My iOS Games Sales Statistic for the past Month

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Rocotilos, Jul 13, 2012.

  1. Rocotilos

    Rocotilos Well-Known Member

    Dec 5, 2009
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    iOS Apps & Games Developer
  2. Zenout

    Zenout Well-Known Member

    Very similar experiences with free and paid, spooky. Actually it was only yesterday that a 5 day roll ended and I hit that 'cliff'...
     

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  3. ruiznick

    ruiznick Active Member

    Thanks for sharing, and your stats reflect mine and I'm sure thousands of other developers.

    A little off topic, in your article you mentioned that you aren't using Cocos2D and you seemed proud that you weren't? I didn't play your games, but judging from the screenshots they seem fine, but why not use Cocos2D? Cocos2D provides an easy method to present your graphics fast and manage the game well.

    As a developer you don't ever want to reinvent the wheel, and you want to use the best tools for the job.
     
  4. AlienSpace

    AlienSpace Well-Known Member

    May 28, 2010
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    The problem in the App Store, with this game or any other, is visibility. If no one knows about your game, no one will buy it. That's true for the best game or the worst game in the store. There's something like 100,000 games... think about it.
     
  5. Rocotilos

    Rocotilos Well-Known Member

    Dec 5, 2009
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    iOS Apps & Games Developer
    #5 Rocotilos, Jul 13, 2012
    Last edited: Jul 13, 2012
    Thanks ruiznick and others for checking out the statistics.

    Yea I think cocos2d is great too, BUT, when I was starting out, I didn't know about cocos2d existence (facepalm), and I went on creating these 2 games foundations using pure XCode and NSTimer. I did opengl before, but it was a long time ago, and it was difficult for me. After that I go on creating some other apps, and found out about cocos2d. But these 2 games' foundations (with hand drawn artwork) is basically done, so i just decided to finish it off and launch to appstore.

    It is amazing that even with XCode alone, you can create quite okay-ish games. I use a lot of UIView block view animations and sequence them using self performSelector: withObject: afterDelay a lot (the guy who invented this method is a genius ;) )

    But I agree with you, so 3rd game is using cocos2d. And to be honest it is not really that different with just XCode alone programming. The only difference I'd say are the performance with more sprites (like particles and what nots).
     
  6. Rocotilos

    Rocotilos Well-Known Member

    Dec 5, 2009
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    iOS Apps & Games Developer
    ^^^^
    Yup this.


    Furthermore WE are being pushed FURTHER DOWN by:

    - big companies games (they can basically release ANYTHING and ppl will buy)
    - those who game the app store (fake reviews/fake downloads)
    - Zynga. :D
     
  7. David Phan

    David Phan Well-Known Member

    Feb 27, 2012
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    President & Producer
    Vancouver
    True that!

    Even really great games are often a blip on the radar on the Top lists before they slide out of sight and out of mind. There are the exceptions of course, but let's face it - the majority of games on the Top Grossing lists are sinking a shit ton of cash into user acquisition to achieve and retain their positions and keep others out. It's damn near impossible for start-ups and indies to crack into Top lists and hold a position there for any reasonable time without a lot of capital or a publishing partner to fund user acquisition.

    To OP, thank you for sharing your numbers. It takes much courage to publicly analyze and share this type of information. Kudos.

    DP
     
  8. psj3809

    psj3809 Moderator

    Jan 13, 2011
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    I think more and more people realise how useless the app store is to 'find games'. I always use forums, if i see a thread which seems to be talked about a lot i'll have a look and if i like what i see from user reviews/gameplay video i'll often buy the game.

    I hardly find a game on the app store itself and read reviews there as to me most seem fake (i ignore any one liners, if theres a review of a few sentences it seems more 'legit' to me)

    But its just as hard for the real buyer as well, look at a section of the forum here which basically encourages people to post fake reviews in order to win a giftcard. Because of tactics like that like i say i ignore the app store reviews as i dont really know whats fake and whats not.

    I still feel if a game is good it'll get spoken about by the 'real' fans on forums. Problem is sales, so many people like to wait for a price drop or it to be free which is a shame. For a dollar or two i'm happy to buy asap to help the dev
     
  9. RebelBinary

    RebelBinary Well-Known Member

    Jun 11, 2012
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    Damn, it's terrifying out there, feel foolish taking almost a year to make my first game only to find out my chances of making any money are quite slim, although I quite honestly knew that going in.

    I'm spending way more time polishing the damn thing up, but ultimately it won't be worth a damn if it's not good and it's not visible.

    What's the consensus of quality vs. quantity game development, focus a lot of time on making one quality good app in 6-12 months or make quantity apps in short 1-2 month development time periods?

    I chose the 6-12 month timeframe, just because I'm not comfortable with putting out something that's too simple.
     
  10. AlienSpace

    AlienSpace Well-Known Member

    May 28, 2010
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    If you put out a lot of crappy games you wont have any chance of making money, and you'll get a rep for making shovelware apps. If you put out fewer good games you'll start to get known for it, build up a fanbase, and have a chance to make money.

