For those who don’t know, one of our next ventures is creating iPhone apps. Although this has nothing to do with our clothing brand, we thought it would be interesting to share. The same design force behind Idylle is put into our video games, so we figured our Idylle fans will love it!
The first game we are making is called Doodle Driver. When creating this game, we first had a brainstorming session listing every element involved in a successful iPhone game. Here is what we came up with:
1) It needs good design. What we have learned over the years, is that design sells! Have you ever bought a book because the cover looks so awesome? Maybe you didn’t even know anything about the book. Have you ever bought Oreos instead of the generic store brand? You will notice a superior design in the Oreo packaging over the generic packaging. Good design conveys quality.
2). It needs to be simple. Most of the top rated iPhone games have very simple gameplay, that can be figured out by any age group quickly and easily. Simplicity is key in design and gameplay.
3). It needs to be addicting. A game isn’t that fun if it’s not addicting. We needed to come up with a game that users will want to play over and over again. This also helps build brand loyalty, for when we launch our next games.
4). It needs to be challenging. If there’s a challenge, there’s a sense of accomplishment. The more challenge, the stronger the sense of accomplishment. However, it is important to not make the game too difficult, otherwise players will hit a tipping point where they give up and stop playing the game. There is a fine balance that you need to find.
5). The game needs to have a good name.
6). The game app icon needs to be very well designed. It should pop, it should be simple and not busy, it should not have words in it, and it should convey elements of the game. The name and icon of the app is the very first impression a user will see before deciding whether or not to purchase, so it’s very important to get those right!
7). It needs to have either original gameplay, or it should take an already existing game concept and improve on it.
8). It needs to have good music. One thing I like to do is read consumer reviews and comments on the top rated iPhone games. You get a sense of what users are looking for. Often, you will see comments about the graphics and the music. I believe those two elements hit your senses the strongest, and therefore is super important to get right.
So with all of this and more in mind, we came up with “Doodle Driver”. It has great design, a catchy name, simple, addicting, and original gameplay, it’s progressively challenging, it has an appealing icon design, and has unbelievably amazing and timeless music. Now add that to a comprehensive and creative marketing strategy, make sure the game runs smoothly, and has no bugs, eliminating any reasons for customer complaints- you should have yourself a decently hopefully very successful iPhone game.
To explain the game- Doodle Driver is a fantastically simple “arcade-like” game. The player acts as a car drawn on old school paper. You have to stay within the drawn lines by either tapping right or left at the correct time to stay within the track. As each of the 30 levels progress, the parallel track lines get increasingly narrower and the car gets faster, proving extremely challenging towards the middle to end tracks. Try it out yourself to see how addicting it is!
For music, we were able to acquire the licenses to use music from the original Little Rascals and Laurel and Hardy films, after an exhaustive effort. All the work to acquire these licenses totally paid off, as you will see how much this timeless music really adds to the atmosphere of the game. We have always had an affinity for this music and grew up watching The Little Rascals and Laurel and Hardy, so this was awesome being able to use this music. Plus, we feel the music really adds a nostalgic feel to the game. We’ll be posting a full article later on how we were able to acquire that music from the 1930′s!
The game is scheduled to release any day on the app store. It sells for $0.99, and we would surely love all of your support to download and rate our game! We will surely keep you posted when it launches. More to come soon!
-Idylle