
My first iPad game: Stats and lessons - whatupdave
http://whatupdave.com/post/5301971486/the-development-of-ibots-launch
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nischalshetty
Very insightful... More liked the point where you described how you had to
start cutting down on stuff so that you get to release it.... I think deciding
on one feature and one feature only, developing it and throwing it out to the
world is a good idea most of the times :

1\. Gives you an opportunity to test if people like what you have to offer

2\. You have a ton of features lined up in your head but based on user
feedback you would know how to prioritize them

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keyle
Very cool. Am I the only one to like the original design better than the robot
one?

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flyosity
There's a gigantic difference in sales potential when you choose to make an
iPad game (like the author did) and an iPhone game. The iPhone & iPod touch
market is way, WAY bigger and has a much larger financial upside. If you want
to make a game that can reach the largest audience of buyers, make it for
iPhone, or universal, but not iPad only. The title of the submission is
misleading.

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whatupdave
Thanks for pointing that out Mike, I've corrected the title.

You're right too, when I started development I'd just bought the iPad and
there weren't a lot of quality games on the device. Especially games that
weren't just scaled up iPhone games.

My reasoning was if I could get a decent game out in 3 months, even though
there were less devices, I would have less competition for attention on the
iPad.

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arn
While that might seem true, it's interesting how the web scene has played out.

When the iPod came out, there was an ecosystem of iPod-related websites that
emerged that was distinct from the Apple/Mac web.

When the iPhone came out, another entire ecosystem developed. iPhone-specific
sites. The existing iPod sites weren't the ones to gain popularity.

The iPad, however, didn't spawn a significant iPad-specific ecosystem of
websites. Instead, it was absorbed within the Apple/iPhone sites, for whatever
reason. As a result, I think iPad coverage is harder to come by and is a bit
more mixed with everything else.

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chopsueyar
You think this is an underserved niche?

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arn
I don't. The lack of popular iPad-specific sites was not due to a lack of
trying. There were several that tried. None of them gained a lot of traction.

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tomjen3
If anybody else wants to play around with 3d game development turbosquid (
briefly mentioned in the article) is a great way to start.

If you can spare it, play around with blender for a week and you should be
able to make simple models (ships, guns, etc) and tweak more complex ones.

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kore
As someone planning to build some iOS games as a side project, I really
appreciate this info.

Some questions for you:

Have you considered offering your game for free for a limited time to get your
game out there, so it can hopefully find some more coverage? If so, what made
you decide to keep it a paid app?

Did you consider any other game dev tools, such as Unity?

Did you reach out at all to any mobile gaming sites or blogs to try to get
coverage for your game? If so, did you have any luck?

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whatupdave
Not sure about offering it for free, it's a possibility. I may try a lite
version of some type. That worked for Trainyard.

I briefly looked at Unity and thought it looked great but more suited to 3d
games. I thought I could move faster with cocos2d but I can't comment on how
true that is.

BTW I decided on 2d for two reasons: 1\. it's easier to develop 2\. I haven't
found any 3d games I like!

I also hit up a whole bunch of forums, emailed a stack of review sites, most
of which didn't reply, or they were charging for reviews. I got that one
review I linked to which was great. I'm most definitely not a marketing guru!

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JMiao
Ah, how I despised the PS2 DEV TOOL. The only cool thing about it was the look
on people's faces when they'd see it...right out of that scene in Aliens when
Ripley walks in on the Queen.

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whatupdave
I got some peverse joy out of writing code that could chunk my 3d models, send
them over the bus and coordinate the two co-processors. So many late
nights....

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chopsueyar
The reference to Turbo Pascal brings back some highschool memories.

