About this course and the current state of mobile games

Welcome to “Building your mobile game into a business”, a course designed to give indie developers critical knowledge and tools to compete in the mobile market and make their creative vision a financial success.

Building and launching a successful mobile game is more challenging than ever before. Even an amazing game is no guarantee of success, and creating a business strategy is now essential. More mobile games are being developed every year and there’s a small window to bring in new players and make sure they’re having a great experience.

In this course we outline what you need to know at every stage of the development process to set your game up for success. Starting in the concept stage, moving through to production and live service, we explore the tools and techniques used by some of the most successful mobile games in the world.

This begins with the current state of the mobile games industry and how indie developers can start positioning their game as a self-sustaining business alongside their creative vision. Feel free to start from the beginning or jump in at any point - this course is designed to help out at every stage of the development process.

With more than 5 billion downloads per month on mobile apps built with Unity, mobile game development is becoming more popular each year. More players are downloading, playing, and engaging with mobile games than ever before and there’s a clear opportunity for indie developers. It also presents a big challenge, how do you stand out from the crowd?

While things are competitive, this also presents a clear opportunity for indie developers. With the right approach and access to the necessary tools you can build a profitable game that allows you to keep building amazing experiences for your community.

We’re thrilled to be working with millions of creators across the globe, and more choices for players means it’s important to make sure you’re delivering the best possible experience.

The challenge for indies has always been one of resources and prioritization. If you’re a solo developer or a small team, it’s hard to justify hiring a dedicated user acquisition manager or marketing specialist. This gives larger studios an advantage, not only do they have the capital to develop more games, they also have the specialized staff to make their games successful commercially.

With more high-quality games being released each year, many by these large studios with enterprise-level resources and funding, it’s now essential to adopt a more strategic business approach.

This can seem like a daunting list, and the question still remains - how do indie developers compete with larger studios?

The good news is that the approach taken by successful mobile games is fairly formulaic and well-documented at this point. Not only is the path mapped, there are now tools available every step of the way to make the journey possible for even the smallest gamedevs.

We’ve covered what the mobile games industry looks like, the opportunities and challenges for indie developers, and the approach needed to set your game up for success. While we’re only getting started, you should now have a clear understanding of what we need to cover in the rest of this course. As we move through each topic, we help you position your game strategically in an increasingly competitive industry.

Next up, we take a look at each major stage of the game development process. This is the industry-standard approach to game development, and we break down the essential business tools and services you need to think about during each one.