing by leaps and bounds every year. And with that, the number of companies and developers are turning to external providers for their game development services. They say there are increased chances of coming across unique ideas, content, and skills that could be used in their favour. Time after time, there are new platforms being introduced and the technologies are evolving and reshaping industries and the world. This is not just changing the way people work but giving them new possibilities and strategies to work. And, to stay in the market, it is absolutely necessary to keep up with the emerging technologies and the new platform releases. Nevertheless, with all the other jobs going on, it becomes difficult for companies to keep up with the changing trends in the gaming market that helps them produce fun games and deliver high-quality content for the people.

Meanwhile, the option of hiring a game development team that has the skills, the expertise, and the knowledge to create a game to its best potential is what anyone would want. Though the process of hiring could be onerous if one doesn’t know how to get what he/she is looking for. The process requires planning, implementation, and execution.

A company that provides the services of game design and development are aware of the know-how that goes into creating a good game. And, a good game development company will provide you with the right team size (programmers, graphic and instructional designers, a content writer, illustrator, animator, voice actor, and a few quality assurance testers) that are required for a particular game with the appropriate skills to meet the demands of the game. Outsourcing game development on the other hand comes with a lot many advantages. It helps companies grow by taking advantage of the expertise that comes from hiring the right people for the job. Advantages:

• • Cost-effective 

• • Time-effective

• • Reduced overheads

• • Staffing flexibility

• Risk management

Hire a game development team that triumphs

The process of developing a video game involves coding, programming, designing, sound effects, engineering, and testing. And, it is the game developer who turns a game design into an actual game. Hence, it is important to know the difference between video game design and game development. The design focuses on the game’s look and feel like the latter centers around the development process. Let’s get down to the attributes to consider when outsourcing game design and development.      

1. When a company is outsourcing, it is actually assigning a specific business process (here, game design and development) to another company that specializes in it. And, there are several roles that are a part of the development process. A computer programmer with the knowledge of HTML5, Javascript and CSS, a designer with creativity and knowledge of game art and CSS, a sound engineer, and a quality assurance analyst who does the testing and debugging. These are the main roles that are important to the process.

2. The quality that a game developer agency provides matters the most. Reviewing the previous work of the agency or their portfolio, if they have one, is what will help you in knowing about the kind of work they have done for their clients, what are their capabilities to deliver what you expect, how successful the work has been. You can also ask them about the challenges they have faced during the process and how they tend to overcome them. Good game development uses a strong game development portfolio to showcase their excellent work to their clients.

You may also read: Why outsource game development to Indian developers?

3. Now to work on your game development project, it is necessary that the agency has the essential resources to bring out the best of the idea. And by resources, I just don’t mean the machines, softwares, developmental platforms, technologies but also the people and their technical capabilities. Also after the first test-run, there might be some changes and modifications that need to be made as per the result. That means the agency must have the infrastructure that supports making these changes for the improvement of the game.

4. The team of game designers and developers must also have the potential to cope with the bugs and errors by debugging and beta testing to give an end result that is polished and acceptable. Ensuring the quality of the game at every step is significant. And, every member should test the game on their level and report bugs, if they find any but other than that one person should actively be responsible for playing the game, and finding bugs. 

5. Data protection and privacy is a concern that must arise when outsourcing a job. You need to make sure that the agency is professional and so not compromise with the client’s trust. To ensure data protection and privacy, mention a contract that includes the company’s policies and security guidelines.

6. Good communication is a skill and most people fail to understand the importance of this. It is important for the game development team to understand your vision, be clear on the project requirements and the deliverables. To achieve that the company should be in frequent contact with the agency and with someone who can understand and communicate efficiently. Also, they should schedule stand-up meetings with the team to get regular updates on what’s happening and if there are any challenges being faced.

7. An agency that understands and values timely delivery of projects and that there should be no gap between what is expected and what is delivered. So, all the details, features, outlooks, deliverables, and the timeframes should be documented and given to the development team by you and you need to ensure that you choose someone who is capable of delivering the requirements. 

8. A company that follows agile development methodology and breaks the prerequisites into sprints so that you are aware of the entire development process and the progress that is happening every way.

9. Reputation of the game development company is also one thing that has to be taken into account. And, to understand that, their work history should be looked into, their previous work experience with their clients, reading the reviews and other client’s testimonials will speak tons of their reputation.

The Closing

At Logic Simplified, the game development team of proficient designers, developers, producers, artists, sound engineers, and testers provides game design and development services with their skills and expertise and assure high-level quality work and testing along with quick turnaround time. Their individual passion for their work makes them produce games that are entertaining and impart an immersive experience to the gamers.

Source: Statista

With reference to the above statistic, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the competition in the gaming business is overwhelming for the game developers if not others. And, many take that to be constructive competition that inspires them to create work that reflects individuality, uniqueness, and is exceptional to reach people across the world. 

The game development industry is rapidly growing and the existing technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud computing, augmented reality, virtual reality, big data, and more are contributing manifolds to its growth. But, it all comes down to making entertainment for the people and creating something that they have never played or experienced before. And it wouldn’t be wrong to say that it is the game app developers who are the backbone behind creating exceptionally unique and fun video games. It is them who bring game ideas to life with the help of other people in the game development team.

From concept to reality 

There are several video game design and development companies that have a substantial game development team that is capable of addressing a varied range of gaming services needs. Every member of the team has a specific role to play and should ensure that his/her responsibilities are carried out smoothly. One such role is that of a game developer that plays an instrumental importance in the team of developing and programming the creative aspects of a video game. Game development skills, creative thinking, technical expertise, management skills, and problem solving skills are what is required the most from a game developer in a game development process. The game developers play their part at different stages of the development process. When a workable version of the game is created through computer code, it is the game developers who then test and troubleshoot to check the functioning of the game, spot errors, bugs which they can fix later.

Contemplating the nuts and bolts of the entire process, let’s go through some points to consider when hiring a game developer who will bring your game concept to reality.

