Dear Community,
as an aspiring game designer, I run into one important question: playing time in an iPhone action game. As I read numerous threads and comments, many different opinions came out: from a tram-station waiting time until several hours game time, with save options etc.
What is your opinion? My approach is closer to the longer game time approach - like the Armado game from Tricky Software.
A linked question: are there any connection between the price of the game and the expected game time? Or in this emerging market it has not crystallized yet?
All the best,
Gyula
Well as the price likely will be 9.99 at max, there is no real room for “price or game time”.
good games sell at 9.99, most games thought are already happy enough to sell at all, independent of the price.
To me, short stop action is as important as beeing able to play for hours without having the same 3 clicks all the time again (besiegment is great in that or Aurora Feint: the arena)
what is not acceptable is half an hour+ without saving possibility. Thats crap.
As soon as Unity supports the “received phone call” callback also ensure that you autosave the state on that. There is nothing that pisses me more than if I have to spend 10 mins in a level and then a phone call comes in and kills my progress.
To chime in on your first question about product length - you should do a bit of research and nail down your target market. Knowing who your audience is will greatly help tailor things like this. If you want casual gamers to pick up your title, then maybe think about shorter rounds / level times (no saves needed since level completion times are quick) and a fast reward schedule.
I’d argue that even for the core audience (males, 18-30’s) playing games on your iPhone / iPod are done in much smaller spurts than say sitting in front of an xbox 360. So even if you want to do longer levels, more content, etc, keep in mind that the device is prime for quick play, fast reward schedules and for the most part, players want to feel as if they have accomplished something each time they play (even if for 2-5 minutes). Its tough to do meaningful pacing in that amount of time, but if done well, you’ll keep players hooked, they’ll finish the game, write great reviews, and be looking forward to your next title!
As for price point, you have to offer a lot to be selling for more than $2.99. 2 bucks and less is pretty much an impulse buy - I mean who doesn’t have 2 dollars sitting around in a couch ;).
-Tyler
Thanks for the opinions. We are after some brainstorming sessions, and have found several promising ideas - the question is which one to choose first - and how detailed-long-levels etc should it be.
The target audience with the iPhone I think - as Tyler pointed out as well - differs from the “regular” casual game audience (35-50 yo ladies, according to the IGDA Casual Game White Paper), so we want to give a satisfying length and detailed, well designed game in the 1,99-2.99 US price range. (And we think in the dual release - build a downloadable version and an iPhone version - but first the iPhone.)
Until now I was not aware of the incoming call - lost game position situation, but it has to be taken into consideration…
long time lurker, first time poster…
I came across a great site that I think every serious iPhone game developer should look at, iTouchArcade. Specifically, check out this thread on what customers are looking for:
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=1127
#1 requested must-have feature: save state when call comes through (Vandy1997 point)
Well, that thread was extremely useful. Thanks for linking it.
Since we are in the beginning of the development, I would like to hear these voices - what are users expect from a game they paid for it. We have also expectations - but there can be many-many minor things which could prove to be very important - but it is very hard to fix it in post (I come from the film side of life, and there is always a possibility to “fix it in post” (post-production), but it can be very costly…
So, if you have expectations for a game in general - please share it.
My expectations are:
- graphically well designed icons, GUI - aesthetically nice but at the same time user friendly
- playable at least for two hours (action-arcade type)
- save the game position and continue from there
- professional sound effects and music - also be able to play own music from the iPhone/iPod
- difficulty levels - easy, medium, hard
- built in tutorial
- Youtube video on gameplay
…
and so on… - of course partly the same as on the other forum, I think it would be very useful to have a similar thread here as well, taking into account the Unity game engine possibilities-limitations…
Gyula