How we got to the Android Market
About 6 months ago, I began to think about changing my mobile phone. Among other things, my eye fell on Android OS devices. After comparing dozens of smartphones, I opted for the HTC Gratia. I still do not regret this choice.
After the first visit to the Android Market, it became very interesting to try your hand at developing an application. Considering that several ideas for games have been spinning in my head for a long time, I decided to put them on paper. After a couple of days, in front of me was a list of 5 ideas for games.
Being a .NET programmer, I was not very interested in the prospect of learning Java and Android SDK, given the already heavy workload. So, it was decided to find for the development of freelancers.
The plan was this:
1. Draw up a plan of expenses with development terms for each game
2. Assemble a team of people who would be interested in participating
3. Choose a game from the list that we will develop first
4. Draw up terms of reference
5. Find a suitable artist
6. Develop an application
7 Post to Android Market
8. Become Fabulously Rich
Given that I speak English fluently, and Pakistani or Hindu labor is much cheaper than Russian or Ukrainian, it was decided to use the services of the foreign resource freelancer.com.
Having placed orders for all 5 games, I began to wait for the very respected community of freelancers. The price announced by various freelancers could vary from 200 USD to 1,500 USD. The terms were even more: from 2 weeks to 2 months.
After a simple approximation, the list was ready and I went to look for like-minded people who want to participate in the project. After some negotiations, two of my friends expressed a desire to participate. Already at the first meeting, we were faced with the task of choosing a game to be developed first.
Given that none of us has ever had such an experience, we did not want to immediately invest our honestly earned "billions" in the first game. So, we chose the game according to the following criteria:
- Ease of development. Naturally, here we were worried about factors such as cost and timing.
- Interesting. It was necessary to find a game that we would like to play ourselves. Given that the three of us have slightly different tastes, choosing such a game was not so simple.
- Ease of use. The game should be easy to use. For example, 3D shooters for android, I would not call easy to manage.
After not much deliberation, the choice fell on the port of the wonderful board game “Dots and boxes”.
Calling it “Dots and boxes. Battlefield ”, we have come to the stage of searching for an artist.
Given the huge variation in cost, it was decided to hire the cheapest freelancer with good reviews. So we found an artist named X from glorious Pakistan.
Pledging to develop the game in 15 days for $ 450, X became our developer.
In freelancer, the mouth is such a thing as milestone. The bottom line is that, in order to prove his solvency, the customer transfers a certain part of the money to freelancer.com account before the start of development. At the end, the customer can confirm that the work has been done and transfer milestone to the side of the contractor. If the order has not been fulfilled, the customer cannot simply take this money. He needs to call the executor to dispute and prove his innocence. A dispute can drag on for months.
In rate X, a 50 percent milestone was indicated, so we transferred 225 dollars and started cooperation.
First of all, besides the specification, I sent a Pakistani whipped up project plan and asked him to give me the deadlines for each iteration.
To simplify, I even created a simple table in google docs, where I suggested filling in the columns “Date of start” and “Deadline” for each iteration.
It was on Tuesday, March 22, 2011.
The next day, he wrote to me that he would make an assessment on Thursday, since they have a national holiday on March 23rd. Despite the fact that I asked for deadline for all iterations, on Thursday evening I saw it only for the first one. Well, I thought, maybe it’s too early to evaluate the rest.
After this 3-day swing, the real work began on Friday. X finally started asking questions. On Saturday, I received the first mocapas of the future game. How lucky I am that I still have them:
Pay attention to the tasks described above for the first iteration in the project plan and find a few hundred differences. I'm not talking about the quality of design, but only about the accuracy of the execution of the described tasks. Of the 3 mockups declared, only one corresponds to the iteration description.
After spending about 2 hours explaining what was done wrong, there was a complete lull.
I decided to wake the dormant Pakistani only on Thursday. And only on Monday, 04/04/2011, the long-awaited mocapas were received.
The persistence with which Comrade X avoided the clear implementation of the tasks was astounding.
Instead of the second missions, the first was chosen, and it was not drawn correctly, the “side selector” still can not see the light. More or less, we only figured out the menu.
So, the time has come to take stock: having spent 13 days out of the declared 15 on development, we did not even complete the first iteration.
Tired of this “progress”, I decided to change the development methodology and informed X that I intend to monitor progress daily. So, at 14:00 a daily rally was scheduled.
I must say, this gave a definite result and, for a while, it gave impetus to our joint work. After a couple of three mocapas, far from what we expected to receive, it was decided to make the mocapas ourselves.
So, meeting with my friend on Sunday evening, we launched Photoshop and began to draw mocapas. By 2 o’clock in the morning, I sent X about 10 mocaps of the game. Also, we decided that if in a week the game is not done, we part with respected X and try to write the game on our own.
As expected, the ice did not break, and, by the end of the week, iteration 2 was not completed.
So, after a short dispute on freelancer, 04/28/2011, X was paid $ 50 and we began to develop the game on our own.
Despite the fact that the development time was only in the evenings after work and we never wrote in Java, the game was fully developed in a month and, the first version, was in our hands by the end of May.
Placement on the market was painfully simple. By paying $ 25 and filling out about 10 fields, many of which were optional, our game became available on the android market.
At the moment, the game is available in the Beta version. Recently, we screwed adMob and collect statistics. We plan to launch a paid version. After much deliberation, we decided to post a paid version from August. At first, it will differ solely in the absence of advertising.
