Advanced: the top 10 secrets for iPhone game developers

Neil Ferguson is the developer of the iPhone game "virus attack | virus strike. Neil
Although Ferguson is an "old" programmer, Neil Ferguson, a full-time software startup company in London, thinks that a successful IOS
Gaming may not require you to have too much experience in program development and programming.

You have no foundation for programming, and may have been thinking about development in your spare time. Let's take a look. Neil Ferguson summed up the 10 steps for developing an iPhone (or iOS platform) Game (Program.

Original ideas

Original ideas

I had the idea of virus strike about a year ago. I 've been playing a physical-based game called linerider.
And flight control games. I think it will be interesting to have a game draw a line through a physical engine to match three identical things. So I went to the app.
Store queries all the puzzle games (puzzle
Game) to see if there is such a game. It took me a few days to see the result. At that time, I realized that I was the first to think about the idea of this game. At least no one made it. Why didn't I start it?
What about a game like this? So we started the development of this virus strike.

Use the correct tool

 
Use the correct tool

If you are a beginner programmer, you can try to use a game production library in the form of "trust-and-play", such
GameSalad. This allows you to create your game without much programming knowledge, and GameSalad
It is a tool specially designed for the iPhone. In addition, you may find that playing games on the Flash Platform is more
The standard programming language) is easier. You can now switch Flash games to run on the iPhone, and there are also a lot of good for beginners
Flash game development books.

If you must use Objective C for development, you must use the game framework, which is much easier to use in game coding. I personally use
Cocos2d is a great Framework tool developed for iPhone games and is free and open-source. It also has an integrated physical engine, which was developed for me at that time.
Strike brings a lot of convenience.

Make full use of free tutorials

 
Make full use of free tutorials

Virus strike is my first iPhone game, and I have never used Objective C Programming before, so I did learn a lot when developing this game. Many online tutorials have helped me a lot, such as Ray wenderlich's website www.raywenderlich.com.
Provides a lot of free tutorials on iOS programming. Very useful! There are also a lot of resources on Apple's official developer website, such as pai.apple.com.

Outsourcing what you cannot do

Outsourcing what you cannot do

If you are not a programmer, I think it is best for you to outsource your original good ideas to experienced people for you. For example, you can send your app idea
Odesk.com
, A programmer will apply to arrange your project. Similarly, if you cannot develop an app separately, you 'd better outsource it. I just remind you that you outsource applications
When you go out, you need to provide programmers with as much information and details as possible, so that the app development will make you more satisfied.

Think about the unique features of the iPhone

Think about the unique features of the iPhone

The most successful games in the app store must be those that match the characteristics of the iPhone and are suitable for playing on the iPhone. Let's take a look at virus.
Strike, I used a classic gameplay similar to the Russian square, combined with the iPhone's unique touch screen and accelerated experience. You draw a line on the screen to guide the virus.
The iPhone screen is also skewed. When you develop a game, you must think about how to integrate some unique control methods of the iPhone into your game. Implement as much as possible
Original, special!

Make sure the game is challenging

Make sure the game is challenging

After I have completed the technical components of the most basic game-strikethroughs, color matching, and physical engines, the biggest problem is how I can turn my original ideas and concepts into a challenging game that allows players to quickly get started.

For a game, I think the time and challenges each time a player plays a game are very important. Games must gradually increase the difficulty, but they must also be fair-
That is to say, players should feel that they have lost a game because of their mistakes. In addition, it must make the player feel that he has made some progress in the game. In the whole game process, with more levels of games, whether it is through higher
Scores are also in other forms of rewards, so players should have a sense of accomplishment.

Free Sound Effects

 
Free Sound Effects

All the sound effects in my game come from
Freesound.org. This is a very annoying process, so I suggest you ask others for their opinions and suggestions to see if some of your favorite voices are annoying. Edit sound effects
As a result, I also used a free app, audacity, to make the sound more game-friendly.

Get Feedback

Get Feedback

You don't need to think that the game is fully developed. Until you get feedback from other people, you really know how many people think your game is challenging, interesting, and worthwhile. And you may not know if people may be playing your game.

Don't expect real feedback from your friends or show others how to play your game. If you want them to try your game alone, you 'd better stand by and see how they play.

You can also easily find some early adopters from iPhone forums. They can provide you with feedback for free.

Make a video

 
Make a video

My test user made me realize that it is helpful to make a video of the tutorial. I used screenflow to make a video of a one-minute long game. After the test, I added a text description page to help users who started the game for the first time and skipped the video introduction.

A video is very worthwhile, which can greatly help ensure that people understand how to play the game. This video is also very useful for my wife Donna. She is responsible for virus
Public Relations promotion of strike. The reporters can quickly watch this online video so that they can know how the game operates without having a real experience during the demonstration at the press conference. Of course
Through the video, they can make sure they like it and then spend time downloading it.

Promote your game

 
Promote your game

No matter how good your game is, if you don't do marketing, how can someone find your game download in the App Store? You need to be prepared to spend a lot of time on some app review websites, including some other technology websites.

My wife launches Virus
When I was using strike, I wrote a news article which had a very good effect. Of course, you can only envy me a reporter's wife. She knows how to get a good article, and some will attract other reporters.
An eye-catching story. We paid the prmac $20 USD for the release, which proved to be very worthwhile. This article is basically uploaded to the entire network, and many websites even directly repost the full text.