1. Passionate about developing games

There is a lot of hard work put into developing interesting games. Hence, it is so important to be passionate about what you do even if it’s developing games. Passionate people are curious and you know why life is never boring for a curious person? Because their curiosity will always make them explore, discover, and learn new things.

2. Game dev expertise to control and overcome challenges

The game development process is a challenging job and demands time, money and patience. Someone with the expertise to control and overcome challenges of all sorts is a major trait one looks for in a game developer. During the process, the integration of advanced technologies like AI, ML, VR or AR in gaming spike up the challenges for the team. Other than that, the usual complexities that are to be taken care of are maintaining the cost, targeting the right audience for the game after doing good research using Google trends or Survey monkey, implementation of the right marketing strategies (App store optimization), ensuring that the code is streamlined and the game is available and compatible on all operating systems by using cross-platform game development tools, the security and privacy concerns, implementing the right revenue generation techniques, ensuring periodic maintenance that includes fixing bugs and errors, improving loading time, or launching new timely upgrades. 

3. Create immersive gaming experience for users

An interactive game is meant to grab more attention. It gives the gamers an immersive experience and the players are more involved in such games than ever. This increases the fun quotient. The game development companies are implying the changing technologies and the continuously developing tools to make games more fun and interesting with every project they bring forward. More focus is being given to all, small and big details. A game artist is thus expected to work on the storylines, the environment, characters, visual and sound effects, good graphics, and more to create games that are immersive and give the player complete control. A good balance of all of the above plays an important role and impacts the look and feel of the game. 

4. Be an active member of the video game community

In these times, it is very important to stay connected with people who share the same passion. This way people help each other in many ways. And yet somebody who is an active member of the video game community can be a plus point. They tend to have a deeper understanding of what gamers enjoy and don’t enjoy and they learn about their future target audience that way. There are also chances of people meeting other talented and inspiring people who share ideas, insights, and recommendations on game developing. 

5. Good game development experience

Years of work experience in a job role (game developer) is prioritized by all employers. Any Game developer must be creative, have artistic abilities, and technical skills to create interesting and successful games but that’s not it. The experience and previous work (game developer portfolio) in the industry shows whether the person understands the do’s and don’ts of a profession, confidence with his/her work, decision-making skills, passion towards work, capability, and other adaptable and competent skills and knowledge. 

6. Expertise in C and C++ programming

A programming language developers choose to learn depends upon the game engine they decide to work with. Nevertheless, good knowledge of C++ and C# is necessary, also as C++ is the industry-standard programming language in game development and both the languages are the most common languages used for video game development.

You may also read: Why JS, c++, c#, kotlin, html5 are best for android game development

7. Expertise to work with trending technologies

Video games are now being played not only for entertainment purposes but with the educational intention as well. Having said that, the video gaming industry has accepted the evolving technologies with open arms. 3D graphics made games realistic, the internet at first made multiplayer games possible and then with technologies like facial and voice recognition, Gesture controls, HD displays, amazing graphics, virtual reality, augmented reality, wearable gaming consoles, and more changed the way games were created and played. And, to create games that are accepted in the market, the game developers should have insights on the new technologies, their implementation in video games, and the changes and updates that keep on happening. 

Modern technology has redefined the world. However, with so much happening in the industry, video game development may come to you as the most difficult thing to do but the right game app developer will certainly make the job easier for you. Nonetheless, you have to make sure that you hire a game developer with the expertise required and the one who understands your vision well to get you where you want. For all that, the game app developers at Logic Simplified, a game development company in Dehradun give their 100% to deliver what is expected. They have the knowledge, resources, and the expertise to bring your game idea to execution by creating games that bring entertainment to people of all ages, gender, and demographics. They have game developers that take care of the storyline, gameplay mechanics, character creation and building, audio assets, and everything that’s included in the game development process other than making your job a whole lot easier. To know more, you may contact us or email at enquiry@logicsimplified.com

Source: Mordorintelligence

Video games have mushroomed over the time and have become popular in the global market making the video game development process also quite prevalent. The competition is hot on the heels and the gaming industry is working hard towards giving the gamers an engaging and immersive gaming experience by making sure they have an extraordinary game development team and by introducing potential projects for the audience. This speaks volumes of the importance of mindfully hiring people that are a right fit for your team and who understand your vision well to get you where you want.

It all begins with an idea and implementation of that idea is what makes a great application and that requires a strong team that takes over tasks like programming, design, sound, project management, and business development. 

Every game project starts with mindful planning and hiring professional game app developers that bring your game idea to life. And, the hiring process is not easy when it comes to looking for a passionate and skillful team. So, further we will share with you a few points to look into when considering a game dev team.

The technological expertise

Plan the technologies that you would want to use in your game and accordingly hire game designers and developers with those technological expertise. The developers must have their strong knowledge about different game engines (Unity or Unreal) and relevant programming languages (C#, C++, JavaScript, Python) along with competencies related to graphics. Other than that, you need to know the requirements of your game. Depending upon how complex the game is, the size of the team will be determined. Apart from the game designers and programmers, the producers, artists, content, and creators are who develop and support a video game.

The global augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) market is forecast to reach 30.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, rising to close to 300 billion U.S. dollars by 2024.

Source: Statista

There are several technologies that have evolved over the years and made a place of their own in the gaming market. And, in the talk of evolution, video games are not behind. Needless to say, the emerging technologies have had a lashing impact on the gaming industry and have made the games more immersive, interactive and difficult for gamers to draw the line between fantasy and reality. Augmented reality, virtual reality, wearable gaming, facial recognition, voice recognition, and gesture control are changing the way games are played and perceived. It is the various tools that go into the making of these games that play a pivotal role in the whole game development process. Modelling, sound, video, and animation make use of such tools and a suitable game engine that controls the characters movement and interaction in the game.

