Have a great idea for an iOS game but are turned off by the hours of tedious work involved in bringing your concept to life? The good news is that getting started in the gaming industry has never been easier.
Mobile gaming has 60% market share. Smartphones are the leading gaming platform. Casual gaming keeps growing. New games are released into the market everyday to cater to the diverse tastes and preferences of different market segments.
You too can turn your great idea for an iOS game into a reality without having to reinvent the wheel. One way to get started is with CodeCanyon's brilliant range of iOS game templates.
Top-Selling iOS Game Templates for 2020 on CodeCanyon
In order to choose the best genre for your mobile game, familiarity with mobile game genres is important. Your choice will be determined by: popularity of the mobile genres, what new ideas you bring to a particular genre, and the cost of developing a game within a particular genre.
The best place to start is the game industry reports that breakdown popularity of each genre and sub-genre by percentage of downloads.
This list of genres is not comprehensive: Arcade, adventure, action, battler, board games, cards, casino, casual, family, sport, simulation, strategy, role playing games (RPG)
15 Best iOS Game Templates
To get you started, we’ve scoured through the almost 300 iOS game templates we have available and found the best and most current we have available today.
1. FIVES
One of the top sellers at CodeCanyon, FIVES challenges players to create as many five-letter words as they can before the game’s timer runs out. Every time players match a word, the timer decreases its time a little, to give them a bit of a reward. Players also have the option of sharing their best scores on Facebook and Twitter.
The FIVES template uses Xcode 8.x and Swift. It supports internationalization to multiple languages and comes with a comprehensive PDF user guide to help you customise the game to suit your interests and tastes.
2. Little Snowplow
Little Snowplow is an endless type game that works like this: To clean the road, tap right or left to turn snowplow. Dodge enemies and collect coins.
The game is based on the SpriteKit engine and is written using Swift. You can share the game on social media to increase your audience and send notifications. You can change skins easily. It comes with a game center and tutorial. To monetize your game, the template allows you to set up in-app purchases and you can also earn money from Admob ads.
3. Kenny the Monkey
If you´re nostalgic for arcade games the Kenny the Monkey app template will take users back to the golden age of video games but this time on their mobiles. The app evokes the spirit of classic arcade and console games. It comes with more than 100 levels to play, amazing graphics and sounds, and a Buildbox file.
4. Quiz Online
5. Hangman
Hangman is a remake of a classic word game template where you have to guess words without hanging your stick man. It has different categories and stores your best scores for each category you play into a dynamic TableView. It’s a native XCode project built using Swift language. It's also easy to reskin.
6. Numberz
Numberz uses native XCode and Swift. It comes with a Game center leader board so you can always update your score. You have to match as many tiles as you can within 60 seconds, or even before the game board gets full filled by tiles. Be quick and be careful to not tap the wrong tiles, or else the game will end!
It has two game modes: 60 seconds and Endless. In the 60 seconds mode, you have to tap tiles within 60 seconds and collect as many points as you can. In Endless mode you have to keep matching numbers as long as you can and reach the highest score you can.
7. Catch The Monsters Geolocation Game
The goal of Catch The Monsters is for the player to find monsters in their area or an area they're visiting. When the app locates a monster, the player needs to get within at least 50 meters of them in order to catch them, earn points, and move up the Top 10 Leaderboard. Players can also share their stats on social media, by email, or via SMS.
The Catch The Monsters template comes with an admin interface, using the Parse SDK on back4app, which allows an administrator to name the monsters and place them anywhere in the world. The app comes with a PDF user guide and PSD icons.
8. Jump Hero
If you want to make waiting for an appointment less boring, then Jump Hero is the ideal template. Built with Swift on XCode 9.x project, Jump Hero comes with game center leaderboards, PSD graphics, and Admob integration.
In Jump Hero, you have to jump as many stairs as you can with your character before the timer ends. Be careful not to fall down, but be quick as well! Once you collect many stairs, you can unlock new characters and play with them.
9. 2048 Rounded
The 2048 Rounded game is a spin-off of the classic 2048 number puzzle game. The aim of the game is to get one tile to the number 2048 as quickly as possible by swiping the numbered tiles up, down, left or right so that matching tiles merge and are added together.
The template is written in Swift and can be edited with Xcode. AdMob is supported for easy monetization.
