Game Dev Podcast - The RisingHigh Extended Tea Break - Game Development Advice for Game Developers

Today I sit down with Academy Member Chris Trudeau of Boston Trudeau Studios, who landed himself a Voodoo publishing deal with his latest game title Twenty48 Solitaire, so huge congrats to Chris, super excited at such an awesome success story.   Download: Twenty48 Solitaire   In our conversation, we discuss how Chris made the leap from being a professional finish carpenter, dabbling with selling print on demand t-shirts from his 2 Etsy shops as a side hustle, to stumbling across Buildbox and ultimately creating mobile games.   Using a deck of cards to brainstorm game ideas, thinking how to twist this classic card game, and grabbing tons of feedback from family and friends, the first versions of twenty48 Solitaire was born.   Chris hired someone on Fiverr to create his first prototype ( made in just 12 hours ) in unity. Soon after that, he made the transition to the new engine and he quickly starting learning for himself, and has never looked back.   After contacting Voodoo with his idea, within a few months h

After our Academy Anniversary month of July, we took some time for a lot of soul searching about what is next on the agenda for us as a Indie Game Studio and the company in general. The fact is, it has been way too many months since the production of our last game, and this has long been an itch that badly needs scratching! We love doing the podcast and it’s been a lot of fun, but it has surprised us at just how long a process it is.   We’ve come to the difficult decision to take a short hiatus on the podcast, to enable us to free up some pure focus time to head off and start a new game and concentrate on providing the best advice and service to all Academy Members.   We’ll be back to share all our highs and lows on our game dev antics, along with the problems we face and how we solved them ( or not )!   Until then, be sure to follow us on our social media accounts Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. If you want to join us inside for our regular weekly live video calls, in-depth training and workshops, persona

Hyper Casual games are dominating the App Store Top Charts. In early in 2017, we saw the rise of Hyper-Casual games going main stream with publishers like Voodoo.io leading the way with their smash hit paper.io. These usually lightweight games, consisting of nothing much more than an addictive core loop on launch, are typically a few steps ahead of a MVP ( minimal viable product ) or prototype. Pushed heavily via social media campaigns ( Snapchat / Instagram / Facebook ) publishers can achieve extremely low CPI's ( cost per install ) and thus propelling these simple small mobile games to the pinnacle of the mobile App Stores with a relatively modest budget. Because if this, they are highly scalable and massively sharable and often go viral pretty fast.   Website: RisingHighAcademy.com   We truly do appreciate you taking time out of your day to listen and hope you got some value. If you enjoyed today’s show, it would go such along way if you hit that Subscribe button. We’d also be forever grateful if you’

To finish up our devlog style episodes for this month, we look ahead to what we’ll be working on for the 2nd half of 2018. With the imminent release of Buildbox 3 ( Beta ) in the coming weeks, we're super pumped to get back into our favourite game creation software and take a look at the next generation of Buildbox. Whilst of course it’s very exciting to have new tools to play with and finally get to play around in 3D, it’s also worth remembering that the Arcade Style Hyper Casual games that are dominating the charts, and the ones we love to build, are always simple in concept. In fact, as we deconstructed a whole ton of these in our Hyper Casual Games course “Seriously Snackable”, the very essence of these games revolve around the core loop and really not much else.     Website: RisingHighAcademy.com   We truly do appreciate you taking time out of your day to listen and hope you got some value. If you enjoyed today’s show, it would go such along way if you hit that Subscribe button. We’d also be forever

More of a general chit chat this week as we’re on holiday, or at least we were supposed to be.   Following an impromptu decision to take some time out as I was approaching burnout, it soon became apparent that our schedule was completely shot and there was no podcast ready, oops.   We made a commitment to show up each and every week, and not wanting to break our run so far, we came in, sat down and recorded.   As a small business owner, there’s never enough time in the day and there’s always something that needs to be done, it’s a never ending ongoing process.   However, there definitely comes a point when R & R needs to take priority and, although slightly broken, we are on a go slow right now and taking days away from the grind. It’s important.   We discuss all what this means to us, our accountant pains and I also managed to do probably the worlds worst maths equation ever, but hey, we showed up and that’s the most important thing, to us anyways!      Website: RisingHighAcademy.com   We truly do apprec

