So many good stories. What about the bad ones?

[joelmejiaganan]

We have heard about Trism, iShoot and iFart.

It is great to be a success in the App Store and sell a lot of copies and get a lot of money from it. The reality is that they are uncommon cases and not everybody that makes a game is getting his money back.

Can you share the info about those Apps and Devs who couldn't make it the right way? Those who made a good App but it got buried. What time did your App sell well? How much copies are you selling months away of the release day? What is the reality of those games that are not in the top 100?

We can't think this is business in heaven, we have to know the reality about the majority of games in the App Store who are not in the top 100 !!!

Thanks.

[Rocketman919]

im not the developer, but im gonna say that Smiles is a game with a bad story, terrible actually. It is so sad (and bad for the market) to see such an amazing game never go anywhere near the top ten, when in my opinion it is the best puzzle game out there.

Thanks for making a great game PoV!

Hopefully with this IGF stuff it can rocket up the charts and make you some dough!

[Tennisking1o1]

SPiN is also in this category. It's an amazing game and review sites have praised it, it's even gone on sale multiple times to attract sales (it's currently $1.99 compared to it's $4.99 price tag). It deserves so much more credit and purchases than it currently has, and I feel bad for Frand who made such a great game and had some great updates, only to see it not sell. I can only hope Zen Bound sells better...

[Rocketman919]

SPiN is also in this category. It's an amazing game and review sites have praised it, it's even gone on sale multiple times to attract sales (it's currently $1.99 compared to it's $4.99 price tag). It deserves so much more credit and purchases than it currently has, and I feel bad for Frand who made such a great game and had some great updates, only to see it not sell. I can only hope Zen Bound sells better...

yeah me too. That game looks great.

[Frand]

I've mentioned this before in some other threads.
SPiN has a 4.43 global written reviews average, mostly great web reviews (IGN Editors' Choice Award, 'Must Have' from Slide to Play...) and Best Puzzle Game of 2008 as noted by IGN Wireless.

The sales have barely covered ~25% of its total development costs.

The reasons have of been discussed as well, whether it's the name, the unfamiliar concept, piracy, the timing... all are factors of course. But it is an unfortunate example of (in our opinion) a high quality game not raising widespread interest despite positive web presence.

Lite version didn't have much of an effect on sales.

The one lesson to learn that I would like to share with all the indies is this:
time your web visibility as close to your game release as possible.

Website visibility creates one-day spikes in your sales, and if those spikes are spread too wide apart, your game is less likely to climb the App charts. Time them close together, and their cumulative effect may bring your app to a top position which then starts feeding itself with a positive feedback loop.

With SPiN the pricing had a linear effect on the number of sales. Sales quadrupled when price was dropped to $0.99, but only for a few days, followed by a rapid falloff. Now, three months from release, daily sales are few.

This brings again the problem... since it seems download numbers are directly influenced by the price of the application, it would suggest that launching any app at a price other than $0.99 would seriously risk its probability of success. Since position in the Top Apps charts is only determined by the number of downloads, the best chance to get up to Top 25, where the big paycheck is, is to price low. Naturally this would seriously hurt the perceived value of the application, and raising the price to, say, $5.99 after an 'introductory sale' will most likely kick your app out of the top charts as fast as it got there.

Of course this only applies to games that don't have a brand attached to them. Big publishers rely on the value of their brands to price the games at $9.99 and people are willing to buy.

[coconutbowling]

I've mentioned this before in some other threads.
SPiN has a 4.43 global written reviews average, mostly great web reviews (IGN Editors' Choice Award, 'Must Have' from Slide to Play...) and Best Puzzle Game of 2008 as noted by IGN Wireless.

The sales have barely covered ~25% of its total development costs.

The reasons have of been discussed as well, whether it's the name, the unfamiliar concept, piracy, the timing... all are factors of course. But it is an unfortunate example of (in our opinion) a high quality game not raising widespread interest despite positive web presence.

Lite version didn't have much of an effect on sales.

The one lesson to learn that I would like to share with all the indies is this:
time your web visibility as close to your game release as possible.

