Zombies - the key to success, or the story of creating the application. Article Maxim Selyaev

The market of gaming mobile applications is so diverse that it is almost impossible to predict exactly which application will be relevant at the moment. The endless flow of visitors to the app stores is similar to the fishes in the ocean, which move erratically through the water depths. And it is not known what whale they will be in the stomach. The whale here means, naturally, a large company (most likely a publisher), which has eaten more than one fish to create mobile applications. It happens that games from small companies are becoming a hit.

Analysis is difficult to do. But in all this chaos, there are always current zones. One of these “zones” is the zombie theme. On this subject will always develop games, make films, draw cartoons, etc. There will be demand. A zombie is a certain character that you don’t feel sorry for; you can recoup it to the fullest and pour all the aggression on it. Zombies - whipping boy - will always be popular.

That's how we started to catch the mood wave for the next stage of developing the game idea! Everything comes unexpectedly. You start talking about the idea to your colleagues, get comments from them, you start to represent it in your head and make first notes or sketches. And soon you fall in love with her.
In the next step, you apply the idea to existing engines and existing applications. Now you can not think of a bicycle. This is where market analysis begins: which genres are popular, which games are on the first lines in stores, what is special about these games, what is their target audience, what do they earn, etc. This analysis will not be the key to success, but psychology users can be caught at this stage. It is only necessary to remember that psychology tends to change depending on the events in the world, on holidays, on the season, and on a number of other factors that must be taken into account by the approximate release date of the application.
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Zombie Sports was not tied to the above factors. The idea of ​​"Zombie Sports" was to combine the popular genre of "zombies" and sports in the spirit of the good old "Yeti Sports"! Zombie Sports is a series of different sports featuring two main characters: Big Baby Zed (Big Baby Z) and his silent friend Chicken. In the first series of Zombie Sports, they have to go through a golf tournament together in order to get Big Brain Zed back.

Two designers and one developer worked on the game. The team was selected on the basis of free resources. I want to say that free resources have been very successful. In addition to professionalism, the team should have an understanding, without which the process of creating a game is usually tedious and uninteresting! The game should appeal to everyone who works on it, and everyone should bring something new to it, take initiative. In the game you need to invest the soul of both the designer and the programmer. The user communicates with the game in a different way, the game should respond to it reciprocate and its requirements: the interface should be comfortable, the graphics should attract attention, the process of the game should intrigue and attract, the game should work clearly. For all that, we had a sad experience when different designers worked on the game, and as a result we got porridge, but in Zombie Sports, the designers were able to adjust to each other. From this we can conclude that before you start working on a game, you need to understand how it should look, in what style and in whose performance it will be more successful, and, based on this, select the team for its implementation.

Each project, of course, has its time in which it is necessary to fit as much as possible. As a rule, the planned release date in game development is always moving forward, because in the process there are new solutions, new ideas that you want to add to the game. And this is normal, because it is a creative process. But the offset of the release date should be within the framework of a reasonable one, because each project has its own budget, respectively, the introduction of new features must also be approached wisely, they must justify themselves. Unfinished project to lay out in the market with the hope of further updates is also impossible. Therefore, here it is simply necessary to believe in your project, in spite of everything, strive for quality both in graphics and in code. The game should be the way you want it to be, and not the kind of time and effort; everything should be realized, nothing is impossible!

The only sticking point in the development of Zombie Sports was the involvement of our developer to other projects. If possible, do not throw developers from project to project - this negatively affects the process. Lost interest, initiative, I just want to work out my time and quickly finish the project.
In total, we spent four and a half months developing the game.

Here are a few rules that I would advise to pay attention when developing games.

1. Quality graphics.
One of the main components of the success of the game. Do not save on it. Beautiful and thoughtful animation gives a sweet taste to the game!
2. The quality of the code.
Do not release the game unfinished. All bugs must be debugged before the release.
3. The choice of the style of the game.
Choose the right designer for the project, think about whether he can embody your idea of ​​the game.
4. Think about motivation.
Each team member must be passionate about the game, otherwise it will work as if it were a machine at the factory. Therefore, periodically hold a team meeting during the development of the game, in which everyone will express their comments and suggestions based on the things already done.
5. Faith in the project.

It is clear that many pros here in the comments will say: "Thank you, cap!". But I wanted to share my emotions, a part of the drive that uninterruptedly accompanies our game-engineering movement, and to place accents or priorities that - I am sure - will benefit the beginning zombie producers.

Maxim Selyaev ( XIM inc. )