When the first statistics appear, I will be happy to share it with you.
After the first visit to the Android Market, it became very interesting to try your hand at developing an application. Considering that several ideas for games have been spinning in my head for a long time, I decided to put them on paper. After a couple of days, in front of me was a list of 5 ideas for games.
Being a .NET programmer, I was not very interested in the prospect of learning Java and Android SDK, given the already heavy workload. So, it was decided to find for the development of freelancers.
The plan was this:
1. Draw up a plan of expenses with development terms for each game
2. Assemble a team of people who would be interested in participating
3. Choose a game from the list that we will develop first
4. Draw up terms of reference
5. Find a suitable artist
6. Develop an application
7 Post to Android Market
8. Become Fabulously Rich
We draw up a spending plan for each game and collect people
Given that I speak English fluently, and Pakistani or Hindu labor is much cheaper than Russian or Ukrainian, it was decided to use the services of the foreign resource freelancer.com.
Having placed orders for all 5 games, I began to wait for the very respected community of freelancers. The price announced by various freelancers could vary from 200 USD to 1,500 USD. The terms were even more: from 2 weeks to 2 months.
After a simple approximation, the list was ready and I went to look for like-minded people who want to participate in the project. After some negotiations, two of my friends expressed a desire to participate. Already at the first meeting, we were faced with the task of choosing a game to be developed first.
What should I start with?
Given that none of us has ever had such an experience, we did not want to immediately invest our honestly earned "billions" in the first game. So, we chose the game according to the following criteria:
- Ease of development. Naturally, here we were worried about factors such as cost and timing.
- Interesting. It was necessary to find a game that we would like to play ourselves. Given that the three of us have slightly different tastes, choosing such a game was not so simple.
- Ease of use. The game should be easy to use. For example, 3D shooters for android, I would not call easy to manage.
After not much deliberation, the choice fell on the port of the wonderful board game “Dots and boxes”.
Calling it “Dots and boxes. Battlefield ”, we have come to the stage of searching for an artist.
What are the games in Pakistan now?
Given the huge variation in cost, it was decided to hire the cheapest freelancer with good reviews. So we found an artist named X from glorious Pakistan.
Pledging to develop the game in 15 days for $ 450, X became our developer.
In freelancer, the mouth is such a thing as milestone. The bottom line is that, in order to prove his solvency, the customer transfers a certain part of the money to freelancer.com account before the start of development. At the end, the customer can confirm that the work has been done and transfer milestone to the side of the contractor. If the order has not been fulfilled, the customer cannot simply take this money. He needs to call the executor to dispute and prove his innocence. A dispute can drag on for months.
In rate X, a 50 percent milestone was indicated, so we transferred 225 dollars and started cooperation.
First of all, besides the specification, I sent a Pakistani whipped up project plan and asked him to give me the deadlines for each iteration.
To simplify, I even created a simple table in google docs, where I suggested filling in the columns “Date of start” and “Deadline” for each iteration.
It was on Tuesday, March 22, 2011.
The next day, he wrote to me that he would make an assessment on Thursday, since they have a national holiday on March 23rd. Despite the fact that I asked for deadline for all iterations, on Thursday evening I saw it only for the first one. Well, I thought, maybe it’s too early to evaluate the rest.
After this 3-day swing, the real work began on Friday. X finally started asking questions. On Saturday, I received the first mocapas of the future game. How lucky I am that I still have them:
Pay attention to the tasks described above for the first iteration in the project plan and find a few hundred differences. I'm not talking about the quality of design, but only about the accuracy of the execution of the described tasks. Of the 3 mockups declared, only one corresponds to the iteration description.
After spending about 2 hours explaining what was done wrong, there was a complete lull.
I decided to wake the dormant Pakistani only on Thursday. And only on Monday, 04/04/2011, the long-awaited mocapas were received.
The persistence with which Comrade X avoided the clear implementation of the tasks was astounding.
Instead of the second missions, the first was chosen, and it was not drawn correctly, the “side selector” still can not see the light. More or less, we only figured out the menu.
So, the time has come to take stock: having spent 13 days out of the declared 15 on development, we did not even complete the first iteration.
Tired of this “progress”, I decided to change the development methodology and informed X that I intend to monitor progress daily. So, at 14:00 a daily rally was scheduled.
I must say, this gave a definite result and, for a while, it gave impetus to our joint work. After a couple of three mocapas, far from what we expected to receive, it was decided to make the mocapas ourselves.
So, meeting with my friend on Sunday evening, we launched Photoshop and began to draw mocapas. By 2 o’clock in the morning, I sent X about 10 mocaps of the game. Also, we decided that if in a week the game is not done, we part with respected X and try to write the game on our own.
As expected, the ice did not break, and, by the end of the week, iteration 2 was not completed.
So, after a short dispute on freelancer, 04/28/2011, X was paid $ 50 and we began to develop the game on our own.
If you want to do something, do it yourself
Despite the fact that the development time was only in the evenings after work and we never wrote in Java, the game was fully developed in a month and, the first version, was in our hands by the end of May.
Placement on Android Market
Placement on the market was painfully simple. By paying $ 25 and filling out about 10 fields, many of which were optional, our game became available on the android market.
At the moment, the game is available in the Beta version. Recently, we screwed adMob and collect statistics. We plan to launch a paid version. After much deliberation, we decided to post a paid version from August. At first, it will differ solely in the absence of advertising.
When the first statistics appear, I will be happy to share it with you.