Website visibility creates one-day spikes in your sales, and if those spikes are spread too wide apart, your game is less likely to climb the App charts. Time them close together, and their cumulative effect may bring your app to a top position which then starts feeding itself with a positive feedback loop.

With SPiN the pricing had a linear effect on the number of sales. Sales quadrupled when price was dropped to $0.99, but only for a few days, followed by a rapid falloff. Now, three months from release, daily sales are few.

This brings again the problem... since it seems download numbers are directly influenced by the price of the application, it would suggest that launching any app at a price other than $0.99 would seriously risk its probability of success. Since position in the Top Apps charts is only determined by the number of downloads, the best chance to get up to Top 25, where the big paycheck is, is to price low. Naturally this would seriously hurt the perceived value of the application, and raising the price to, say, $5.99 after an 'introductory sale' will most likely kick your app out of the top charts as fast as it got there.

Of course this only applies to games that don't have a brand attached to them. Big publishers rely on the value of their brands to price the games at $9.99 and people are willing to buy.

That sucks. Hopefully Zen Bound will be able to recover you from SPiN (which imho is a really great game)

[Knight]

Did Apple ever feature SPiN on any of their 'special' lists? (Whats Hot, New, Staff Favs)

I checked it out on the App Store. I like the graphics but I'm not a puzzle guy. I wonder if your problem is due to too many puzzle games. You seem to have everything else going for you though (awards, reviews, graphics, price).

Oh well, when games like iCopter are still in the top 25 for months and months, it might be that games like SPiN aren't what the market is looking for.

[Knight]

Can you share the info about those Apps and Devs who couldn't make it the right way? Those who made a good App but it got buried. What time did your App sell well? How much copies are you selling months away of the release day? What is the reality of those games that are not in the top 100?



7 Cities came out a day after SimCity, a day before Puzzle Quest, and 2 days before Rolando. That burned us good!!! But a month later, we got featured by Apple on Whats Hot and got some good numbers then. So far we are happy with it. And it makes us want to do updates and make other games.

But I really want Apple to change the App Store layout and help those devs who put in the extra effort.

[Frand]

Did Apple ever feature SPiN on any of their 'special' lists? (Whats Hot, New, Staff Favs)

I checked it out on the App Store. I like the graphics but I'm not a puzzle guy. I wonder if your problem is due to too many puzzle games. You seem to have everything else going for you though (awards, reviews, graphics, price).

Oh well, when games like iCopter are still in the top 25 for months and months, it might be that games like SPiN aren't what the market is looking for.

Yes, Apple guys are great, and we got all the visibility from them that we could hope for. SPiN was featured as a top banner game in most regions, then listed in "What's New" and I believe it may still be present in some regions' "What's Hot" or "What We're Playing" sections.

I don't know if SPiN is a puzzle game, to be honest. For me it's an arcade game. The line is blurred of course, but for me Tetris isn't a puzzle game either... when you play it at level 10 or so, the pace of the game is so fast and the gameplay so reaction-driven that calling it a puzzle game does give the wrong image. Guitar Hero is an arcade game and not a puzzle, right?

SPiN is similar in that at the higher difficulties it challenges anyone to the peak of their reaction speeds. I don't think puzzle games do that, unless there's a genre for "Arcade Puzzle".

[Knight]

Yes, Apple guys are great, and we got all the visibility from them that we could hope for. SPiN was featured as a top banner game in most regions, then listed in "What's New" and I believe it may still be present in some regions' "What's Hot" or "What We're Playing" sections.

I don't know if SPiN is a puzzle game, to be honest. For me it's an arcade game. The line is blurred of course, but for me Tetris isn't a puzzle game either... when you play it at level 10 or so, the pace of the game is so fast and the gameplay so reaction-driven that calling it a puzzle game does give the wrong image. Guitar Hero is an arcade game and not a puzzle, right?

SPiN is similar in that at the higher difficulties it challenges anyone to the peak of their reaction speeds. I don't think puzzle games do that, unless there's a genre for "Arcade Puzzle".