    My other advice to developers is to avoid falling into the platform-dependent trap. In other words, write your games using C++ or Unity or some other solution that will allow you to easily port the games to new platforms. You're putting a lot of work into your game, why get locked in to one platform? If your game fails on iOS, you might still be able to have a chance to get it out on Android, or PC, or Mac, or another platform.
     
  11. OniMitch

    OniMitch Active Member

    Jun 17, 2011
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    Oxford, UK
    I wouldn't recommend spending more than 3 months on an iOS game. If you spend too long the market will have moved on, and your taking a big big risk on something that may (unfortunately) just not work out.

    But that said, you DO need to spend time polishing your game. If your game isn't polished, it will make it that much harder for it to stand out.


    I'm not sure what you do in terms of marketing, but it really is crucial to the success of a game. Marketing a crap game won't make it good, but it can make a great game exceptional! I would say that marketing is about 60 - 70% of the work in making a successful game.

    You should watch this talk by Brian Baglow: http://vimeo.com/28846726. He gives out some really great advice when it comes to marketing and PR, might give you some ideas to think about! :) (disclaimer: I have met Brian a few times and he really is a great guy).



    But, don't give up! Especially if you enjoy what your doing.
     
  12. ilStugots

    ilStugots Well-Known Member

    May 27, 2009
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    I agree on the marketing subject.

    What kind of marketing did you do for both the apps in your blog post?
     
  13. RebelBinary

    RebelBinary Well-Known Member

    Jun 11, 2012
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    Software Developer/Designer
    Ottawa, Canada
    I'm using Corona SDK, it's iOS/android and already have a copy running on my friends androids. It's reduce my development time a lot, but it also made me enjoy programming way more cause it's Lua.

    Thanks for the link, will check it out, I totally agree with you and I wish I could only spend 3 months, that's what I wanted to spend initially, but it just balloons out of control. It's my first mobile APP (although I've worked in games before), I'm putting in gamecenter, doing all the art myself, it's a huge learning experience and I hope that the time spent will shorten future development time as I'm building an infrastructure of features and code to use in the future. I'll put up a video shortly and you guys can judge for yourself, hopefully get some constructive feedback. I don't expect to make much money, but I don't want to put out junk. I do enjoy the game I'm making myself, and I think that is most important for me, hopefully I'm not the only one.
     
  14. Rubicon

    Rubicon Well-Known Member

    Feb 22, 2011
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    Isle of Wight, UK
    One point you stumbled on but didn't realise the significance of is that "free" doesn't help at all, you're just giving money away.

    One dollar is already "practically free" and nobody's /that/ price conscious. It would help to get noticed if there weren't a trillion free apps already. The fact that almost all of them aren't worth their pricetag they still get in the way.

    Push the price up and start posting on forums and stuff.
     
  15. Rubicon

    Rubicon Well-Known Member

    Feb 22, 2011
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    Isle of Wight, UK
    Nice one, glad you like it. :) (There's a sequel out on the 18th)

    Can't give exact figures, but yes we did a bit better than that. We got featured on launch day for both platforms so this game didn't have the usual visibility problem. :)

    We have some smaller games that are in the same stealth boat though and I agree it's really tough to do much about improving performance. A classic example is our yahtzee-alike game Yachty Deluxe. Bias aside we believe it's genuinely much better than several others nestling higher in the dice game charts - it even has multiplayer. What we do about it is just keep plugging it when we can. Like here. :)
     
  16. Rocotilos

    Rocotilos Well-Known Member

    Dec 5, 2009
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    That depends on how you define polished. Gauge your artwork with Angry Birds, Tiny Wings, and other top games, and if you are on par with their artwork 'level' then you're that much closer to success. But in the end, it all comes down to your game itself - is it really fun for the masses? is it really challenging to the masses? does it STAND OUT?
     
  17. Blackharon

    Blackharon Well-Known Member

    Mar 15, 2010
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    Game Designer for Ludia
    Canada
    I disagree. We've done a few free promotions and (especially this last one) they've rejuvenated IAP and actual downloads of our game. After our latest free promotion, we've begun selling nearly as much as we did during our launch week.

    Free helps spread word of mouth.

    Though, I would agree to your statement if it was qualified with '...doesn't help at all if your app is still visible somewhere'.
     
  18. Rubicon

    Rubicon Well-Known Member

    Feb 22, 2011
    1,535
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    Lead Programmer, Chief Bottlewasher
    Isle of Wight, UK
    Maybe, but the key word you used there was "promotion". (We currently have Great Little War Game on FAAD and it's shifting 75,000 units a day.)

    But just dropping the price to nothing and not following it up with action is pointless though imo.
     
  19. Blackharon

    Blackharon Well-Known Member

    Mar 15, 2010
    978
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    Game Designer for Ludia
    Canada
    True. Going free silently is just like that tree falling in the woods with no one to hear it.

    No one really knows if it makes a sound or not.
     
  20. Zenout

    Zenout Well-Known Member

    Agreed that free does not help at all. We've been giving our 2nd game away for a couple of months and there is no point whatsoever. Wasn't going to but I've just set the price back to a buck...hopefully it should generate next year's developer licence :)
     

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