$50k earned on the App Store

[Greyskull]

Originally Posted by TheBunny

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

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.

[Ovogame]

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

[Zenout]

Originally Posted by Ovogame

@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.

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.

[Ovogame]

Originally Posted by Zenout

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

[Zenout]

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!

[Dx_0628]

At least you're on the App Store! that's a great achievement! Congrats!

[Syndicated Puzzles]

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.

[ziggyeye]

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.

[Ovogame]

Originally Posted by ziggyeye

how is publishing a game on BFG better than iOS?

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