I apologize. I saw 'Best Puzzle Game of 2008' as the first review in the product description on the App Store page and I concluded its a puzzle game.

That is interesting that even though you got the best feature (top banner? wow), that you still only made 25% of your investment? I find it hard to believe given our own experience, but maybe I am just not seeing the bigger picture since I haven't played your game.

[Frand]

I apologize. I saw 'Best Puzzle Game of 2008' as the first review in the product description on the App Store page and I concluded its a puzzle game.

That is interesting that even though you got the best feature (top banner? wow), that you still only made 25% of your investment? I find it hard to believe given our own experience, but maybe I am just not seeing the bigger picture since I haven't played your game.

No, as far as marketing and all that goes, I agree that the general consensus is that SPiN is a puzzle game (indeed, we call it a Super Shape Puzzle ourselves).

What I mean is that puzzle games are generally considered to be casual games, and most people that think of a puzzle game are probably going to associate the term with something close to Sudoku or Bejeweled, a game where there is no real time pressure to complete the tasks.

In fact, the difference between a puzzle game and an arcade game may very well be simply the pace of the game in many situations.

So just as far as my personal opinion goes, I think of SPiN as an "Arcade Puzzle" or simply "Arcade" game, as opposed to a "casual puzzler".

Back to the subject of iTunes visibility, the top banner is actually less effective than placement in "What's New", since the top banner is not mirrored in the iPhone's version of the App Store. But when you're on the first page of "What's New" that also puts you on the first page on the device.

Also, while we had top banner placement, you'll notice that the top banners cross-fade between two or three selected apps per banner. The order of the banners is always the same, and each banner seems to be visible for about 10 seconds or more. Not many people stick around on the front page of the App Store on the desktop long enough to ever see the 2nd or 3rd banners, I think. We weren't the first app in the banner sequence, so I believe the amount of visibility to end users is much less than the one which always loads up first.

This again underlines that being featured in the What's New section is the best promotion you can have in the App Store (outside of a Top 10 position in the Top Apps list, of course).

As for development effort vs. sales, SPiN has involved work of many different people over roughly 4-5 calendar months of work in total. Two people were almost constantly occupied with the project, with others used for assets, QA etc. in shorter bursts. The project has a longer history attached to it that I won't go through here, but the overall effort estimate is reasonably accurate for any budget estimations.

Sales peaked at ~400 copies sold on the day we dropped the price to $0.99, and as earlier mentioned, price and number of sales had a nearly linear correlation.

Sounds like you've had good success with 7 Cities :)

[Knight]

I agree with you about the placement for banner. They don't quite work well on the iPhone.

For 7 Cities, we tried everything possible in terms of marketting (sale price, Whats Hot, Lite version, promo code giveaway). Our results agree with yours. The best one was being featured by Apple on one of its list, in this case we were on Whats Hot. We were a bit down on it though so people still had to scroll down on the iPhone to see it. But anyway, it gave us a good sale boost to get into the top 100.

From your reviews though I would expect your game to be in the top 25 at least. But this is the App Store where its bizzare-o-world, and everything is opposite. Oh well, next time ;)

[Knight]

Just saw the video on SPiN. Looks pretty cool actually. Nice!

[Frand]

From your reviews though I would expect your game to be in the top 25 at least. But this is the App Store where its bizzare-o-world, and everything is opposite. Oh well, next time ;)

Yeah, you can't compete against flatulence with quality. You lose. :)

[Tennisking1o1]

What I mean is that puzzle games are generally considered to be casual games, and most people that think of a puzzle game are probably going to associate the term with something close to Sudoku or Bejeweled, a game where there is no real time pressure to complete the tasks.



There's plenty of pressure in this game :)

I hate on the levels in the 60s. It just keeps shaking and I'm trying my best to match 'em up! :p

[PoV]

im not the developer, but im gonna say that Smiles is a game with a bad story, terrible actually. It is so sad (and bad for the market) to see such an amazing game never go anywhere near the top ten, when in my opinion it is the best puzzle game out there.

