Hey guys. :D a quick question... With enough money for a good team, office, softwares and pc's... and all the other stuff... how much time does an average mobile game take to develop? Thanks

Most of the devs I talk too quote 3 months to develop the lead version and 2 months to port over to the numerous different handsets that have to be supported.

why port it takes that amount of time? i can c that many mobile handsets share many tecnicals features... but that doesnt matter, it wont just work?

What items or features are key for porting a game?

Is there any kind of "system" or flow to follow thru the porting system?

Thanks for the initial help mate.

It is just the sheer number of handsets with each one having some small difference. Screen sizes, screen shape, controls etc etc.

ok, they have diferent controls... but can i make an aplication (or can be made) wich autodetects the screen res and controls for example? and if the handset has (for example) the center buton of the joystick... its automatically enabled for use?

Thanks

You cannot detect if an API is present or not using J2ME. And with a few 00's of KB to spare, you need to squeeze as much gameplay into it as possible, or otherwise your game is not competitive with other offerings. And the industry fragmentation is a lot deeper than you might think. Forget that Java promised "compiled once, run everywhere". Each handset has its set of sub-APIs, the performances differs significantly, language (fonts, sprites, splash screens, etc) adds more complexity, and keyboard input need be tweaked for playability. And I'm not counting other perks like carrier-specific splash screens and branding requirements. That's why the big guys have some 3 - 5 generic versions that are tied to an SQL database and toolchain that can generate a targeted version for a particular SKU. The other fun part of the industry is that you can't target just a few devices on selected cariers; each SKU has a very low customer base, forcing you to make multiple SKUs just to break even. And as you invest in scaling across SKUs, you need to spread that investment across even more SKUs. Nowadays it's difficult to support less than 80 SKUs while keeping your business afloat. The average studio suports between 140 and 280 SKUs, and the trend is to go global (400+ SKUs) to be able to fund new projects and hit your revenue targets consistently.

SKUs?

Quote: Original post by Goguigo
SKUs?

Stock Keeping Unit - it basically means a version of the game (IE PS2 version is one SKU, PC is another, XBox another.

Quote: Original post by Goguigo
Hey guys. :D

a quick question... With enough money for a good team, office, softwares and pc's... and all the other stuff... how much time does an average mobile game take to develop?

Thanks

I like the '3 month' number, and it fits with the two small handheld games I've worked on. Note the word "small".

It would probably have also taken 3 months to write those small games on a PC. They weren't written for the PC, though, because the bar is so much higher on PC that they would never sell.


One factor not mentioned was the amount of resource you throw at the thing. There are specialist contract companies that do excellent work and can move from a complete spec to gold in under a month. They are not cheap. You need to define "enough money" very carefully.

Another missing factor was the scope of the game. There are some very large role playing games on PocketPC, for example, that require a gigabyte SD card for all the game data. Those games are most certainly not developed in three months. Other games are very small and could be written by two or three people in a few weeks.

Also, the target platforms and intended distribution. Something that Joe Schmuck can post on his web site with no QA is much different than some of the tightly controlled cell phone distribution channels. A PocketPC game with the Designed for Windows Mobile logo compliance is going to take longer than a hobby game.

thanks for all the comments.
Ok... i can tell you this:

we got 1 month for Game conceptual design and gameplay. 10 days for a prototype. after that 20 days for the rest of the game and 20 days to port the prototype. After that... Port the entire game.

Note: the first prot face is for understanding and learning the process and complications. Also, if possible, the prototype will cover all the stuff that will allow us port it asap and just expand the content (is this possible?).

Thanks

(sorry for my bad english)