In other respects, Artificial Intelligence has contributed to changing the gaming experience of the players with NPCs and solo-gaming. MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games) have given the gamers a platform to connect with millions of gamers online and play games with them, ever-changing the idea of gaming. 3D-rendered characters and better graphics have made the look and feel of games extraordinary and life-like. Introduction of portable gaming systems was another breakthrough innovation that took gaming to another level by giving the players the comfort of playing from anywhere, at any time, and with anyone they wished.  

The importance of these innovations have made clear the importance of the expertise that one has to have to create a mind-bending game. 

The game production team

The design, sound department, technical department, programming department, project management, and business development together plan, design, and produce a video game. They plan game projects, create content, design games, write code, and test and debug games to integrate the features and functionality into the game. All of this involves the team members to be creative, artistic, and hold technical skills to develop interesting games that look great and are fun.      

Every member of the team holds expertise of their own in their individual skill-sets. There has to be a balance of skills in the team. One of the skills is effective verbal communication between the team members so that there is a flow of ideas and concepts between the people of the team.

Find the best in game designing, coding, art, animation, narrative design, sound design, production, quality analyst, product management, and marketing to produce a game that’s does great in the market. The qualities that one has to look for are subject to what one is aspiring to build but in all other respects, there are certain attributes that might work in the favour of the game plan. Just to begin with, a game design document must be ready which has anything to everything from the UI and controls, the planned perspective, genre of the game, game mechanics, the type of game, the storyline of the game, initial artwork, a brief, etc.

Going forward, Game designers create the structure of the game that involves the mechanics, systems, and the game play. They in particular frame the initial vision of what the game is about to look like. A designer that has that sort of vision from the very start and works with the same aspiration till the very end is what you should be looking for. Also, for the designers to give high-quality work, it is crucial for all - junior, senior designers, and the entire team to be on the same page.

The blueprint is then put into execution by the Game Programmers keeping in mind the specifications that are set. Hence, one must have the expertise to code every function and feature into the game. Along with that, they should have the knack to build channels for the game artists and animators to incorporate their content into the game. Developers with the capability to write their own engine are considered highly skilled.   

Video game art involves creating the game characters, other visuals, and the game environment in 2D, 3D, or both. Artists or animators use specialized softwares like Maya or 3DSMax for 3D art and model creation. While 2D and Ui artists use software like Photoshop to produce content for the game. Therefore, the artist’s qualifications, experience, creativity, and proficiency with the softwares is what one should be considering. And, to get a hold of that, their previous work or portfolio can speak a lot about their practical knowledge in the field.

The content or the script in the game is what the players read and so the narrative designer or content creators needs to have a good understanding of the game so that the player gets a good understanding too through the narration. Thus, the writer’s previous work and creativity with words is what one has to look into.

The audio aspect of the game is so important to make a video game engaging. There are composers and sound designers involved who create original sound and music and use softwares like WWise and FMOD to implement their work into the game. There are audio engineers who are qualified with a degree and have pragmatic knowledge with the relevant tools and those are the people that you need in your game development team.

And, finally the producers that work on the other business and marketing aspects of the game like the budget management, mediating the contracts, the schedule of the tasks, game scope in the market, and takes care of the everyday management of the development process. A video game producer plays a major part in the project and is the main man. He/she should have the qualities of team management and flexibility to ensure that the project is completed on time and a quality product is delivered. A person who has the capability to think ahead of time, plan accordingly and sees to it that the project is completed successfully by overcoming all hurdles.

Having said that, the video gaming industry has matured over the times and so has the game development process. Likewise, the way a game development team functions has also changed to keep up with the developments in gaming business. One such game development company is Logic Simplified which is based in Dehradun and has a team of game app developers that are the right fit for all the qualities one looks for in a game development team. They know how to work with a team efficiently so produce quality work and within deadlines.

In the following article, I am going to talk about how it takes to develop a game from scratch and the challenges faced by the designers through the development process.

A video game designer starts its development process with a game idea. A plan is prepared by a team of game designers, who address crucial information like target audience, storyline, time frame and budgets. 

When the designers devise the theme and how the game will be played, this process involves planning and determining the game’s elements - its setting, storyline, rules, characters, vehicles, terrains, building, environment, interface design and different modes of play. Then comes the step when the designer works with the development team to produce the art assets and computer code to enable the game to be played.

In designing a game, there are several kinds of game concept designers each having a different role in developing a game. These different roles are necessary to fill every detail of the game and make the finished product as smooth as possible. By dividing up the task, the games can be completed faster that too, with high degrees of performance. While every development company is different, following are the most common examples of specialised positions that a game designer can embrace.

Level designer: Level designers are the ones who create exciting and fun levels. They place the enemies, props, objects, etc. through each level of the game. It is the job of the level designer to create levels, missions, or stages. If you ever jumped around a corner when a monster nailed you, and you found a specific advantageous spot to shoot from, know that somewhere it is the level designer who planned that experience for you. They do their best to assure that each situation is fun to play.

Game Artists: Game artists consist of concept artists, 3D modellers, animators, and FX artists. Generally, they develop concept art, 2D elements, give colour, action, and life to the game. Although the concept artists are active in creating the first look, they might be involved in the later stage of the game development process in order to add new features into the game.

Art Direction: Art direction refers to the project’s overall style. They play a pivotal role in each stage of the gaming projects, from constructing concepts to managing production. They work with 2D/3D artists, modellers, animators, etc. in order to coordinate all visual images that will be used in the game. The game designers who are in charge of the direction makes sure that every art asset looks like it belongs to the world of video games. They make sure that all the artwork matches the theme and nothing feels distracted.  

Programming: Every video game builds on code that brings the game to life. Programmers are also further divided into categories because comprehensive coding is needed for each part of the video game production. The game programmers could be liable for anything from controlling the speed at which the character runs and how high or low they jump, how often the enemies will appear and when, and how they will respond when attacked. So, they introduce the game mechanics, build the user interface, add graphics and music, whilst designing the required algorithms that help in run the game smoothly.