Thanks for making a great game PoV!

Hopefully with this IGF stuff it can rocket up the charts and make you some dough!
Yeah, Smiles could have done much better. I've never had a zero sale day, but the sales are still nothing to brag about. IGF and the Free version were good shots in the arm, and not a minute too late.

In retrospect, it's a game that really relies on Apple taking notice. Broadly accessible with special effort put in to making it so, yet still lots to grow in to and to keep skilled gamers interested. All the extras you'd want in a top tier title (achievements, scores, multiple themes, 14 game modes, good sound design, tactical use of accelerometer), but I'm sure there must be some criteria I missed. ;)

Visually and genre wise, the exact opposite ways to get noticed in a gaming community. After all, how could there still be an original matching games to be made? Yes, it has been an uphill battle. :)

I'm hopeful of the IGF buzz and Free version turn in to some "hey, what's this iPhone game I've never heard of" press.

But yeah, this is Smiles round 3, but I'll fight all night. :cool:

[Diablohead]

It sucks when months of effort doesn't sell like it should or as you expect and it can harm cash flow, but it's always worth trying again instead of bailing out instantly.. though that might not be easy depending on publishers or how much the first time cost you out of pocket.

In the next 3 months I'll be spending up to £1000, if all fails you will know about it :P

[lithiastudios]

I'd be curious as well to hear about the worst case scenarios for a decent app that just never seems to get visibility. Even if something never hits the top 100, never gets featured, etc., do you end up with 0.. 5.. 10.. 50 sales a day?

Also curious about the "long tail" as well.. does it get to the point after a month or two where you are getting zero sales a day? Or is it a case where even months later, there's still a small trickle of sales still coming in?

With all the stories of people making it big off the app store, I'd like to get a bit grounded and realize, okay, in a worst case scenario you may only get $5, $20, $100, $500, etc.

-Kevin
Lithia Studios

[PoV]

It sucks when months of effort doesn't sell like it should or as you expect and it can harm cash flow,
Yup. That's not to say I'm failing, just I'm not one of those run away success stories.

You wont get rid of me that easily. :D

Even if something never hits the top 100, never gets featured, etc., do you end up with 0.. 5.. 10.. 50 sales a day?
I wont say what I'm making, but I will say a few reasonably priced projects completely outside the top 100's can make a living. But you always have to be sure someone is talking about you. You can use Smiles as a gauge. Keep that level of quality up, and you can still thrive with the market working against you.


The time for little games is over. Some will still find success, but if you're not bringing your A game, you'll be eaten alive by the shear volume of apps.

Oh, and I'd suggest against matching games, unless you enjoy the whole "walked uphill both ways" paradox. ;)

[mehware]

I did not sell near as many copies as I would have liked for my first two games. Still have yet to see a check from apple but I am over the $250 hump in the US market. When I got my first sale I was so happy just to have my name on something.

My third game "Vase Craze" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXIqj6hTTdo) should come out tomorrow, hopefully this title will do a lot better. Its kind of like a root-beer tapper/match 2 game.

[lithiastudios]

The time for little games is over. Some will still find success, but if you're not bringing your A game, you'll be eaten alive by the shear volume of apps.

Oh, and I'd suggest against matching games, unless you enjoy the whole "walked uphill both ways" paradox. ;)

Thanks for the insight. It does seem like if you're putting a pretty basic game out there that you're pretty much looking to take things by chance due to the # of games out there. So it sounds like even in a relatively simple game, it has to be quite polished and refined to have a reasonable shot.

I don't mind adding extra polish to my games, I just have trouble sometimes initially figuring out what the polish should be. :) I think it helps to look at some of the top games out there and get some pointers from how they're doing things. (eye candy, sound/music, gameplay features, etc.) At least until you've got a few games under your belt.

[PoV]

Yep. Look at top games. Or even better, look at games for DS, PSP, Xbox Live, PSN and Wii Ware.

