Today, my Apps’ income just past over $50000. It’s a nice threshold that many tiny developer like me will never reach but it took me almost two years to reach that amount (I’m only talking about Apps that I am self-publishing on the App store). So, I’m not sure if I should be happy or sad. As far as I am concerned this is a failure. A game like Jump Birdy Jump should have bring something like $200k at least (yep, it is that good). But unfortunately, it didn’t get the attention it deserved from the press or Apple (it was only feature in some tiny App store). Luckily, I don’t just rely on the app store and never stop my PC casual game business. I’ll carry on creating game for this wonderful platform but I’ll probably spend less time on it. If you are starting as an indie developer, make sure to pick up a cross-platform engine, so you can get as many streams of income as possible (like I do). Or you’ll be gambling too much. JC
Hi Ovogame, I'm working on my first game and if I could pass $50,000 in two years, I wouldn't call that a failure whatsoever. To me that's amazing but I'm sure once I'm more established, I won't be saying that. Did you do any marketing on your part or did you just leave it up to chance? If you did market, what channels did you use? Jared Martin http://www.facebook.com/obscenemedia
Gratz that's a nice achievement! It's nice to see that such numbers are possible with more mainstream games.
I've reached a point of considering Mac and PC deployments as becoming more attractive than iOS. How would someone like me handle payments? I guess the Mac AppStore and Steam would be the places to aim for...would probably get some visibility too. 50K is a good job if it funds a bigger project (even the security of survival is nice), plus allows you such luxuries as private transport! But it's all relative and we all want to step up I agree. The iOS 'feature' corner is an art form in itself. I need to look back at when the day my first app was released, then avoid that day like the plague: It made N&N for like 2-3 HOURS...stuff like that is life changing tbh. Guess what we have earned in these 2 years is precious developer experience.
YES! Only bad sides... steam might not take you... and MAS sales are mostly really low when I talk to most devs on there like 1/10th that of ios in general. YMMV of course
How much of an issue is this GreenLight thing? Ovogame's suggestion about multi-platform sounds appealing. Plus apparently essential, again relatively. I guess what I mean is: Are the voters as bad as some of the raters we know! Is the system policed to prevent unscrupulous types. Sorry going off topic a little. Just wondering if this issue of 25K/turnover is global to platforms? (sounds ok for startups)
Do you have any plans to make something other than a puzzle game? I think the store is over saturated with puzzle games.
Desura seems to be more flexible when it comes to distributing indie games. You should try them, too. They might not have the name recognition of Steam, but it's another channel to get your games out from your hard drive and into the world.
Just to clarify, $50k is for all my selfpublished apps. JBJ account for about 60% of that. JBJ was the only game created just for iOS. The others are port from my PC games, so it was cheap to release them on iOS. Anka (iOS) is distributed by BFG, so it isn't part of the equation (it did already brings more money than JBJ, despite my shares being smaller obviously). @obscenemedia I didn't do enough marketing obviously. Other than sending loads of review request (didn't work very well), posting on forums... I'm cross promoting my apps with my inside my other apps. Every 6 months, I'm putting some of my games for free (to bump a bit the visibility). My budget for JBJ was mainly my time spent on it (5 months). My external cost was tiny few , other than my time (5 months) so my marketing budget was also tiny. @Zenout For PC/Mac payment processing, you can use 3rd parties like BMT or Plimus. Steam is extremely hard to get into. I'm using the Mac app store for mac games and loads of casual PC distributors like BFG. At the end, the long tail is working as some of them do still brings money in even after month/years of the original release. @TheBunny, @BazookaTime, @sampdx Thanks a lot. @Balloon Loons Yes, I would like to create a more "hardcore" game, but all my past experience and distribution channels are with more casual games, so I am always worry about having to start from scratch again. JC
Mac AppStore sounds the most appealing of your suggestions from where I'm standing. Obviously Steam would be if could afford to risk developing a game which might not even get through the market door. Steam are being anti-indie imo. I think the iOS AppStore is preferred, especially for the cute style games. Still looking for my niche.
I think, if you want to keep in the mobile market, then you should consider Android too (as it is a very similar platform). Obviously, this is an excellent advise that I didn't even put into practice yet JC
Ha yes I too always thought would have my stuff on Android by now. Especially as my SDK (Marmalade) is cross-platform. Maybe there aren't so many GL2 'droids out there? And compatibility/testing might become feasible when I'm not banging my head on current doors!
Mac App Store iLifeTouch currently has the most apps on the Mac App Store. The store is turning into a very tough grind now. Not really sure what is going on but from the review process onward it has turned into a very hard way of making a living. The apps and platform are very high maintenance. If you want any advice drop me a line.
how is publishing a game on BFG better than iOS? Is visibility better on BFG? I would think your project budget would be bigger for PC dev too.
Well, this is just 2 different platfroms really. BFG has a huge PC/casual/mostly female community, but you need to create games that will suit theyr audience (and yes this is way more expensive than creating an iOS game). Now, BFG is also distributing games on iOS. So, I ported my game Anka to iPad, and instead of distributing myself, I used BFG as a publisher. Again, you need a game that will be suitable for their audience. I'm happy with Anka sales using BFG. What I was getting at, is that you should try to get your games on as many platform as possible. It is cheapper than creating a brand new game. JC
