Working for an Independent Developer

[Solidus]

Hi guys.  I worked for several months over in Shanghai, China, helping a developer create mobile games.  They were the minds behind a few very popular iOS and Android apps.  I'd love to fill in any questions you guys may have about the Chinese market, which is quickly becoming very profitable, or about game design, production cycle, costs for the company in particular, etc. etc.

 

I'll tell you the biggest key for success was a very short production cycle and pumping out as much as possible over a short time.

[sbat]

Thanks in advance for sharing! Were you working on HTML5 or native games?

 

Can you recommend Chineese portals/publishers/networks for online HTML5 games? Or maybe publisher/stores to promote HTML5 games packaged as apps there?

 

How many weeks is the short cycle?

 

What kind of games you were mostly focused on? More midcore freemium titles? Small casual time killers? 

[Solidus]

Thanks in advance for sharing! Were you working on HTML5 or native games?

Mostly Android and iOS, but I hope the information is valuable none the less.

Can you recommend Chineese portals/publishers/networks for online HTML5 games? Or maybe publisher/stores to promote HTML5 games packaged as apps there?

Actually, no!  Our strategy was to release games (and we did ebooks) as fast as possible.

 

How many weeks is the short cycle?

What kind of games you were mostly focused on? More midcore freemium titles? Small casual time killers? 

 

Mostly time killers.  Simple run/jump games, puzzle games, even just memo apps and stuff.  Basically just keep hammering away and release as many apps/games as possible in a short time.  Graphics were always GREAT, coding/depth of game play were not.

 

Short cycle... 2 weeks.  And everything was native, we weren't using anything like Game Maker.  If we had been, we could have probably been pumping games out every week, seriously.  These guys worked 12 hour days for almost no pay (compared to U.S. standards) and made very nice graphics.

[mentuat]

thanks for the information from your experiences!

 

what kind of revenue model were the games using? - did you find any particular genre/style more successful than others?

[Daikrys]

i heared that some thai and chinese people working for a "normal" pay that looks really low in our eyes but still provide a okay living in their countrys but i wasnt able to find such ones yet (mostly due to language barriers)

would be great to have more complex or generally more graphics for the same budget

[Solidus]

i heared that some thai and chinese people working for a "normal" pay that looks really low in our eyes but still provide a okay living in their countrys but i wasnt able to find such ones yet (mostly due to language barriers)

would be great to have more complex or generally more graphics for the same budget

 

I think the cheapness comes from if you can hire them as individuals.  The companies will still charge a good amount and the deals aren't that much better.

 

Chinese have actually started outsourcing to Cambodia and (sometimes) India!

 

 

thanks for the information from your experiences!

 

what kind of revenue model were the games using? - did you find any particular genre/style more successful than others?

 

In app purchases were always the best revenue.  Ad revenue was very poor and paid apps even worse.

 

Puzzle games and games that were extremely simple in design - just one click to do everything.  Think about how simple temple run is to play, or any game where just a swipe or click is almost everything.

[Daikrys]

I think the cheapness comes from if you can hire them as individuals.  The companies will still charge a good amount and the deals aren't that much better.

 

Chinese have actually started outsourcing to Cambodia and (sometimes) India!

 

i only hire individuals cause as you stated the companys are often expensive, have you any suggestions on how to find such convenient artists?

[sandy234]

Even i am looking for a good cheap artist.

[Solidus]

I know a few artists/designers over there.  I don't know about paying someone who is in China, though, if you are in the U.S.

 

For $500-$1000 a month you could easily hire one of the guys I know, but the odds are they would stick to their jobs because of security.

 

You can always try the Shanghai craigslist, but I don't know if scams are prevalent on there.

 

True Valhalla: Revenue was very high.  One game we had a hand in was "Infinity Quest".  Revenue was much easier to make back when in-app currency could be more easily earned via people downloading other apps.

[Daikrys]

thanks for sharing the informations

since paypal is available in china the payment shouldnt be a problem

 

as you said chinese people outsource to cambodia and india, i was searching many job plattforms for this countrys

i found that some companys pay around 200k - 300k rupee per year, which seems a to be a pretty good pay there

this would mean they work for around 3,5k - 5,2k US Dollar per year, even if true really hard to believe for me

 

maybe will search for some numbers from cambodia too, dunno if it will be useful for me but its still pretty interesting

 

EDIT: btw i hope paypal will still be available in future cause they caused a million dollar damage with a broken competition (due to some tech issues they send out legit winner mails to millions with promising 500euro wins)