作者：mobi0125

下述情况你可能听起来很耳熟。你构思出一个手机游戏想法，而且正将其开发成可行概念。通常情况下，在这个过程中你会有合作伙伴。你的伙伴认为自己已经看到金钱在向他招手，但你尽管喜欢这个概念，却显得更为迟疑和保守。以我的个人经历为例，我就是那个较为保守的人，想要做更多调查来确保这是个原创想法，有取得成功的可能性，以免浪费时间。而我的侄子颇为自信，希望能够赶在其他人之前将概念制作成游戏成品。

Internet-market-research(from theonlinemarketer.co.za)

这两种观点都没有错，但是我想声明的是，在此刻进行些许调查和研究对项目并无坏处，原因如下：

1、制作手机游戏需要耗费大量的时间。你可以将这段时间用来做其他可能更有趣的事情，比如社交、运动、畅玩其他游戏甚至工作。

2、制作手机游戏需要一定的成本。除非你兼有开发、绘画、音效制作、动画和产品营销等技能，否则必然需要雇佣其他经验丰富的人。这就需要你投入成本，雇佣优秀的手机游戏开发者需要投入的资金更多。

除了以上两点外，你可以想想，如果你花费数个月的时间和数千美元辛苦赚来的钱来开发产品，却在开发期间发现有人已经在App store上尝试使用这种概念，最终却失败了，那会怎么样？我不想经历这种事情。

为避免上述情况的发生，在我们花费4个周末的时间来制作游戏开发文件（游戏邦注：也称为游戏设计文件或GDD）之前，我采取了以下措施：

1、在iTunes中搜索App Store，特别关注游戏所属的类别。如果你连iTunes都不知道，我建议你不必阅读以下的内容。

2、将手机游戏想法和概念告知少许好友，看看他们是否已经听说过或见过类似的产品。

3、浏览著名手机游戏评论站点，比如Touch Arcade和Touchgen。

4、使用万能的谷歌搜索。

即便有人已经推出与你想法类似的手机游戏，只要你的想法与其相比有所改进，也可以继续项目的开展。只要不是完全相同即可。

手机游戏玩家喜欢有创意的产品。应当记住，现在App Store中的应用总数超过50万，其中游戏就有10万。而且，每天发布的新游戏估计有100多款。Android的迅速成长也使得事情态势不容乐观。重点在于，受到用户关注并非是件容易的事情。在手机应用开发中，你需要呈现完全原创的想法或者你的想法至少与其他同类产品相比有很大的提升，这样才有成功的机会。手机游戏更是如此，因为你试图满足的用户需求与其他手机游戏开发者完全相同，也就是娱乐性。

所以，当你下次听到合作者开始宣扬你们的手机游戏能够赚到数百万美元时，应当记住你生活在充满竞争的世界中，不进行调查或进行睿智的决策必将让你付出惨重的代价。

游戏邦注：本文发稿于2012年5月11日，所涉时间、事件和数据均以此为准。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Does Mobile Game Developing Have You Seeing Dollar Signs too Early?

mobi0125

Tell me if this sounds familiar, you have taken an idea for a mobile game and are developing into a workable concept (read my previous blog Mobile Game Creation: Pizza, A Bottle of Captain’s and a Whole Lot of Dri…Thinking). In all likelihood you have done this with a partner. One of you is already starting to see dollar signs while the other loves the concept but is skeptical and more reserved. The skeptic , which is me by the way, wants to do some research to make sure this is in fact an original concept and has some reasonable chance of success before wasting any more time on it. The “dollar sign” partner (my cousin in this case), who is overly confident, would rather get moving on creating the mobile game before someone else builds it.

Both perspectives are valid but I would argue doing a little bit of research now couldn’t hurt for several reasons:

Creating a mobile game, even if you are not developing it, takes A LOT of time. This is time you could be spending doing other things you may enjoy more, socializing, sports, sex, satisfying your addiction to World of Warcraft, perhaps even working (maybe all at the same time insert wink).

Creating a mobile game will cost you money. Unless you know how to develop, draw, produce sound (put lame fart joke here), animate and market for your product you will need to hire a skilled resource. These people, particularly skilled mobile game developers cost money and the good ones tend to be in high demand which will cost you even more money (thank you economic principles of supply and demand for F’ing me once again).

And besides all of the above, think how pissed you would be if you had spent months of your life and thousands of dollars of your hard earned money only to find out half way through your mobile game development that someone already tried your concept on the App store and failed miserably. This was not something I wanted to experience.

So to avoid this, here is what I did for reassurance and before we spend the next four weekends building a Game Development Document (also known as a Game Design Document or GDD):

Search the App Store in iTunes paying specific attention to the category your game would fit in. If you have no idea what iTunes is I will ask you politely now to stop reading my blog.

Tell a few close friends about your mobile game and see if they have heard/seen anything similar.

Scour popular mobile game review sites like Touch Arcade and Touchgen.

And of course use the almighty Google (Dear Google, for giving you a shout out over Yahoo please move my blog to the top of your search results. Thank you).

Still convinced you have a winning or at least unproven concept? Even if someone has a similar mobile game as yours it isn’t the end of the world as long as your idea is a strong improvement over what is available. Just don’t be an exact clone (cough Cookie Ninja, Dessert Ninja, Farm Ninja (really?)).

Mobile gamers reward creativity. Remember that there are now over 500,000 apps in the App Store, 100,000 of which are games. It is estimated that at least 100+ new games are launched daily. It is much the same if making a mobile game for the Android market which is growing rapidly as well. The point is getting noticed is not easy. You need to be original or at least a vast improvement over other concepts to even have a chance when mobile game developing. This is especially true for mobile games where you are satisfying the same need that every other mobile game developers are trying to satisfy; entertainment. So don’t make it harder on yourself.

So next time your “dollar sign” partner starts spewing non-sense about how your mobile game is worth millions remember that you live in a competitive world and there are consequences for not being diligent and researching your concept before you really invest in it. (Source: Mobile Game Development 101)