Android indie developer interview: Krishna Teja from Mad Logic Games

Here's the first interview I've done for my blog. I want to do more of them in the future inviting interesting people and asking them questions about their work. I hope you find it educating. Enjoy your reading!


Bartek: Please, tell us something about yourself. Who are you? Where do you live? What do you do in life?

Krishna: Thanks for inviting me. My name is Krishna Teja, the founder of Mad Logic Games, and my vision is to make it the world's best game development studio. I am a 19 year old student studying Computer Science at VNR Vigyana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad. I am just getting started with my Android programming career. As an independent Android developer I published 5 games on Play Store and currently making more. My aim is to turn my Android development hobby into a professional company.

Bartek: So, how did it all start? Why did you decide to make Android games and not for example iPhone games or some other kind of apps? I know that you used to make money through Internet marketing. What was wrong with it?

Krishna: I develop my games using a cross platform engine, so I can compile them for Android, iOS and Windows too. My games are already ready for iPhone and iPad but the only problem is I need a Mac and an iPhone/iPod to publish my games to the iTunes App Store. I don't have them yet since they are too costly and I don't have the money right now to buy them. Once I earn enough money, I will immediately publish my apps to the Apple App Store. I've spent all the money I made through Internet Marketing to buy my development PC and the Game Development tool called GameMaker: Studio.

Bartek: Can you tell me some more about it? Why did you choose this tool? What are your experiences with it? What language do you use to program?

Krishna: I have a paid license for GameMaker: Studio Master. Though it's costly, it's an amazing tool which allows you to create games very quickly and is very easy to learn. You can make games without any coding, just use the built-in drag and drop features. Also, once you develop the game you can deploy it to various platforms like Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Ubuntu, Tizen, web (HTML 5) with a click of a button. Because of all these features I carefully chose this tool and feel it's been totally worth my investment.

Bartek: What other tools did you consider? Can you write Android native code?

Krishna: Yes, I can write Android apps in Java. A year back I started programming with Java and used a third party open source library called LibGDX. LibGDX is Free and Open source and can be used to create games for Android, iOS and HTML 5 too. But, it was very hard for me to make even a simple game. So I started searching for other tools and found GameMaker Studio.

Bartek: What language do you use to write games in it? What features do you think it has that makes it better than other tools?

Krishna: For beginners, you don't need to know any programming. GameMaker offers a Drag and Drop user interface which can be used to develop games. For advanced users, if you need to include any complex functions you can do that too using the special Game Maker Language. It's easy to learn and includes a lot of documentation. I personally use both Drag and Drop and GML language to write my games. I think it's better than any other tool because of its easy to use Drag and Drop interface.

Bartek: How much time did it take you to learn how to use GameMaker?

Krishna: A week to learn the interface and the basic functions. I was able to make games within minutes! GameMaker offers plenty of tutorials which are easy to follow.

Bartek: How much is the GameMaker version that you have?

Krishna: I have the GameMaker: Studio Master Collection license which costs $499.99. For those who want to get started you can use the Free version to build the game for PC and later buy Android license to publish it to Play Store.

Bartek: Where do you take your game ideas from?

Krishna: I come up with game ideas myself. I think of all the possible things I can do with GameMaker without much programming/graphics involved and then come up with some simple games. I show it to my friends and ask them if they like it. If I get positive feedback, I start developing the game.

Bartek: What about game resources? Where do you get you graphics, sounds, and music from?

Krishna: Graphics are mostly done by me. But my friend helps me too. Sounds and music are taken from others and are commercially free to use. I use Adode Photoshop and Illustrator to make graphics. My favourite site to get sounds and music is freesound.org.

Bartek: Do you also use some other programming tools? Source control (SVN, git?) or something like that?

Krishna: No, since I am the only one who programs I don't use any source control tools. This is what I do to quickly convert my idea into game:

• Write down all the ideas you get onto a piece of paper/notepad.
• Think of a theme and story for your game.
• Check if the game can be programmed easily.
• Now start developing a prototype for the game. (Simple game showing what you want to make without any graphics)
• Split the programming into parts.
• Try to program all the complex parts first.
• Finally, assemble them and start applying nice graphics to it.

