The mobile game development industry has introduced a very important aspect to the market: the ability to conceptualize, develop and launch video games on devices with much more success and ease than ever. And since the Android app market only requires a one-time fee to submit an application, the cost becomes almost negligible to get the product out for millions of customers to find. Even the submission process is drastically shorter than on most other smartphones, as the app’s regulation is much more lenient for the Android operating system.
Another attraction point for developing games on Android devices is the presented programming language: Java. Java has long been one of the most popular programming languages for video game developers and thus makes it extremely easy for the average programmer to learn Android development for the first time. Compared to most other mobile platforms, which typically have modified or newly invented languages, the learning curve comes down to next to nothing, so a new developer can complete a game in a fraction of the time.
Another unique aspect of Android game development is the lack of standardization across the droid phone family. As the Android operating system is not licensed by a single mobile phone manufacturing company, the phones themselves can vary to an extreme degree in terms of features and hardware specifications. While one device may have fully functional A-GPS and HDMI video compatibility, another may have a QWERTY keyboard and no GPS. While this is certainly attractive to some developers, as they are likely to find a phone that meets their hardware needs precisely, it will also restrict the potential audience, as some phones will not be able to support the more complex applications.
When the game development process has finally reached the point where it can be released to the public, the developer is presented with yet another option: in which market would the game be most visible? Unlike iOS, there are numerous marketplaces and app stores for Android phones, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. From the basic Android market, created to show only the applications compatible with the phone that is currently used, to the Amazon application store, which offers a different free application every day, the large number of marketing strategies can be almost daunting, which makes it all the more useful that an application can almost always be entered into multiple markets without issue. However, whether it makes sense to extend the attention to several different fields is another question entirely.
The Android game development process in general offers the greatest variety in the smartphone market. From start to finish, strategies can be tailored to the wishes of the developer, making the game as close to the original concept as possible today. While the audience may not be as large as that of iPhone users, Android is a strong competitor, simply because of its accessibility. And with the widest variety of smartphones on the market today, the development possibilities are inexhaustible and continuous releases can only add to the capabilities the platform has to offer.
