Whats the lifecycle of an average mobile game? Thanks

Assuming you start from the game concept and not just doing a port.

3-4 months of development for a simple sprite-based game.
5-8 months for a game that involves multiplayer / networking
6-12 months for a 3D game fully tuned for the platform
12-18 months for a multiplayer 3D game (ex: N-Gage)

With straight ports you can slash development times by a factor of 2 to 4. Some specialized porting houses can do it even faster. Games developped on a multi-platform engine can also save a lot on port time.

do you mean (in the first case) 3-4 months for development? or after introduce the game in the market, thats the lifetime period?

Thanks

Shelf life not included in above figures. Shelf life varies a lot. Poker, golf, bowling and Tetris will thrive forever while the ones based on the Winter Olympics will not last long...

Quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
Assuming you start from the game concept and not just doing a port.

3-4 months of development for a simple sprite-based game.
5-8 months for a game that involves multiplayer / networking
6-12 months for a 3D game fully tuned for the platform
12-18 months for a multiplayer 3D game (ex: N-Gage)

With straight ports you can slash development times by a factor of 2 to 4. Some specialized porting houses can do it even faster. Games developped on a multi-platform engine can also save a lot on port time.

I agree with 'anonymous poster' in the first and the last point. But I would say that a single player 3D game(the second one) in a team with 5 members(2 coders,2 artists,1 musician) can be done in 4-8 months in the case your already have your working 3D engine on (for example) a PC platform. Yes, it can grow to 12-18 month in the case you're building your engine from scrath(not just porting an existing engine).

On the other hand(warning I'm not an multiplayer coder, so take the next few words easily :) ), a multiplayer game is a lot harder to finish(especially on the mobile platform), because of the fact, that you have a lot of things to optimise and synchronize. big server pings, individuall circumstances by the local operators and so on.

3-4 months? for developing a game with only sprites on it? if you realy think that.... i bet you are thinking in 2-3 months for design it and 1 for develop the content.

If not, i'm not agree. :)

Quote: Original post by Goguigo
3-4 months? for developing a game with only sprites on it? if you realy think that.... i bet you are thinking in 2-3 months for design it and 1 for develop the content.

If not, i'm not agree. :)

maybe he meant some complex RPG :) however, there are som cases in which you can complete the whole game in less than a month. I know some people/teams capable of making a complete game in such a short time. But they are quite advanced and professional persons\teams, and they really know what they're doing...

Quote: Original post by MePHyst0

Quote: Original post by Goguigo
3-4 months? for developing a game with only sprites on it? if you realy think that.... i bet you are thinking in 2-3 months for design it and 1 for develop the content.

If not, i'm not agree. :)

maybe he meant some complex RPG :) however, there are som cases in which you can complete the whole game in less than a month. I know some people/teams capable of making a complete game in such a short time. But they are quite advanced and professional persons\teams, and they really know what they're doing...

One month is barely enough to make the first generic version, believe me. Then you need time to port it to 370 different handsets...

Quote: Original post by Goguigo
3-4 months? for developing a game with only sprites on it? if you realy think that.... i bet you are thinking in 2-3 months for design it and 1 for develop the content.

If not, i'm not agree. :)

Don't forget time required to port to so many different types of handheld devices...each has its own differences...

370 handsets? your crazy. Man... i realy think you are way out of your mind. If you are thinking on porting to 370 devices, you are realy thinkiing in going to the whole world. But ok, talking about going in every single handset... that might be the only thing that can slow us down.

So, we'll need to find an answer to that.

I have 1 question... does publishers like Jamdat or MForma, give some kind of support to the porting issue? can they help us?

Thanks