Getting Started

Making Games
An Amazon Appstore eBook

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Table of Contents
4-6 Documenting your idea

7-8 Choosing a framework

9-11 Working with art and sound

12-14 Polishing your game

15-18 Marketing your game

19 Make more games

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Foreword
If you are new to making games, you may be wondering where to start? While there are lots

of resources out there to teach you game design, art, and programming, it may feel a bit

overwhelming. Over the years, I have created dozens of games, some successful and some not.

Like any skill, making games takes time, practice, and perseverance. I have put together this guide

to help point you in the right direction to get started making your games, especially if you have

never done so before, as well as offer some tips to those looking to improve their skills.

~ Jesse Freeman

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 1 Documenting
your idea
You have a game idea and want to start building right away. But, making a game is more than just

having a good idea and the skill to code it. Before you write a single line of code, you first need to

think through the gameplay, your target audience, and ultimately create a map for what you are

going to build.

Creating a game To help you simplify your idea to something manageable, start by getting it down on paper. No one
design document
builds a house without a blueprint, and you shouldn’t make a game without a solid plan either. Your

plan can be as simple as a task list with everything you need to do or something more specific, such

as a document outlining all the details. Either way, your game design process is going to start with a

blank page. Let’s talk about how to fill it in.

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In traditional game development, you are developer, this may be excessive for your needs.

encouraged to make a game design document You can easily boil down a GDD into a single

(GDD). The GDD is usually a large document list of tasks with a few introduction paragraphs

outlining every aspect of a game. It’s the and any collateral or references, such as

blueprint that the rest of the team must follow screen shots and links to other games or game

when building out the game. If you are a single mechanics you like.

The GDD is usually a large document

outlining every aspect of a game.

Keep in mind, the more you work through the you amass what we call technical debt that can

details, the better your project will end up. It’s make your code unmanageable or, even worse,

very “cheap” to work out your ideas on paper or kill your productivity altogether by forcing you

in your head before you start coding. Once you to constantly hack together new solutions or

begin the coding process and need to go back, refactor code you’ve already written.

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Finding inspiration As you start jotting down your ideas, you takeaways from playing it. If you like the art

also need to start playing games, a lot of style, capture it through screenshots and

games. As a game maker, your hobby should keep links to any other collateral. You never

be playing games, taking them apart, and know how a game will inspire you, so it’s

figuring out what makes them tick. Keep a important to be as detailed as you can. It

notebook of all the games that you play, and sounds like a lot of work, but this process will

even the ones you don’t play but see online. be invaluable in helping you find inspiration

Write down what you like about the game, and avoid common pitfalls.

what you don’t like, and some of your big

Sharing your ideas Now that you have played a boatload of other listening to feedback with an open mind will

people’s games and solidified your GDD, it’s ensure you create the best possible product.

time to gather peer feedback. Find a select Going back to the idea of “technical debt,”

group of trusted friends and share your uncovering what resonates and what doesn’t

document with them. It is easier to validate early on, will help save you from making

your idea before you start writing your code. costly edits to your game once you’re in

Some feedback might be difficult to hear, but production.

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 2 Choosing a
framework
You can speed up your app’s development by using frameworks. Frameworks allow you

to work with existing code libraries, so you don’t have to create these libraries yourself.

These libraries perform functions such as rendering objects in 3D or connecting to external

services. Cross-platform frameworks can help you create platform-agnostic apps, meaning

you only have to create an app once before deploying it to different types of devices. Now

that you have a well-rounded idea of the end-product you are hoping to create, choosing a

framework that best meets your needs will be a lot easier.

Features to consider When choosing which one is right for your game, you will want to look for:

• Collision, physics, and handles • UI that matches your skill level. For beginners,
inputs. These will help speed up the you will want to look for drag and drop
development process. solutions. More seasoned developers might
prefer to have low-level access.
• Documentation and an active
community for any questions that will • Multi-platform distribution, allowing you to
inevitably arise. deliver your new game on as many devices
as possible.
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Game Frameworks with Fire OS Support
If you are looking to build a game you can publish on Amazon’s Appstore, you’ll need to
look for frameworks with support for creating Fire OS or Generic Android APKs. Here is a
list of frameworks that already supports Fire OS out of the box:

Framework Primary Audience Supported Platforms Cost

GameSalad Non-programmers Android, Fire TV, GameSalad Arcade, $17 - 29/mo
HTML5, iOS, Kindle Fire, macOS, Tizen

