Anastasia Averina - On How To Launch Children's Mobile Applications

2023 Author: Amber Richards | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-22 00:24

I am a child psychologist, I don't understand anything about programming. But when my son was one and a half years old, he discovered the iPad. He especially liked to play with "talking pictures" - to touch the images that made sounds with his finger. This is a very useful thing - the American physician Glenn Doman, for example, believes that cards with pictures can be great to stimulate early cognitive skills. I have found that there are few normal children's apps with learning cards in Russian. And I wanted to fix it.

My first application "Funny Vegetables" failed at the development stage - the programmer disappeared, and I had no money to hire a new one. I abandoned this idea and returned to it only a year later, completely redoing everything. This application is currently the most successful. At the very beginning, the son accidentally discovered his test and still very raw version on the iPad and began to stubbornly play it. And he also demanded comments and explanations from me for the pictures. At that moment I realized that if I burn out, it’s still not in vain!

Apps can be developed on Android, Windows and Blackberry. But I chose iPad - this platform, in my opinion, is the simplest and most functional, especially for beginners. Plus, in Apple's App Store, a new app has a better chance of getting noticed and selling quickly. On Android, you usually need additional marketing that you have to pay for. There are also pirates - more than 90% of applications are hacked and posted on the network. In general, applications for mobile and tablets require a minimum investment. You do not need to buy raw materials, consumables, or rent an office. One good idea can quickly pay for itself and generate income.

Anastasia Averina

A photo: Personal archive

It is worth starting with sketches to understand the menu and basic functions. Sometimes people build whole puppet theaters or towers and "towns" from various objects to create a real prototype of the game (how, for example, does it look like in reality when they throw a tomato and smash a building made of dishes?). I immediately work in Adobe Flash, where I assemble objects into a finished picture using different plans. Then the objects are animated, different facial expressions are selected for them. I save all the details of the game as separate images (for example, potatoes, open eyes, blinking eyes, open mouth, smiling mouth, surprised mouth, shell, splashing water, background). Then, with the help of a programmer, all this comes to life: the potato starts to blink and smile, the water starts to flow. It turns out "Build" - an intermediate stage that you can try on your tablet. The first version of the game is always imperfect, and I modify it many times.

I looked for an artist through the website illustrators.ru, photos and graphics - through photo stocks (for example, in depositphotos.com). There you need to carefully read the licensing terms, otherwise these materials can be expensive. For voice acting, I hire professional announcers - these are adults and children (bank-golosov.ru). A freelance programmer can cost from 30 to 200 thousand rubles a month, but if you take it as a share, he will work for free. In general, developing an application costs as much as you are willing to pay for it. It costs me to create one application (in total I came up with six applications with cards, including "Developing" and two series of children's mini-games "Funny vegetables" and "Funny animals") costs up to $ 1-1.5 thousand, and in time it takes about two months. In terms of impact, those of the apps that make it to the top charts arebring from a thousand dollars a month and more. An app that sits at the bottom of the top charts can bring in around $ 100 per month. Accordingly, the profit is summed up, but it varies from month to month (for me it turns out a good salary).

How do I create a successful application? The main thing is to come up with a cool concept. And so that it will be liked not only by you, but also by the target audience. Then you need to draw a bright icon, make informative screenshots and a juicy description - a lot depends on the design. And let your future customers have the opportunity to try the game for free - be sure to make a light version. I myself have not yet mastered programming. But I'm incredibly interested in my child and, in general, modern children - those that grow with tablets. And this is enough to generate ideas.