How to Make a Card Game App?

Digital card games remain a popular form of entertainment. Are you interested in knowing how to make your own card game app? In this article, I will explain the basics of card game development for Android and iOS. 

In this article

1. 9 Steps to Make a Card Game App
2. Ready to Make a Card Game App?
3. FAQs on How to Make a Card Game App

The total market revenue for card game apps reached 11.2 billion USD in 2023 and is expected to increase to 18.6 billion USD by 2027. The total number of card game app downloads is projected to reach almost 2.6 billion by 2027.

The statistics show that card game apps are likely to remain in demand, given the historical popularity of card games. The growing market also offers many opportunities to businesses that plan to invest in the gaming industry.

You can either make a card game app as a digital version of a traditional game like UNO, Solitaire, etc. or develop a new game with a new card-game rule set. 

If you need professional assistance with your card game app development, look no further. DevTeam.Space has profound experience in developing solutions for the gaming industry. You can leave some initial information about your game project and get a complimentary discovery call with one of our tech account managers, who will contact you shortly to discuss the details.

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9 Steps to Make a Card Game App/ Game Development

You would go through the following steps to make a card game app, whether it is a digital remake of an existing card game or an entirely new card game with unique features.

Step 1. Perform Card Game App Market Research

Comprehensive market research would help you understand the card game market. Less than 40% of businesses use consumer research to make decisions. I suggest you explore the existing card game apps and evaluate the features most liked by users. 

This research would help you determine the scope of your card game app development project and the features you want to deliver to the target audience.

A few of the key features of card games include the following:

• User sign-up and profiles;
• Multi-player games;
• Tournament details;
• In-app purchases and payment integrations;
• Social media integrations;
• Possibility to invite friends and earn;
• Online chat, etc.

Step 2. Build a Team to Make a Card Game App

You would form a card game app development team with the following roles:

• A UI/UX designer designs an interactive and engaging card game user interface;
• Mobile developers:
  • An Android developer makes card games for Android devices;
  • An iOS developer makes card games for iPhones;
• A cross-platform app developer develops web-based game apps that run on every platform;
• A mobile game app tester tests the game app for any bugs or errors;
• A project manager manages the app dev team, implements the app development plan, gives a timeline and budget estimates, etc.;
• A business analyst with experience in the gaming industry researches the target market and proposes solutions to make your app successful in the market.

I suggest you adopt an agile development methodology and opt for Scrum, an agile development framework, to build your card game app. 

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The agile project management and development processes focus on iterative development and quick delivery of app features to the customers. 60% of companies using agile experienced an increase in profits. 66% of survey respondents stated that they used the scrum framework.

Scrum builds a cross-functional team of developers and testers. The team members work closely together to deliver a deployable app feature at the end of each development cycle called sprint. 

Scrum events like scrum planning, daily scrums, sprint reviews, and sprint retrospectives allow scrum teams to meet regularly and discuss project progress, hurdles, solutions, etc. Scrum teams conducting regular retrospective meetings have reported a 42% increase in the quality of their work.

Our article on how to build a scrum team will give you more insights.

Step 3. Provide Game App Development Infrastructure

Next, you have to provide game app development infrastructure to your project team. This includes servers, storage, network protocols, orchestration services, development platforms, etc. I suggest that you go with a cloud-based app development infrastructure.

Cloud infrastructure is highly popular in the software industry due to its enhanced agility, flexibility, scalability, security, and cost-effectiveness. Cloud services are hosted and maintained by cloud service providers.

75% of game developers considered cloud services crucial for the success of their game applications in 2023.

You can get the required game app development infrastructure resources from a well-known cloud service provider like Amazon AWS and help your team focus completely on your card game app design and development.

You can opt for the following Amazon cloud services for game app development:

• Your developers can efficiently build and scale game backend features using Amazon GameSparks with less time to market. AWS manages your game’s server infrastructure.
• You can opt for Open 3D Engine and customize it with AWS services, such as cloud storage, database, etc., to build virtual-reality-based features in your game app.
• You get access to global game infrastructure for managed game app deployments on AWS infrastructure spread across 26 regions around the world.

