Aussie game devs look towards Android

Melbourne-based mobile games development studio The Voxel Agents has compiled a survey of existing research into the nature of the mobile gaming market, with the aim of giving other developers ideas on the best way to tackle development for the Android platform.

Thomas Killen looked at research from companies such as Flurry Analytics, AdMob, and other data aggregation services and compiled a blog post on The Voxel Agents site detailing his findings. Killen's major findings were:

--iPads are fast replacing home laptops for most users.
--The Android platform is rising but not nearly as fast as most indie developers hoped.
--Many indie developers who left the iOS to work on the Android are starting to drift back toward iOS development.
--Monetization has proven to be a much more difficult problem on the Android than on iOS.
--The Android Market is growing rapidly, and indie developers need to stop ignoring the platform.

"For the past few years, our studio's bread-and-butter platforms were the iPhone and iPad," Killen said. "Focusing on these platforms has allowed us to create very high-quality successful games. However, while we've been doing this, we've watched the exponential rise of the Android marketplace, and we know that it cannot be ignored. It's obvious that we need to make our games available on Android. What's less clear is the best way to do this."

Killen says his studio doesn't believe in "quick ports." By looking at all of the existing research into the nature of the mobile space, Killen hoped to learn what it takes to succeed as an Android market game developer; the studio says that it already knows its iOS audience well but is convinced that simply transplanting iOS games and monetization strategies onto the Android marketplace will not deliver positive results.

"We wanted to know what kind of apps people on Android are using; what level of quality they expect; and why they aren't nearly as willing to buy games when compared to iPhone users. If you have a look at the top 100 selling Android games, it's immediately clear that quality is a problem. Many Android games just aren't up to scratch, so our first conclusion was that we need to treat our Android audience with as much respect as we treat our iOS audience and deliver them at least the same level of quality."

Killen also says his findings indicate that Android users prefer free apps when compared to the iOS audience, and it is still growing at a rapid pace.

"This isn't surprising when you consider the quality deficit many Android games are suffering from; why would users trust a game they have to pay for when so many free and paid games leave much to be desired? We were also amazed to learn that about half a million Android devices are activated every single day, which is just mind blowing. Looking more deeply at this figure, it became evident that this includes the sale of many low-powered devices that aren't capable of running our current portfolio of games."

Killen hopes his findings can help other independent developers, both in Australia and overseas, to reconsider the way they are making games and invest more time and effort into the Android market.

The Voxel Agents will be announcing their new games for Android platforms in the next week. Stay tuned to GameSpot AU for more info.

For more info on Android games, check out GameSpot's Top Android Games feature.