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 before. And since the Android app marketplace only requires a one-time fee to submit an app, the cost becomes almost negligible to make the product available to millions of customers. Even the submission process is drastically shorter than on most other smartphones, as app throttling is much more lenient for the Android operating system.
Another point of attraction for the development of games on Android devices is the programming language presented: Java. Java has long been one of the most popular programming languages for game developers and thus makes it extremely easy for the average programmer to pick up Android development for the first time. Compared to most other mobile platforms, which usually have modified or newly invented languages, the learning curve is reduced 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 family of phones. As the Android operating system is not licensed to a single mobile phone manufacturing company, the phones themselves can vary greatly in terms of hardware features and specifications. While one device may have fully-functioning A-GPS and HDMI video support, another may have a QWERTY keyboard and no GPS at all. While this is certainly attractive to some developers as they are likely to find a phone that precisely meets their hardware needs, it will also restrict the potential audience as some phones will not be able to support more complex apps.
When the game development process has finally reached the point where it can be released to the public, the developer is faced with another choice: in which market would the game be most visible? Unlike iOS, there are numerous markets and app stores for Android phones, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. From the basic Android marketplace, built to display only apps compatible with the phone currently being used, to the Amazon app store, offering a different free app every day, the myriad of marketing strategies can be almost overwhelming, which makes it all the more useful that one app can almost always be entered into multiple markets without a problem. However, whether it makes sense to spread the attention across several different fields is another question entirely.
The overall Android game development process truly provides the most variety in the smartphone market. From start to finish, strategies can be tailored to the developer’s wishes, making the game as close to the original concept as possible. While the audience may not be as large as iPhone users, Android presents itself as a strong competitor, simply through its accessibility. And with the largest variety of smartphones on the market today, the possibilities for development are endless, and continued releases can only increase the capabilities the platform has to offer.