How to Make a Mobile Game? [2023 Guide]

Mobile game downloads have been increasing rapidly since 2018. Almost 14.4 billion mobile games were downloaded in the first quarter of 2022. The success of multiple games like candy crush, Subway Surfers and even PUBG has shown how profitable the Mobile gaming market is. In this guide we will explore how to make a mobile game in scratch.

For instance, a game known as Garena free fire has grossed almost Four billion dollars in 2021. The Google Play Store and Apple App Store are the top sources for mobile game downloads. So, let us discuss everything mobile game developers need to know about mobile game development through simple steps. Here is complete list of to game development companies.

Mobile Game Development Process

Before beginning our detailed discussion on how to make a mobile game app, let us take a brief look at all the points that we are going to elaborate in this article:

1. Creating a Stunning Idea to Develop Best Mobile Games
2. Developing the Story Line from Scratch
3. Integrating the Game Development Concept
4. Choose the Platform for the Game
5. Decide the Mobile Game Engines for the Mobile Game App
6. Create a Design Document for the Mobile Games
7. Create a Proper Structure for the Game Apps
8. Creating Game WireFrame
9. Begin the Mobile Game Development
10. Start With the Testing Process for Mobile Games
11. Decide on the Monetization Strategy for Mobile Games
12. Launch the Mobile Game to the End-Users
13. Create a Long-Term Plan for Support and Maintenance

How to Make a Mobile Game?

Let’s explore how to create a mobile game in detail.

1. An Idea to Create a Mobile Game

As a developer, you must remember that almost every big thing starts with just an idea in your head. This idea plays a critical role in laying the foundation of a wonderful game. Idea generation is something that comes from within human beings and cannot be taught. Therefore as a developer, you must come up with an idea that will help you to create a unique game. You must remember that for being successful it is not always compulsory for a game to be complex.

Even a simple game can take the market by storm as long as it is unique and has never existed before. So the developers should not waste much time focusing on science fiction or fairy tales. New mobile game ideas in the gaming app are one of the brilliant features of the gaming application.

It is also a clever idea to turn an existing game and try to make something completely new out of it. In simple terms, we can say that to be successful in this segment, the developers must unleash their innovative side.

2. Prepare Story Line to Make a Mobile Game

All the features of a mobile game depend on the purpose of the game. The primary goal of a developer should be to create game apps that are big and not just a leisure activity. This is because it’s impossible to keep the audience hooked up for hours without a backstory related to a game. For instance, the audience will prefer to play Mario for hours instead of playing Subway Surfers.

Another report also suggests that 80% of the games are installed within the first week of publishing. This is the boldest way to justify the fate of a game that does not have any backstory. The complexity of a story does not have any critical effect on the functioning of the game as long as it exists.

The developers can begin creating the story by understanding the final motive of the game. They can also create a principal character and set certain goals that the character wants to achieve. This is one of the key factors in creating an interactive story for a mobile game.

3. Integrating the Mobile Game Development Concept

The concept of a game is another critical factor that a company must focus on. We can separate the game concept into four major segments. They are known as the settings, game mechanics, technology, and user interaction. The game mechanics will represent all the critical steps of the game. It will also consist of all the steps that the user has to follow to achieve different goals in the game. The settings of a game can be further divided into aesthetics and story.

The story will define the environment of the game like what has already happened and what is about to happen. The aesthetics of a game comprises how the game sounds, looks and feels. Proper game mechanics is also crucial for maintaining the ultimate level of user satisfaction.

The technology will control all the devices that are compatible with the mobile game. It also has a critical role in understanding what native features of a mobile phone the game will use. Interactions of a mobile game are important to ensure user engagement. It ensures how the customers would interact with the game, control the character and utilize the screen space. Here I want to suggest you a detailed guide on the best game name generators.

4. Choose the Platform to Make a Mobile Game

Choosing the mobile game development platforms for a mobile game is one of the critical steps that will define how much reach your business will achieve. For a mobile game, the developers have to decide whether it will run on Android, iOS, or the windows platform. This is one of the largest questions that developers will face during the mobile game development process. While considering the statistics we will see that 50% of mobile users use the Android platform.

However, the iOS user base is too enormous to ignore. Choosing a single platform for launching the game is one of the common mistakes that developers make. The best solution to this problem is to go for a multi-platform launch. The developers can also conduct market research to get an idea about their target platforms.

