A matter of size

One of the most interesting aspects of mobile game development is that it offers opportunities to small teams to effectively get into the competition. From a certain perspective, mobile game development recalls the age of early computer games, when a team of few members shipped games that could gain worldwide popularity. Electronic Arts got their start by publishing indie developers' products.

Generally speaking, mobile games tend to have a limited scope when compared to common high budget/high quality (AAA) console or PC titles. Mobile games are designed to be played in small chunks and rely on simple game mechanics that require fewer assets, less programming, and shorter testing and debug time. This means that mobile games require less people for development and can be developed by teams of one or few individuals for every key role.

A good reason to keep the mobile dev team small has very much to do with the progress. Working progress can slow down either if the team is too small or too big. With a limited amount of work and too many people on each role, the responsibility is shared among too many members and the progress slows down because nobody feels really responsible for what needs to be done. The more people on the team, the greater the chance of miscommunication and wasted effort.

Another important reason to keep the team small is that the larger the group, the higher it costs! Though mobile gaming can become a very profitable niche, the low price of such products means that you usually don't make millions out of a single mobile game and it is imperative to keep the development costs as low as possible.