Ya'll think mobile development is still lucrative?

[AndroidYamcha]

I've been thinking about getting into mobile development to make some cash and use as portfolio, what do ya'll think?

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

It can be, with ads and an addictive gameplay formula that pushes people to spend real money to get virtual things.

 

[kbcinharoxa]

I think it’s a good starting point. With so many kids having cellphones nowadays… it’s just like Roblox.
Why do you think it makes so much money? XD
The game has pleasant graphics that attract a huge kid audience — they see their friend with a cute outfit and go straight to their parents like:
“Mom, dad, GHOST_XX has a Creeper jacket, can I get 20 bucks?”

I aprove. im the type of adult who buy things.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

It sure is! Judging by the state of PC and console gaming nowadays it’s seemed like people will be gaming through the most accessible way and that is through mobile.

 

[Advil Lavs]

Well, yea. But if you're trying to make a genuine game and not like those unity templates made just to push ads or microtransactions to kids, it might not be as profitable. I'd say, making a game that runs on both mobile and pc is the best option.

 

[beefbowl]

Mobile games earn crazy money but you have to get lucky and work with a publisher. That's the reality of it. You need ad campaigns, user acquisition campaigns, regular content updates to make good money on mobile games. Hypercasual game developers develop 10 prototypes in a week and they get lucky in a few months with that kind of output.
Or just do whatever you want.

 

[moonbits]

It is ridiculously lucrative if you can find a niche; simple games do a lot of numbers or at least you do money with ads.

 

[ThatOneLum ThatOneLum]

It's a bit of a mixed bag from what friends have told me.

There's certainly money to be made, but a lot of it is hoovered up by giants corperations who have millions to pour into development and maintainance.

That said, it can still be worth your time trying out if you have something unique to offer. If you get lucky or know how to advertise to the right crowd you might be able to make a decent income off of your apps.

A friend of mine was running an app-building account on the Play Store for a while and he managed to make some money, but ultimately his software was too generic to really stand out and turn his burgouning mobile studio into anything substantial... no one tell him I said that.

 

[Morgan Katarn]

as someone that keeps track of gaming in general and such allot of mobile games make more money each month than most normal games does. Some mobile games make around 30-100mill a month even 5-10 years later . While standard games makes most of their money the first month and some extra over 1-2 years.

Reason why allot of asian companies focus so much on mobile games because that´s where the money is making billion of people addicted to gambling or wifu collectors.


But the mobile market is very volatile and to even make a bank on it you need to make it big. I would say solo devs or indie devs are better of making pc games as that market is better for them.

 

[kitestar]

Lucrative, yes. Morally? That depends on how you monetize your product. Cuz a lot of mobile devs are morally bankrupt in that regard. Unless the dev did a port job, then somehow they’re in the clear

 

[AndroidYamcha]

as someone that keeps track of gaming in general and such allot of mobile games make more money each month than most normal games does. Some mobile games make around 30-100mill a month even 5-10 years later . While standard games makes most of their money the first month and some extra over 1-2 years.

Reason why allot of asian companies focus so much on mobile games because that´s where the money is making billion of people addicted to gambling or wifu collectors.


But the mobile market is very volatile and to even make a bank on it you need to make it big. I would say solo devs or indie devs are better of making pc games as that market is better for them.

So you think that, as a solo dev, i should focus on the pc market?

 

[Morgan Katarn]

So you think that, as a solo dev, i should focus on the pc market?

Honestly I think so yes PC market is still big and well just watching the indiedb website and well the modding community allot of solo devs seams to start out on pc and most of them started out as moders before making their first game.

Then lets not get started on the RPG maker community.

But I said you rather wanna do a game on mobile go for it but what I seen over the years I think PC first then maybe port them game to mobile.

 

[Badseed Badseed]

I don't know, ask Chinese mobile game developer Tencent,
who made $3.7 billion last year.

 

[LightningmanEXE]

I'd agree on starting on PC if you are planning on learning how to develop games right now. it's a lot easier to take things on a bit at a time. Developing for mobile, especially if the long term goal is monetization, is just another complication on an already overwhelming process.

Any skill you pick up on the way will help you once you are ready to start working in the constraints of that market, and having a reward for the hard work you put in right now could be very motivating.

Did you have any ideas on what kind of games you wanted to develop?