Making the Dream Work

Part 3 - Nearing the Finish Line, and the Start

Since the last part of this series of posts, I have been able to make an incredible amount of progress that I never thought I would be able to make.

While I took a distraction and participated in another game jam which cost me nearly 2 weeks of progress, I was able to jump straight back into the project I want to turn into an Android app and continue to tidy it up ready for the next steps.

As things have progressed I have started to figure out the steps needed to go from having a simple, and relatively tidy game, to getting it uploaded to Google Play Store and I am currently working through the required "Closed" testing phase.

The Steps Taken So Far

So far, the development life cycle of this project has gone through most, if not all of the "easy" bits of a normal life cycle.  The steps left to take are mostly the business focussed steps where it will go from something I have made in my spare time, to what I hope can be described as a finished product.

It is probably easier to describe the steps taken in categories that represent the type of step in the life cycle of creating my game.

Creative Steps

• Coming up with the game idea
• Choosing a visual style for the game
• Designing the Art, UI, Characters and Layout
• Creating, and adding the Sound Effects and Music
• Design game logo and associated components (e.g. icons, symbols, visual commonality)

Technical Steps

• Setting the technical requirements of the project
• Choosing a target publishing platform (and device/OS) for the project
• Developing and coding the game logic, setting up the created or chosen assets.
• Incremental testing and bug fixing as the game is developed working in the confines of the chosen game engine.
• Creating and deploying test builds to a target device to see how the game both looks and performs on the target device.
• After technical proof of concept is done, clean up code, assets, UI, effects and overall look and feel for the game.
• Adding in capability for policy compliance (e.g. privacy policy links and user preferences).
• Technical Ad Integration
  
• Optimising the Apps and the Build Process to ensure that the exported project is small as it can be.
  
• Adding the Apps to Google Play.
  
• Initial Upload testing.
  

Business Steps

• Creating and obtaining the appropriate service accounts needed to be able to upload and reference the game in the required services.
• Policy reviews to ensure compliance with service and legal requirements.
• Creating a website (currently a Google Site) to host the privacy and cookie policies for my apps and projects.
• Creating specific Privacy Policies for my apps and a Cookie Policy.

So far, these are the steps that have been taken, and while some break down into more tasks, and there may be other natural steps I've not mentioned, these are the main points that come to mind when I think about it.

The Next Steps

• Final Beta App Version following testing ready for publishing.
• If it passes the Beta Test Phase, request live publishing from Google Play.
• Marketing Activities, trying to get the word out there about the game using my limited follower base from here and x.com

The Game - Monster March

The game is called Monster March.  It is based on an Arcade Classic, where I have tried to emulate the game play and nostalgic mechanics as true as I can to the original.  To keep the game unique however, I have built everything from the ground up.  I have used custom sprites, background music and sound effects.  I have also extended the gameplay by adding in the capability to change up the layout of the enemies, and added options to change the behaviour of the protective shields between levels, and added a "Revenge" mode that can all be configured using the options menu.

When I have been testing the game myself, I find it as fun as the original, and the Revenge mode adds a layer of difficulty beyond what the original game had.

There's a bit of story behind the Revenge mode as well which mirrors part of the development of the original game as well.  When the original game was made, the background music was not intended to speed up as you play, but due to the hardware limitations of the day, as you killed enemies, the game was able to be processed faster including the sound.  The way the sound changed became an iconic feature of the game, to the point where I have tried to replicate the effect within my own game.  For my Revenge mode, during early testing of an initial build where I was looking at getting the enemy attacks to work, I somehow made the game so that enemies would shoot back every time you killed them.  While I was testing the game, I felt it made it more fun, and it broke the strategy you could use to beat the original game.  So I made it a feature of the game and created an option for the behaviour to be enabled or disabled.  It needed a name, so it became Revenge mode.

Marketing Approach

Starting off with no budget and real idea of a starting point, my current plan is to at least start with using social media posts and posts here to help get the word about the game when I'm ready to put it out there.

I also plan to try and get a couple of gamedev YouTubers to showcase my game, even if only to say how simple it is.

I have already been doing some reading on how marketing affects the reception of indie games, and how, even with no real budget, that there are things that can be done to help improve the situation.

One of the key things is to have a press kit ready to go.  As I understand it, a press kit requires a variety of things that can be used to describe and showcase a game.  Some of these things will be needed for creating an appropriate store page anyway, so for a press kit it is just about making them available to third parties.  Other bits will require a little bit of work, but will already be related to materials created for the game already.

The list of things I think I need for a press kit are:

• A Short and Long Description of the game.
• The Game Logo in multiple sizes, as well as other suitable imagery for the game's branding.
• Game Trailers and Gameplay Footage.
• Game Screenshots
• My own personal branding
• A way for journalists and associated parties to obtain licenses for the game.
• A way for journalists and associated parties to contact me for further information.

If you have any suggestions, feedback or advice, let me know.

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