iOS games and market? I require some assistance.

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This well maybe a frequently asked question. However, I’m still gonna ask it.

If I don’t have a mobile device how am I suppose to develop a game for an iOS device and properly test it?
And where should I post my game If I’m looking to earn some money? And how would I go about earning money with my game? Would it be through purchase of the game or would I as a first timer only be allowed to have ads in it? Where should I consider to upload my game for revision and distribution to iOS users? Google play store? I have to apologize for asking such questions that I could have found answers for if I would have just googled for some time on the web. But I’m all too new to this “Earning money with apps” game and to be frank with you, kinda inpatient.

Before I go, I should definitely mention that my game in terms of its content and quality is along the lines of most generic minimalist games, such as Flappy Bird, Crossy Road, Stack, Chameleon Run, etc. Nothing spectacular, really.
Oh, and what’s the usuall revenue per 10 apps in the iOS game industry?

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I’m not sure you are going to get what your after in terms of job satisfaction with your current outlook.

Go buy an i-phone then look into what it takes to set yourself up as a developer.

Its your game you can make it free or monetize it anyway you like. Its all up to you. The best way of making money depends on alot of things and either of of the options you mentioned or any other way may or may not be right for you.

Although these are a good start for learning how to make games it is my personal opinion that we have enough clones of enough clones that we don’t need to water down the market with slightly different copies of slighly different copies of a novel idea that got lucky once in the hopes that quantity is better than quality. Please dont make 20 flappy bird clones in a month and plan to get rich because enough people are already doing exactly that is what I’m getting at here. Going into game dev with zero budget and dreams of easy cash is not going to work out.

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Oh, sorry for not being clear enough. I have actually made a demo version of the game. I’m not a total stranger when it comes to coding. I am still a novice by most standards, but I do have a solid idea on how object oriented programming works. While I would gladly post my games in the WIP section I fear that someone more experienced(which is mots of the Unity community) might take my idea and expand on it. It’s better for me to polish it from time to time, and release it when I feel it has been properly tested.
Thank you for answering my questions, however, I’m a little surprised that my only option is to buy an iOS device. I thought there would be some kind of an emulator on PC for testing these kind of things. Well… you can’t expect to earn something without giving something in return, right?

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There may be some way with an emulator to test the games on iPhone I am no expert on the subject.

As far as i know the only way to distribute anything to an apple phone is through apples store.

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You need to have a device to properly test it on, an emulator is only for quick tests, not testing on device is irresponsible and only going to cause problems.

As pointed out, the App Store is the only way to publicly distribute iOS apps. There tools to distribute for testing, but the are limited to authorized users, not public.

If you are just cloning, don’t bother, it isn’t a way to make any money, and posting for feedback can be valuable. No one is going to rip off a novice clone, it just doesn’t happen.

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It’s not a direct or indirect clone of those games.I just gave those games as reference so that you know how much simple it is. I am a beginner in this video game business after all. What more could I possible make for starters? Don’t people usually say to keep it as simple as possible for the first time? However, originality of my game aside, what device would you recommend me for properly testing my games? A tablet or an iPhone, how much processing power should it have? Could you post links of couple of devices from Ebay perhaps? It would mean a lot to me.

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How about these ones? Would these suffice?
Alcatel One 9010X
Lenovo Idea Tab S8-50F

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This article is probably the best advice I’ve seen on monetisation for beginners.

It’s pretty easy to get caught up in the money side when you are new. Don’t, it’s a trap. All of those games you mentioned were built by experienced devs who have been doing this for years.

Nothing. Most games loose money.

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9

Get which ever device is most common for your target audience. For iOS, you’ll need at least a iPhone 5s or higher. iPads: Mini2 or higher, or an iPad3 or higher. No iPodTouch. (at least not yet)

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10

To submit to the app store you will also need a device running MacOS. As you can’t build to iOS platform on Windows.

You could run a virtual machine on Windows, that runs MacOS, but I had problems with this and eventually just bought a MacBook Air.

