How To Make a Mobile Game - 5-Step Explainer

Making a mobile game today isn’t a moonshot. You don’t need a Fortune 500 budget or a 1000-person studio. But you do need expertise - and quality game art services.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to make mobile games - from defining your concept to launching on app stores. Whether you’re building a hypercasual idle clicker or something more sophisticated, these steps will help you avoid common pitfalls and build something that players will thoroughly enjoy.

How Hard Is It To Make A Mobile Game?

That depends on the kind of game you're making. Want to create a phone game like a simple puzzle with two buttons and no monetization? You might get away with a few weeks or months and a small team. Planning a turn-based multiplayer RPG with animated cutscenes and gacha mechanics? That’s closer to a year, with a sizeable team and budget.

Another huge variable is art production. If your game needs dozens of characters, evolving environments, UI elements, or animated assets, art becomes a major part of your timeline. The more polished, coherent, and scalable your visuals are, the faster your project moves. That’s why many studios turn to external game art services to scale up quickly and avoid bottlenecks.

5 Steps to Create a Phone Game

Here’s a lean five-step method to create mobile game projects - the kind that don’t collapse under scope creep or miss deadlines. And yes, we’re keeping our eye on the visuals throughout.

Defining the Game Idea

Every good mobile game starts with a tight core loop. Tap to shoot. Match three to win. Slide to move. Start small and focus on what’s repeatable and scalable.

This is also where visual identity begins. Is your world cartoonish and bright? Atmospheric and stylized? Minimalist with crisp icons? The art direction you’ll end up taking must flow from the mechanics - and, on this early stage, the artists engage technicians to give it a shape.

Choosing the Art Style

Art is way more than how your game looks. It’s also how players understand and interact with it. In art creation, you should make choices that are as much strategic and practical as they are aesthetic. What we mean is: a clear UI speeds up onboarding. Clear and smooth animations convey gameplay feedback, while not interfering with the gameplay. Characters, if developed correctly, set the emotional tone.

Decide early: 2D or 3D? Pixelated retro or painterly fantasy? Flat UI or skeuomorphic buttons? The art style you pick will affect performance, budget, market appeal, and even retention.

Popular options include:

• Flat 2D: Bright, readable, fast to produce - perfect for casual or educational games.

  
  

• Pixel art: Retro vibes, small asset sizes, lots of charm.

  
  

• Stylized 3D: Bold, fun, exaggerated visuals that stand out in app stores.

  
  

• Semi-realistic: Great for more immersive, story-driven or action games.

A good game art partner will help you test different directions in pre-production before you commit.

Creating a Road Map

Even if you’re planning to create mobile game projects that are tiny, there’s a rule: the more thorough your development plan, the more it accounts for risks and variables, the more likely the resulting mobile game is to be successful.

A roadmap also helps you scope out how much art you’ll need per phase: icons, environments, props, characters, and UI. It defines which visuals are core, which can wait, and how to prioritize them.

Agile vendors often build with placeholder art first, then plug in production-ready visuals later. The important thing is that the art team works in sync from the start. That way, you’ll avoid redo cycles and mismatched assets.

Also, budget time for forgotten things: visual polish, scaling for multiple screen sizes, localization layouts, and art for app store listings.

Setting Up the Team

While you don’t need a hundred engineers and 50 artists to launch a game, you do need the right experts. From an art perspective, the typical mobile game development process includes:

• Concept artists who define the game’s look and feel. They lay the foundation for the game’s visual identity.

  
  

• 2D/3D artists who create characters, environments, UI, icons and other assets.

  
  

• Animators who bring actions and feedback to life, smoothly and in a way that elevates gameplay.

  
  

• UI/UX designers who make sure screens are intuitive and responsive and that the experience is seamless.

  
  

• Art leads who keep the visuals consistent and on brand.

Given that not many organizations have all the necessary expertise in-house, many of them choose to outsource art to studios like Gamepack. This gives them access to a broad range of specialists without needing to hire full-time. Whether you’re building everything from scratch or just need a few extra hands, the right art services can make a huge difference in timelines and quality.

Testing and Launching

Your game might work technically - but does it look right?

This is where visual polish becomes mission-critical. You’ll want to test:

• How your UI adapts to different screen sizes.

• If animations match the player’s timing.

• Whether game feedback is clear (win, lose, reward).

• How your art style performs on low-end devices.

• What visual elements players remember most.

A soft launch in a smaller market is a good time to test visual retention and monetization signals. Are players engaging with rewarded videos? Are pop-ups converting? Is your visual hierarchy driving the right actions?

Feedback here lets you improve art assets before global release - and save on rework.

Monetization and Post-Release Support

Most games don’t make money from downloads. They monetize through in-app purchases, ads, subscriptions, or a blend of those. And that monetization needs visual support: reward animations, shop layouts, ad prompts, and more.

After launch, ongoing support usually includes:

• Seasonal art updates.

  
  

• UI tweaks based on analytics.

  
  

• New characters or environments.

  
  

• Rebranding for special events.

Many studios choose to outsource game art for these updates. It keeps them lean, flexible, and able to release fresh content without slowing down.

Is It Worth It To Make a Game?

Absolutely - if you’re realistic, focused, and backed by professionals who know how to make mobile games.

Mobile games are creative products with business goals. And visuals are what tie the two together. Art communicates mechanics. It sets emotion. It drives retention. And done right, it makes your title stand out in a crowded store.

Here’s the good news: you don’t need to figure it all out yourself.

A seasoned game art services studio can help you bring your idea to life. Whether you need early concepting, full asset production, or UI/UX polish - Gamepack’s artists, animators, and designers are ready to support every phase of your mobile game development process.

Search Gamepack Studio and get high-quality artwork services for your mobile game.