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Will a Career in Mobile Game Development be
Will a Career in Mobile Game Development be a Good Option?
The mobile gaming industry in India seems poised to grow at an unprecedented pace this year. Will this prove to be a huge job market for those who are interested in games development?
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The expanding smartphone user base in India has fuelled the growth of the mobile games as well as applications markets—both of which are expected to be major revenue generators in the days to come. According to various studies, the number of smartphone users in India is expected to grow to 67 million this year and 382 million by 2016. In the process, the mobile gaming market will touch Rs 27 billion by 2016. So this is probably the best time to get into the games development groove and let the geek in you out of the closet. Let’s find out if a career in this arena can fetch rich dividends.
Mobile versus PC/console games development
According to a survey conducted by the Game Developers Conference held in San Francisco this year, smartphones and tablets are what most developers are working on, with 55 per cent of respondents currently creating games for these platforms. So the next logical question would be-what differentiates mobile games development from the traditional PC or console games development?
Rohit Bhosle, who works as a games programmer at the Walt Disney Company has quite a few games to his credit. “It is a cyclic phase. Initially, it was difficult to make games for the PC, as the hardware was very limited. Now, that is not the case for PCs but for mobile gaming, developers are again constrained by huge limitations in hardware. Though, eventually, even that will change,” he says.
Swagata Acharrya, who works as an Android developer at Simpragma, a company that develops mobile and tablet solutions for its clients, feels one of the main differences will be the form factor and the limitations that the mobile hardware imposes. “For instance, I cannot have a game that takes up too much of memory, because at the end of the day, my device’s memory is limited. Also, the app has to take into consideration the times when the user is doing something else. What I mean is, we should not do something in the background that takes up a lot of resources. Mobile games also have to factor in fat fingers. Not all screens are the same, not all fingers are of equal thickness, nor do all devices have the same memory. It is even more complicated working with Android, as there are literally unlimited form factors. So the mobile UI has to be optimised for mobile use. The UX can be a luxury in PC or console games, but for mobiles, it is an absolute must. Building a game is one thing, while building games for mobiles obviously comes with certain restrictions,” explains Swagata.
The Indian market scenario
The Indian mobile games market is growing consistently and the demand for mobile games developers increased by at least 20 per cent last year, believes Najeem Illyas, senior technology architect at a reputed MNC. “So far, what I have observed is that the smartphone industry is booming and, hence, the demand for Android games has increased a lot compared to the Java games of the previous era. Android and iOS got operating system upgrades, which in turn improved the performance of games. Companies like Samsung, HTC, LG, etc, have upgraded their mobile hardware to improve the battery’s performance and the processing speed. Due to all of this, the demand for game development has increased dramatically,” quips Illyas.
The Indian market is a bit tricky. Any mobile game that needs to be paid for will face resistance in the Indian market. “If you look at the numbers, the market is huge. The smartphone tech-savvy people (or the younger generation) spend a lot of time with their devices. One thing that I have seen is that there is a certain group that keeps exploring games. They download, play for some time, and if they like it, they use it regularly; else, it is uninstalled immediately. There is one more group that constitutes the majority, which downloads and plays a game, and if they do not like it, they do not open it again. The app remains on their devices till they need to make space to accommodate something else,” says Swagata.
Monetisation–a critical issue
There are some industry experts who feel the mobile gaming industry is at a very nascent stage in India. Pradeep I S N, who set up the production and research division of the CGManifest Group, feels that in India, people are more interested in free games than in purchasing games via the mobile. “Monetisation is a critical issue for any game entering the Indian market. With free games, we can’t go beyond a limit in the market. If we consider the existing opportunities for mobile games developers in India, the majority of them are not into creative product development. Many local and global companies appoint people in India for portability tasks, pixel art-based tasks and a few other bulk jobs but there is very little hiring of developers for core games development. The logic part of most of the games is developed abroad, sent to India for certain post-development, release phase work before the actual release,” says Pradeep.
Why HTML5 skills are in demand
HTML5 is the buzzword when it comes to mobile games development. Most skilled developers are unprepared to adjust to the limited games development opportunities in India, so they are now looking to build their own identities/brands and monetise their games on their own. Since HTML5 provides developers the facility to host and market their games without depending on any particular platform-based app store, people are now slowly turning towards this platform due to its enormous power and the features it supports for Web-based games.
“Also, the smart-gadget revolution has led to customers adopting browser-based games on a large scale now a days; so developers are looking for an alternative solution and HTML5 is perfect for such games. First of all, it is open source and gives a lot of freedom to developers to convert their ideas into virtual-reality at a cheaper or at no cost. The second reason is that the size of the development team required for games created for small gadgets is much smaller. Also, the cost of development is much lower than what it is for console-based games. The support of technologies like SVG and WebGL for HTML5 also plays a key role in developing innovative and powerful games for the Web and mobile,” explains Pradeep. Industry pundits definitely expect a bright future for HTML5 in India due to the immense developer resources available in the country.
The other skill sets
According to Rohit Bhosle, a mobile games developer should have the three Ps while developing games—passion, patience and perseverance. “If you have these three Ps, you can probably succeed in this domain. Moreover, you need to explore a lot of games if you wish to develop a high-end game. Games development offers those looking for employment many roles, like the core programmer - the core around which the game comes into existence; and the designer - the one who visualises how the game unfolds from start to finish, and how it feels. The other roles are in management. The producer ensures things are done according to fixed milestones and that inter-dependency needs are always addressed. Another role is that of a product manager who looks after the economic aspects, the overall experience, takes business decisions, oversees marketing, etc. The core development team can make the game, but a management team is required for timely deliveries and to ensure the game gets better exposure,” he says.
