[Ask IH] We have a successful product but not sure if we can fulfill it! What to do?
So long story short, a few months back we launched a "mini game" of your virtual pet. We had amazing results (I could be wrong) we managed to get around 3k people to sign up using paid ads on facebook with almost 0.10 cents CAC (see ads at the bottom) and an average of Week on Week Growth of 117% over 3 weeks.
The problem is, we are not game developers, we have never created a game and we do not know if we can deliver. We would have to get a game studio, a designer, a better story etc and we are not sure about it.
We seem to have struck a nerve with this game and we keep getting messages from people asking us to finish it.
What would you suggest? Should we forget it?
|Name | Results | Reach | Impressions | Cost Per Result|
|Ad 1: | 948| 97,104 | 116,308 | 0.21|
|Ad 2: | 2,321 |122,656 | 147,687 | 0.07|
We obviously improved on our 2nd ad.
Were these sign-ups free? I would caution that the price gap between $0.00 and anything is quite large. If your app is paid your traction metrics cannot just magically support the same assumptions.
That said there are a number of no to low-code game development systems that MAY meet your requirements for the technical side... at least for a minimal version that could help with further validation, especially around revenue.
If this is like a virtual pet I don't know how much story you need. Users might create their own stories by giving their pets a personality and back story. And they could be bred (for money) ala crypto-kitties.
there was nothing much to even think of asking for a price, the main idea would be revenue through in app purchases for skins cosmetics etc.
Hello...my name is E. J...
I am a product designer & Inventor .
I have been studying game engines & design as part of a non gaming project .
The following links are Unity scripts which can save you lots of time & money...they are high quality and they also sell scripts for like 20 dollars
With unity you can create whole worlds..very simply
100 FREE
https://assetstore.unity.com/lists/top-free-packages-13201
This package contains 26 different animated and rigged animals. All textures are PBR ready, some animals contain secondary color textures for animal variations. Animals contain few animations: idle, walk, run, die, eat, attack.
It costs - 4.00
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/animals/animal-pack-deluxe-99702
Zombies 20.00
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/zombie-slaughter-119817
Fantasy Lands - FREE
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/fantasy-lands-free-mini-pack-112185
desert landscape .99 cents
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/landscapes/pbr-desert-landscape-62770
They also have lots of Low Poly stuff too .
All you need is a couple of bucks & a Unity developer
well... i am not sure if "all you need is a couple of bucks and a unity developer" is that simple.
What else would you need ?...
Your telling me that with 100 free modules...you cant figure out
a " story line " for a phone game , because your not game developers or don't have the money ?
2d game kit
A project designed for non-programmers be they artists, designers or anything in between. It’s a collection of gameplay elements, tools, and systems so that gameplay can be hooked up without any code. https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/essentials/tutorial-projects/2d-game-kit-107098
The YouTube demo video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cF7Sl7FazE&t=4s
Bring me a game in 3 weeks...or don't come back here.
dude honestly who made you so entitled? people can disagree with your opinion. If you think making a game is just taking copy paste skins then sorry but your standards are very low.
drk92, I am assuming that your intentions were to validate the idea and then move forward if you had the correct response. It is now clear that there is a want/need for the game. What was your original game plan if you received such a response? The obvious answer is to move forward but how is the next question...
A game studio is not required in most cases. The only time a game studio is needed is when the mobile app has a load of in/outs such as Zynga poker, Farmtown and games like that. If your mobile app is something simple such as FlappyBird, you can probably knock this out with a full-stack dev and an UI-UX engineer who has a gaming background; perhaps another dev or two to work in cahoots with the first. A lot of missing info here but I'd proceed. Perhaps run a couple more ads to see but the target audience is there, clearly. Your CAC is also low but what is your revenue generation model? In other words, how do you plan to pull profit from your app?
Well at first we wanted to use the game to train an ML model through little tasks that seem gamified. The problem was that then we realised b2b on this specific sector is a tough sell / very small interest but we had captured the b2c interest.
The main revenue would be through skins and accessories aka in app purchases.
The game itself would be like a digital tamagotchi so it goes closer to a farmtown level, including different tasks a storyline, interactions, mood etc.
Still the people you mention is around 3 extra paychecks or finding them for equity and we are not sure if we should continue when we have such "plot holes" in terms of how to advance the product itself.
Thanks for your comment by the way!
drk92, thanks for the additional information. I would try to scout for a game studio to pick this up but it is not going to come cheap. Even taking the route of hiring developers, you are going to be forced to either kick out some equity and/or funds.
ye it will be a bit tricky. Thanks for the help!