As July marks the one year Anniversary of our Game Dev Training Academy, we decided it would be nice to sit down and have a chat about our journey so far, and revisit the reasons behind why we decided to set up the Rising High Academy.   Website: RisingHighAcademy.com   We truly do appreciate you taking time out of your day to listen and hope you got some value. If you enjoyed today’s show, it would go such along way if you hit that Subscribe button. We’d also be forever grateful if you’d consider sparing just a quick minute to Leave us an Honest Rating & Review. We always read each and every one personally and it always makes our day! Thanks so much, Kevin & Jilly.   Say Hello & Connect with us: Website: RisingHighAcademy.com Facebook - Twitter - InstagramSupport the show (https://risinghighacademy.com/join-the-academy/)

For all you seasoned game developers out there, when September time rolls around and Apple releases new devices and iOS versions, more often than not we need to update something to ensure our old games still work correctly.   Whilst this can be a pain the you know what, it can actually be turned into a positive, and a time to revisit our old games, breathe some life back into them and bring them up to date. Visit us for the Full Show Notes & Links to all the Resources: Website: RisingHighAcademy.com   We truly do appreciate you taking time out of your day to listen and hope you got some value. If you enjoyed today’s show, it would go such along way if you hit that Subscribe button. We’d also be forever grateful if you’d consider sparing just a quick minute to Leave us an Honest Rating & Review. We always read each and every one personally and it always makes our day! Thanks so much, Kevin & Jilly.   Say Hello & Connect with us: Website: RisingHighAcademy.com Facebook - Twitter - InstagramSuppo

Working under constraints, especially in a creative field, can be a challenging but highly effective way to build up your inventiveness. Often when starting out a project, setting some kind of constraint can force you into action and get your brain thinking in a different way.   For instance, it’s time to start a new game project. “Let’s now build a game.”   You’re at your workspace.. Cool… erm… yeah… so… yeah… erm…   Now, let’s imagine you put some constraints on the project:   “Let’s build a game with only 2 colours” or “Let’s build a game in 48 hours” or “Let’s build a game with only Triangles.”   By starting with some constraints in place, whatever they be can be a hugely powerful jump point to get those creative juices flowing.  Visit us for the Full Show Notes & Links to all the Resources: Website: RisingHighAcademy.com   We truly do appreciate you taking time out of your day to listen and hope you got some value. If you enjoyed today’s show, it would go such along way if you hit that Subscribe butt

We had an interesting question come in this week from Podcast listener Stuart, so we decided to have a chat about just how essential having a website and press kit is for your games.   Stuart says:   “I’m half way through building my game and I’m starting to have a think about marketing. Do I need a website and press kit for my game and is it something worth doing anyway?”   Great question! We answer this and more... Visit us for the Full Show Notes & Links to all the Resources: Website: RisingHighAcademy.com   We truly do appreciate you taking time out of your day to listen and hope you got some value. If you enjoyed today’s show, it would go such along way if you hit that Subscribe button. We’d also be forever grateful if you’d consider sparing just a quick minute to Leave us an Honest Rating & Review. We always read each and every one personally and it always makes our day! Thanks so much, Kevin & Jilly.   Say Hello & Connect with us: Website: RisingHighAcademy.com Facebook - Twitter - Inst

Browsing around on the App Store has been part of our daily routine pretty much ever since we first started building our games. The App Store is the playground we play in, and thus it’s super important to keep a keen eye on the market. With the Store refreshing each Thursday, it’s always a bit of a buzz to have a good look around at just who the movers and shakers are, and what’s working right now. Visit us for the Full Show Notes & Links to all the Resources: Website: RisingHighAcademy.com   We truly do appreciate you taking time out of your day to listen and hope you got some value. If you enjoyed today’s show, it would go such along way if you hit that Subscribe button. We’d also be forever grateful if you’d consider sparing just a quick minute to Leave us an Honest Rating & Review. We always read each and every one personally and it always makes our day! Thanks so much, Kevin & Jilly.   Say Hello & Connect with us: Website: RisingHighAcademy.com Facebook - Twitter - InstagramSupport the sh