Character and story writing: In recent years, the cinematic games where the story takes centre stage have become popular. Often games require a team of writers to complete the thousands of sentences necessary on a video game project. And video games without detailed stories have lots of writing. Good gameplay and storytelling now go hand in hand. They are now considered a vital ingredient for creating a highly immersive and engaging game. Each object that the gamer experiences has a lengthy description that adds to the lore. They are also writers who specialise in creating characters through the course of the story. To keep the players engaged with the tale, these roles are extremely essential.  

Sound designers: One of the hallmarks of good video game design is audio. Games become boring and end up losing all their impact without sound. So, sound designers record sound effects that render the on-screen actions more credible. They begin their work by studying the story, collecting as much information as possible about any music or sounds it calls for. Sound designers create atmospheres, sound effects, sonic textures, and cinematic atmospheres that create the story’s naturalistic and abstract environments, along with the user’s emotional and dramatic relation with the performance.

Animators: Finally, a team of animators capture the motion and reaction of every character or object in the game world. They can work with both 2D/3D artists and bring life and dynamism to the static object or characters. Animators add emotion, personality, and realism to the game. As the sequence is captured, animators are the charge of the movements, and they will use specialized software to put elements of the animation together. Maya, Blender, 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Flash, Photoshop are some of the most sought after skills in animation design. 

Making of the game from scratch

The game development is the process of designing the mobile or video game from scratch to actual game - a process where the whole team of designers, artists, programmers, etc. are involved in the process. 

Concept development: The designer starts development of the game with a story. The game concept designers, with their creative imagination, develop a story that is entertaining and well-paced. They discuss the ideas to the rest of the team working on the game. Planning the concept of the game is more than just a vague story idea. It includes gameplay, layout, characters, maps, storylines, scenarios, and other details. It is important to have a detailed explanation of these concepts. For instance, designers have to decide what weapons or special powers the character will have and how quickly the character powers will grow as the game progresses. They must be detail-oriented to come up with ideas at this stage.

The designers write all the information related to the game in a document known as Game Design Document (GDD). It is like a blueprint, and the team and the designers can follow during the course of the game development. Everything from the game mechanics, the story of the game, characters, timeline, sketches, etc. are included.

You may also read: Difference between game design & development.

Design and prototyping: This is the stage where the designer’s crazy ideas become a bit more refined. Through all their thoughts, they start weeding, determining which ones are feasible, which ones are not suitable for their target audience, and so on. The team often starts with paper designs to test theories. Prototyping is rough, it’s messy and totally raw. A prototype is a raw test that checks the user experience, gameplay, functionality, art direction, etc. The designers get a rough idea of whether the particular game idea will work or not. The goal is to get a prototype up and test the ideas whether they are actually working and if the game is as fun as they hoped.

Development: This is the stage when the ball starts to roll. In the mobile development process, the designer's idea no longer remains the idea but starts taking the shape of the actual game. At this point, different teams within the game development will be engaged, i.e. developers, artists, and the testers.

The team of designers will have to work closely with all these various teams to ensure that the idea they have in their mind is brought to life just how they want it. For this, the team of developers are ready to tackle the whole project from scratch. This is where the developers will start integrating it into the game engine, working on the actual models that will be used in the game. 

Now comes the team of artists. There will be many creative elements that the art team will have to take care of when creating a game. This involves the user-interface of the game, environment designs, character designs, modelling, animations, and much more, depending on the type of the game. The art team creates all these in an art style related to the game's main idea and the design built around it. 

Testing: Testing is the most important step in the game development process. It helps to make sure that the game is running smoothly and efficiently. Every feature as well as a mechanic in the game, gets tested for quality control. Testing can also help in raising issues that are related to player’s engagement, glitches or bugs. The quality assurance (QA) team plays the game numerous times, writes up detailed bug reports, and takes note if there are any crashes. This is a long but important phase, as gamers are less likely to play games filled with errors or bugs, even if it is for free.  

Marketing: Towards the end of the game development process, the marketing process begins on as many relevant portals as possible. One can either create a website for the game or can promote using social media in order to advertise it. Users get to enjoy the fruits of the thousands of hours that went into creating the game! 

Challenges a Game Designer Faces in Game Development

Following are the game design challenges that usually occur from time to time and emerge in the game development process:

Unique concepts: To come up with an exceptional idea is an initial challenge. It might seem an easy job, but actually, it is the most difficult task. Presently, there are various games available and thinking out of the box is quite challenging. This is because the current gaming ideas influence the thinking process again and again, which therefore prevents the designers from thinking new and coming up with unique ideas.

Avoid feature creep: It is often seen that the designers begin with a concept in mind that is the core of the game. But sometimes they end up creating a complex game that does not really fulfil its motive and gets lost with other various features and functionalities. In order to avoid this problem, a designer needs to have a blueprint of the game development project. This will help them to keep creeping in the right direction.

User retention: Apart from the challenge of attracting a user it is equally an essential challenge to retain the users as long as possible to meet the sales requirements. This is tricky and honestly, the aspect that makes the designers the dominator ones in the gaming space. To overcome this, the approach that works is by adding a uniqueness aspect in the game. Simultaneously it is also imperative that the games should be simple and easy enough so that it can reach almost every average user and hit the kind of traffic they want to reach. 

Not keeping GDD up to date: As the designer moves forward with the development process, the game design is expected to undergo a number of changes. Some things might change, whereas many things will drastically change. Many designers make the mistake of not updating their GDD on the basis of the changes made. This becomes a problem once they move forward in the development process. So, no matter what the changes are, it is crucial to keep the document up to date. 

We at Logic Simplified have an expert team of developers highly skilled in various technological skill sets like Unity 3D, Cocos 2D & 3D, Cocos2D-X, and so on. Our team is well updated with the latest technology to give wings to your vision and use our artistry to develop a product from which you can get complete satisfaction. If you are planning to make a video game or a mobile gaming app, you can hire game designer from us and we will keep you fully covered! We ensure to support you right from the planning phase to the stage where the game is developed by our competent developers and provide continuous support as well. For any query related to game development services, please contact us here or write to us at enquiry@logicsimplified.com

Many people who design and create games for a living can tell you that the production of the game is never as pretty as expected.

