Android

[gravy]

More "Android is a broken platform for developers" stuff
http://mattgemmell.com/2012/07/23/closed-for-business/

'Broken' because it is as 'open' as Windows?

In that it's really hard to make money out of.

A lot of windows games are DRMd up the ying yang, be it bespoke DRM or through being on Steam.

[BillyT]

I found porting to Android pretty easy... The first game I ported took around a week to do - but thank God for the internet for searching for problems. But see below on testing which added about 3 more weeks onto the project.

The only downside is device testing... be prepared to buy lots of different handsets for testing purposes (I dread to think how much money I have spent on devices) - and if you skip this process you will open yourself up with a shit load of problems from users. Some pitfalls to consider:

1. Different texture formats
2. Some devices don't have ARM NEON instructions so the safest thing to do is disable it
3. Make sure things work on different screen sizes... There's some odd sizes out there
4. Most modern Android devices can do 60fps but some really struggle to achieve 30fps (only a few mind)

If you go into Android the best attitude is to treat it like the PC and consider everything you do. I agree with Gravy about 3rd party API's but I also agree with Giles and Yak that rolling your own will pay off in the end... So how do you decide which route to go down? In my case I went down the route of rolling my own because I was prepared to invest in devices for testing purposes.

[gravy]

What's the % revenue split of Android Vs IoS?

My understanding is that rife piracy is the reason the only games that make real money on Android are ones given away free and based around IAP

[BillyT]

I forgot to mention about different GPUs. Make sure you have a device for every different GPU make and make sure your code tests for GL functionality. That way you can implement different pipelines and to actually test them... never ever presume anything and test, test, test on devices. In my case I found many problems with GL on different devices that I picked up... I would say this is a big mine field to get through for robust GL code.

[BillyT]

What's the % revenue split of Android Vs IoS?

My understanding is that rife piracy is the reason the only games that make real money on Android are ones given away free and based around IAP

The freemium model is the best route with IAP and Ads - which Llamasoft have problems with after reading some of Yak's posts. To survive in Android this model is the only way to make some money.

The payed route you would expect to make 10-15% of what IOS makes and that is on product that is well known on IOS. Any niche games on IOS will struggle but like anything else you may win the lottery.

[gilesgoat]

More "Android is a broken platform for developers" stuff

http://mattgemmell.com/2012/07/23/closed-for-business/

There is a bit of 'controversy' here.

Some people claims 'you don't make money with android appls' (*) , other say "no it's not true", other I heard say "you make more money with the ADS into the appl than the appl itself", other say things in the middle.

They are probably all true at the same time, depending on the circumstances.

I think it's also absolutely true that "nothing is so pirated like Android", I have some friends in Italy that swear that "name any application on Andorid, it's impossible NOT to find the pirated version of it and quite quick as well".

In fact one of the persons that said that I think he probably never bought one appl in all his life .. and he's full of appls of all kind ..

I think it's also true to an extent that on Android there's in places a mentality of "Don't buy it if you can avoid to buy it".

Funny thing some of that stuff said in that article ( especially the 99p thing ) say it somehwere else and you'd get lynched for saying that ..

I would not go to the extent to say that maybe you should look at Android like a place where "you spend money not to get money back but to make your appls get more notorious".

Hopefully there's some money to be made on Android, it's getting interesting to see 'how's going to be' with this Nexus story supposedly/admittedly sold "under cost" where "they are going to make the money up by selling applications for it".

I wonder how's going to be then if they are not going to sell anything Did they think about it ?

Mah ... who knows .. fundamentally I can see 3 scenarious happening :

1. lot of work/time spent on it, totally poor return, total waste of time
2. lot of work/time spent on it, some return, not a total waste of time
3. lot of work/time spent on it, poor return, but something else ( more positive ) happens because of this

There could always be the 4 as well

4. lot of work/time spent on it, we hit the jackpot, we become millionaire

I'd be happy with 2 or 3, 4 is "the special super remote possibility" present in all those situations/places which is extremely unlikely to happen but has to be listed We absolutely DO NOT work for 4 at any time but is in the list anyway.

What to say .. maybe things will get the point 2/3 work only for a very few people and we'll see "10 companies at most" doing Android SW and all the rest will be done by hobbysts/etc. that don't absolutely need money nor they ever tought for a second they would have done it thanks to Android.

Time will tell.

But yeah I can tell you "I am not going to become too crazy" because of Android, still it can be 'a curious experiment'.

[pogo]

More "Android is a broken platform for developers" stuff
http://mattgemmell.com/2012/07/23/closed-for-business/

'Broken' because it is as 'open' as Windows?

The Windows comparison is unfair as Windows development dates from when there was no internet. Apps came on floppy disks, later CDs, and piracy consisted of copied physical media. Today though Windows is a trainwreck for development unless you use some kind of DRM, either your own on something like Steam. Google's mistake is ignoring everything that's happened in the last 20 years, pretending you don't need DRM.

The other problem, not highlighted in the above article, is this: a new phone from Sony. All very nice, but it includes the year-old Android 2.3. No wonder the % of phones running Android 4.x is barely into double figures. This suits phone companies very well. While Google don't promote the newer version they're happy to ship an out of date version. Once Google realise they need to spend some money selling the improvements in Android 4.x it will be too late for users, while phone companies can clean up replacing such out of date phones.

