People picture game development and imagine sprawling worlds, complex storylines, years of production. That's one kind of game. It's not the kind that's made the most money per hour of development time.

Some of the most successful mobile games ever made are embarrassingly simple on paper — tap to make a bird flap, swipe to match colored tiles, stack blocks without tipping the tower over. No story. No characters with names. Just one mechanic, tuned until it's genuinely satisfying, wrapped in something people want to open again tomorrow.

That's actually good news for anyone building their first game with no studio behind them. A simple, well-executed mechanic is a completely realistic first project, and it's exactly the kind of thing that's fast to prototype and test using tools that turn a described idea into a playable version.

The instinct to make something complex and impressive is usually the wrong first move. A single clear mechanic, tested quickly, refined based on how it actually feels to play, beats an ambitious idea that takes six months and never ships.

Start simple. Simple is where the actual money has historically been.