Game Development 101 - Beginning Android Games - page 56

Gem Miner: Dig Deeper (see Figure 3-2 ), by the one-man army Psym Mobile, is a completely
different animal. It is the sequel to the wildly successful Gem Miner by the same company. It only
slightly iterates the original. You play a miner that tries to find valuable ores, metals, and gems
in randomly generated mines. These treasures can be traded for better equipment to dig deeper
and find even more valuable treasures. It exploits the fact that many people love the concept
of grinding: without much effort, you are constantly rewarded with new gimmicks that keep you
playing. Another interesting aspect of this game is that the mines are randomly generated. This
increases the replay value of the game immensely, without adding additional game mechanics.
To spice things up a little, the game offers challenge levels with concrete aims and goals for
which you get medals upon completion. It is a very lightweight achievement system.
Figure 3-2. Gem Miner: Dig Deeper, by Psym Mobile
One more interesting aspect of this game is the way it's monetized. Despite the current trend
toward “freemium� games (the game itself is free, while additional content can be bought
for often-ridiculous prices), it uses the “old-school� paid model. At around $2 a pop and
over 100,000 downloads, that's quite a bit of money for a very simple game. These kind of
sales numbers are rare on Android, especially with Psym Mobile having basically done no
advertisement for the game at all. The success of the predecessor and its huge player base
pretty much guaranteed the success of the sequel.
A list of all of the possible subgenres of the casual game category would fill most of this topic.
Many more innovative game concepts can be found in this genre, and it is worth checking out
the respective category in the market to get some inspiration.
Puzzle Games
Puzzle games need no introduction. We all know great games like Tetris and Bejeweled . They
are a big part of the Android gaming market, and they are highly popular with all segments of