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Step 4. Perform Storyboarding

Now that you have professionals for all the crucial app development roles and provided them with the required app development infrastructure, you can start the game storyboarding process. 

A storyboard shows the game’s progress from start to finish. It describes the game app’s flow from launch to completion. Your app development team should create realistic mockups of card game screens in a logical order and include notes for additional information, like the game rules, etc. 

Such detailed storyboards would help your designers and developers to design and code a card game as per your expectations.

Software tools like Boords would help you create your card game storyboards. Boords offer an easy-to-use user interface to draw storyboards for your game app. You can easily upload images, organize panels, share storyboards with team members, and receive their comments too. 

Step 5. Design the Card Game App UI

Your UI/UX designers would create the game UI and visual theme. They would design the UI components like buttons, menus, icons, etc., and their placement on the app screen. They would also design the game characters and the overall game layout.

Your designers should use UI techniques to choose the color palette, typography, etc., and follow the UX principles to offer a seamless and intuitive user experience to gamers. 

For example, your designers should follow Human Interface Guidelines for iOS apps and Materials Design Guidelines for Android Apps.

Your game designers can use tools like Marvel to create visual elements, app mockups, and wireframes. Marvel offers the following features:

• It is a web-based application that your team can access from anywhere to create app mockups and prototypes with a range of digital assets such as icons, stock photos, etc.
• Your designers can generate CSS, Swift, and Android XML code of design components for fast coding of prototypes.
• It offers easy collaboration where team members can access a design document for full visibility, leave comments, etc.

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Step 6. Develop the Card Game App

Now, your game developers can code the card game app as per prototypes built by designers. There are multiple programming languages and development tools available that accelerate the process of game development.

Programming Languages

Some of the popular programming languages for game development include the following:

• C++ gives better run-time performance and has a large collection of libraries that support game development. The low-level features would give your developers the flexibility to access and manipulate machine hardware.
• C# is popular for game development due to its compatibility with Unity, a robust and easy-to-use game engine. C# also gives high performance, is programmer-friendly, and features code reusability for cross-platform apps.
• Java is considered a primary programming language for Android app development, including game apps. All Android SDKs use Java. However, Java is used only to develop lightweight games and is not common among game developers.
• Kotlin is another popular language to develop apps for Android OS. It has a KorGE game engine for game development, but it is not mature enough for high-performance game apps.
• Swift is used for game app development for iOS, macOS, iPadOS, etc. It has multiple frameworks like SpriteKit and SceneKit that your iOS developers can use to accelerate game programming via built-in libraries, easy third-party integrations, etc.

Game Engines for game development

A game engine is a software platform to design and build video games. It provides relevant libraries and tools to accelerate game development, such as a 2D/3D graphics rendering engine, physics engine, sound system, scripting feature, animation engine, memory management, etc.

Some game engines that would help your developers build a card game include:

• Unity is a cross-platform 2D and 3D game development engine with features to build an online backend, host game servers, perform data analysis, test players’ engagement, etc.
• Unreal Engine is an advanced 3D creation software and offers a game development editor, asset optimization, animation system, integrated media support, developer tools, multiple platform support, etc.
• GameMaker Studio offers a series of cross-platform game engines to create 2D games via GML Code or GML visual. Your developers can make use of a room editor, workspaces, image editor, debugger, networking, etc.
• AppGameKit is a game development platform for cross-platform mobile applications. It offers AppGameKit studio and AppGameKit Mobile to design, build, test, and deploy game apps efficiently.

API Development

APIs are an integral part of software applications today. Your app developers can build core game features as APIs for efficient interaction between them and to provide support on multiple hardware mediums.

49% of survey participants have stated efficiency in the development process as the main reason for API adoption.

Your developers can use REST or GraphQL architectures for API development. Supporting tools like Hoppscotch would help them with API design, documentation, and testing. Hoppscotch offers the following features to API developers:

• It is an open-source platform that simplifies the API development lifecycle. Your developers can easily create, test, and save HTTP requests and responses.
• You get access to a secure API ecosystem where every API can only be accessed using an Auth Token.
• It supports all commonly used API development technologies like Rest and GraphQL. 

