5 Tips For Making Attractive Game Prototypes for Game Publishers

Whatever stage in game development you’re in, if you want to show us your game prototypes, send it to us anyway. If you don’t send it, you might never know if it’s ready to be published on the Hyper Casual market. With professional feedback, you can propel your game to any state that’s outside of brainstorming or prototyping. That’s a lot faster than wondering what to do by yourself.

With that said, are you serious about partnering with a game publisher like Kwalee in the long term? Then we have five tips for you to put together a pitch-perfect prototype for us.

Although the Hyper Casual market moves fast and the rules always change, these tips are at the core of Hyper Casual. So they will always help you make good quality games.

How to make attractive game prototypes

Tip 1: Create compelling ads

Hyper Casual games live or die by the appeal of video ads. So show us your game’s most compelling moments in 15-30 seconds of gameplay.

If you’re making a hypersim, the ads should reflect the ASMR gameplay. If you’re making a VS game, show what happens when the player competes against the opponent. Think about what would attract players to your game, and highlight that in the ad.

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Pay close attention to a few visual components to add some pizzazz to your gameplay clips:

• If it has characters, then highlight the visual impact of each action they take.
• Use bright colours and high contrast so the viewers can tell what’s happening.
• Playable characters must go in the lower 1/3rd of the screen, as this is the playable zone.
• Do NOT record bonus levels or side mechanics.

Tip 2: Keep low CPI in mind

Cost Per Install (CPI) is the average cost of acquiring a single user. The lower the CPI, the better the appeal and the cheaper it is to acquire players.

CPI tests are the fastest and most efficient way to see if your game has potential or not. The prototypes you make for them need only 1–3 game levels, and take between a few hours to a week to develop.

So how do you lower CPI? Well, some factors do play a role, including:

• How impactful your ads feel for the viewer
• How comprehensible your gameplay is
• How varied your art style is

Therefore, before starting your work on your games, think about your CPI videos. Consider the ‘hook moments’ to grab the viewer’s attention. Even though your game needs to have a sense of depth to retain players longer, always make the core loop fun and easy to understand.

Also, do not be afraid to play around with your scenes and art style in Unity, even for the sake of the ads. You can try out various colours and camera angles to see which one works best.

Of course, CPI test isn’t the only thing to worry about. We have a guide on market-testing your mobile games, which can be of immense help to you.

Tip 3: Use good UX design

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You want to create a game that feels nice to play and is challenging enough. Here are two UX design mistakes to watch out for:

• Attempting to change design standards.

Always make your Hyper Casual game prototypes with easy usability standards in mind. Most people interact with their phones with a single thumb, in portrait mode. Placing in-game buttons on the top-left part of the screen can make it difficult to reach for most users.

• Designing the game with high difficulty.

Hyper Casual games are meant to feel simple. Here’s an acid test: see if the player fails the first level. If so, it may not be Hyper Casual!

Some difficulty ramp-up is certainly needed to keep things interesting. So design it to be somewhere between steep and flat.

Don’t worry about how this is limiting. There is enough room for new mechanics and experiences to be introduced within these parameters.

Tip 4: Keep a quick slice ready

A quick/vertical slice is a small prototype with all of the core gameplay features available. If the CPI tests are successful, developing a quick slice is our official transition to the full gamedev stage.

Each prototype generally:

• has 15 minutes’ worth of gameplay (equating to around 20 levels),
• takes less than two weeks at max to develop,
• and does not have integrated ads or in-app purchases (IAPs).

We can help produce accurate test results and brainstorm more optimal money-making strategies. So this removes the need for IAPs in prototypes.

You can also pitch a game you already developed and self-published in the stores. If you think it’s got some potential we can help unlock, we’d be happy to consider it.

Tip 5: Time is money

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We’ve seen some game developers spend most of that time creating assets. In Hyper Casual games, presentation is everything. In fact, in today’s competitive market, players watch more ads than ever before. And to make your game stand out in the market, you must have unique and well-polished assets along with fun core mechanics.

However, time is of the essence, and it’s best to reuse assets in your games wherever possible. So set up an asset library to lower your dependency on third-party content. This way, you can use the same assets in different games without spending too much time scrounging the internet for them.

Additionally, gameplay ads have only three seconds to catch the viewer’s attention. So keep your visuals as clean, simple, and appealing as possible with the use of these assets.

Are you making game prototypes?

These quick tips are great for game developers of all levels; whether you have published games before or if it’s your first time.

And with our new Publishing Portal to guide developers, we can give you a slice of knowledge in publishing. This includes guides and tools to make the game submission process as simple and accessible as possible.

We do this because we are all about giving our game developers the best possible game publishing experience. So if you believe your game to be the next big Hyper Casual hit, send us your videos, and let’s get the ball rolling!

SEND MY GAME IDEA

Looking for an award-winning mobile game publisher to take your mobile game to the next level? As Publisher of the Year, Kwalee knows what it takes to turn your mobile game into a chart-topping success. Submit and market-test your games through our official Publishing Portal. All you need are a few minutes and a couple of gameplay videos or a simple playable prototype of your mobile game. Follow us on social media (Twitter | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube) to get the latest bits on our gamedev efforts.