10. Wordzy
Wordzy is built with Swift language on native XCode. It's very easy to customize, comes with well-commented documentation and users guide. It supports multi-language translation. In addition, it comes with Admob for monetization.
Here is how Wordzy works: you have to unscramble 4, 6, and 9-letter words arranged in a grid of buttons on the interface. You can insert your words into a simple .plist file, start by inserting the 4-letter words, then the 6-letter ones and lastly the 9-letter ones. If you get stuck on a word, you can ask for help to your friends on social networks, email, and SMS.
11. Tap Roulette
The Tap Roulette template allows you to tap into a game whose popularity is growing. It has lightweight, clean code that is easy to read and understand. The app supports up to 4 fingers at a time. It comes with sound effects and vibrates when one finger is randomly selected. For monetization, it supports Google Admob interstitial ads.
12. Four Dots
Four Dots is an endless type game template that is easy to customize. Users can share their scores on Twitter, Facebook, and so on. You can monetize the game using AdMob banner ads. It comes with extensive documentation and PSD files are included.
The game itself: The rose has 4 circles. Dots that fall down the screen collide with the circles. The colors of the circles turn to match the color of the dots. Dots are generated randomly. The more dots you get the more score points you collect. You must be quick and tap anywhere on the screen to catch all the right dots.
13. Play It
To get you building your app immediately, Play It comes with well extensive documentation well commented code, well organized project folders and files. It is easy to customize and you can set your own skin for the game screen.
14. Dooble
Dooble is a single-touch iPhone/iPad game template where you have to reach the highest score by tapping the screen to change the color of the big dot from black to white and vice-versa.
15. Pair
When playing Pair you have to quickly tap either the left or right big button to change the color of the fired arrow and beat the highest score. You can also share your best score through social network apps, Mail and SMS.
The code is neat and clean. You can customize colors and arrow images. In addition app and buttons are stored in a PSD folder for easy image replacement. And you can get some revenue from AdMob Banner ads.
Things Consider When Choosing a Game Template
The gaming apps market is very competitive. To create an app that stands out, some thought should go into selecting the template. Here are some things you should consider:
First Impressions
More than half of game installers make their decision based on first impressions. How your game interface is designed is crucial to increased conversions.
Translation is Localization
Localization widens your reach and vastly increases your audience. Users will pay for a game even if it is partially translated in their language. It's important to translate the description of your app, the menu, and some navigation.
Popularity
You want to make a game that people will pay for Consider seriously what other users have to say. The best place to begin is to look at number of downloads and reviews of as many game templates as possible. Also read game industry reports that breakdown popularity of each genre and sub-genre by percentage of downloads before you choose.
Social
These are not optional, they are a necessity: logging in using social media and sharing on social media.
Monetization
Look at templates that offer different ways to monetize your game
Security and Regular Updates
These are important to plug any vulnerabilities that may affect users data exposed.
Choosing the Best Monetization Model For Your Mobile Game
Free games or paid games? It's not an easy choice. There are a lot of considerations involved.
- What are your revenue goals?
- How broad or limited is the audience you are targeting?
- What kind of game do you have?
- Does your game lend itself well to the paid game model or the free game model?
- Is it a game for casual consumption, for example puzzles?
- Is it a game that requires a lot of technical skill and has multiple advanced levels that serious gamers won't mind making in-app purchases to unlock?
Monetizing Free Games
Free games get a lot of downloads. But how do you monetize them?
Advertising
- banner ads at the bottom
- fullscreen images between levels
- opt-in videos: if users choose to watch, the developer makes some money
But ads can be frustrating to users and may lead to bad reviews.
In-App Purchases
In this case you make your app available free but with limited functionality and features. Users can unlock more features through can in-app purchases.
Paid Games
This model works well for games designed for a specialized audience. It focuses on technical skills. Users pay once and download the app.
You can go further and use the paidmium model in which users pay to download the app and if they need to access more advanced features or game levels they pay for them as well.
Launch Your Android App With Premium Templates
This article lists just a few of the popular iOS game templates available on CodeCanyon.
If you are looking for inspiration or you're building an application and need help with a particular feature, then you may find your answer in some of these templates.
Put one of these templates to use right now, or check out some of the other templates for complete apps available on CodeCanyon.
And if you want to improve your skills building iOS games, head on over to the site and check out some of the ever so useful mobile development tutorials and courses we have on offer.