Impending timelines, delays in production, stress from video games publishers, and countless hours are just some of the several challenges that occur during the development process. 

Do you know how definite the game development process is? It is not a game of one man but takes an entire team as well as their skills to build a game.

This article walks through the game development process and what it takes to develop a game from scratch. Each game project has 3 distinct stages, called pre-production, production, and post-production. These three main phases in any game development are further divided and retitled for a specific task. So, let’s begin:

Pre-production

In the pre-production stage, planning of the game is done. It is where the designers of the game will be doing most of their work. The process involves the following facets: 

Research: Research is an important fundamentals of the game design process. It will help find potential tools to use, choosing genres, characters to animate, ideas to develop, and much more. Familiarise yourself with the games that already exist in the market. This is because those games will be the competition for your game, and they must have set the standard that a designer must meet or beat them in order to be successful.

Brainstorming: This is the most fun part - where the designers dream big and start thinking about the ideas of the game. While brainstorming, they write down everything that they want to incorporate in their game. This phase of the process is where the designers can explore various brainstorming techniques. It may be either visual via storyboards or a conceptual art demonstrating what the character or environment may look like.

Game concepts: Once the designer decides the game idea, then comes the game concepts. What will be the genre of the game? What is the time frame? Who are its characters? Will the game be in 2D or 3D? Who is my target audience? What kind of environment will it be? Will it be single or multiplayer games? What will be the storyline? How many levels will be there? All these questions must be answered before to create a completely working, doable, and fascinating game environment that a player would like to play and get involved with

Concept Art: Once all the details are decided, next come developing the style of the game. This is done through concept art. Concept art shows how the characters, objects, buildings, and areas will look. They can be in a realistic style, cartoon style, etc. A good work of concept artist is vital because that gives the entire team a visual guide to the overall aspect of the game. 

Map development: Now that the details are in place, the style of the game has been selected, the layout must be considered. Is it an island? Is it divided into sections or territories? The designer makes these choices(unless they are specified in brief). This phase does not have to be too detailed and is simply designed as a basis for the game’s main structure.  

Game Design Document: It is abbreviated as GDD. Game Design documents help in keeping the team organized and in providing direction throughout the process of game development. This includes the game’s proposed design like the concept of the game, genre, core game mechanics, gameplay, timeline, illustrations/sketches, story and characters, levels and monetization strategies. GDD is updated as well as optimizes regularly.   

Prototype: Now that you have a great game idea, it is time to check if the game will work or not, and whether it is worth pursuing it. This is where the prototype comes in very useful. It is a raw test that checks the functionality of the game, environments, gameplay, mechanics, user experience, etc. Sometimes many ideas do not pass this stage. So, it can save a lot of wasted time and money.

You may also read: Difference between Game Design and Development 

Production

Welcome to the longest and the most challenging process of game development. Designing, texturing, level blocking…..Lots and lots to do, so all hands on deck!

Production is the crucial phase of game development. Most of the time, resources, and effort are spent on developing the game during this stage. In this stage, the team takes the concepts produced during the pre-production stage and transforms them into source code and different assets. Following are the steps involves in this stage:

Design: The design team continues their work from the stage of pre-production. Working along with the artist, they render character models, iterate on the interfaces, design dynamic and interactive level designs and environments, and so on. The models become more accurate and granular. Some ideas get refined at this stage, whereas some are discarded.   

Level blocking: This approach is used to layout, shape, establishing size, scale, etc. of each level. Each block may depict a cliff or a building or vehicle or object. Doing this will give you to rapidly and easily get a feel of the environment you have built and make necessary positional adjustments. This is also an efficient way to break down a large level into more manageable blocks which can easily be detailed one by one.    

Texturing: Textures are the flat images that are added to the model to give it colour and detail. In this process, the whole object is turned from grayscale to colour scale. It is applied to all the static meshes on the objects. 

Lighting: Lighting is an imperative element of game design principles. It is an art of filling each scene with artistic touch and beauty. It is used in setting up the atmosphere, evoking emotions and mimicking the real world. 

Audio Production: Sound plays a significant role in games. Audio production is the method of adding various sounds as per the game needs.

Artificial Intelligence: Artificial intelligence is used in the game, which reacts to the movements, actions or decisions that the player makes. 

Cinematics: Cinematics are usually an interlude from the game used to inform the player about the mission of the game, goals, hand out clues, character information, maps, etc.  

HUDs and Menus: HUD (heads-up display) or status bar is the information that is displayed on a screen in order to assist or inform the player of what is happening. HUD provides info such as character’s health, weapons, time, position on the map, etc. Menus direct the player on the goals, in-game purchases details, available elements, and many other things.  

You may also read: Mobile game developer qualities to look before you hire them

Post Production

Then comes the final stage of the game development - the post-production phase.

Testing: Each feature as well as the mechanic in the game, need to be tested for quality control. A game which is not tested thoroughly is a game that is not even ready for an Alpha release. Following are some points that a playtester might point out during this phase:

• • Are there any bugs in any levels?

• • Are there traits that can manipulate the game?

• • Is everything rendering on the screen?

• • Is my character getting stuck in a particular spot?

• Is the character dialogue old and dull?

After endless hours of testing and iterating, the game should be all set for a late-Alpha or even a Beta release, on the basis of how polished the in-game features are. At this stage, the players will get hands-on the game for the very first time.

Redesign: On the basis of findings during the testing process, there might be many elements that might need to be fixed or redesigned. 

Release: The game is developed and it is tested, now the game has reached the implementation stage where the game is finally launched to a wider audience. 

Support and Maintenance: The work does not end by releasing the game. It is just the beginning of a long journey. The game updates are crucial in order to achieve a consistent user base growth and high retention rates. To keep the game exciting, the game is often updated by adding new modes, features, levels, etc.

Why choose Logic Simplified for game development?

