Smartphone gaming has gained immense traction in recent years. People love the convenience and amazing perks offered by mobile game apps. According to the Statista report, in 2020, the worldwide mobile gaming market was valued at 121.1 billion USD, which is predicted to reach 169.7 billion USD in 2025. Therefore, investing in mobile game development will be a lucrative idea. An Arcade game is one of the best genres you can consider for creating a game app. Compared to other game genres, arcade games require simple graphics and gameplay, which makes it an excellent game app idea to start a business. It is not only easy to implement but also a profitable one.
However, you need to follow the right procedure and seek expert assistance to build a successful arcade game app. In this blog post, we have listed all the crucial steps for developing an arcade game app and making it a success. But, before we get to this, let us have a look at the scope of arcade game development.
About Arcade Games
Invented in the 19th century, an arcade game is a machine-based game generally available in public places like restaurants and malls. Arcade games are usually coin-based and can be found in various forms, like electromechanical games, video games, or pinball machines. These types of games are quite simple, yet highly entertaining. And today, they have become even more convenient and interesting, thanks to game app development technologies.
People can play arcade games on their mobile phone quite effortlessly, usually with a thumb only. Most arcade games are your best bet to kill time when traveling or waiting in a queue. Mobile arcade games are similar to the first video games introduced decades back. They have simple gameplay, easy interaction, and limited controls. Angry Birds Friends, Minecraft (Mojang), Clawee, Cubes Empire Champions, Crossy Road, and Bricks Ball Crusher are some of the most popular arcade games on the google play store.
Why Developing an Arcade Game is a Good Idea?
According to a research report by Technavio, the arcade game market is expected to grow by 1.56 billion USD between 2020-2024. Also, Arcade is one of the gaming segments that have a positive impact on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of course, this is not enough to be confident about your arcade game development decision. As mentioned earlier, arcade games are straightforward, usually having simple and short gameplay. They don’t really emphasize the game story but rather they focus on gameplay fun. Usually, these games don’t require a lot of thinking or strategies. The learning curve in these games is minimal. Due to these reasons, a massive number of people are inclined to play arcade games. Most importantly people in all age groups including elders, youngsters, and children enjoy arcade games.
Talking about the development part, arcade games are easy and less time-consuming compared to advanced video games.
Considering all the above reasons, including the game popularity, traction, ease of development, and revenue opportunities, it is an intelligent decision to make your own mobile arcade game.
Important Steps for Building Arcade Mobile Game App
Now you must be eager to bring your arcade game idea into reality. So, here are a few essential steps you need to follow for developing a feature-rich and engaging arcade game app.
Choose the Best Genre for Your Arcade Game App
Your first task will be to choose the genre for your game app. There are plenty of genres popular in arcade game development, such as:
- Flight Games
- Action Games
- Music Games
- Pinball Machines
- Redemption Games
- Electro-Mechanical Games
- Video Games
- Mobile/Casual Games
- Fighting Games
- Beat’em Up Games
Choose the game genre that best suits your budget and interests.
Of course, you don’t want to remake any random app without adding value to it. Therefore, the brainstorming stage plays an important role. Have a thorough discussion with gaming experts or your team and ask for their suggestions. This will help you come up with some innovative ideas for your arcade game app.
Now, you have to research the genre and idea you got from previous steps. In this research, you have to find answers to several questions, such as:
What are the latest trends in the arcade game market?
What are the most popular arcade game apps?
Who are your competitors?
What strategies do competitors use for acquiring users and retaining them?
Who is your target audience?
What are the expectations of the target audience?
Once you get answers to all these questions, you will be fully prepared to develop your arcade game app. With this research data, you can build an engaging game app that not only gains immense traction but also outperforms the competition.
Decide the Features and Functionality
Now you have your idea ready. It is time to decide what type of features and functionality you want to include in the arcade game. Check out the list of some most common and essential arcade game features:
- Leadership Boards
- Refer and Earn Program
- Achievement Badges
- Interesting Game Assets
- Easy Payment Gateways
- Social Media Sharing
- Game Settings
- In-app Purchase
Designing arcade games is not that challenging as you don’t require using complex design components or creating advanced interfaces. You have to design a simple and user-friendly interface keeping the simple gameplay in mind. However, you can be creative with certain game elements like the main character, enemies, bonuses, collectibles, and obstacles, which keep users hooked.
Make sure you choose the right technology stack for writing code for arcade game apps. The choice of frameworks and tools depends on the platform and other aspects like the functionality of game controls, game design, components like collectibles, obstacles, bonuses, and many more. The best technology for arcade game development may include HTML 5, Оbjective-С, Swift, Xcode, Kotlin, Unity 3D, Flutter, and more.
Preliminary User Testing with Minimum Viable Product
The best way to get an idea about the functionality and performance of your arcade game app is to launch an MVP first. MVP acts as a temporary infrastructure for testing your arcade game idea. It will be a simple game app with basic features. Once your MVP is ready you can use it for user acceptance testing. You can offer this basic version of the game on various platforms, like websites, forums, or social media channels, and ask for users’ feedback. Developers need to analyze all the feedback and information collected in this stage and improve their code accordingly.
Final Product Launch
With all the feedback from end-users, required modifications, and suggestions from experts, your final, full-featured arcade game app will be ready for launch. At this stage, you have two options: either publish by yourself or find a publisher. Both options have pros and cons, thus make a wise decision by considering your budget, goals, and other requirements.
Implement The Best User Retention Strategies
Just releasing a feature-rich arcade game app won’t be enough to gain success. You have to invest enough time, money, and effort to reach the potential users and get a higher retention rate. Here are some proven user retention strategies you can use for your mobile arcade game:
- Make the game progressively difficult by creating challenges for the users. This will keep players hooked.
- Send push notifications to the players to remind them to continue playing.
- Offer in-game rewards
- Introduce new game content regularly
- Build an online community for your arcade game
- Appreciate and promote user-made content
With this post, you must have got enough knowledge about arcade game development. However, if you want to build the best arcade game with excellent functionality, ensure to hire experienced developers. Betfoc is one of the leading mobile game development companies you can rely on for developing an innovative mobile arcade game. We have years of experience in creating interactive and high-quality games for various genres, including arcade, casino, eSports, and more.