How I developed and launched a mobile game without any experience in game development

I would like to share with you my experience of creating and launching a mobile game, which I developed from scratch without any prior experience in game development. Perhaps this story will inspire those who dream of creating their own game, but do not know where to start.

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How the idea came up

I am a simple person, so I often spend time on my smartphone. I especially enjoy business simulators, also known as tycoons. Thanks to them, I am the owner of several hotels and restaurants, but let's leave my achievements aside. I was hooked on a popular game - a simulator of smartphone production - and one fine day I thought, why not make my own? And not just copy it for the sake of donations and endless advertising, but add to and improve it as I see fit.

The plan was perfect: I liked it, I understood it (spoiler: not really), and I was ready to go all the way - what could go wrong?

Following the best practices of business startups, I started monitoring demand: how many similar games are there, what is their analytics and downloads, and what people write in reviews. In general, I understood that users liked the format, so the last checkbox was marked as "done". Well, what to do next? As they say:

I decided to start with what I know how to do. That way, it wouldn't be so frustrating if I burned out or changed my mind. So, the first thing I did was sketch out the entire game interface. It took me a couple of days and it was easy, so I dared to make my first expense - I ordered 3D offices from a designer. It cost me about 200$.

When the "picture" was ready, I started figuring out what to "put" it on and where to develop the game. At first, I thought about native development for each platform, which would require both iOS and Android developers. But luckily, I remembered that I'm not a millionaire's daughter, and there's Unity and specialists for it, which is much cheaper and easier.

I went to a freelance marketplace, chose a performer, and moved to Telegram. We discussed the game for a few days, and in the heat of enthusiasm for the common cause, I transferred a prepayment of 300$ to a no-name freelancer. People don't even vaporize that fast even after Thanos snaps his fingers. Oh well, it's my own fault, and I won't complain about fate. I always forget that I can't judge people by myself.

I didn't lose hope and found a competent part-time developer. The work started, but it was progressing very slowly. At first, there were some builds with functioning buttons based on my design, but the logic was incomplete. As they say, either I was a bad project manager or the developer wasn't trying hard enough. In an attempt to speed up the process, I found another developer to assist the first one.

The process accelerated, and as much work was done in a month as in the previous six months. However, it was still "piecework" - just a clickable prototype, nothing more.

After another six months, I realized that the work was worth it. It felt like the situation was developing like in the theory of broken windows. The first developer wasn't working, and the second one came in enthusiastically but quickly lost interest, looking at the first one. Both guys were paid about 800$ per month.

I decided to change the team and hired a new one. I kept the first guy as a consultant since he had been working on the project slowly but knew a lot about it.

After spending over 2 500$ on unproductive work, I finally found a good team. They fixed the bugs quickly: buttons didn't work on the first click, the smartphone didn't change size after being upgraded in the game, the object sizes differed from the designs, and so on.

I'm very happy with the second team's work. They had to assemble the separate pieces and improve what was already done.

To be fair, if I hadn't delayed testing the builds, the work might have progressed faster. The completed builds could lie around for days and months, and I was too preoccupied with my primary work and didn't give any comments. And while missing deadlines might be acceptable for developers, I had to check everything right away. I could have accelerated the release by a couple of months.

And so, a year has passed since I (we) started developing the game. It can't compare to the seven years spent on our application, but I thought that the previous experience would help us to deal with the new challenges of game development more quickly.

But in the end, there was a sea of new information, constant learning about game mechanics, game design, and balance. All of this was for the sake of basic understanding, so that we could hire someone to help us with the game development. My hands dropped so many times that I thought they wouldn't rise again. What kept me going was communicating with enthusiastic and knowledgeable people, including the guys on DTF. They introduced me to a Telegram chat where I found the specialist I needed, for which I am very grateful. This developer from the second team turned out to be a game designer, which was a great help to the project. He took on the task of describing the structure and balance of the game so that it wasn't just buttons, but algorithms that worked according to formulas.

And we dropped it after all

Only by giving birth to a child does a woman experience the same spectrum of pain and joy that is familiar to anyone who has released their project into the world. There it is, shining in the list of applications, very small, and only you know how much effort has been put into it and how much is still ahead.

If you want to be testers, please don't judge harshly for bugs and other inconveniences. If you have enough time to provide feedback, I would be extremely grateful, and we will try to fix any shortcomings as soon as possible.

I would be doubly grateful for ideas for improvement and any other feedback - write in the comments or in private messages.

One last motivational speech

My entire article is about what's called MVP - Minimum Viable Product in business. It may be a little rough around the edges and inconvenient, but it will always be better than a diamond cut a thousand times to perfection.

As you read through the article, you might have thought a few times that I was just making things up. The research was superficial, money was poured in, and I only had an insane desire. So, what was it all for, Mr. Designer?

If we talk about the development of the game, the plans are simple: fix, refine, and evolve. As for finances, donations and advertising have been implemented. The main thing is to stay true to your principles and not let it consume the entire game.

I don't recommend anyone to throw all their resources into their crazy ideas. But if you've been nurturing something for too long, there's a risk that it will never be brought to the world. Perhaps the idea of an MVP concept will inspire you in some way. Thank you for listening.

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