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Developing games for Mobile Casinos: A few points to keep in mind

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The internet casino industry has been growing significantly with every passing year, and despite everything that has happened so far in 2020, online casinos are still going strong.

Aside from enjoying other common advantages over traditional casinos, such as convenience, safety, portability, more variety, and welcome bonuses, they are also the more viable option right now. A number of major offline casinos are yet to open, while the rest are not going to operate at full capacity for some time at least.

What this all means is that in addition to the gaming industry itself, this is also good news for game developers, given that the demand to develop new pokies is quite high now, and it is going to remain that way for the foreseeable future. If you are relatively new to app development, you will likely find the few pointers that we have for you that will be quite useful while catering to the needs of your clients.

Don’t try to reinvent the wheel

When developing a new digital interface to host traditional card games like blackjack or poker, it’s best not to try something radical, especially if the client has not shown any such interests. Designing and coding slots or pokies will allow for a lot more freedom since there is ample room for new ideas to take shape in the genre.

The client will still provide the financial and fundamental principles of the slot mechanics of course, but the developer will be in charge of the execution, which allows for creative freedom to some extent, especially in the design department. Nevertheless, it’s best not to try and change any of the fundamentals which a game development project is expected to follow.

Even if you are an independent developer who is working on his/her own app, it is suggested for you to be acutely aware of what your target audience likes the most. In this case, the developer should be aware of the most popular pokies online.

Find the top-rated online casinos in Australia and the most played pokies. Use each website’s unique welcome bonuses to try a few rounds yourself and let the hit casino games inspire your own creative project. When there are identifiable aspects of game development that are working particularly well for the target audience, it’s better not to try and fix something that isn’t broken.

This is not to say that there is no room for originality in slot game development, because, without some degree of innovation to the core concept, there is no point in making just a clone or copy that rarely manages to avoid copyright infringement lawsuits! In other words, identify, enlist, and reinvent the hit formulas which most casino games share, without duplicating themselves.

This applies to both coding and asset creation. It’s easy to state that you should be focussing on creating unique pokies, the likes of which no one has ever seen before in a mobile casino, but that is as vague as vague can be. If you think you really do have a winning idea that is truly novel, then it would be an exception. As for every other time, rely on market research, data, and well-established parameters.

Dynamic window support for various aspect ratios and resolutions

There might only be three major platforms but Android, in particular, makes it difficult to design universally compatible apps for it, even in 2020. While they have ironed out most of the issues, some of them still remain. One of the major problems faced by Android smartphone users is that of display compatibility.

All modern pokies should be designed to support the various aspect ratios and resolutions that Android phones and tablets come in nowadays. Similar to dynamic web design, a mobile gaming app should also be able to adapt to the specific display window on which it is being viewed/played.

Pick your programming language(s) carefully

Each language has its strong points, but the programmer will need a proper and thorough understanding of Java if they wish to create any video game for any platform. As software programmers already know, there is no language as vast as C++ and although it may not be necessary for mobile game development, a basic knowledge of C++ is still mandatory.

Even if you don’t code in it, your understanding of the language will come in extremely handy as anyone with decent knowledge of C++ will have an easier time with the core algorithms in general.

Since we are focussing on the mobile casino platform here, that’s where our focus should be. Therefore, with iOS (and iPadOS) and Android in mind, consider the following programming languages and crosscheck their suitability to your project’s requirements.

  • Java
  • JavaScript
  • Kotlin
  • C#
  • Lua
  • Swift (only for Apple)

As a professional programmer, you should already have the necessary knowledge to get started on scripting. However, it is important that you choose your coding language intelligently. Whichever one you decide to go with, ensure that it is primarily suited for the main platform that you or your client is targeting.

What that means is the game should ideally be designed to function on all three of the primary Operating Systems (Android, iOS, and Windows), but the chosen programming language should be particularly suited for the target platform(s).

For example, coding in C++ and/or Java is almost unavoidable when you are building a game with Windows PCs in mind, but due to the infamous, and extremely bothersome occurrence of “Undefined” cases quite frequently, C# might be a better choice for not just beginners but even experienced game developers. C# with its .NET functionalities come particularly recommended since it is a seamless multiplatform language that works well across all platforms. On the other hand, if the Android platform is a priority for the client and/or developer, Kotlin could be the language of choice, especially since programming with it is both supported and encouraged by Android.

Swift would be the most ideal syntax to work with, provided that the casino app is targeting Apple users, Beware though, if you use Swift to program your game, it will be tied down to the Apple ecosystem only, and you will need to use another language altogether for enabling multiplatform support.

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