We recommend that companies with a reasonable budget must go for both Android and iOS deployment. The developers must remember that with a single platform launch they will be limiting the application in terms of audience, reach and performance.

5. Decide the Mobile Game Engines

The back-end Technology and game engines will have a critical role in determining the stability of the final product. Therefore choosing the right platform for game development is one of the critical steps in the mobile game market. In the present game industry, there are multiple platforms and mobile game engines that are readily available. Some of the most common game engines are-

• Unreal Engine: It is one of the most renowned engines for creating graphics-intensive games.
• Unity: Unity 3D is one of the best game engines for developing three-dimensional games.
• Construct 2: Construct 2 helps create the artistic environments in the game.
• GameMaker: It is an engine to create simple 2-dimensional games.
• Cocos 2D-x: Cocos 2D-x supports Android SDK and helps create games for mobiles, tablets and PCs.
• Corona SDK: Corona SDK is popular for the development of a single language game.

6. Design Document to Build a Mobile Game

The game design document is a document that will consist of all the vital details related to the elements present in the game. It is a live document so the developers or the company can give feedback when required. It will automatically update itself as it detects any change. For instance, if you are creating a game about catching fish, then the game design document will not only consist of information about the location of the player but will also consist of vital information regarding the location of the fishing rod.

It can also store certain data regarding the size of the fish, boat colors, density of water, low tide, high tide, game controls and game objects. These are all the critical fillers for developing a complete game. The mobile game development agency must remember that any missing parameter from the design document can lead to unexpected crashes.

7. Create a Proper Structure for Developing Mobile Game

Improving the attraction of a mobile game is a key strategy for improving its sales. You must remember that users will only continue to play the game if it has unique scenes, graphics and incredible gameplay. Designing the game structure will include the development of various elements like characters, texture, buildings and many others. This process is very critical as it will control the ultimate look of your game.

The developers also have to do both two-dimensional and three-dimensional designing to polish the visuals of the game. So, you can easily say that this item requires a lot of coding and visual design. During this phase, the developers should also keep a close eye on the evolving standards and requirements of the users. This is because no mobile game Industry wants to stay behind the modern Trend.

8. Creating the Game WireFrame

We can simply define the WireFrame of mobile game development as the outline of the entire application. This outline will provide a clear view of the functioning of the application, its visuals, and its performance. According to layman’s terms, we can also define it as a prototype. Since Game development is an expensive process, the developers cannot afford to directly create the final product.

The first step is to create a wireframe that will give a short overview of the expected results. The wireframe will give all the data regarding the final visuals of the game and all the transitions from one part of the game to another.

The game development agencies must remember that since it is a prototype it will not consist of all the graphical components. However, the existing data should be enough to justify whether to move on with the project or not. This process will also help the companies to save a lot of unnecessary time and investment.

9. Start to Make a Game App

Once all the above steps have been approved, it is time to begin the development of the real game. Since this is the most crucial step in the development process, the developers should take care of even the most trivial factors. The development team will create the application for the platforms that we have already chosen in the previous steps.

It is also crucial to incorporate all the functionalities and features that have been noted down in the development strategy. The game developers should also avoid wasting time during the development phase.

10. Testing Process for Game App

It is crucial to perform thorough testing of all the functions and elements of the application, before launching the game to the market. During the early years of software development, manual testing was the only process conducted in this phase.

However, with the advancement of Technology, Automation Testing has completely taken the testing industry by storm. Automation Testing doesn’t require any form of human interaction for running the test scripts. This means the companies do not have to worry about working hours or human exhaustion.

With manual testing, it took almost seven days to complete all the processes in the test mechanism. However, Automation Testing has helped to bring this time down to almost under two days. There are various frameworks and tools that developers can use to implement automation testing in their testbench. You should pay proper attention while testing the game template of the gaming app. Some other important aspects to test are the user interface, visual editor, visual scripting, game plan, animation tools and visual graphics.

11. Start Making Money with Your Game

As a company, you will be developing the mobile game as a source of income. So let us understand how you can earn from your mobile game:

(A)In-app Purchases

In-app purchase is the most basic way of earning money through a game. This is the amount the users will pay to buy game items like skins, characters and dresses.