They should look like that. :D

[ChaoticBox]

...I think of SPiN as an "Arcade Puzzle" or simply "Arcade" game, as opposed to a "casual puzzler".
I had the same problem with websites/reviewers labelling Pinch 'n Pop! a "casual puzzle" game - while at the same time complaining it was too fast and hurt their fingers :confused:

My story is neither bad nor good (if "good" means making hundreds of thousands of dollars a month). Apple featured Pinch 'n Pop! on the "What's New" section a couple weeks after release and it brought in decent money while that lasted, but quickly fell off the radar afterwards. Getting high visibility on the device is absolutely the most important factor - Pinch 'n Pop! is still in the "New & Noteworthy" section in the Games section in iTunes (in the US and some other Countries), but that area gets little attention by users - the device is where the action is.

Pinch 'n Pop! made enough money to pay for its development and to encourage new development, but only because I'm a one-man shop. My outlook would be different if I had to split revenue with an artist and/or sound person, or if Apple hadn't featured it for a short time.

[PoV]

Pinch 'n Pop! made enough money to pay for its development and to encourage new development, but only because I'm a one-man shop. My outlook would be different if I had to split revenue with an artist and/or sound person, or if Apple hadn't featured it for a short time.
I'll 2nd that. My earnings could not support a 2nd person on the project. I developed Smiles entirely myself, code, art, and audio. I also have a really low burn rate. Enough for me, but it's a good thing I don't have any kids. :eek:

[Anders]

The problem is the way the top 10 and top 100 lists work. It appears that they are only based on number on sales, which is why so many 1 or 2 star rated apps are so high. No name dropping here.

I still don't understand why people rather buy five 1$ crap apps rather than one good and polished 5$ app. It takes time and effort ( = $$$) to make something polished.

I wish Apple would differentiate between cheap "home made" apps and premium apps, and one way would be to have different lists for different price ranges, say one for 1$ and up, and one for $5 and up. And also base the lists on how long the apps were installed and user rating instead of just sales.

[joelmejiaganan]

I'd be curious as well to hear about the worst case scenarios for a decent app that just never seems to get visibility. Even if something never hits the top 100, never gets featured, etc., do you end up with 0.. 5.. 10.. 50 sales a day?

Also curious about the "long tail" as well.. does it get to the point after a month or two where you are getting zero sales a day? Or is it a case where even months later, there's still a small trickle of sales still coming in?

With all the stories of people making it big off the app store, I'd like to get a bit grounded and realize, okay, in a worst case scenario you may only get $5, $20, $100, $500, etc.

-Kevin
Lithia Studios

This is exactly what i was asking for. I want to know what are the worst case scenarios that you know about good or bad games, so we can know what is the worst that we can do if all goes wrong.

[arn]

This is exactly what i was asking for. I want to know what are the worst case scenarios that you know about good or bad games, so we can know what is the worst that we can do if all goes wrong.

Worst case scenario is like a no sales to a few sales a day.

http://bang2d.com/?p=47

Mouse House was down to that level before it got boosted by some reviews.

arn

[lightbrush]

I'm only an independent programmer writing games in my spare time so not sure how much of interest my numbers are. I've released a few games, all of which sank without trace. My main seller is Basketball which sells about 25 copies per day on average; the others usually manage just a few sales between them.

Admittedly though - my apps have had VERY mixed reviews - either loved by a few or hated by many!

I'm still plugging away at it though - I'd really like to be able to give up my day job one day!

Doug

[jasonf]

Just to give some quantitative feedback to this discussion: Cryptograms and Theseus (both $3.99) sell about 5 copies each per day on average. This has been pretty consistent for the past few weeks. So I get about $28 per day from game sales. I would consider this a "bad story" in regards to the amount of time spent working on the games. Good thing it's not my day job :o

Theseus Lite had zero impact on sales (neither positive or negative, it was approximately 5 sales per day before lite was released). I'm thinking about pulling it, or charging $0.99 for it.

