IOS Game Development with UNITY

INTO THE FRAYFrom Idea to App Store

WHO ARE YOU?

• Entrepreneur?

• Programmer?

• Artist?

• Student?

• Other?

IOS

• 250 million total iOS devices sold

• 18 billion App Store downloads

• Apple has paid out $3 billion to developers

• Games are about 40% of market

• 50+ million active gamers and counting

EASY MONEY?

• Majority don't make much money

• The top-sellers make a lot

• Serial developers tend to do better

• How to get started?

CLASSIC MARKETING

• Right Product

• Right Price

• Right Place

• Right Promotion

• Right Package

• Right People

WHICH COMES FIRST?

• The chicken (audience)?

• The egg (idea/product)?

• Assess who has a mouse problem?

• Build a better mousetrap?

WE ARE ALL WEIRD

• Book by Seth Godin

• Bell curve of “normality” flattening

• Anything works?

• App Store is a constraint

• Find your audience first

WORLDVIEWS

• What’s a worldview?

• Do you have any?

• Does your idea?

• Why do I need one?

REALITY CHECK

• Customer checks iTunes for new games each day

• Customer reads your description and looks at your screenshots carefully

• Customer reads the positive reviews

• Customer buys your game

• Customer tells all their friends how great it is

Fantasy Reality

• Customer browses iTunes randomly and only occasionally

• Customer glances at your rating, description and screenshots

• Customer reads the negative reviews

• Customer may buy your game

• Customer tells all their friends if they don’t like it

STRONG WORLDVIEWS• Strong worldviews attract like-

minded people

• They also repel those who think different

• This is good

• Provides a filter during development

• What should you make?

IDEAS

• Knowledge + Space

IDEA ASSESSMENT

• Is it any good?

• Will my audience get it?

• Any way to refine it?

TRULY SIMPLE PROTOTYPING

• Create an image with a one-liner

• Show it to people

• Is it “Wow!”?

• Or “Yeah, but...”?

• Rinse and repeat

GODDESS REVIEWS

MMR REVIEWS

SCOPE

• Distill, cut aggressively

• Minimal Viable Product

• Irreducible

• 80/20 rule

GETTING ORGANIZED

• Text file

• Trello

• Google Docs

• JIRA Studio

• Pivotal Tracker

GETTING REGISTERED

GETTING UNITY

UNITY

• Mac, Windows

• Multiple targets

• Rapid iterations

• Mono C#

• Robust API

• No official 2D

• No retained GUI

• No iOS input emulation

• Less than perfect version control

☺ ☹

UNITY CONTENT

MayaCinema 4D

3ds MaxCheetah3D

ModoLightwaveBlender

.fbx.dae.3ds.dxf.obj

All Uncompressed AudioOgg Vorbis

Tracker/MOD

.aiff.wav.mp3.ogg.xm.mod

.it.s3m

PROGRAMMING

• Javascript

• C#

• Boo

WORKFLOW

• Export 2D/3D assets

• Auto-imported

• Override settings if needed

• Prefab

• Bind or load in code

DEVELOPMENT• Configuring the project

• Connecting the required assets

• Configuring the game preview

• Setting up the folders

• Get to work!

BUILDING

Unity Xcode 3 or 4 iOS Device

DEPLOYMENT

• iTunes Connect

• Official website

• Support page

• Screenshots

• Description

• Pricing

APP STORE SETUP

SALES

• Viewing sales

• Managing pricing

• Updating your app

SALES ACTIVITY

TOP 100 CHART MONDAY

END OF THE WORLD?

• 2012 doomsday?

• Economic collapse?

• One door closes...

• Cup half full or empty?

• Your choice

• Do or Do Not!

PARTING WORDS

WORKSHOP

• 5 days

• Hands-on

• Programmer/Artist team

• Zero to hero

QUESTIONS?

GOOD LUCK!