You can read our article on how to build a REST API for a mobile app for more information.

APIs also allow developers to integrate third-party services into your application without developing them from scratch. However, your app developers need to be cautious about higher external dependencies.

For example, your Android developers can integrate Android notifications API for pop-up notifications, Location API to adapt your app to multiple languages, etc.

Similarly, Apple provides in-app purchase API for in-app payments as well as push notifications API and localization API for iOS developers.

Latest Technologies for game development

You would require developers skilled in cutting-edge technologies to build advanced features in your card game app. Features such as a personalized game experience, immersive reality experience, augmented reality experience, etc., help boost user engagement.

The AI in the media and entertainment global market was valued at $10.81 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 26% from 2023 to 2030. A personalized experience, high-definition graphics, virtual reality creation, etc., are the main growth drivers.

Your developers should be familiar with machine learning and VR technologies to implement them effectively in gaming app development.

For example, your developers can employ a convolution neural network for game use cases like object detection and recognition, pathfinding, motion control, etc. Recurrent neural networks would help your developers improve game mechanics and give an immersive experience via realistic game characters. 

Advanced game engines such as Unreal Engine offer artificial intelligence and virtual reality capabilities. Tools like Azure Machine Learning can help your game app developers incorporate the latest technologies in your card game app. Azure Machine Learning offers the following features:

• Your developers can easily create ML models using a graphical user interface and make use of a range of prebuilt models;
• A dashboard helps visualize the model training and performance;
• Azure ML datastores enable you to access data from Azure storage via your UI or Python workspace, etc.

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Step 7. Test your Card Game App

Your mobile app testers should extensively test your card game app and ensure all features work as planned. They should create real-world scenarios and test the game logic and output. 

Some of the mobile test cases are compatibility testing, functional testing, recoverability testing, security testing, usability testing, etc.

Tools like Test IO help testers automate app testing procedures for Android, iOS, and cross-platform card-based gaming apps. 55% of users cite quality improvement after undertaking automated testing.

Test IO offers a testing-as-a-service platform that you can use for remote testing of your game app. The crowd-testing tool reports bugs with screenshots and videos and also supports integrations of other testing services. 

Step 8. Deploy to the App Stores

Once your app is tested for all functional and non-functional requirements, your developers can deploy it in the game market. Your Android developers should follow publishing guidelines by Google Play Store, and iOS developers should follow App Store review guidelines by Apple.

Mobile DevOps practices help developers focus on delivering high-quality app features instead of worrying about deployment infrastructure management. Mobile DevOps supports continuous development, integration, configuration, deployment task automation, security, monitoring, etc.

61% of users in a survey by Atlassian said that implementing DevOps helped them produce high-quality deliverables, whereas 49% were able to reduce time to market.

Your developers can use mobile DevOps tools like Kobiton to test and maintain the DevOps pipeline in mobile app development. Kobiton offers continuous testing of your mobile app. It helps remove code flaws and optimize app performance before release.

Step 9. Collect User Feedback and Provide App Support

You should collect app users’ reviews and feedback on your card game and incorporate this feedback into the next app development iterations. This would improve your card game features as per users’ expectations.

You should also conduct regular app maintenance and keep it updated with new mobile OS versions, hardware advancements, etc.

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Ready to Make a Card Game App?

The online gaming market is quite challenging. You need to build a card game app with unique features to attract an audience and generate revenue. Therefore, you require a competent team of software developers and project managers.

If you do not find such talent on your team, we would advise you to partner with a reliable software development company with experience in developing mobile game apps.

Why not hire such competent developers from DevTeam.Space? We have a community of expert software developers experienced in the development of software solutions for multiple industries.

All our developers are vetted for their skills in the latest technologies and are managed by senior developers. You can easily partner with these software developers by sending us your initial project specifications via this quick form. 

One of our account managers will get in touch with you to discuss in detail how we can help you make a card game app successfully.

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FAQs on How to Make a Card Game App

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