Bartek: How long does it take you to write a game?

Krishna: My first game took me a month, because I was still learning and didn't know about some functions. Other games took me about 2 weeks to develop.

Bartek: How many hours a day are we talking about?

Krishna: About 3 hours a day.

Bartek: How much are you making on your games now? Which one has been the biggest success and which one has been the biggest failure so far and why?

Krishna: I am making an average of $3.5 a day (a little more than $100 a month). My biggest success was my first game: Box Game. Biggest failure? Scary Prank Game, but I can't say failure because I published it recently and it needs some time to get downloads. Also Scary Prank Game was a rehashed version of Box Game.

Bartek: How do you monetize your apps? Do you have any advice on it?

Krishna: All my games are free. They don't have any In App Purchases (for now). I only use banner and interstitial ads in my games. Many of you will have different opinions regarding monetization. But my advice to indie developers who don't have any initial investment/budget for marketing is to make a game free and add ads or in app purchases. I personally feel that for Android ads work better than IAPs because of the demographic of the users. For iOS people are more likely to pay so use IAPs.

Bartek: What ad network(s) do you use?

Krishna: I only use AdMob right now. I will be adding Millennial Media Ads very soon.

Bartek: Interesting, why did you choose Millennial Media Ads? I have to say it's the first time I hear about it .

Krishna: Actually I didn't choose it. :P GameMaker only supports AdMob, AdColony and Millennial Media so I had no choice. I talked to their support team and they said they would be supporting PlayHeaven soon. So I am waiting for it.

Bartek: That explains much. So, what are your plans for the future? Are you making a new game now? Can you reveal some of the secret?

Krishna: Build more games for Android. After I start earning a steady income, I will buy a Mac and iDevices and port my games to the iTunes App Store. Yes, I am making a new game now. I will publish it next week if everything goes well. There are no secrets, whatever I do I post it to my blog. All you have to do is work hard to reach your goals.

Bartek: What's your favourite Android game?

Krishna: Tough question haha. Some of my favourites are Temple Run, Plants vs Zombies, Subway Surfers.

Bartek: What android device(s) do you own?

Krishna: I own a very low end phone LG P350. It can't run any new games. I use my friend's tablet to play and test games.

Bartek: Do you read some interesting blogs on Android development? Do you know any interesting sites that you could recommend?

Krishna: I follow www.nenoff.com, www.ziggysgames.com and yours, all other blogs are dead, no one actively posts. I also follow the forum http://forums.makingmoneywithandroid.com/ which has some nice informaton regarding monetization.

Bartek: What advice would you give to other developers (beginners and more advanced ones) - something that would have helped you the most if you had known it earlier?

Krishna: First decide what you want to make, a game or an app? Search for some development tools to make it. Choose the right tool. For 2D games I use GameMaker (paid) but you can also select free tools like AndEngine, PhoneGap, LibGDX. For 3D choose Unity 3D. Try to learn everything regarding the tool using freely available tutorials and youtube videos. Then start building a simple game first. Don't try to develop the next Angry Birds! Start small, you can later try complex stuff. First develop a simple game and publish it to Play Store. Wait for feedback/reviews, it will definitely inspire you to build more games.

Bartek: Great piece of advice! If someone wants to find out more about you and your games, where should they go?

Krishna: You will find all the information regarding my development journey at my blog: http://madlogicdev.wordpress.com and all my apps can be found here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Mad+Logic+Games
You can talk to me directly at krishnatejanew [at] gmail.com.

Thank you for the interview.

Bartek: It was my pleasure. Good luck with your games.


So, did you like it? Do you want me to do more interviews in the future? Let me know!

If you have something interesting to say and are willing to share your knowledge, feel free to contact me as well. I'll be glad to hear your story.