Among the innumerable gaming design studios in the market, Logic Simplified a game designer, and a development company has hands-on experience of designing and creating various genre video games (including PC games, Console games and cross-platform games). To develop a perfect game is not just about executing the steps correctly; it also includes the right techniques and tools and has a perfect team. The game concept designers are well-versed in different methods. They are innovative, highly productive, and introspective. They know the needs of the customers and come up with the ideas based on those requirements. For any query related to game development services, please contact us here or write to us at enquiry@logicsimplified.com

In April 2019, India conducted its first ever international E-sports event — CobX masters which was hosted in Mumbai. So far, the industry was already doing great and with the lockdown and stay at home orders coming in, the growth outstripped and esports became an overriding form of entertainment for people. The hype created by the top esports event, EGLX was huge with the entire event going virtual in 2020. The event was watched by over 12 million fans around the world. Game developers have given us some great projects in the year, 2020 and we expect nothing different this year. 2021 is expected to bring innovation and excitement into esports and the industry. Some exciting upcoming titles to anticipate in 2021 are League of Legends: Wild Rift, Wukong is surely going to be one of the most awaited games of 2021, the upcoming new championship for League of Legends, and there are others on the list.

The million dollar industry is big and esports is making the online gaming industry enormously popular with esports betting, marketing, publicizing, and so much more. There are celebrities and athletes supporting, participating and getting engaged in esports and raising money for charity through tournaments by involving their fans and supporters. 

The most popular games on esports are League of Legends, Fortnite, DOTA 2, Counter Strike: Global offensive and Hearthstone with League of Legends having the highest monthly active players of over 100M. Esports popularity and live streaming of Esports games gathers a humongous amount of viewers and followers. The video gaming industry has changed and now it just doesn’t come out as another great source of entertainment for millennials but also as a professional career opportunity. The gamers, game developers, Esports sponsors and influencers think of it as a lucrative opportunity considering it’s increased popularity, impressive prize pools, one-on-one sponsorships, and continuous in-flow of revenue. 

Esports has millions of fans from around the world and they follow and stay tuned to see their favourite players play and compete on international levels. Esports tournaments have become one of the biggest platforms for both gamers and companies and hence, for development in the gaming business. This platform has made video game players and teams popular. The longest-running event in the industry is the eSports World Convention which started way back in 2003 and has grown ever since, in different genres. From the times when Fifa eWorld Cup tournament was played sitting in the living room to now on the big stage, this tournament has been very popular around the world since 2004. The tournament was broadcasted live on Youtube, Twitch, and even on some TV channels in some countries and was open to everyone for participation. Call Of Duty and Counter-Strike Championship are also amongst the most played video games ever, with highly competitive online scenes, more regional competitions, and as to be expected their own international tournament only open to the highest level of players out there. Offering big prizes and incredible recognition. The year 2020 has been a great year for esports and following that Free Fire will be hosting four powerful tournaments for India across two pro circuits with a total prize money of more than 2 crores.

Over and above that, let’s talk about a few trends that are expected of Esports in 2021.

The rise of 5G

Globally, 87 percent of gamers find the process of downloading games frustrating, a small increase of two percent since last year which may represent an improvement in performance. The length of time it takes to download games was noted as the top issue, with 32 percent of gamers citing this as their primary concern. Expert gamers and aspiring professionals have the most frustration with download speed, with half of them noting this.

Source: LimeLight

The frustration of downloading a game on a low bandwidth and the importance of speed, latency, and stability in using the internet is known to all. And, rise in 5G is expected to drop the latency down to less that 1 millisecond. Yes, that’s right. The highly anticipated 5G is what is expected to bring change in the future of gaming and solution to the problem of reduced latency. The latency in 5G is believed to reduce to below 5 ms, which will be a 10-fold improvement to that of 4G. For Esports, this progress would mean augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), multiplayer mobile gaming, and interactive and immersive gaming for players.

The next generation gaming consoles 

Xbox series X and PlayStation 5 by Microsoft and Sony will exhibit the improvement that has been brought in the gaming technology with every new generation of hardware. These next generation consoles will for the first time let gamers take a majority of their existing library with them, be it physical or digital onto the new gaming platform. With 4K, solid-state drives and other spec changes, the next-gen gaming consoles by Microsoft and Sony will also support almost every title in the existing console platforms’ libraries on either Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One while Sony’s PlayStation 5 will support a majority of PS4 games. The players will decide where they want to play and whether they want to upgrade to a newer version or not. There are also a few far-reaching franchise releases like Call of Duty, Black Ops Cold War, and the new Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. 

Cloud Gaming

Cloud gaming or gaming-as-a-service will let people play any game they like through a live stream on their device. With the use of high performance servers and high-speed internet connection, Cloud gaming will make sure that gamers are able to play latest games irrespective of the type of gaming hardware or its performance. This is revolutionizing the gaming industry in ways we cannot even imagine by outsourcing computational needs to remote hardware.

In 2018, the value of the cloud gaming market worldwide was $1 million. Industry insiders predict that by 2025, it will grow to $8 million.

Source: CompareCamp

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) in the gaming market was valued at USD 7.7 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 42.50 billion by 2025.

Source: WioNews

The ever-evolving and user-focused technology has been a blessing for the gaming industry. AR and VR games are doing even more well than the traditional games during these times. 2016’s Pokemon Go game showed Augmented reality in its full form and made people crazy giving the game 800 million downloads. Like 3D films, 3D effects in games are enjoyed by people as it gives them an immersive and captivating experience. AR technology brings real-time interaction for gamers and makes games more engaging for them.

Mobile Esports

One of the fastest growing fields of today along with massive mobile esports tournaments. Over the years, mobile gaming has changed from being casual to now competitive. And, 2021 is said to be the year of mobile esports games. Popular titles are played on mobile devices and enter mobile esports business and this has gained great popularity among the players in Indian and countries overseas like in North America, Europe, China, and South Korea. Card games, first-person shooter games, strategy games are all available on mobile devices and excite the users. PUBG Mobile Esports programme, Supercell’s 2021 Clash Royale League (CRL), Call of Duty Mobile Championship, League of Legends: Wild Rift, Garena Free Fire Esports are going to be few of the most popular games and esports leagues of 2021.