[MetaNick]

Juggler had, at it's peak, about 20 sales a day. That quickly dropped to about 2-5. Then we did the update, got 20+ sales a day for 3 or 4 days before it bottomed out again. Then we decided to release Juggler Free for grins and giggles and now we get about 2 sales a day on Juggler, but we're getting about 1300-1500 downloads a day of Juggler Free so while we're not making much money, we're sitting at #10 in the Family Top 100 Free list which is kinda cool. :)

Once the Flip 3 update is ready and that goes live, hopefully it will have a better tail. Otherwise I'm working on three new game ideas, and PhotoTalk just came out, so I'm hoping to make my living by aggregating a lot of small selling apps/games. :p

[Rohan Dalal]

same with zombie mansion
it was all over the news (touch arcade), but it barely got anywhere in the appstore

[indyraider4]

I can't believe it isnt doing better. I have recommended it to all my friend and we all love it. If zen bound makes a splash (which I hope it will) maybe people will begin to notice it. I rememeber reading about SPiN and thinking, that sounds weird, and a few days later it was the first app I ever put into my dock. It is really incredible and NEVER lags or crashes on me. I wish you all the best with your future development because I know you only put out the best apps.

[ibelongintheforums]

yea, SPiN is great. it seems if your not featured by apple or in the top 100 or EA, Pangea, or gameloft or freeverse..............then you wont make tons of cash

except if your the blimp pilots.........for some reason theres are popular

[Ivan001]

Just to give some quantitative feedback to this discussion: Cryptograms and Theseus (both $3.99) sell about 5 copies each per day on average. This has been pretty consistent for the past few weeks. So I get about $28 per day from game sales. I would consider this a "bad story" in regards to the amount of time spent working on the games. Good thing it's not my day job :o

Theseus Lite had zero impact on sales (neither positive or negative, it was approximately 5 sales per day before lite was released). I'm thinking about pulling it, or charging $0.99 for it.

$28 a week is a bad story? $5 a week is a good week for Dynamate ($0.99) even with getting 4-5 star reviews!

I'd love to do another update to Dynamate but I know that unless it does get featured by Apple (unlikely) then it will only bring in another $30 or so.

My sales so far are around the 900 mark which is unfortunately split amongst the different regions. This means that since launch in October, Apple hasn't paid me a $1 yet!

Surely that's more of a bad story :(

[Morti]

Quite interesting thread. I'd like to add my numbers to it.

Before my first 2 games I developed 5 apps in objective-c (the games are done with Unity). The best selling app (before games) I made was "The Big Red Button" which sold over weeks 100-140 copies per day. Meanwhile the sales are down to around 5-10 copies per day.

The second-best app was "The Ultimate Sound F/X Jukebox" which sold about 30-50 per day over weeks and then dropped to 0-5 per day (a lot of similar apps appeared).

The other apps, mostly timers of all sort do sell 0-4 per day (Chain Timer, Tea Timer, Parallel Timer).

The games are a different beast. First game was Bubble Bang which started with around 120 copies per day and then declined slowly to 40-50 and is now around 10-20 per day.
The Lite version of Bubble Bang had in it's peak times around 6500 downloads per day, but didn't bring a lot of conversion for the sales version. Meanwhile over 320.000 copies of BB Lite have been downloaded. I'm releasing soon a new version with Admob support in it.

Big Fun Racing had a great start with 915 copies the first day (thanks to Arn for featuring it on TA), but declined then ultra fast to 700, 500, 300, 180, 120 and is now at 80 per day, but still declining.

Over the month sept. to dec. I had around 3500 sales per month total, january with 2600 and feb. until now 4500 due to the release of Big Fun Racing. I would not consider this as a big success. Yes, at least it paid the investment costs for artists and software packages (Unity iPhone Advanced for example is 1499 US$) and a tiny bit left over for me, but not anywhere in a range that I could reduce day time working hours or start fulltime on games.

I think unless you get a #10 hit app/game, it's really hard getting some money out of it, esp. on the long run. What I can currently see is a general declining sales trend. Might be specific to me, but that was what I noticed. What I often hear meanwhile of iPhone users is: "Another app/game? I have already x screens of stuff" and poeple said they look less often into the app store.

