Mobile gaming is a multi-billion dollar industry. Phones and tablets are now wildly popular platforms for video games. One of the reasons for this is how accessible mobile game development is.
Have you considered making your own mobile game? All the hardware you need is right there in your pocket. There are several ways you could go about it. You could get yourself familiar with programming, or you could make a game without using code.
First step: what kind of game do you want to make?
You should decide what type of game you want to make. If you haven’t already, play a variety of mobile games to get an idea of what you can do with the platform. If you’re looking to get big sales, play the ones that have millions of downloads!
If you know any friends with experience in the games industry, speak to them. They may be looking for an independent project to work on!
Getting familiar with code – using Minecraft!
If you want to get to grips with computer science, you could try learning with Raspberry Pi Boards. The Raspberry Pi is a tiny computer, about the size of a credit card. When we say “computer”, we don’t mean the full package, with a monitor and a chassis, it is just a single circuit board.
A lot of the systems sold these days aren’t modification-friendly. Most companies advise us not to take apart or modify their products. But the Raspberry Pi exists so people can modify it and learn from it! By making it easy to see how it works, this is the one of the best computers to learn from.
In fact, a free edition of Minecraft is available for the Raspberry Pi. What’s more is that it comes with a programming interface allowing players to use Python in-game. Python is one of the most simple but powerful programming languages around. And you can learn it while playing Minecraft!
Making mobile games using Unity
Maybe you want an even simpler approach. Unity is free software that allows you to control every aspect of your game development. You can alter code and art all in the same window. You can also play-test the game within Unity, or hook up your mobile device and port it over! Unity was used to make some of the most critically-acclaimed mobile games of recent years. These titles include Monument Valley, Crossy Road, and Angry Birds 2.
Unity is really user-friendly. There are several online courses you can take if you get stuck. These courses will teach you everything you need to know, including what to do once you’ve completed your game.
Skip code altogether
It’s possible to make mobile games without learning any code. Software like Stencyl makes the process easier by giving users an intuitive, codeless toolkit with which to make games. You’ll control the visuals of the game, as well as how the player will interact with it. The games will be a lot simpler than the ones you can make with programming. That doesn’t mean they won’t be awesome; sometimes, simpler is better! The super-strange and popular game Wrassling was made using Stencyl.