Construct 2 Non-programmers HTML5 (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, IE 9+, Free - $430

Opera)

Game Maker GM Script (Beg) Android, Blackberry 10, iOS, Linux, Free (PC) + each
macOS, PS 4, PS Vita, web, Windows, platform is extra.
WP8, Xbox One
Corona Lua Programmers Android, iOS, Kindle Fire, macOS, tvOS, Free (+paid
(Beg-Adv) Windows, WP8 extensions)

Unity 3D C# Programmers Android, Blackberry 10, iOS, Linux, Free - $125+/mo

(Beg-Adv) macOS, Nintendo 3DS, PS 4, PS Vita, (+paid extensions)
web, Wii, Wii U, Windows, WP8, Xbox 360,
Xbox One
Cordova Javascript Android, Blackberry 10, iOS, macOS, Free
Programmers Ubuntu, Windows, WP8
(Inter-Adv)
Cocos2d-x C++ Programmers Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Tizen, Free
(Inter-Adv) Windows

Each of these frameworks also has support for some of our Appstore services such as IAP (In-App
Purchases), Ads and cloud saving. For more information on frameworks, you can review summaries
at developer.amazon.com/cross-platform.
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 3 Working with
art and sound
If you don’t come from an art or music background, you might find this part of the game

creation process the most daunting. Building a game for the first time will stretch all of your

skills, including your ability to be creative and be design-minded. It’s easy to get bogged down

in the details and forget the most valuable part of making a game: building something fun to

play.

Starting without art To minimize productivity-draining distractions, use placeholder art and sound to start out.
and sound
This way you can focus on getting the game mechanics right. If you build a compelling

enough game, you may even be able to convince an artist or musician to provide your game’s

art and sound (for a share of the profits, of course). It also helps to look at games that

use minimalistic or dynamically generated art as inspiration, such as Thomas Was Alone,

or Super Hexagon. Both of these examples use very simple artwork and hooked players

because of their captivating gameplay.

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Adding in art Possibly the easiest path is to create pixel art. The style will make your game feel like a throw-
back to the early days of video games. If you are feeling more ambitious, however, you can
explore the following design tools:

Photoshop Illustrator
This software is one of the most popular and Similar to Photoshop, this is the most popular vector-
expensive art tools on the market, but with based art tool out there. We suggest using a vector-
Adobe’s new Creative Cloud plan, you can pay based editor if you are going for a “cartoony” look or
for it as a monthly service. Photoshop is ideal for want to ensure your game’s artwork can scale to any
creating rasterized and vector artwork, as well as resolution.
layout.

Aseprite GIMP
If you are doing pixel art, this is one of the best If you are searching for a Photoshop alternative,
editors available on the market. Not only is it free check out GIMP. It is free and a lot of today’s game
and open source, but it is also perfect for making developers and artists use it.
pixel animation, and supports importing and
exporting sprite sheets.

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Adding in sound Similar to artwork, creating sound effects can be a daunting process. One secret weapon we
recommend is Bfxr, which you can use online or install on your computer as an AIR app.

Bfxr is perfect for generating simple, 8-bit sound effects for your game. The tool features many
pre-defined sound templates, such as pickup, laser, explosion, and jump sounds. You can also
use the randomize button to develop new sound effects and the synth option to modify your
sounds.

Once you have created your sound effects, you will need to convert them. Bfxr likes to generate
.wav files, but most frameworks do not use this file format. You can use programs such as
Audacity to output your sound as .mp3 and .ogg files, and more.

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 4 Polishing your
game
Your game works and now has brand new artwork and unique sounds. You’re almost

ready to release your game into the wild. Your final task is to ensure your game is perfectly

polished.

Consistent design Ensure your art style is consistent throughout the game. Your in-game graphics and your

UI (and even the splash screen) should all look and feel like they belong together. Don’t get

overzealous with promotional artwork. You want to make sure that you are setting the right

expectations for new users, and nothing disappoints more than being drawn into a game for

its promotional artwork only to find out that the in-game design doesn’t align.

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Multiple resolution When it comes to designing for multiple and make sure your game works across all
support
resolutions, you must understand how three. As the aspect ratio increases, the key

aspect ratio works and decide whether is to show more gameplay and adjust the UI

your game will attempt to maintain it. We elements accordingly. For smaller 800x480

recommend starting with a comp of the resolutions show less action, and scale the

three main resolutions you plan to support UI down to ensure there is no overlapping.