With all that said, Logic Simplified is a game development company in India that has experienced game app developers creating multiplayer games, tournaments with best-in-class features and art. We believe games to be one of the great ways of storytelling with narration & art and our intent is to provide the gamer with an immersive experience. People take video games to be a great source of entertainment and we believe in delivering just that.

Android is the biggest and a leading OS platform on which various mobile applications are developed for diverse industries and all business verticals. Android game development is an intricate process and involves many stages. Thus, It has been saddling the developers with myriad challenges on every step of its way but it also fascinates them to craft creative and immersive games.

An analysis made by Statista gave information on the number of available gaming apps in the Google Play app store. As of September 2020, there were three million forty thousand apps on Google Play Store and approximately three hundred eighty five thousand five hundred and fifty one of them were mobile gaming apps that is a 5.6 percent increase compared to the previous quarter. 

With 2020, we witnessed the pandemic, the lockdown, and a time when people were working from home, staying at home, maintaining social distancing, and to curb boredom, they turned to gaming and other entertainment sources. This had a lashing impact on the popularity and growth of the gaming industry in all positive ways. Nevertheless, the developers have to face intimidating challenges in some or the other ways. Let’s talk about a few of them here.

1. Understanding the client’s perspective comes as a challenge for many developers. Providers of game development services try to understand the client’s requirement and deliver it at their best. This becomes difficult at times when some clients themselves are unsure about what they want.

2. With every year Google releasing a new version of Android makes it tough for developers to design apps that support the features of the latest versions of the Android operating system. Thus, making the adoption rate of the latest android versions slow.

3. Customer retention is indispensable for any game or app. Users landing on your game or app is fine but what if they leave and do not return. What’s the point of such customer engagement? Effective gamer engagement is when the gamers find a game interesting and engaging so they return to the game. The developers have to understand the reasons that make the gamers want to leave and work towards giving them reasons to stay.

Bugs, lack of gamification, complicated interface, better alternatives, etc. are the most probable reasons for withdrawal. Maintenance of the game by fixing bugs, improving load time, and launching new updates of the game with new levels, characters, design, elements, etc. has to be taken care of to keep the excitement going in the game. The user reviews can serve as guiding stones for obviating bugs and implementing ideas.

4. Marketing presents your game in their most valuable form to the audience. Having an Inadequate marketing budget when you have oodles of ideas and plans to execute can be discouraging. We know even if your game is the best, it would make you no money if no one plays it. Some of the most interesting games have failed due to bad marketing strategies. And, marketing, branding, and promotion with a good budget is a requirement to make any game go viral and acquire gamers.

5. Other than that, optimizing a game's title and description on the search engines is a task. To popularize a game online, it is absolutely necessary for a game to position as the first few results in the search engine. Press releases are one way to make gamers aware of the new game in the market. App Indexing by Google lets the app’s content or the game’s content appear in the search results in Chrome on mobile devices. These strategies can help obtain more downloads and new users for your game in order to establish a community. Customer loyalty must be promoted via gamification, notifications, rewards or the like, to get the users to try your game and these act as good reasons for gamers to return to the game.

6. Every user has millions of options of Android games on Google Play Store, most are free and some are paid. This makes it difficult for developers to make a game that stands out from the rest and attain more downloads. This is where app store optimization strategy plays a role in enhancing a games visibility. This strategy includes choosing the right name, a unique game icon, using the right keywords in the game’s description, with high quality pictures and videos for promotion. Aggressive promotion of the game can really make or break the deal for any game.

7. Android has a staggering global market presence and this makes it susceptible to security attacks. These security issues are fixed by the security updates released by Google but the other security problems that arise due to the changes made to stock android are not addressed by Google updates. It is crucial to protect the game and the user data on it and hence the developers have to keep in mind to build a game that has strong security and advanced encryption mechanism. Every game requires players to provide their information and it is the responsibility of the game development company to ensure the security of that information and data.

8. Any project without research and analysis will be incomplete with faults and loopholes. Hence, even though it is difficult for a game developer to produce a well-researched game, it is unquestionably necessary to make an intuitive and user-friendly game after good research so that it reaches maximum users.

9. Android gives us a variety of device ratios varying from 4:3 to 16:9. Then, the resolution for Android and iOS are very different from each other. Thus, cross-platform developers face the challenge to provide the same user experience to every user at different screen size devices, resolutions and aspect ratios.

Content scaling ensures that the game logic and mechanics are equal on different devices, so design your game first for the lowest resolution (called the logical resolution) that you want to support, and then scale it up as a whole on larger resolutions so that it perfectly fits in the device screen. Here, when the screen is scaled up there is a chance of images getting blurry. As for the blurred out images are concerned, big images could be used and effectively scaled down to lower resolution devices. This is called smart asset selection. In this case, a lot of memory is wasted and running out of it could be an issue so it is preferred to load a different version of the image, depending on the size that’s required for the current device.

10. It is arduous for a developer to make a game that truly fulfills its motive and is not complicated to understand and play. This might happen when there’s overspill of ideas and features in a game (Feature creep) as the focus gets veered. To avoid this, launching a game in phases is something that can help. And, beta release will assist in getting feedback that can be used to overcome the drawbacks of the game and ensuring that the core essence of the game is not lost and the experience for the gamer is user-friendly. 

With this in mind, Logic Simplified provides android game development services and helps clients create innovative android games and overcome emerging challenges and security threats. Our team understands that when an Android game is developed, it is crucial that it anticipates and supports different possible player experiences, and increases gameplay flexibility to reach maximum gamers. Game development is an intimidating task and with new innovations happening everyday, it demands time, money, patience, and the zeal to combat challenges. If you’re looking to hire the right team of game app developers for your game idea, Contact us or email at enquiry@logicsimplified.com and we will help you in the best possible way.