(B)Advertisements

Advertisement is the digital way to earn from your game. Using advertisements, the developers have the liberty to keep the game free to download while still earning money. However, you must remember that too many advertisements sometimes can irritate customers and force them to uninstall the game.

(C)Paid Mobile Games

This is the most direct way to earn money from a game. Paid Mobile games are not available for free and the users have to pay a set amount of money to download them. However, you must remember that certain platforms like Google Play Store and Apple App store charge an amount of money from the revenue that will be generated from paid games.

(D)Premium Game version

In this monetization strategy, you have to create two different versions of your game. One of them will be available for free and the other would be a pay-to-download. You must remember to differentiate between these games in terms of certain characters, levels or availability. This will compel the users to download the premium version. However, you must not make the free version too boring as it will be the first step toward grabbing the user’s attention.

(E)Real Money Games

These are the games that the users can play with real money. The basic concept of this game is that for playing the users have to buy in-game currency with real money. The players will be earning real money by playing this game and will be happy to spend the money at first. Find a list of money-earning games.

However, you must remember that in certain countries these games are classified as gambling and might get banned. So you should properly check the terms and conditions before launching the games in such countries.

12. Launch the Mobile Game to the End-Users

So, by this step, we are finished developing the game, testing it and monetizing it. Now it is time to finally unveil the finished product to the end users. However, it will be a mistake to consider the launch process as a simple task. You must ensure that your game meets the standards and rules set by various app stores. The review team of respective app stores will review the functionality and trustworthiness of the application.

Once the review Team is satisfied with the result, your game will finally be available for download. You should also keep a close eye on the initial reviews as they will say a lot about the future of the application. It is also a good idea to give initial offers and discounts to attract the attention of potential customers.

The game developers can also collaborate with some of the well-known creators to promote the application. In this competitive market, it is really important to get the word out before it is too late. As a company, you must remember that there is always someone out there who is trying to snatch your position. You might be interested to read a detailed guide on mobile game development costs.

13. Create a Long-Term Plan for Support and Maintenance

Now that you’ve successfully launched the application, it is time to plan for the long-term future. The future of the application will consist of regular security updates and the addition of new features. For this process, you should have a proper understanding of the demands of your users. Updating the application also helps to keep it interesting for existing users and potential newcomers. For instance, the developers can add new features, levels and modes. The addition of new monthly, weekly and yearly can also help to attract the attention of the customers.

We tried to keep the article as simple as possible and affordable for individual creators and small companies. However, it is almost impossible to develop a game completely free of cost. So, let us analyze the potential expenses you have to bear in this process:

What are the Ways to Fund a Mobile Game?

Some of the proven ways to fund the mobile game are:

• Starting a crowd campaign by portraying the potential of your game idea.
• You can participate in multiple funding contests that are held by top companies.
• It is also a great idea to look for Strategic partners or Angel Investors.
• You can raise donations on your website.

Conclusion on Guide to Create a Mobile Game

So we can conclude that understanding how to make a mobile game app isn’t as simple as it seems to be. The developers must be prepared for various problems and deviations that they might face over time. The most effective strategy for creating a successful mobile game is to put up hard work and an effective development strategy. Moreover, the developers shouldn’t get demotivated by failures. Your primary game is to create amazing games for mobile gamers. Many companies like unity game engine provide free consultation for new mobile game app creators.

This will help them to understand the concept and further polish the mobile game app. Finally, we request all the readers to closely follow all the points mentioned in this article as they will play a critical role in the success of the game. It is also the responsibility of the developing companies to spread awareness regarding this. One of the most effective ways to spread awareness is to conduct game developers seminars in the company.

FAQ’s on Steps to Make a Mobile Game

1. How Much Does it Cost to Make a Mobile Game?

Depending on the game type, it can cost anywhere from $1000 to almost $2 Million.

2. How to Make a Mobile Game For Free?

There are various open-source game development engines like Spring Engine that help developers create a game for free.

3. Can Unreal Engine 5 Make Mobile Games?

Yes, it is possible to make high-end mobile games with Unreal Engine 5.

4. Is Mobile Game Profitable?

Various monetization methods can help developers to earn from mobile games.

5. How to Become a Mobile Game Developer?

With a proper development strategy and long-term monetization plan, it is very easy to become a mobile game developer.