Perceived Often, developers spend countless days screen look more interesting for people
performance
optimizations trying to optimize their code and end up while they wait. Or, make transitions from

forgetting that a few minor tweaks to the way screen to screen more seamless. Finally, use

their game runs can give the impression of animation transitions and frames to reduce

better performance to players. Don’t stop at the feeling of slowness or unresponsiveness

optimizing artwork. Try making your loading in gameplay.

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Supporting Fire If you are interested in publishing your game to Amazon Fire TV and tablet devices, you can
devices
check out the following design guidelines:

Fire TV Display and Layout Guide

Fire Tablet Screen and Layout Guide

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 5 Marketing
your game
You are finally ready to release your game to the world. While there is a lot you can do after

you have completed your game to help make it a success, you should always be thinking

about marketing your game, even from the very beginning. Promoting a game is not an
exact science, and its overall success has a lot to do with the actual quality of your game

(and sometimes, luck!). However, there are a few necessary steps to ensure your game gets

the attention it deserves.

Naming your game The name of your game is one of the most important decisions you make. No wonder large

companies spend large amounts of money conducting market research to come up with

product names. Since you likely don’t have the luxury of a large marketing research budget,

your best bet is to come up with a clear and descriptive name.

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Try out some of these tried and true naming methods:

Main character(s): While this won’t necessarily describe what a player will do in your game, it

helps establish the lead, and his/her name helps defines your brand. For extra points, use an

adjective to describe your main character.

Story of a spoiler alert: Put your game’s ending right in the title. We are all familiar with the

Legend of a certain princess. Letting people know what to expect from your game will pique

interest.

Gameplay description: Is there a main action that your players perform throughout the game?

Naming your game is another area where playing a lot of other games will come in handy. Look

through the list of the games you played and try and remember why you chose them in the first

place. This will help you zero in on a naming convention that will work for you. Finally, make

sure your game’s name makes sense for sequels and continuations if you find yourself with a

hit on your hands.

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Optimizing your store Think of your detail page as a place to your app benefits users. Make sure not to
listing
create a narrative about your app. A great make any grandiose promises about your

product description can help to put your app app, as customers can see through inflated

in the best light and convert users. Make claims—you don’t want to lose credibility.

sure your description is clear, honest, and End your description with a strong call to

straightforward. Introduce your app clearly action (CTA), such as “Get started now,“ or

and succinctly, while describing your app’s “Download now and play today!”

most notable features. Explain why and how

Recruiting people to The key to success is getting your game in Having your game available on as many
play your game
the hands of as many players as possible. platforms as possible helps ensure that

Hopefully, when you chose your framework, players can not only find your game on their

you selected one that allows you to release platform of preference but that you increase

a version of your game on all of the major your chances of being discovered.

platforms: Web, iOS, Android, FireOS, and

desktop.

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Using social media Social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, and even LinkedIn can

provide effective opportunities to connect with fans and reach new users.

Create a presence to share videos, artwork, and screen grabs, and also deliver news about

updates, exciting new features, and your upcoming projects. You will also find that these

sites provide a mechanism for users to reach out with their customer service queries. Be

sure to respond to these questions as soon as you can.

Create a presence to share videos,

artwork, and screen grabs, and also
deliver news about updates, exciting
new features, and your upcoming
projects.

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6 Make more
games
Making a game is a learning experience. The more games you make, the better you become

at designing games which increases your chances you will make a hit new game. Even if

people don’t download your first, second, or even third game, you should never give up.

In fact, one of the best things your game can be is a promotional tool for you and your next

game. You can use your Appstore listings and in-app messages to include links to your latest

games. Over time, you will find that you have developed a following of fans who are willing to

pay for your next game.

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Publish to
Amazon Appstore
App submission for Android apps and games is easy: 85 percent of apps submitted to the

Amazon Appstore just work, with no additional modification. Also, because Fire OS is based

on Android, the games you publish can be available on millions of Fire tablets, Amazon Fire

TVs, and Android devices in 236 countries and territories.

Get Started
◆◆ Review the Amazon Appstore Presubmission Checklist, and make sure that your app

meets the specified requirements and guidelines.

◆◆ Pre-test your app and see if it passes. Address any failures before submitting your app.

◆◆ Follow the instructions on the Submitting apps to the Amazon Appstore page to publish

your app.

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