003: Game Building - How long does it take to develop and make a mobile indie game?

How long is a piece of string when it comes to figuring out how much time you need to put aside to make, develop and actually ship your new indie game? In this episode, we reveal our process for setting internal deadlines and timescales when we start to make one of our "snackable" casual mobile games. It will always depend on the overall size and scope of the game you're building, which is something to consider in the very early planning stages, and can really influence the overall games content. Will you make a level based game or an endless random game? Will you have characters to collect? If so, how many is the least amount you could actually launch with? These core decisions early on can be the difference between 6 weeks and 6 months. Highlights, Quick Wins & Takeaways: Setting deadlines is crucial to actually complete your game We head for a 6 week turnaround time Set aside dedicated, focussed time to work on your project Allow 4-6 weeks to pitch the Appstore Feature Teams Building endless / randomly generated games are the quickest type to make Keep the amount of characters down to a minimum to launch with Re-evaluate the timescale after a few days of building Save all the "nice to have" content for future updates Take the deadline serious, even if you go over, you'll still be further along