HowtoLaunchYourOwnMobileGame…withValentin
In line with our philosophy "Let's Push Things Forward," we would like to present the (so far hidden) talents of our colleagues.
This time, we spoke with Creative Technologist and illustration genius Valentin, who developed a small mobile game called Social DisDancing during the Corona lockdown. Inspired by the lack of toilet paper and 1.5 meters of distance... Here he shares some insights with us.
Tell us a little about what inspired you to work on this?
From time to time, I get a sudden burst of creative energy, and I want to work on my own project. Many different ideas then swirl around in my head. Some revolve around game mechanics, others aim for a particular aesthetic or atmosphere. One of these vague ideas was based on a kind of group dynamic, a simulation of group behavior with many entities. The result of my game was not like that at all, but this idea was the starting point. By combining this impulse with the then very fresh quarantine situation, I designed a small prototype with many entities that approach the player and must be avoided. Since this game mechanic excited me, I started refining it.
From the outset, I set extra boundaries for myself in implementing the project because I had developed a game before and knew how long it could take to finish something for multiple platforms and in different resolutions—and then also to publish it.
The boundaries I set for myself were:
- Mobile only
- Portrait mode only
- Only one game mode, no multiple levels; it should just get increasingly difficult
Additionally, I wanted to learn something new:
- Improve my skills in 3D modeling and texturing in Blender
- "Baking" lightmaps and exporting them to Unity
- Animation in Unity
- Integrating ads into my app
Another important part of this project was collaborating with friends. One took care of the background music, another had the ideas for "what to do" at the end of each run, and a third contributed to these short and funny sentences.
But above all, I enjoy the process of creating things at my own pace exactly how I want them. If I can do every part of the project myself, then I don't have to wait for anyone and can work like a madman until 5 a.m. The quarantine situation somehow made it easier for me to really get into the creative tunnel without feeling like I'm missing out on something in the outside world.
What key learnings were there?
Actually, everything went pretty smoothly. I still had to learn a lot about efficient and clean modeling in Blender and how to transfer these things to Unity without messing anything up. Baking lightmaps in Blender also took some time. For every question I had, a resource was available. Usually, it was a YouTube video at 1.5x speed that transferred the missing information into my brain. ;)
All in all, I still find it truly amazing that there are so many free professional tools and virtually unlimited knowledge accessible to everyone. This became very clear to me during quarantine: Anyone with an internet connection and some time can learn pretty much anything they want. I will never get used to that, and it is always truly astonishing!
Any last (or completely random) insights you want to share with the readers?
- Apple refused to put my game in their App Store because they don't allow games related to Corona.
- Ads are only profitable if you get hundreds of thousands or millions of downloads. So far, with ~700 fully viewed ads, which are quite long (30 seconds), I've earned an impressive sum of 12 cents. So it's just annoying for everyone playing my game, and I'll probably switch to a different monetization model for my next game.
- The high score is currently at 4,543 meters! It blows my mind how much better people have gotten at this game than I am.
- I used the following creative tools: Unity3D, Blender, Photoshop, Unity-Ads.
Thank you, Valentin!
(Follow him on Instagram - it's worth it): https://www.instagram.com/valentinscheiner/