How to finish the decree with benefit?

My name is Sergey, my wife Alla, our son is 2.5 years old. For a child, this is the age when we started letting a child play on an iPad in educational games under the supervision of parents. “Well, just once a week! Well, for 20 minutes! Oh please! Well, Pa-aaaaaaa! ”. At one of the developer forums I was given 2 promo codes for children's games. My son really liked it ... No wonder, nowadays, they were picking earth with a stick.

Now our baby is getting used to kindergarten. You know, when you first drive a week for 2 hours, then for 4, and so on. A “quiet clock” began to appear, and I began to train my wife to paint in Photoshop. Not just like that, but with a specific goal - we decided to make a game for kids.
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I have never made games for children, in the sense of the smallest children. I am sure that now many children are playing simple games and “This is Normal!” (Elena Malysheva). But this is a game for kids - first you need to attract the parents, and then captivate the child.

My wife draws, I “fix” and program. It should be noted that none of us could draw, and we do not have any artistic education. But due to the frequent lack of money I had to open a graphic editor and draw as I can.

The first few days painted like this:

1. Photograph a toy.
2. Insert the photo as a background in the editor.
3. Outline the contours in the vector.



Since I had at least some experience, I brought out some tips:

1. Draw simple, colorful elements;
2. Do not use effects;
3. Draw in the vector, because the size of the element will change or be in several resolutions;
4. For all that will be in the final product to use one palette.



In order to create a palette, I took the primary colors of the rainbow, some of them brightened, and another made darker. So turned shades.

A few days later we draw like this:
1. We google the pictures that we like.
2. We set before ourselves, we do not draw, as through a carbon copy, but we “inspire” them.



At first they decided to make a game with dinosaurs, but a little later Alla painted bugs as a minor element. And then it was all decided.



Digging into the AppStore, trying to write interesting ideas for implementation. The game should not only give rest to one of the parents, but also educate the child. We aimed at an audience of 2-4 years. We decided this: the game will teach the child figures, colors and numbers. He played his own experience. Numbers, letters, shapes, colors - this is what at our age we are trying to learn and fix. For the letters were not taken, as it greatly delay the development. And in time, dad said - "1 month." Assess your strengths really! Otherwise, believe me, in half a year you will run out of enthusiasm.

When they made the mini-games "draw a figure and place the figures on their shadows", doubts crept in that the game would be boring. Then we turn on the fantasy and invent mini-games for ourselves. I really wanted to make Tap the Frog for children.



Thus, “put a beetle on a flower with the desired figure” and “put a beetle in the car of the desired color,” and many others.





At the top of the game there is an owl whose task is to tell about the goal of the game. When a child clicks on it - the voice of a real owl sounds, which we, like all sounds, found on freesound.org .



For reading the numbers (by the way, 3 languages: Russian, English, Ukrainian) they took a karaoke microphone from friends. Normalized, cut the sound, removed the noise, it all took 2 days.

At our request, music was written by a relative who plays hard rock. But we never doubted. Selecting several tracks on audiojungle.net , they sent him a request to do this. After a week is ready - we like it. Still, to get free music. Translation into English had to pay ~ $ 4. Here it is better not to be greedy, but to trust a professional. A typo in the text will scare the buyer of the most paid language.

It is impossible not to select the longest occupation - the creation of icons. This ritual should have a special place in the sacrifice of your time. By the icon you catch the user's eyes. Use as few details as possible, test icons in services, like testico.net , to see how it looks in different resolutions and sizes.



The first test with my son was charming. The baby was not torn off, so much so that he found about 10 bugs, 2 of them were critical. Moreover, I somehow didn’t guess that it would occur to someone to press or do so. Began to test more often ...

After six weeks the game was sent to the store. 15 mini games, a bunch of fun and a bit of learning.

I used Unity as the engine. Published on almost all available platforms: iOS, Mac, Win Store, Win Phone, Android. This all allows you to make a free version, of course, if you have the proper hardware, software and subscriptions of the developer.

Probably, there should be a point and a rainbow smoothly goes up into the clouds. But keep in mind that when publishing, together with you several dozens of similar applications come out to the market every month (considering the category). Undoubtedly, the number of users of available devices is growing, but this is unlikely to affect the success of your product. In the tops sit big companies that pour a lot of money into advertising and promotion. It’s unlikely to get to ficher, with an amateur artist and programmer and a monthly project. Newsletter review is a matter of luck and mood of the author. In the end, you see how your application is simply sinking in the market.

But this is a hobby! Is not it? Therefore, we enjoy the development, not sales.