Swagata feels that the developers should know enough about the game engines available to build upon so that they do not waste time reinventing the wheel. “For example, while doing something that involves physics, I would look for a good physics library that has some APIs, which I can directly use. If I went about writing my own physics library, it can be fun, but the game development process would take that much longer, with someone else probably implementing my idea much faster. So keeping an eye on the trends in games development is another required skill,” shares Swagata.
Android versus iOS
Is Android a better platform to develop games on or is iOS more lucrative?
Industry leaders feel that Android and iOS offer different benefits. Android is an open source platform and has an excellent API available for app development. iOS also has similar features. “Both mobile OS providers are maintaining marketplaces where people can easily add their apps and market them to millions of end users. Both providers have brought out excellent IDEs for app development. When it comes to user experience, iOS is rated a bit higher than Android. In the mobile domain, Android is more popular than iOS, but in the tablet industry, iOS is the dominant player,” shares Illyas.
Pradeep feels that at the end of the day, both are similar. Because today’s developer community is looking for multiplatform development instead of developing a game entirely on a single framework.
“Such games are called hybrid games. This hybrid model of games development uses HTML5 technology to the maximum level, and there are options to make use of the native frameworks to convert such games to any kind of platform instantly, via some process. In fact, of late, nearly 80 per cent of the developers are now getting converted, or rather, companies are shifting major manpower into HTML5-based technologies from native platforms. Though the Android and iOS platforms play a significant role in the market, HTML5 can fulfill many requirements. The native frameworks can take care of post-development work after the key logic is developed using HTML5. So this is the time for developing hybrid environments, not only for games, but even for mobile apps or the Web. Companies like TCS have already started implementing such methodologies,” says Pradeep.
Is there room for solo developers and small teams to make great games? “If the game has the ingredients to attract users, there is definitely a possibility. For a corporation, getting users is easier because it can spend a lot on promoting its games, by giving freebies, etc, whereas an indie developer cannot afford that. So in most of the cases, indie games result in few downloads when compared to games made by corporate houses. So there is always a possibility that individuals or small teams can create great games. Whether people get to know about them, or whether they can persuade people to install and play the game is a different story,” opines Swagata.
Indian developers should have a long-term vision and the patience to design, develop and then market an idea rather than just try to work on outsourced projects from clients/companies. “We have great, proactive programming strength in India, better than anywhere else in the world. People should combine entertainment industry skills and programming skills to develop revolutionary and
Things to be kept in mind while developing a mobile game
1. Not all devices are the same. Think about device compatibility. Don’t do something overwhelmingly stupid that forces the user to uninstall your masterpiece. 2. Resources are very important. Do not drain the resources of the device on which the user has allowed your game to reside. You do that once, and there is no way you can get your game installed on the same device again. 3. The game should not prevent users from doing their routine work. For example, when the user is in between a level, and wants to make a call, that should be possible—without the call getting cut or the player having to go back to start the game from the base level. If that happens a couple of times, the game will get uninstalled. 4. There are millions of apps and a lot of other games, so do your best to get your user’s attention at the first shot. 5. Think about your user base and design the game accordingly. For instance, if it is a game for nursery school kids, the visuals have to suit them. Similarly, the theme has to be different for teens, adults, office goers, etc. 6. Don’t irritate users. Pop-ups every minute or so to ask for feedback, asking users to buy something, asking them to share, etc, will turn off users. The best thing is to think of yourself playing the game developed by some other person. What would you not like? There is a strong possibility that your users too will not like the same thing. 7. A challenge is very important. A game developer has to consider this factor. A game with an adequate level of challenge that allows friends to compete with each other can become a hit.
fresh games. Investments and forecasts should be based on ground-level realities, and not just on the company’s turnover or on market-based analysis. There needs to be support for developing such great games in terms of a creative environment, sustainable business strategies with low/medium costs of production using HTML5 kind of technologies and strong marketing skills. Of course, government support for the industry would be great, if possible. Even without all these, a powerful game can be developed by Indian programmers but a lot of self-discipline, financial freedom, a great amount of market analysis and experience are needed,” says Pradeep.
According to Pradeep, any kind of failure could land the developer in trouble, preventing one from concentrating on any level of creative development. So, entrepreneurs should study the ground realities well before taking any adventurous steps in games development on their own; but if the proper precautions are taken—yes, great games can be developed by solo developers from India.
Even small and brain-teasing games are widely
accepted in the mobile games industry, so individual developers or small groups have a huge space in this industry. The logic behind the game and the way it is presented are the major criteria for acceptance by the user community, feels Illyas. “The huge action games are made by big teams. Learning mobile games technology will be an added advantage to the candidates seeking jobs in the mobile games industry. Companies are always looking for new and challenging apps, so the job opportunities are very good and talented developers can contribute individually,” shares Illyas.
Market your game to succeed
At a time when there are innumerable companies that are publishing games, what gives one that extra edge over others? Industry leaders believe good marketing is very helpful. “Rather, I will go on to say that in the current scenario, marketing is a must, but it’s not important whether the budget is small or big. What is required is smart marketing and smart promotion, as most games nowadays are digital; so by using the Internet and social media as platforms for marketing, one can get good end results,” says Rohit.
Marketing has a very vital role to play. There are so many apps in an app store that people will generally not bother about any till they get to know that it is great, feels Illyas. “Getting the initial number of users and satisfying them again and again, so that they share their experience with their friends, is very vital. There has to be a plan (and budget) set aside for aggressive marketing. After all, we need people to know about the app, and to do that, we need to let them know that the app exists. And for that, marketing is the most appropriate way,” says Illyas.
So are you ‘game’ to make your mark in the mobile games development segment?
By Priyanka Sarkar
The author is a member of the editorial team. She loves to weave in and out the little nuances of life and scribble her thoughts and experiences in her personal blog.
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