[BillyT]

There is a 5th one to consider.

5. Become a porting house.

I'm actually making quite a bit of money porting games for other companies.

[gilesgoat]

There is a 5th one to consider.

5. Become a porting house.

I'm actually making quite a bit of money porting games for other companies.

And also 6 too.

6. Experiment failed, did not bring any good, leave it and move on with else ( for now at least ).

Not a problem not even a bit even 6 really.

Still explain me how Google plans to make money with the Nexus then

[gravy]

More "Android is a broken platform for developers" stuff

http://mattgemmell.com/2012/07/23/closed-for-business/

There is a bit of 'controversy' here.

Some people claims 'you don't make money with android appls' (*) , other say "no it's not true", other I heard say "you make more money with the ADS into the appl than the appl itself", other say things in the middle.

They are probably all true at the same time, depending on the circumstances.

I think it's also absolutely true that "nothing is so pirated like Android", I have some friends in Italy that swear that "name any application on Andorid, it's impossible NOT to find the pirated version of it and quite quick as well".

In fact one of the persons that said that I think he probably never bought one appl in all his life .. and he's full of appls of all kind ..

I think it's also true to an extent that on Android there's in places a mentality of "Don't buy it if you can avoid to buy it".

Funny thing some of that stuff said in that article ( especially the 99p thing ) say it somehwere else and you'd get lynched for saying that ..

I would not go to the extent to say that maybe you should look at Android like a place where "you spend money not to get money back but to make your appls get more notorious".

Hopefully there's some money to be made on Android, it's getting interesting to see 'how's going to be' with this Nexus story supposedly/admittedly sold "under cost" where "they are going to make the money up by selling applications for it".

I wonder how's going to be then if they are not going to sell anything Did they think about it ?

Mah ... who knows .. fundamentally I can see 3 scenarious happening :

1. lot of work/time spent on it, totally poor return, total waste of time
2. lot of work/time spent on it, some return, not a total waste of time
3. lot of work/time spent on it, poor return, but something else ( more positive ) happens because of this

There could always be the 4 as well

4. lot of work/time spent on it, we hit the jackpot, we become millionaire

I'd be happy with 2 or 3, 4 is "the special super remote possibility" present in all those situations/places which is extremely unlikely to happen but has to be listed We absolutely DO NOT work for 4 at any time but is in the list anyway.

What to say .. maybe things will get the point 2/3 work only for a very few people and we'll see "10 companies at most" doing Android SW and all the rest will be done by hobbysts/etc. that don't absolutely need money nor they ever tought for a second they would have done it thanks to Android.

Time will tell.

But yeah I can tell you "I am not going to become too crazy" because of Android, still it can be 'a curious experiment'.

It's all a lot clearer if you know people who actually do this stuff.

You should listen to BillyT

EDIT: your assessment of wether doing Android work was worth it completely ignores opportunity cost, something hugely important for very small teams.

[Darkflame]

Counterpoint to the idea android users are cheaparses:
http://blog.humblebundle.com/post/20036 ... generosity

Also, there''s plenty of DRM free stuff saling decently on PC. Theres plenty of people willing to pay...or frankly cant be arsed...to pirate. And that''s probably more true with phones with their almost certainly more casual gamer base.

I suspect Android sales being so much less has a lot more complex and subtle reasons.

[gravy]

Wow, how amazingly idiotic. Average per user donations mean nothing, the only important metric is how much money in total the Android bundle brought in.

[pogo]

Counterpoint to the idea android users are cheaparses:
http://blog.humblebundle.com/post/20036 ... generosity

Also, there''s plenty of DRM free stuff saling decently on PC. Theres plenty of people willing to pay...or frankly cant be arsed...to pirate. And that''s probably more true with phones with their almost certainly more casual gamer base.

I suspect Android sales being so much less has a lot more complex and subtle reasons.

Such bundles often show Linux users contribute more than other platforms, but that does not make Linux a good platform to develop for. And the PC software industry is a fraction the size it once was: it doesn't seem that long ago that PC games were as important as console games.

As for your suspicions of 'complex and subtle reasons', the number one reason is not-at-all subtle piracy, as developers have found out time and time again: 'Dead Trigger' now free on Android due to 'unbelievably high' piracy rate.

[Harlequin]

As for your suspicions of 'complex and subtle reasons', the number one reason is not-at-all subtle piracy, as developers have found out time and time again: 'Dead Trigger' now free on Android due to 'unbelievably high' piracy rate.

Is that not the same one that gravy's link was referring to?

[pogo]

It's the news item that the longer blog post was referring to, though it does not have much more information. Here's a new, longer, report on the same topic: Making mobile games with a 60 percent piracy rate: the 'Dead Trigger' experience

Re again the 'complex and subtle reasons'. Like what? It's not price: apps costing as little as 99¢ suffer as much piracy. It's not convenience: it couldn't be easier to buy an app. Developers can't make apps cheaper or easier to obtain to combat piracy.