Larger test groups provide valuable testing feedback and create games of wider mass and social appeal. But the reality is also that unless your game is addictive and easy to share via existing mobile social networks, your success may be muted. As games become more complex, a larger pool of quality assessment resources are often required, but as a start-up you don't have to focus on this early on. Use your network of friends, colleagues, and potential marketing partners to explore more opportunities on the testing level. With no proper or required reference to a complete and reusable test strategy, game testing follows a game-specific test approach. This ranges from completely ad-hoc and exploratory testing to a semi-structured approach based on testers experience, scale, complexity and production delivery date of the game. It's really up to you and what you want to get out of it.
Dig Deeper: Industry Profile – Self-Published Video Games
Business Planning for a Mobile Gaming Company: Find Marketing & Distribution Partners
Creating a game and then approaching potential advertising partners can be the wrong process, particularly in this industry. Gamers are some of the smartest consumers, so if you give them a product early on that is free and doesn't have any branding or advertising tie-in, when you try to retroactively add that in, gamers will typically balk.
A better way to approach your company is to find a marketing partner to help alleviate cost and raise awareness of the games. Not only will you not have to pour as much of your own money into the product, but you'll reap the benefits of having a marketing agency and access to larger brands at your disposal from an early stage. It's often difficult to get advertisers behind a product early on, particularly if you don't have something for them to see (this is again why testing your product is so vital), but if there is a great opportunity in an untapped arena, marketers would be more likely to partner up to help both parties.
Additionally, finding a distribution partner with reach and access from an early stage can bring about the social awareness that you'll really want with a new mobile startup.
Dig Deeper: Google's Play on Gaming
Business Planning for a Mobile Gaming Company: Make Your Game a Seamless Part of Daily Life
"I believe gaming technology will evolve to integrate into a player's daily life so that even their most mundane routines become meta-games in a grander scheme," Dan Greenwalt, the Game Director at Turn 10 Studios, told IGN when asked about the future of gaming. "Imagine an RPG where going to work and sitting at your office actually gains you experience points in-game, or going on a date in real life actually accomplishes a quest or a mission. By 2020, players will go from an always-connected lifestyle of today to an always-gaming lifestyle of tomorrow."
Greenwalt puts it very succinctly, as what it comes down to if you're looking to enter the mobile gaming market is finding a way to relate your game to everyday habits and lifestyle of your consumers. You can expect that if you succeed, your game will be successful for 6-12 months at best (even the top big studio games rarely remain relevant more than a year), so it's all about garnering social relevancy, conversation and keeping users coming back with new features and add-ins.
Dig Deeper: Industry Profile – Mobile Application Design
