Mobile games are dynamically developing part of the whole software development industry. No need to say people love playing games and they are happy to do this almost everywhere. That’s psychology no more. That’s why the segment of mobile game development is quite in-demand. Yet, lots of customers are simply afraid to apply for mobile game development due to high rates.
What Impacts the Cost of Game Development for Mobile Devices?
In 2016, consumers spent $61.8 billion on mobile apps including games of all kinds, up to $75.7 billion in 2017. This market is constantly growing, but not all applications are successful, justifying the money spent on them.
In order to differentiate your app from a large number of competitors, it is important to make it technically high-quality and one that really helps solve the problems of your consumers.
So the main factors that impact mobile game development costs are quite diverse. They are both social and technical ones. Let’s discover the most important of them in detail.
- Let’s start with the very basis. What kind of game will it be? A simple and rather primitive application for logic games or crosswords? A challenging multiplayer game for hundreds of players around the world and a developed game world? An online casino with hundreds of different types of games&slots? It is logical that the cost of each of the options described by us will differ tenfold. For simple games, sometimes an investment of 3,000-5,000 thousand dollars is enough, and for AAA projects the price will be 30-50 times higher.
- The used engine. It is one thing if you want to use free engines with limited functionality, it is quite another thing to buy licensed software for your game or develop the engine by the developers themselves.
- What platform will your game be for? Native games for certain platforms will cost less, but their audience coverage will also be smaller. The development of separate versions for different platforms (for example, for owners of Android devices and iOS gadgets) will cost more but will bring more users in the end. A cross-platform application that works with any ecosystem is not an easy task, and not cheap BTW but the audience will be fully covered.
- Option for selecting developers. The business model you are targeting will also affect the cost of mobile game development. If you hire a developer or a team of developers for a permanent job, you will have to pay them a fairly high monthly salary which also needs to be included in the cost of your game. If you hire specialists in an outsourcing or outstaffing model, the cost of developing a mobile game will be lower.
- Amount of salaries to staff. Let’s take this item out on a separate line. After all, this is where we face HR problems. American developers are considered some of the most expensive in the world, and salaries in Silicon Valley will be sky-high. But there is also an alternative, because a remote professional from another country, where salary rates will be several times lower, can also solve your problem.
- And finally, marketing. You can create a cool mobile game, but without marketing, no one will know about it. Therefore, be sure to factor marketing costs into account when budgeting for mobile game development.
- Additional services. Development and design are part of the job. It is likely that you will need to pre-test the usability of a game application, find its weaknesses, so as not to release a crude product on the market. These are also expenses.
So, in general, the costs of developing a mobile game can be divided into technical (choice of engine, game model, development tools) and social (developer salaries, marketing, and testing services). And each of these points can be optimized if your budget does not allow you to immediately invest thousands or even millions of dollars in the pro
How to Reduce Mobile Game Development Costs?
Here are some tips on how to reduce the cost of mobile game development. You can take on board, as all of them, and use those that suit you.
- Study the games market thoroughly. Try to choose a niche that is not yet occupied because in this case, the return on the game will be higher.
- Don’t chase the top developers. Today, outsourcing and outstaffing models allow you to hire highly qualified and experienced specialists remotely without the obligatory payment for labor at an overpriced price. Do you want to catch a fresh stream? Contact RexSoft: experienced developers from Ukraine will take care of your product. Here, the level of salaries in the IT segment is several times lower than in the United States, while the quality of developer services is at a very high level.
- If it is not possible to release the game after multi-level usability testing, it is better to release it right away, and gradually improve errors and bugs. This will defer testing costs. Alternatively, you can involve the first players of your application to test its functionality in order to find all the bugs without spending on the services of a tester.
- Set goals and objectives accurately. Or bring in an experienced PM. In this case, you will avoid the cost of services that you do not need in the end.
- Invest immediately in a cross-platform version of the game to increase the reach of the audience and not then waste time and money on its separate adaptation for other mobile platforms.
These tricks will help you make the development process efficient, but at the same time reduce mobile game development costs by several times.
