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I'm working on my first simple game for release. I'm going to have it to a point of being playable, interface complete, but very few if any graphics, and no overall style aside from the basic Android white text on black. Should I go ahead and release this game, with a graphics upgrade to come in the next week or two, or should I just wait until I have the better graphics?

The name doesn't require any graphics to play, it's a simple causal type. The graphics won't matter really for play, but will include things like a logo, screen when you die, enhanced opening screen, etc.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I think the actual game graphics will make much more of an impression on the player than the menu screens. As long as the game looks decent, I would say it's a good idea to release early and get some feedback! \$\endgroup\$
    – Amplify91
    Commented May 30, 2011 at 19:42
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Amplify91: It's not really the type of game that the graphics matter at all. In fact, so far the only graphics are buttons and text, so... \$\endgroup\$
    – PearsonArtPhoto
    Commented May 30, 2011 at 22:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ So go for it! I've played games with just about no graphics (check out Friction Mobile). Leave a comment here with the name of the game when you release it? \$\endgroup\$
    – Amplify91
    Commented May 31, 2011 at 0:56
  • \$\begingroup\$ FYI, I decided to release it to the market place, for a few reasons, the largest being that I needed to release it to get an AdMob account. I'm temporarily charging, but I'm not really ready to do a non-free yet, the charging is just to discourage people from downloading it before I've put ads in. Assuming I can get the ads to work, I'll release another version tonight, that's free. market.android.com/… is the address. \$\endgroup\$
    – PearsonArtPhoto
    Commented May 31, 2011 at 2:46

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The downside will be that if people get turned off by the lack of graphics that they may just assume that any future releases won't have any graphics (even if you make it clear to them when they first try it), and so you could lose many of them as potential members of your audience in the future.

I suggest you release it with a different title the first time, such as "name-of-game pre-graphical beta" if you do decide to release early, then later you can release a newer one called "name-of-game beta" once you're satisfied that the graphics have improved enough, and then (eventually?) release it again as simply "name-of-game."

On a note about text-mode games, these tend to be adventure games and there still is a serious following for them, so you may get some interest from that crowd as well. The point is that if the gameplay is entertaining/enticing enough, the graphics may be able to take a backseat anyway (South Park would be an example of a television cartoon that is certainly better known for its content than its graphical prowess).

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