009: Mobile Game Publishers - 5 reasons why your goal should be to sign a mobile publishing deal with the first 10 games you build.

Game Dev Podcast - The RisingHigh Extended Tea Break - Game Development Advice for Game Developers

This week we discuss the plans and goals any Indie Game Developer should follow when making games for the mobile platforms. Be it the Apple App Store, GooglePlay or Amazon, our advice is always the same whether you're an absolute beginner or have been making games for a while, head for that Publishing Deal.

There's a multitude of benefits for teaming up with an established mobile game publisher when launching your titles, the most arguably is traffic. Without a solid User Acquisition ( UA ) strategy in place it's going to be a struggle to drive downloads to your game and to get noticed.

Any Publisher worth their salt already have a vast, daily active network of players within their existing portfolio to cross promote and market your game to, this is vital especially on launch day. They'll also have solid connections within the industry especially with the platforms themselves.

They can get your game in front of the people who make the decisions on the games that will be featured on any given week on the stores ( Thursday is the main refresh and launch day ) and often have contacts in the press to get that all important exposure. They bring experience you can learn from as for the most part know what will, and will not work.

You'll also typically earn more money from your mobile game. With downloads comes increased revenue and it's also not uncommon for the Mobile Publishers to have special deals with the Ad Networks to ensure the highest eCPM possible for the ads that show. Although you are sacrificing a decent percentage of the total revenue of the game ( usually it's a 50 / 50 Split ( after any UA costs ) you'll still earn way more due to the downloads achieved.

It's a win / win situation and we strongly believe that you should be striving to build a game and sign a publisher deal within your first 10 games if you're serious about building games in the mobile space.

Highlights, Quick Wins & Takeaways:

1. It sets your standards high right out the gate - Average generally won't make the cut.

2. Forces You to do your market research to increase your chances of building games the publishers want.

3. Publishers usually have great relationships with the Platform Feature Teams ( Apple App Store, GooglePlay, Amazon ).

4. They have Traffic and can drive downloads - An established cross promotion network of players to market your game.

5. You’ll typically Earn more - A smaller slice of a much larger pie generally works out better.
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