There are no places: why your application will not become the next Temple Run

Original author: RYAN RIGNEY
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For the past four and a half years, the iOS App Store has been the promised land for independent game developers. Teams of two or three people could develop and publish the application with a real chance to break into the top of the charts. Anyone could get their “minute of glory": Croatian brothers (Doodle Jump), husband and wife (Temple Run) or builder with minimal programming experience (Geared). It was a modern gold rush.

These days are officially over. In fact, they ended at the end of 2011, and even a rolling wave of game consoles on Android will not save independent game developers.

“Indie games are on the decline,” wrote Zen Studios creative director Neil Sorens last month. " One boot has already fallenwait for another, ”he said about the saturation of the mobile games market and the dominance of games from major publishers on digital distribution platforms.



Apple recently published a list of the most profitable applications of 2012 and it consists mainly of games. All of them are from large developers, and about half are free, they work according to the model of freemium, farm-like games that encourage high costs.

The story of the little man who became big in the App Store now looks more like a legend than a real phenomenon. For the whole of 2012 there was only one example of the emergence of an unknown indie developer who made a hit game with a minimum budget - this is James Wogan, 25-year-old creator of the epidemic simulator Plague Inc.

The small development teams that succeeded in 2012 all had one or two hits behind them in previous years. The magnificent Hundreds puzzle for iPad, for example, was made by Adam Saltsman, who had previously created Canabalt, and Greg Wolwend, whom we know from working with Gasketball. Since some small studios have already made a name for themselves in great games in the past, the games that they will do in the future will have a market advantage over newcomers to the App Store.

And we are not talking about large publishers. Take a look at the list of the most downloaded paid apps of 2012, and you will see the whole clip consisting of Rovio, Disney, Electronic Arts and Zynga. Several third-party applications on this list were published in 2011 or even earlier. Newcomers in 2012 for the most part did not succeed in knocking out large developers from this list. And in the coming years, getting to the top will become even more difficult, given the changes that Apple is making in terms of the presentation and promotion of games in the store.

If you are unknown, the chances that you will succeed in the 2013 App Store are not in your favor. And new gaming platforms, unfortunately, cannot offer you more.

Low-cost micro-consoles that promise to bring the App Store experience to our homes will enter the market this year. Ouya, the $ 99 Android game console, was the first to appear, but several more have been introduced since then. The two most promising ones are GameStick, a game console that fits in the controller itself, and Nvidia Shield, a hybrid of a smartphone and a joystick. Both work on Android.

These new systems promise to at least eat up part of the television gaming market, offering a low barrier to entry for developers, especially for those who are already creating games for mobile devices on Android. They position themselves as a “safe haven” for indie developers making small console games, but the harsh reality is that large publishers can easily capture the market for these platforms.

Look at the Google Play sales charts. Established universes such as Grand Theft Auto, Need for Speed, and Minecraft dominate among the best-selling games. The showcase of any Android console will only be a reflection of this situation on the big screen. A stream of off-the-shelf telephone applications from major publishers will flood the market on the day these consoles are released, effectively squeezing out anyone who tries to do something original for these platforms.

Just as it was very simple for traditional publishers to port sloppy versions of existing console games to the App Store in the past, now this trend can be easily deployed and games created for small screens will become cheap, low-quality ports on new Android consoles. What will stop Disney and Electronic Arts from stomping and crowding out kids?

The Ouya controller even includes a touchpad for working with mobile ports, so it's not hard to imagine how an ugly, stretched version of Temple Run will top the rating of downloaded applications.

And what a blessing for Rockstar Games that the studio took the trouble to develop the Android version of Grand Theft Auto III. All you need to do to release the game on Ouya is to remove all the on-screen control buttons that make control so difficult. Then, BOOM, their awkward mobile port will again become a decent console game. Square Enix has already announced its intention to do the same with its Android version of Final Fantasy III.

Some developers will want to use Ouya or GameStick as a platform for new and original games, but it is more likely that dominant mobile developers will see a dump in these devices for cheap and fast ports. And since these games are so popular now, they can easily pull out all their money from users and supplant innovation.

And if the new wave of consoles on Android cannot separate itself from its mobile relatives, then it will have absolutely no significance for small developers. Small companies will be crowded out by a swarm of ports, the dominance of large players will continue in the App Store, and indie developers will hear the sound of a second boot falling.

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