This week we discuss our Top 5 hacks to ensure you stay motivated during your game development cycle. Keeping energised and focussed is critical to meeting those deadlines, however loose they may actually be. We all struggle with motivation from time to time, it's inevitable, however you can definitely influence your own motivation if you can actually figure out what you want, set and commit to your goals and try and push through those difficult phases.   Visit us for the Full Show Notes & Links to all the Resources: Website: RisingHighAcademy.com   We truly do appreciate you taking time out of your day to listen and hope you got some value. If you enjoyed today’s show, it would go such along way if you hit that Subscribe button. We’d also be forever grateful if you’d consider sparing just a quick minute to Leave us an Honest Rating & Review. We always read each and every one personally and it always makes our day! Thanks so much, Kevin & Jilly.   Say Hello & Connect with us: Website: Ris

Defining success for any mobile game can come in many forms. You may be just starting out in the business, and, by the very fact that you have built a game and released it on the App Store, can be in of itself defined as a great success.   Visit us for the Full Show Notes & Links to all the Resources: Website: RisingHighAcademy.com   We truly do appreciate you taking time out of your day to listen and hope you got some value. If you enjoyed today’s show, it would go such along way if you hit that Subscribe button. We’d also be forever grateful if you’d consider sparing just a quick minute to Leave us an Honest Rating & Review. We always read each and every one personally and it always makes our day! Thanks so much, Kevin & Jilly.   Say Hello & Connect with us: Website: RisingHighAcademy.com Facebook - Twitter - InstagramSupport the show (https://risinghighacademy.com/join-the-academy/)

As game developers, shipping your finished game, whether you’re a hobbyist or part of a professional studio team, the goal you should always be heading for is to finish. We all know that at times, life just gets in the way, but there are a certain number of pitfalls you can fall into very easily, and often unknowingly, and this can  hinder you releasing your game and often stop dead your project dead in its tracks.   Visit us for the Full Show Notes & Links to all the Resources: Website: RisingHighAcademy.com   We truly do appreciate you taking time out of your day to listen and hope you got some value. If you enjoyed today’s show, it would go such along way if you hit that Subscribe button. We’d also be forever grateful if you’d consider sparing just a quick minute to Leave us an Honest Rating & Review. We always read each and every one personally and it always makes our day! Thanks so much, Kevin & Jilly.   Say Hello & Connect with us: Website: RisingHighAcademy.com Facebook - Twitter - Inst

So what exactly is game polish? It’s all in the details, details, details. It’s all about mastering the art of fine tuning and learning to be slightly obsessive. Mix this with a sprinkle of OCD thrown in for good measure and you’re on your way to becoming a polishing Jedi. The truth is, polishing your game could in theory go on forever, and the urge to tweak details over and over can seriously impact on you actually releasing your game. So, as game designers / game developers, just when do we know that we’ve done just the right amount of polish? We’ve put together some of the most important tweaks for you to hone in on during your game polish process. For us, these are the solid bedrock of polishing stages that we do on every game we release and ones we recommend you do too.   Visit us for the Full Show Notes & Links to all the Resources: Website: RisingHighAcademy.com   We truly do appreciate you taking time out of your day to listen and hope you got some value. If you enjoyed today’s show, it would go s

So you’ve built your game, spent countless hours crafting each and every pixel, polished it to the end degree and now you’re ready to launch it to the world! But, just how are you going to make money from your brand new mobile game? You should be thinking about monetising your mobile game from the moment you start to build, and this can have a big effect on how you actually end up constructing your projects. As game designers and builders, it would be absolutely fantastic to serve up our games with no ads, but as small indies, we need to earn money! Ads are a necessity in our world unfortunately, but if done with the least amount of intrusiveness and a little thought towards our players, we can still monetise well. Let’s go over some of the popular monetisation methods open to us indie game developers today and ones we’ve used ourselves in our hyper casual / snackable games. Simple eCPM Equation eCPM = ( Cost Per Mile Historically ) How much per revenue per x1000 impressions Example: The eCPM is $5.00. For ev

