My adventure into Android game development is well into it's release phase. I've been learning loads of stuff about the process and wanted to get a few points down, mainly for reference in the future.
Firstly, the actual development process was a doddle. After a few false starts, I found a good framework that I could jump straight into using. As with most systems, simply setting up the screen and such is fiddly and esoteric so having a pre-made "shell" is advantageous.
The first major hurdle was implementing ad-banners. Perhaps ironically, this really makes the game a bit worse but is a way of being able to still offer the game for free. I'm inclined to use a different model for my next project - perhaps a free demo level then a paid-for pro version containing the bulk of the game. The Silent Age did this really well, offering a substantial playing experience for free but leaving the plot open for more episodes if you wanted to pay a modest fee and continue.
The release process was fairly straight forward, though did involve a bit of waiting - there is a gap of several hours from you updating to the game actually appearing on Google Play.
The largest new area for me, was promotion. I've no experience of getting in people's faces to try and persuade the to do something. I don't like it and find the whole area foggy and full of dead-ends. Most websites that pertain to be willing to help ended up trying to sell me something instead. I don't have any sort of marketing budget this time but will likely need to consider this carefully next time when I have a good product to sell. There is also a waiting game to be played here, sites don't pick up your submission right away so it may be days or weeks before you see results.
Understanding statistics. All week I've been checking my Google Play Developer Console and wondering why my downloads have been static. It appeared no one whatsoever was downloading the game. I thought this improbable but disappointing nonetheless as I've shared the game in a number of places. However, this morning, the stats have all jumped so it seems they may be updated weekly rather than live or nearly live. This is a pain as it's hard to gauge what prompted the bulk of the downloads.
I'm winding down work on Simples now as I've learned as much as I reasonably can from the process of developing it.
One other thing - "Simples" is not a good name for an app. There are thousands of titles with the word "simple" in the name so it gets lost in a sea of similarly named titles.
It's been a brilliant three weeks and I'm pleased to have learned so much in that time. I feel in good standing to continue and develop my next project.
