6 ways to stand out in the crowded app market

Since we announced our MarvDev development program a few months ago, we have been fortunate enough to talk with hundreds of developers looking for partners to publish their games.



We signed the first games for participation in the program and got the opportunity to watch various games - both from talented teams and from individual developers from around the world.



But more than 100 applications are released per day, and to stand out from them is, in fact, a big task.

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Having considered so many games in such a short period of time - and thinking about them from a commercial point of view - we have gained invaluable experience and we think that it would be useful to make a list of common features in games that we liked.

1. Be different

Inspired by other games is great, but if your game does not add anything new, gives users no reason to play, then most likely it will not succeed.



Most of the success stories in recent years have been based on the fact that the games gave players something they didn’t have before. That is why even in a huge competitive market they were able to break through and succeed.



Look carefully at what has worked in recent years - but the main thing that you should understand is: what worked last year is not what you should do in this.



Hits like Minecraft, CSR Racing, Infinity Blade and Draw Something, all of them took inspiration from early products, but each brought something completely new to the game.

2. Choose a business model as early as possible.

Premium games (pay per download) are completely different from freemium games. And it is difficult to move from one model to another.

In particular, many arcade games are not very suitable for freemium models - user return is a problem, and monetization can be very difficult - only a few users will want to pay for power-ups or access to additional content.



One and freemium is not the only option - if your game is not suitable for the freemium model, do not be afraid to use premium. Games like The Room, The Walking Dead and Super Hexagon were both paid and with huge audiences.

3. Make the payment part of the entertainment.

The best games make payment a positive rather than negative experience - there is a subtle, but important difference between paying for what makes the game “less disappointing” and what makes the game “more entertaining.”



Energy mechanics, time - this, as a rule, falls into the first category, with which the player is harder and harder to put up with. Collecting, educating, creating, communicating, getting a chance is all a positive experience that players gladly pay for.



As a child, I was an avid buyer of Panini football stickers - despite the fact that I was not interested in football. It was interesting to buy a sealed package of cards and have fun in finding rare stickers or leading players for your album, in exchange with friends and slowly filling your album.



If the game consisted in buying any card I wanted, and sticking it into an album, or simply getting the album already full with stickers, all the joy would have evaporated.



Think of a freemium model in this vein and you will understand how spending in a game can become part of the entertainment without harming it.

4. Create for devices

If you, like me, came from consoles, then you are probably experiencing difficulties due to a paradigm shift, but this must be overcome.



First, think about how best to use the touchscreen - the tactile interface is incredible and you want to touch the best games. Think about how to avoid console emulation and you will do half the work.



Second half? Think about when people are playing - mobile games must fit in a very short period of time, and yet give the player a meaningful experience.



Super Hexagon is the most polished game in this plan - when you start, you know that the game will last no longer than a couple of seconds. Bejewelled Blitz has a maximum game duration of one minute. The Walking Dead breaks this rule with auto-save, which will not let the game disappear if you have to quit.



This is evidence of the quality of the game, which, despite the returns to the levels that have already been completed, is so clingy that you want to go through all the episodes over the weekend.

5. Do not confuse the player

The player’s attention span lasts a very short amount of time. There are, literally, a million other applications that can be used, billions of web pages that can be read. At the time of confusion or dissatisfaction, the player will leave.



Try to play your game from the point of view of someone who has never played it before. Better yet, try looking at how others will play.



Do not give in to accuse them of doing something wrong - any confusion is a potential end of the game for your application, and this needs to be fixed. Look at Clash of Clans or any Zynga game to see how to make games that everyone can understand.

6. Be superb

Among other things, you have to make a great game.



There are already so many games in the App Store that if today everyone stops doing them, then for another 300 years you will be able to play a new game every day. The competition is great!



But, despite the huge number of games on the market, now is the most exciting moment to be game developers - millions of new people are being drawn into games on all platforms in all countries of the globe.



I hope I could help, but you may not follow the rules outlined above. The best game rewrites the rules and does something so amazing that delights and amazes gamers.



What do games with which we have an agreement have in common? Very few - that they made us smile, stand out from the crowd in any way, and that we wanted to play them again, and again ... and maybe even one more time.



Harry Holmwood is the CEO at MAQL Europe, a company owned by a Japanese publisher and developer of Marvelous AQL.