Your icon is arguably one of your most important assets when it comes to your App Store presence. It is usually the first opportunity to impress potential customers and therefore makes it critical to your overall branding. When speaking about icons, there is without a doubt some best practices that should not be ignored. Often when we think of icon design, less is usually more. However, the icons main purpose is to fully encompass and capture the very essence of your game. Ideally, this should be achieved with as few elements and colours as possible. The best rule of thumb, and at the very core of great icon design, is that you should try and head for a single element that is clearly visible when viewed on the device itself. From personal experience, and as you’ll begin to notice as you delve deeper into your research tasks, the vast majority of featured games in any given week, will all have an extremely strong and clearly defined icon. Highlights, Quick Wins & Takeaways: 1. Try to use a single elemen

Defining Fun is certainly and tricky one for sure. What is fun for me, could quite possibly not be particularly fun for you. So how do we define fun when it comes to Game Development and in our games?  Rather than thinking of the word "Fun" in the traditional sense, we should be thinking about our Games as being an experience, to which fun is an aspect. For instance, let's say we have built a Horror themed game where there's spooky moments, creepy music and scare jumps a plenty. Whilst there may not be too many "fun" aspects, it's still completely enjoyable. When we boil everything down, each and every game we'll ever play will consist of training us in some aspect. We'll learn mechanics and gameplay systems, master timing and "hand to eye" co-ordination. The achievement of completing levels can be motivating and engaging and have positive reinforcing side-effects. These, and many more aspects, amount to certain levels of fun even if we don't really

Creating a Mood Board is an essential starting point when you're starting out on any new game / project. What is a Mood Board? Simply put, a Mood Board is a collection of images that you find inspirational, aspirational and aesthetically pleasing all collated into 1 central document that you can refer back to throughout your game development. Using keywords or phrases into google images, other search engines are available, start to cherry pick images that you like the look of, like the colour of, like the shape or form of or give you some kind of enhanced emotion. It could be the way the mist sits eerily over the grass tops, the shadows that a candle makes when it flickers, anything that you'd love to encapsulate in whatever type of game you're building. Of course, that all sounds super fancy, but what about my "Snackable" / "Hyper Casual" mobile game I'm building?   Your Mood Boards can take any form you like. It could be inspiration for level design, UI / UX concepts,

With just a few precious seconds to grab players attention, your screenshots need to pack a punch and convince them to hit that get button. As the old adage goes, " A picture is worth a thousand words" and for your App Store screenshots, this is most certainly true. This week we discuss how to create enticing, informative and exciting screenshots so you can master the art of how to fully show off your games potential. Our Top 10 best practices for designing your killer visuals will guide you through all the do's and don'ts when it comes to creating App Store screenshots. Whether it's including Marketing Strap lines, highlighting key aspects and features or even creating a mini tutorial, our Top 10 Tips and Tricks for creating awesome App Store screenshots will boost your conversion rates and get you more people downloading your fresh new mobile game. Highlights, Quick Wins & Takeaways. 1. Always show off the most exciting parts of your games Think Action Shots, Explosions, Movemen

This week we discuss the plans and goals any Indie Game Developer should follow when making games for the mobile platforms. Be it the Apple App Store, GooglePlay or Amazon, our advice is always the same whether you're an absolute beginner or have been making games for a while, head for that Publishing Deal. There's a multitude of benefits for teaming up with an established mobile game publisher when launching your titles, the most arguably is traffic. Without a solid User Acquisition ( UA ) strategy in place it's going to be a struggle to drive downloads to your game and to get noticed. Any Publisher worth their salt already have a vast, daily active network of players within their existing portfolio to cross promote and market your game to, this is vital especially on launch day. They'll also have solid connections within the industry especially with the platforms themselves. They can get your game in front of the people who make the decisions on the games that will be featured on any giv