l337 Accelerator x Games in Asia meetup Malaysia: Appxplore’s journey (Part 2)

Games in Asia’s Malaysia meetup, done in cooperation with the l337 Accelerator, saw Malaysian game developer veterans P’ng Yiwei of Kurechii Studio and Desmond Lee of Appxplore share their journeys and the lessons they learned from day one.

If you’re aspiring to be an indie game developer in Malaysia, then you need to read this.

Appxplore was started in May 2011 with a team of just four people. There was one producer, Desmond Lee himself, one game designer, and two programmers. Rather than jump right into the programming, the team first decided to look for an office.

Having found an MSC-status office with cheap rent in a convenient location, it was now time to think of a game (MSC being a government-recognized status that grants businesses privileges in Malaysia). Lightopus, Appxplore’s first game, was a premium one, and took about seven to eight months to complete. But again, unlike most eager indies, Appxplore didn’t jump to put Lightopus on the app store. Rather, it created game trailers and set up its social media; then, it went hunting for a publisher.

(See: Asiasoft’s first English-language mobile game offering is a complete dud)

“We didn’t know how to market [the game],” said Lee, who was giving the presentation on Appxplore’s journey. Lightopus ended up getting published by Europe’s Bulkypix, and was showcased at Casual Connect Asia 2012. Of course, the team followed suit to Singapore, where the convention was being held, and was exposed for the first time to the wider gaming industry.

Casual Connect Asia 2012, Lee said, was an eye opener. It was there that Appxplore learned about promotions and monetization, as well as analytic tools. More importantly, it learned of the potential of the freemium game.

Similar to his counterpart P’ng Yiwei, who had presented earlier, Lee paused after talking about his initial journey to offer advice to developers just starting out. He said:

• Don’t be ambitious, making a game that your team can handle
• Budget for time for polishing, integration, and general improvements
• Design for multiple platforms
• If you don’t know what to do, work with a publisher and learn from it
• Attend Casual Connect Asia!

Following Casual Connect Asia 2012, the Appxplore team expanded from four to five. It also started developing the freemium games Sporos and Alien Hive. Sporos took about four to five months of development, while Alien Hive took eight.

[fve]http://youtu.be/z6DW5mr5IPI[/fve]