How Much Does It Cost To Create a Mobile Game App?

Everyone owns a phone in this digital era. Mobile phones are the new necessary gadgets. Mobile phones have lead people to download mobile games for entertainment purposes. Mobile games are the most downloaded app. Mobile game development is a booming market. Although there are thousands of games available on the android and IOS, developing a mobile game app still provides a long term revenue generation opportunity. The number of mobile games keeps on increasing.

Mobile gaming dominates more than 50% of the global games industry revenue. The mobile game market is expected to reach $106.4 billion in 2021.

The mobile game is an emerging technology which is attracting many consumers as time passes by. Most mobile phone owners play games on their phones.

Factors Involve For The Cost To Create a Mobile Game App?

The game development cost estimation depends on several factors. These factors need to be considered while developing a mobile game app.

Pre-development Expenses

Game Story and Characters

An effective game story is essential to keep the players engaged. The characters need to be attractive to keep the attention of the player on the game until the end. This involves creating the personality of every character, setting the tone and interaction with the player.

The professional strategists develop these features in the plot. For the development of a game story, plot and characters, $100 to $150 cost can be charged on an hourly basis.

Design

This phase is crucial because the game levels, target users and game environment are planned. The game app will be unable to provide smooth player experiences as it can have glitches and bugs. In the process of design and development cycle, many professionals are involved, including game artists, architectures, UX and UI designers etc. The cost can range from $150 to $250 per hour.

Game categories and genres

Moving forward, there are game categories and genres. This is yet another essential step in developing the game app. The cost of this phase depends on how complex your gaming app is. It depends on whether your gaming app is a casual gaming app, a social gaming app or a simulation gaming app.

They are further categorized as:

• Mini-games are simple games that do not require any complex skills to play. The cost for such gaming apps is somewhere around $20,000.Casual 2D games are the kind of games that include basic 2D graphics and soundtracks, which can be provided by 2D art services. This kind of game has a high rate of engagement and opportunity for scale-up. It can cost around $50,000 to $100,000 to develop such kinds of games.
• Social games are the type of games which are available on social media sites like Facebook. These games are similar to browser games. The cost range from $100,000 to $250,000.
• Mid-level games involve characters, different levels, story and good graphics. These games engage the player for longer duration by an effective story. The variety of content increases the replayability of the players. The development cost for such games can range from $250,000 to $700,000.
• Business game applications businesses are using mobile games to increase the engagement of team workers. Companies are using mobile games to make the work environment more fun and engaging. These types of games are multiplayer games with a compelling storyline, graphics, animations, soundtrack and game levels.The experts in the mobile app development area are capable of creating business game applications. The cost ranges between $250,000 to $550,000.
• High-level games require careful design, strategy and a comprehensive plan. The budget for such games is quite high, but once the game hits the right audience, it generates great revenue. A great amount of time is required to develop high-level games. As long as the cost is concerned, it ranges from $400,000 to $1,000,000 to develop high-level games.

Post Development Expenses

Game App Testing

After the development phase, comes the testing phase. But it is equally important. Nobody likes a slow and bugging game. Especially the players are looking for a smooth and glitch-free experience. Game app with issues and bugging will not be tolerated by gamers. There is no point in taking the risk of negative user experience.

The app development company offers game app testing as a part of the development cost.

Marketing Your Game App

Marketing the game app is as important as developing and testing. If you have developed the game app, it is not necessarily important that it will hit the target audience. Marketing skills are required to increase the ratings and visibility of your game app in the Apple and Google Play Store.

The budget for marketing should be managed strategic beforehand because if the game app is developed and not marketed appropriately, then it will not have any reward whatsoever.

Conclusion

To sum it all up, it can cost $500,000 to $1,000,000 of budget if experienced mobile game app development company is your choice. Now that you have a breakdown of the cost associated with game app development, the amount can be estimated to develop a mobile game app. However, the cost can fluctuate based on the complexity of your game app.

The gaming market is rising day by day. Although the development cost is very high, it can be rewarding once the app hits the target audience.

The mobile game app is a project where a lot of brainstorming and exploration goes before finding the correct way of development. The storyline, characters, variety, depth, genres, mobile platform, animation etc. are all crucial when it comes to overall mobile game development. The mobile game app development is an intricate project which can be made possible with a credible development partner that can implement this type of functionalities in your gaming app.