For a long time now, video games have been taken as the ultimate source of entertainment by many. Its history started way back in the 1950s and until now, this industry has come a long way and is now one of the most profitable entertainment industries in the world. Over the times, games have evolved and so have the game production techniques and gaming devices. However, the modern technologies and innovative softwares have had a lashing impact on the development of the gaming industry and has contributed to bring it to the forefront. The games becoming more available and hand-held were few of many other reasons that have led to increase the gamer’s appetite for video games.

Introduction of Twitch - the world’s leading live streaming platform for gamers, launch of Nintendo Switch - the switch console in 2017 for hand-held gaming, gaming subscriptions becoming available, step-up in production of story-based games, rise in mobile gaming, introduction of game awards and their increased viewership, these were just a few landmarking happenings that occurred in the gaming world in the last few years that led it to enter the mainstream. Come what may, game development has been reshaped in varied ways and the technologies along have brought endless possibilities in the sector. Everything from the kind of game being played to how they were developed, marketed, and monetized has not only changed but optimized in a way that has made the interaction and engagement between the game app developers and gamers evolved.

Developments that broke a leg in the last decade

The video game industry is tremendously big and it is only growing. In fact, there were over two billion gamers across the world which is 26% of the world's population. The video game development process has become rather complex and involves more advanced steps today and ensures a good return of interest. Non gaming companies like Apple, Google, Facebook were getting their hands into the gaming industry considering the great success involved with the sector.

Having said that, here are some of the most breathtaking innovations that were witnessed in the past decade. The way innovation in video g ames evolved has been like none other. Newfangled technologies, new controls, and experiences have what’s been expected and achieved.  

Merchandising and marketing was introduced as one functional approach that contributes to making a successful video game series. T-shirts, figures, hats, mugs, bags, and other products were used to promote the game and create a hype around it.         

Rise in independent game development took the game dev market by the storm with free game development software versions offered by Unity and other companies. And, these games crafted by independent developers have not only been critically acclaimed but commercially and creatively successful which would not have been possible a decade ago.

Not to mention, the shift from offline to online stores was a noteworthy change in the gaming biz. Turns out, this gave the developers the opportunity to market their games directly to the gamers. Other things that were elevated alongside: No shops were necessary, gamers had more choices to choose from considering their budget and developers had the freedom to create a game that the audience expected.

Another step up has been the video game popularity that has picked up in recent years among the people of different age groups. The broadening of mobile gaming demographics in the video game industry has been interesting to notice and ensures a bright future for the same with more people playing games, increased demand for a greater immersive entertainment, and easier access to games.

As arduous as it may be to believe that online audiences want to watch strangers play video games. Nevertheless, Let’s Plays is a video that documents the playthrough of a video game and also includes commentary videos with a camera view of the gamer's face. The top five Let’s Players collectively have more YouTube subscribers than Peru has people. Players stream videos of themselves playing video games at home and make good money doing so. This has become another way for revenue generation in the video game market. 

The upsurge in mobile phone usage changed gaming forever. Gamers now had the ease to play anywhere anytime with not having to stick to one place with gaming consoles and PCs. It is no secret that games rule the mobile app world. Over the years, mobile game apps have broken records and made huge revenue with improvement and transformations continuously going on. If we look at how things were before the App store launched by Apple in 2008 and after, we’d realize it as a defining moment for gamers and the way games were played changed drastically. Anyone who wanted to play a game and had an apple phone began downloading games.

It is estimated that around 2.5 billion people all around the world play games on their smartphones, which represents almost one-third of the world’s population.

Source: Technosports

Playing games on mobile phones provides the players with uncomplicated convenience, and entertainment. The factors that were driving the popularity of mobile games were easy accessibility, low costs, the soaring mobile population, and advertising. The games got smarter with the advancements in smartphones.

Well, the previous decade has observed assorted changes in technology, an intriguing shift in how industry games were created, played, discussed, challenged, and triumphed. The spectrum of choices has increased over the years for gamers to choose from at different price ranges. Gamers' choices and behaviour were studied to understand the desires of them.

The myriad of interesting and unparalleled storylines that the games offer today is outstanding. For instance games like The last of us, Knights of the old republic, Mass effect 2, and Red dead redemption were a few ones with captivating stories that make them so great.

Augmented reality and virtual reality strengthens player’s experience by making games more engaging. Virtual reality has made games much more immersive and there have also been experimentation with controls, such as touch screens, adding voice, and gestures. 

Artificial intelligence in game development optimizes game graphics, redefines desktop games, and works towards providing the users a better user-experience and interactive entertainment. It involves understanding the gamer’s psychological state of mind so it can provide an unexpected environment and situations giving the game a competitive edge. It allows the game to respond to the psychological and emotional state of the players, adapting and responding to human behavior and evolving over time. 

In the past, there were no gameplay videos, and few demos. Games media has changed, games journalism has reviews, news and previews. Now, games media is no longer just journalism; it’s also entertainment, criticism, comedy, video, essayism and all sorts of other far more interesting things than the reviews and previews. 

More women spend money on in-game content than men.

Source: TechJury

Now, more women were not just gamers but were also video game developers who enjoy competing and playing. Technology improves, the video games do, and so do the expectations of gamers. A recent study revealed that women make more in-app purchases than men. Thirty-one percent more to be precise, and they spend 35 percent more time in gaming apps compared to men. 

Source: Flurry

This bespeaks a shift in the mobile gaming industry and categorically tells us that the audience is no longer largely men.

With that said, Logic Simplified, a stellar game development company in Dehradun provides services with quality, reliability, and compliance since 2004 and has been contributing towards pushing the gaming medium forward. It offers preeminent turnkey game development services, game designer service, works with introducing ML/AI bots into games, and offers other facilities that include game marketing, deployment, testing services, and more. Looking ahead, the team of enthusiastic developers and designers that Logic Simplified has put together uses several different modules, visual effects, technologies, and the optimum security regulatory to bring complex games to life.