The App Store is an eclectic blend between highly polished, impressively executed games from large companies and smaller, indie projects that sometimes don't have quite the same fit and finish. Yet the store will give equal weighting to both these types of projects, no matter of their quality level. It's up to the discerning customer to pick and choose their own entertainment, and without a friend's recommendation or gameplay video, they're going to go by the handful of screenshots that were provided in the store listing.
It's simply not enough to expect your game to sell on one brilliant mechanic alone.
It is, therefore, imperative that not only does the game play well, but that it looks good too. Looks do not make a good game of course, but they help sell the experience and enhance the gameplay underneath. Often, when demonstrating my iPhone I'll pick upon a game which looks appealing and has great gameplay - after all, who wants to play a game that looks unattractive when there are literally thousands of other options? Developers have to sell their game. It's simply not enough to expect your game to sell on one brilliant mechanic alone.
We review a lot of games. At the time of writing this article, our database is storing entries for 132 titles - some that we've just posted about as news articles and not reviewed - but the majority we simply just haven't got around to covering. There's not sufficient time in all the world to play every single game that comes out, especially when you consider how many applications that you can install on the iPhone today. We value our time spent with our games, even if it's for a brief moment aside - and while we get through a fair few titles, there's others that we will come back to time and time again. You want to be the one making the game that will hold our interest long term - and part of doing that is making a top quality visual experience.
Let's take a look at Peggle as an example. It's an easy game to pick apart - it combines elements of breakout, pachinko and pinball, combined with a few power ups to make clearing the pegs easier. Each peg lit up will disappear for the next ball (of which you get 10), and you win once all the orange pegs are cleared. Sounds like a pretty good game. Until you realise the sheer overblown joy upon hitting that last peg - triggering an 'Extreme Fever', with plenty of fireworks and rainbows to exaggerate the fact that you are awesome at the game. The first time I saw that? I thought "wow". In all honesty, finding such a game is the exception and not the norm.
Similarly, the highly technological retro cool of Circuit_Strike.One lends the game a unique aesthetic that makes people think "wow, what game is that?". Of course, the audio component of the game mustn't be underemphasised, but the visuals give it something special. The adrenaline rush you experience when destroying a data core is driven by the fact that your screen is overloaded with graphical noise and strobe lighting effects.
By making your game presentable you are making it memorable. It doesn't have to be overly fancy either. Take a look at Dizzy Bee 2 - it's highly coloured, cute characters and gameplay environments make it stick in the mind - not because it was game changing, but because it looked unique. Gameplay aside, the real reason that you wanted to play the game was to see the bee buzzing around the levels, rescuing fruit from their ice cages to see their little faces light up. Games from Igloo Games not only play very well but they all look professional - this is a developer who pays attention to minute detail.
There's times where developers will put a lot of work into presentation and then skimp on the gameplay, of course - Tiltafun is one such example. Here you can clearly see that while the visual style is excellent, the bland, tired 'avoid the walls' design isn't enough for a good recommendation. There's also times that we'll forgive average presentation when the gameplay is great - Besiegement is a good example of this, proving that gameplay can stand on it's own merits.
If your graphics can be described as 'functional' then you've missed the mark.
By and large though, the best way to get noticed is with a solid graphical presentation. If your graphics can be described as 'functional' then you've missed the mark - as in Radio Flare, where the gameplay is good but the presentation is lacking any sort of drive or punchiness to it. Similarly, Pathways has some devious brain teasing puzzles but solid presentation could go a long way in increasing it's replay value and enjoyment in the short term.
Graphics are what people notice first - and it could be the screenshots that ultimately make or break a purchase. By paying attention to how your game looks from day one you can really make a difference to how people will see it in the App Store.
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