How to Determine the Cost of Mobile Game Development: An Ultimate Guide

October 12 , 2022 Posted by Admin

Although gaming apps are entertaining, popular, and highly profitable, have you ever considered what goes into creating a successful mobile app? Or how much does Android app development services cost to develop mobile games.

There are almost 2,659.5 million mobile game players globally. This show much huge market share mobile games have. You would probably agree that as a business owner or marketing strategist, estimating the cost of your next app idea is one of the most important components of your company. How much money must you put in, how can you cut costs overall, and which areas and factors should you give higher priority? It all flows together. Let’s take a look at some statistics.

Development of Mobile Games: What Do the Stats Indicate?

The technological sector comes in as the second-most influential industry when looking at all the sectors now influencing the US market. According to Cyberstates, the sector was one of the top five and top ten industries in 23 and 28 states, respectively, in 2019. According to a research mobile gaming revenue may increase at 2.9% CAGR by 2024.

More intriguingly, the other top 4 industries are spending equally on mobile apps to boost connectivity and customer support. In the end, this establishes the mobile development sector as a leader.

Here is the best investment guide for all entrepreneurs, app developers, and investment strategists to help you through the prices of mobile game apps, which account for a sizable portion of this phenomenon.

Mobile application development is simply not child’s play, and a lot goes into it if you’re involved in it in any manner. Additionally, researching up on how to create a mobile app might be very beneficial.

Let’s get down to business now! Understanding the complete mobile game design and mobile game production processes is necessary to comprehend the distribution of investments and the breakdown of game development costs.

Mobile game design and development methods are just one of many major and minor variables, like iOS app development services that analyze the overall cost of your mobile gaming application.

In order to provide a specific number, I can estimate that the cost of developing a high-quality mobile game can range from $120K to $250K, with the cost starting at $1,500.

After knowing every step and expense of creating mobile gaming apps, though, is optimal. Additionally, it aids in analyzing the necessity of each component of the game development app and provides information on how to comprehend and optimize the expense of expert tactics.

The Process of Developing Mobile Games

Making a mobile game app may involve all the steps you can imagine. The goal is to cover every possible angle because the whole point is to consider, assess, and write down all the essential elements of creating an app.

Guess the Purpose of the Game App

Answers don’t have to be critical or technical. Plus, this step certainly won’t cost your kidneys. Instead, it will help you better understand what the overall idea of ​​app development is.

For example, it can be as simple as building brand awareness or helping customers connect with your store’s products on a broader level. On the other hand, you may consider creating this game app to integrate new technologies for users to get a better user experience. A clear example of this is one of the most successful AR-based games, Pokémon Go, which was hugely popular among gamers and earned over $1 billion. And there is no doubt that augmented reality in mobile gaming apps has completely changed the user experience.

As they say, time is money. If you take the time to write down all the reasons, prospects, and aspects of developing an app or game app, you can optimize your investment significantly.

Game Design Document

A game design document is exactly what it sounds like: everything about your game written down in words. But it includes everything related to the app, not just the design. A typical Game Design Document (GDD) is divided into sections and subsections to clearly explain all the important aspects of your app.

Section list of the document, it mainly consists of

• General Game Description
• Basics Of Design
• Technical And Commercial Information

General Game Description

This section contains all general information about the game. It mainly consists of the basic plot or story on which the game is based. For example, when it comes to favorite game apps like Call of Duty, it’s a first-person war shooter game.

The entire gameplay revolves around the fight against terrorists of the Al-Qattara group. If Infinity Ward’s game developer and professional strategist had created GDD for Call of Duty, he would have written everything about the story, game modes, UI, and more. If you’ve played the game, you know it’s set in a war zone and includes reality-based audio and graphics. These settings and special effects are called game settings and mechanics.

The GDD for Call of Duty developed contains all the information about the game environment, game mechanics, and details of each level. The more detailed the documentation, the better the next step in the procedure.

Design Department

The next part of this document has all the information about the design. This part basically contains a wireframe of the entire app. It also features all UI/UX specs and design-related aspects.

Now, when I talk about game design or his UI/UX interface, I mean everything that a user may come into direct contact with. For example, if we are talking about a popular video game that is available on both desktop and mobile, design is talking about creating an experience that feels and looks the same in both platforms.

Such as Candy Crush Saga, which is all about matching candies to score points. Honestly, I would agree with the word “great.” It is wonderful.

Technical and Commercial Part

Next is GDD technical and business information. From programming techniques and frameworks to marketing and monetization strategies, this section definitively answers the question, “How much does it cost to make a video game?”

This part guides all the important questions you need to answer before developing your app for example, specifying a development platform, analyzing target users, creating game strategies and marketing plans, etc.

This part of the document mainly lists the major components of the overall app development project, including app planning, strategy development, technical skills and technical shortlists, marketing plans, and investments. So it’s a good idea to invest about a month in writing down all the relevant details. When we talk about how much it actually costs a game developer to create a concrete and robust GDD, it ranges from a few thousand dollars to $25,000. Here’s what different companies like most when researching app ideas.

Game Design Specifications

Now, this is the one step where all the technical work begins. Interfaces, graphics, 2D/3D images, and visual features play a fundamental role in PC and mobile games, whether they’re board games or triple-a games, especially when it comes to engaging your audience.

Therefore, when identifying the game’s design and considering how much it would cost to make the board or game more engaging and interactive, prioritizing app features that improve customer interactions with the app is needed.

This may include specifying whether to use 2D or 3D graphics, the characters involved in the game, the game environment, surroundings, and anything related to the visual effects of the game.

Coding the Game App

Finally, programming the app is the most awaited step in the game app development process. This step essentially involves the systematic and optimized implementation of all ideas, techniques, and specifications within the app.

This process involves choosing the right platform, framework, and programming language that meets your real-world needs and sets the bar for your gaming app. This part of the game app development process brings together project managers, developers, designers, SQAs, etc., to bring their written ideas to life.

The app development stage is the most critical part of the process, so a time investment of 10 days to 2 weeks is quite reasonable. In this process, significant costs depend on who you are working with.

Final Version of Testing

Once your app is live, it’s very important to evaluate it against your original ideas and game plan. This process may also involve asking random users to try the app and share their opinions and thoughts about the game.

On a more technical side, Quality Assurance Engineers play a key role in testing different aspects of your app at different levels, such as unit testing, performance testing, stress testing, usability testing, and more.

How Much Does Mobile Game Development Cost?

As mentioned earlier, every step, process, tool, and specification either increases costs or helps in optimization. But it’s a simple and undeniable fact that developing a mobile game app costs thousands of dollars and a lot of time, and you need to develop it now.

Regarding individual factors and features, it’s worth noting that different developers charge differently depending on their region and location.

Conclusion

Mobile gaming is expected to continue to grow in the coming years. Teamwork capabilities and industry expertise to complete the SKU can secure intellectual property rights. A creative team is always looking for the best game ideas to share with partners and also provides turnkey development and implementation of your own ideas. If you are looking for a reliable partner with relevant expertise, we will be happy to help. If you are looking for a complete budget package on game app development get in touch with ADP for the incredible app development services at budget-friendly prices.

Also Read: Top 5 cross-platform app development services provider frameworks