A full post-mortem for our Great Little War Game is currently featuring on VentureBeat right now: http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/13/great-little-war-game-postmortem-what-went-right-and-the-perils-of-launching-without-a-plan-for-budget-and-pr/ It has numbers. And lots of gory bits. Hopefully a warning to new startups about getting your shit together before you start, just like we didn't!
Thanks for a good read! I must say I'm with you on the whole marketing thing - trying to stay away from it and wishing it would be just the game's quality that counts... Yeah : )
Yeah, that would good huh. Good luck with your project. If we made it with all that against us, it should be a source of optimism for anybody!
Very informative read, thank you. Even knowing about some of the budget and pr pitfalls mentioned, I still find it difficult to side-step them!
Fantastic read. AS GLWG and GBWG being some of my favorite iOS games I am very glad to see that post and the trials you went through and even the income. I hope they GBWG was a lot smoother for you guys.
Thanks for this, I feel the more I see articles like this the more I'm worried once my group's first app launches we may not have done enough pre-work. I know there is no exact formula, but more thorough pre-release development and marketing can make all the difference I suppose
I think it's more important than the quality of the game in all honesty. There's so much competition about that getting people to try your game has become the #1 challenge. Only after they try does it matter if its any good, iyswim.
Maybe you didn't make it big, but you didn't go into the red. You spent: $190,000 You made: $500,184 So, between the 5 of you (if split equally) would have $62K each in bonus (because it said tech was included in the $190K). Also, was this the only project this particular team was working on? Plus the bump you'll get from being on the front page of VB.
Um, we started $190,000 in the red? You're forgetting taxes And considerable mortgage interest And a ton of other expenses There's no bonus - that figure is /all/ the pay available No noticeable bumps It's not all we've done. More to come on the sequel project which is where the remainder of the money went.
Excellent Article Well it seems you're learning the marketing side (hence this story) which is a great move. I enjoyed the read very much. Also, I can relate just being pre-launch in the non-tech business world. As far as contacting the right publications to help sell the game, I think you're looking at it the wrong way. You're looking at it as a consumer. These are business relationships and you can be looked at as a success; at least in regard to brand awareness. I mean who doesn't know about your war games? I'm sure there are people but with so much crap released on the App Store every hour, yours certainly stands out as a quality title. Even compared to some other strategy games; Great Little War Game is, well great! Anyway, I'm positive people want to write about and sell your next title. If you think about it, it's a win win. That is, after all, why a lot exist in the first place. I've learned this through personal experience with my own start-up company and it's true across the board I would suppose. It seems you've learned this already with Venture Beat! It sounds like you have a business consultant and that's great; I hope this helps you achieve the success you certainly deserve. Although pulling from my experience, this was a double edge sword. Sure business experience comes with it but so does a definite expense which can hurt companies such as mine with little working capital. But again this is just my experience as a startup. In the end you have talent where talent matters and you can't teach that. You can however learn marketing and finance. I personally hope to someday start designing and programming games and would be happy to be in your position respectfully. I wish you the best and please keep us in the loop for your next title! Great Little War Game: For the Win! PS. In case it came off the wrong way, please don't take my post as an all high and mighty lecture, I think this is a very interesting topic and enjoy the discussion. Mobile gaming is growing enormously and everyday seems to be more of a viable business for the indie!
Thanks for the informative read. I've been working on a game for quite some time now, and it is a bit scary to see how much more has to be done, outside of just developing the game itself. Good luck on the next title!
You probably won't want to read the next one then tbh... It's finished, just looking for somewhere big who wants to publish it, having learned the pr lessions in part 1..
No probs. Here's the next installment: http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/Great+Big+War+Game/feature.asp?c=53447