Hi, sorry if posted before, but I find it interesting.. http://dailyartifacts.com/52-times-is-the-charm-for-angry-birds
Talk about "If at first you don't succeed..." Another interesting figure to consider is that Rovio spent $140k developing Angry Birds and has raked in a whopping $70 million so far with no end in sight. At least Rovio made enough money to continue making apps until they had a big hit on their hands. I think the challenge many indies face right now is to simply stay in the game long enough for their hard work to eventually pay off. One day, app discovery will work the way it should and the cream of the crop will naturally rise to the top. In the meantime, luck continues to play a large role in finding success in the app store. Personally, I would be more interested in hearing stories from successful 1- or 2-man indie efforts. For example, does anyone know the story behind Andreas Illiger's Tiny Wings?
Some say he woke up one morning and chased a burglar from his den. The mysterious burglar apparently wrote 3/4 of the game code and left it on a thumb drive in his rolltop desk drawer. All that remained to be done was some UI code. Other sources claim that Andreas is a bizarre eccentric who keeps a steady diet of Red Vines and Maple Syrup, and little else. The rough outline for the game was devised by a strange and complicated circadian pattern breakdown of his own sleeping and gastric schedules. Strange stuff indeed. Still other sources hold to the fact that "Andreas Illiger" is actually a superintelligent AI algorithm (which itself can code apps) somehow downloaded to the present day from 30 years into the future, designed specifically to create games which can hopefully neutralize the Angry Birds virus from destroying all of gaming culture irrevocably and forever. My money's on that last theory. Cross your fingers!
wow I didn't even notice it (and I typed it) ...hmm... Andreas Illiger Artificial Intelligence I tell you wot