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11

This!
You should prioritize on having a macOS instead of device, you can test the game by building to android device with similar specs with iPhone 5s, the feel should be similar(minus the absence of back button). But you need a macbook to build AND upload the game to the itunes.

disclaimer, I havent check about unity cloud build, maybe you can use that to build to itunes…

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You still need access to a MAC at some point to set up provisioning and stuff. But once that’s done, you can build to iOS without needing to touch a MAC

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Speaking from experience:

  • Develop on your Windows PC to your heart’s content (but remember that you will probably need to rewrite your input system around raycasting if you plan on using anything involving multitouch)
  • Build an Android APK build (yes, Android), download an Android emulator (I use Bluestacks), install it on your Windows PC, and run the game - it will have 90% of the functionality of a mobile device, though things like OnPause() and OnApplicationQuit() will function differently. This step isn’t intended to eliminate testing on a real mobile device, but, rather, to confirm that things are broadly working and looking as they should.
  • When you’re ready, buy the cheapest Mac Mini out there and the cheapest iPhone you can find and use it to assemble an iOS build

If you plan to develop for iOS, there is no getting around the fact that you’ll need a Mac and an iPhone; however, you can postpone the moment with some creative use of the Android emulator.

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I want to echo @FrankenCreations ’ sentiment and expound upon a few points.

You need to test the game on the actual platform you’re releasing it. How would you feel about buying a game, only to discover it doesn’t work and was never tested on an actual device?

Contrary to what sales line you may have bought into, making games actually requires a bit of an investment on your part.

So, here’s the thing. You’re probably not going to make money. Not at first. If you’re lucky, you’ll put in years of effort and crank out a decent product or two, and you’ll make enough money to recoup some of your costs, but not nearly enough to make the hours you put into it more profitable than working a part-time job at McDonald’s.

You’re looking at the game market and seeing these stand-out hits that make millions and thinking you’ll just emulate them. But that’s not how it works. Read the article @Kiwasi linked.

If you’re making games to try to make money, you’re not in it for the right reason. Maybe you’ll be that one-in-a-million that somehow manages to make money off a basic game, but why plan for that unlikely occurrence when there are much surer ways to make money out there (like getting another job or doing contract work). I’ll say it again because it’s worth saying: games are not an effective get rich quick scheme.

This suggests a fundamental lack of knowledge you’ll need to have if you want to be even a competent developer, much less a successful one. Spend some time educating yourself on the mobile industry, if that’s what you want to get into.

This, to me, is the most standout statement of your entire post. You recognize that you could have learned all of this from Googling, but chose to ask here instead. You’re not alone in that, sure, but it suggests a lack of agency in your desire to be a developer.

As far as patience goes… if you don’t have that, I have no idea how you can produce anything worth people’s time or money. I’m not sure what else I can say on that.

I don’t know that there’s any way to measure that, because it really depends on what those 10 apps are. It’s definitely somewhere between $0 and $1,000,000,000,000 though.

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15

I got an older iphone 5 2nd hand on ebay for a couple hundred $. … or even better, you can use an iPod which is cheaper, unless you need some of the features that iphones have like the extra input sensors. But if you’re going to make ios games you basically are going to have to own an iphone and also pay the developer fee.

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iPods and iPhone 5 are out. App Store is removing support for 32bit apps, neither of those will support the minimum requirement for app submission, you need something that will support iOS 11

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17

Thanks for the abundant information guys, but what about Android? It should be much easier and cheaper than building for iOS?

And @Schneider21 , I’m not inpatient when it comes to work and learning. I kinda assumed that If I would research iOS development on my own I would just simply get overwhelmed by the amount of the useful and useless information present online and I would not be able to distinguish what would be of use for my project.

Like I said, I’ve made a prototype of my game. However, it seems to me that iOS is out of the question for now. But what about Android? Do I really need only an Android device and a PC, what other investment would I have to make? If it only comes to those two things (PC and Android device), then I could just switch to Android, no problem. But I wanna hear what you people have to say on that one.

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Sure, the android market is cheaper and easier. That’s also the downside, is that it is cheaper and easier. Significantly more crowded and full of crap. Even though there are more android devices out there, the revenue on a successful game will typically be about 25% of what the same game will make on the App Store (on average). As @Schneider21 pointed out, if you are just in it to make a buck, it’s a waste of time.

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19

Ok, I think that for now I have accumulated enough knowledge to conclude that the best possible route for me would be to stick earning money the old fashioned way while still keep learning Unity. Now… I’m gonna probably going to go with the Android alternative, but I’m not so sure about it at this point.
You might wonder why I don’t just by a Mac and an iSO device, the reason for that is simple. It’s too expensive and by the time I earn money for something that may or may not earn me some riches I’m probably going to be good enough in Unity to develop some small games for PC which probably doesn’t require a lot of investment.

20

Regardless of what they tell you, game dev is still very much a wealthy persons pastime. If you can’t afford to get the hardware, its likely not for you. If you can’t afford to sink a couple of years into it, completely unpaid, its not for you.

But don’t worry. You can still enjoy doing game dev on the side as a hobby.