The Must-Know Basics of Mobile Game Design
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What makes a game popular? What are the factors that help it become one of the top downloads on mobile app stores?
Here are a few things that go into solid game design, including the pointers that helped today’s most popular games get where they are.
Responsive Design that Adapts to All Screen Sizes
When you compare your smartphone or tablet to the person sitting beside you at work or on the train, you probably notice that they are of various sizes.
Even if they have the same size screen, their display is perhaps slightly different, either in operating system or capability. There are so many differences in the world of smartphone technology.
Accommodating those differences is key to success in the world of mobile app design. You want your customers with an Apple phone or other product to enjoy their experience just as much as users with Android products.
You want a person with a large tablet to have as much fun as one using the app on their small phone or smartwatch. That can be tricky!
Tailoring your designs to meet all of these different needs is not as difficult as it sounds. You might worry that you have to design a separate interface for every device.
Still, it is more important to develop a single, simple interface that works well with platforms that render things differently on different screens.
These platforms are “responsive”, which essentially means that they change the ways graphics and other information are presented based on the type and size of the screen.
Responsive design is used all over the internet today to deliver consistently outstanding results on websites and apps to users of every device.
Balancing Unique and Recognizable Appearance
Another critical aspect of successful mobile game design is an appearance that stands out from the crowd. But only enough to be interesting because the game should have a recognizable appearance that inspires intrigue and adoration but still be identifiable as whatever type of game it is.
That balance is an essential part of continuing success in a crowded market. For example, casino-style games should still be recognizable as card games, slots, or other traditional casino favorites.
Without that recognizability, a beautiful design won’t mean much to players. They won’t even download a game that they don’t recognize as belonging to their favorite category!
Databases and review sites for online casino games in India reflect this. Players often register their favorite gambling games as those that are the most recognizable. While beautiful graphics are a plus, a gambling fan will essentially skip games that are not easy to identify as gambling-based.
There are so many other options for online casino games in India and elsewhere that being different yet recognizable is imperative – and knowing how to walk that fine line is a crucial part of good game design.
Highly Useable and Intuitive Interface
Today’s world is all about inclusion. Every product that is in development today takes accessibility and user-friendliness into account during that process.
It is true even in the gaming industry, specifically when it comes to mobile gaming.
Smartphones are a ubiquitous part of everyday life now, and people with different kinds of disabilities and special needs use them. To make a game popular, you must make it accessible to the entire potential marketplace, including the consumers.
An intuitive, user-friendly interface is part of that. Creating an easy game for everyone to access and play will render a much higher user satisfaction rating and more downloads.
Addictive and Viral
In everyday life, words like “addictive” and “viral” conjure up negative images. However, in the world of modern entertainment, those are the two things that you want your game to have!
When a small indie company launched a multiplayer game called “Among Us” in 2018, it got relatively little buzz in the mobile gaming community. It had its fans but generally languished well below the top 100 games for nearly two years.
Then, in 2020, the game began to pick up buzz when popular YouTube gamers began trying it. Soon, it was everywhere, and licensed toys and other products were also in the picture to cash in on the craze.
This game’s meteoric rise demonstrated that being a fun and addictive game was not enough. You have to have both sides of the equation. Once it became a viral sensation, it became the most downloaded game of the year.
Preparing your game for that kind of viral popularity is essential because you never know when it might catch an unexpected buzz and take off on the charts!
Interactive or Shareable on Social Media Platforms
Multiplayer games have a high potential to go viral because players can easily invite others to participate. Doing this makes it simple to infinitely share new games and concepts, and before long, they are popular with entirely new groups of people.
If your game is not a multiplayer, it can be more challenging to share. However, it is possible to equip any game to share scores and other achievements via social media. Even allowing players to update or post a status saying that them playing your game helps get the word out – and make your game more popular without any extra work on your part!
It can be challenging to know precisely when or if a game will become a top-ten download. But by following this formula of typical winning strategies, game designers can create fresh, new ideas that stand a chance!
