Publishing and testing are easily the scariest and most misunderstood parts of game development! In this podcast Charlie & I discuss releasing a game from Alpha to Beta to Market, using my recently released game Carrier Commander: War at Sea as a template to help aspiring indie developers see the start-to-finish process of releasing a game. Charlie and I have both been working in the mobile gaming industry for several years, and have recorded a number of podcasts on various gaming topics. This podcast is part 3 of a series of 3 covering the entire process materializing a game into reality.
Links
CGF Homepage - https://chengdugaming.com/ My Gaming Blog - http://fromgametobrain.blogspot.com/ Carrier Commander: War at Sea (App Store) - https://itunes.apple.com/app/carrier-... (Google Play BETA) - https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.BerlinHaus.Carrier_CommanderTime-Stamped Notes
0:00 Testing - Importance of testing - My first testing experience - Beta testing in a focus group - Don’t communicate with your testers during testing - What I learned from the Beta testing Focus Group 3:40 Carrier Commander Open Beta Test - Tester feedback - Enthusiastic players becoming part of the game’s development - Bug-fixing/Testing cycle 5:40 Deploying to Android and iOS- iOS more stable than Android - Submitting on the App Store & Google Play - Fragmentation of Devices - Online Developer Consoles & Licensing 9:02 Promotion & Marketing your game - Publishing is its own discipline - Store Assets & metadata - Making your Press Kit & Hitlist of influencers - Working with a publisher - Having a unique offering in your game that makes it stand out from other games - Some other games like my game (offline strategy games) - Story of FTL & Into the Breach development in China 14:40 Monetization of your game - IAP vs Upfront cost 17:10 About my game Carrier Commander: War at Sea - indie strategy game - 1 player campaign set in the cold war - hybrid of turn based & real time - Arms Race tech tree that spans the whole game 19:20 Setting your game in a realistic setting or not - Avoiding controversy - Militarized islands in the South China Sea - Climate Change & rising oceans