Best
Martin

[ibelongintheforums]

i thought id say to the devs of theuses, big fun racing, and dynamite.

you guys did a great job with your games. im sorry they havent sold well. they are great games.

[tiptopworkshop]

Speaking as a dev whose app has seen all sorts of traffic, I'd like to add that a little promotion goes a long way. It's easy to create a low-budget, narrowly focused Facebook or Google ad that only costs you money when someone follows it through to the app store. With 23,000 apps available now, it's hard to submit it to Apple and hope for the best.

Try an ad for a week and set it up to charge you per click. Spend a max of 10 dollars a day. Sign up for the iTunes referral account so you can track conversions to see if it really is paying off. Perhaps not every click will lead to a sale, but at least you're getting the impressions; it can't hurt to get your app in front of the eyes of hundreds of thousands of iPhone users.

[joelmejiaganan]

So, as we can see all we need is a good game and a little luck. Staying in the top 100 is a must in order to get good cash.

If we see the games that have stood in the top 10, definitely the price is not that decisive, because plenty of them are around $4. They just are games that people like to play and not only hyped or good looking games. No matter how much money you invest in a game, if the game is not good enough it will sink quickly.

We can see the case of Rolando, a very good game, hyped a lot and revolutionary, but if you see the reviews, people just say that it is not the last Coca Cola in the dessert. We can see the case of the unreleased Metal Gear Touch; The game may have the biggest budget, but people already have starting complaining about how the gameplay seems boring and if this is the case when it finally gets released, it will not sell well.

If you want to be in thehappy side, make your game PLAYABLE AND ENJOYABLE by us.

[gillygize]

Well, Petri has never done particularly well. I think I've sold about 100 total. In retrospect, releasing it just before the holidays was a big mistake. None of the review sites were updating themselves, and, once they did, they were too backlogged to pay much attention.

On the other hand, I have some thoughts about this: I'm a grad student in history who programmed the game mostly over long weekends, teaching myself OpenGL along the way. It was pretty fun and I learned a lot doing it.

It got some mixed reviews, but many people who played it really like it.

Plus, I did manage to turn my programming experience into a real job. So in that sense, it hasn't been a bad story at all.

I still believe in Petri, and I still think its fundamental gameplay is solid. I can still say with confidence that there is nothing on the App Store quite like it, and who knows? Maybe when the next update comes out (and it will be a huge update, affecting every aspect of the play), it might get another chance to turn some heads.

[ravenvii]

same with zombie mansion
it was all over the news (touch arcade), but it barely got anywhere in the appstore

Well, yeah, the game sucked, that's why. ;)

Hearing all the stories here, made me wonder. If exposure in the App Store is so important, how did games for the consoles become successful? Was store browsing that important, or was it their online presence, presence in news/review sites and the such?

Basically what I'm saying is there should be an alternative in advertising than the App Store itself. Maybe think of the App Store as Amazon.com or gamestop.com or whatnot - advertise it and people'll look for it?

[Eric5h5]

Well, Petri has never done particularly well.

Make a lite version. :) Sure, it's only 99 cents, but it's different enough that I guarantee a lot of people who looked at the screenshots just went "WTH?" and moved on.

--Eric

[lithiastudios]

Make a lite version. :) Sure, it's only 99 cents, but it's different enough that I guarantee a lot of people who looked at the screenshots just went "WTH?" and moved on.

--Eric

Agreed, watching the videos, it looked cool, but with the static screenshots, it was hard to imagine what the game was like. I think it'd be a good candidate for a free lite version, maybe time limited or just an easy difficulty level.

[gillygize]

Yeah, there will be a lite version as soon as the update is ready. I'm working on the two simultaneously.

[Oliver]

What interests me: Will Apple pay for the sales in the different regions after a while? I noticed the 250$ limit, but when you have low sales, will you get some money someday or will Apple "keep" (steal) it?

[Morti]

They will pay it the month you got over the 250$ limit. Had sales first time from Japan after 5 months or so.... :-)

[nattylux]

They'll also pay out all the accounts once a year. So if you're sitting on $100 in, say, Japan, for a whole year, you should get that paid out in December.