How to develop a mobile game by outsourcers?

Question

Mobile development

Good day, friends!
A little bit of preface so that I don’t get thrown a lot of rotten fruits and vegetables in the comments.
I am not a programmer, but I am quite familiar with the terminology.
I want to make a small how-to for the development of mobile games and applications for the future. I will become famous and rich, I will definitely implement it. And now, with the help of the community, I want to draw up a plan for myself and other readers to achieve such an ambitious goal :)
Let's imagine that I'm some kind of beginner publisher, I want to make a clone of a game that already exists (I'm a beginner and I don't have unique ideas yet or I can't formulate them completely, so we'll plagiarize). Our choice fell on the game Idel Miner (why exactly? Since I'm a publisher, I think about financial gain. In this game, I like the financial model, watching ads to double my in-game earnings, as well as buying "gold" to activate long-playing buffs ). In addition, I saw quite a few games with similar mechanics that pushed me to the idea that there is some kind of engine on which you can pull your graphics, screw on ads and go ahead for the first million bucks. :)
But is this what I would like to ask here. 2) Are there any studios that can sell part of the TK or the whole thing for 3 kopecks?
1) Where should I start based on the TOR? (Let me remind you that there is an idea to make a clone of Idel Miner)
3) And what would be more profitable, contacting a studio or looking for freelancers, and what are the risks?
4) Where and how to look for ads in the app? Are there exchanges? What is worth reading?
I also think that questions will arise in the process of discussion, this is what first came to my mind, an amateur.
I'm pretty sure that I'm asking stupid questions and this is not the place to start at all.
But let's imagine the situation in a vacuum.
I have an investor, I have money, I want to make a clone of the game NOT with my own hands. What do I need for this?

Answer 1

https://ebanoe.it/author/itputin/page/2/
Read a series of publications "The story of one galley" - a view from the developer.
You can also "Captain's Version" of the same galley https://ebanoe.it/2017/02/10/galley-story-captain-...
This is just about game development.
Just your case is described - when the customer is stupid to spend the loot, but does not delve into the essence.
Or here is his latest publication, about the same game model
https://ebanoe.it/2017/12/01/arabian-night-1/
Since the beginning of summer, a new, long-promised project has begun. And here, I must say that when I was asked about the timing of implementation, I replied that it would take about eight months before the soft launch. Abdula swore, thought and gave out - Five! Five!? I gently hinted to Effendi that he was not in the market and did not sell dates, and when I say that such a project will take eight months, it is eight months. I decided to tactfully keep silent about the fact that I already knew such a Captain, who thought that game dev was like McDonald's. However, Abdullah Arabas stuck his head and insisted that the investors would not give any more money.

For a long time we tried to attract at least one more middle front-end programmer and game designer, but, of course, all to no avail. Nobody wanted to go to a non-name office, and even for such a period, except for a frank white contingent for which design patterns were just such a thing, quite calmly they confused a singleton with a static one, after all, the same thing, plus a static one could have heirs without any problems, and interfaces were something from ui.

Answer 2

1. You need to start by describing the concept and selecting reference projects. You can peep the points on the description of the concept here: noostyche.ru/work/doku.php/%D1%88%D0%B0%D0%B1%D0%B...
team for not very big money - you can. Not big - it's from 30,000 rubles per person per month. The team differs from the studio in that they are usually the same freelancers, but they work together, maybe even with individual entrepreneurs. This greatly reduces the cost of work, since there are no office expenses and everyone works remotely, often from the provinces.
3. It is more difficult to look for freelancers one by one, because all this fraternity will have to be managed by yourself or hire a separate person for this task. The main risks are the problem of coordinating the work of strangers and that they can scatter without warning, because there are no contractual obligations. With studios and teams in this part, everything is much better.
4. There are all sorts of different exchanges. People share their usage experience on various thematic resources, on the same Habré, for example, there is this https://habr.com/post/290434/

Answer 3

1) Where should I start based on the TOR? (Let me remind you that there is an idea to make a clone of Idel Miner)

You need to start with marketing research. Who is your target audience, what is the niche of your product, volumes, competition, solvency, demand. Advertising budgets. Organic and non-organic traffic, etc. And these are not just words. It's numbers, numbers, numbers. Specific - who, where, when, how much. If you are serious about a million dollars, so to speak.
For three kopecks, students will collect on your knee. Professionals cost money. And the development here is actually not the most expensive thing.
Freelancer is better. Risks? Throw money away.
Google AdMob, Chartboost, APPODEAL need to dig there. Google help.

Answer 4

You need a lot of money.
But even in this case, troubles are possible:
The story of one galley. Part 1. Preface
History of one galley. Captain's version of the
Arabian Night. Part 1
By the way, just about igrodelov game-clones. Just "by someone else's hands". Not outsourcing, but permanent work in the office, where it is easier to control - but this makes it even sadder.