Is it worth partnering with a company like Bulkypix? Or go it alone with your single game? By the way do these companies make your game if you partner with them if you dont have one but have most atwork, mechanics etc? Say you partnered with someone and got say 20 million players of your game with paid download and also perhaps a couple in game incentives how much does the cut go to you on avearage and of course does the game get done for Android etc too?
who the hell is bulkypix? but to answer your question - being part of a bigger company means more exposure definitely; but your going to lose something for that of course. you need to do the math; exposure means sales.. partnership means costs.. as long as costs < sales profit - your good.
It's also important to try and ink deals where you keep the intellectual property of your game if possible. Just imagine if Chillingo owned the Angry Birds franchise. We probably wouldn't be talking about Rovio as much today.
Just do some research on your own... search for independent games that partnered with Chillingo and other publishers on AppAnnie and see how they did/are doing. From what I've seen you're not even CLOSE to being a guaranteed hit if signing on with a publisher... I've seen tons of games flop despite signing on with big publishers. We were actually contacted by Chillingo with Bug Heroes, but we opted to go at it ourselves... mainly because we are in this business for the long haul so it is important to build up our own brand name and user base (instead of having Chillingo stamped on everything). This may mean less success initially, but you have to consider the long term if you're taking this seriously. If its just a hobby and you don't even need the money, maybe signing on with a publisher could be good.
Instead of incessantly positing threads, why not lurk more? Search the forums? Check out the numerous developer resources by typing questions into Google? All of these questions have been answered many times over.
Stuff that then wit those risks and possible oversights mentioned. Im going to make my own billions. Much safer.
Not to be mean, but you may want to temper your expectations a bit. For every Rovio there are thousands of game developers you've never heard of.
@foursaken media How have the IAPs been going? Loving the title music on Bugs Heroes - reminds me of the Amiga 500 days
I still dont get the reason there seems to be a hidden anger among developers against publishers. Sure games dont always blow-up but the developers make at least some decent money. Publishers wil help if your games is doing well and they help dont if the game is doing bad. I cant see a company that supposedly building a brand if they 1st game they sell is $4.99 then the next game they sell is $1.99 . That means the percieved value of the product went down. The goal is to build a brand with price going up. There is only one publishing company I dont like , which is chillingo. They tried to claim credit for angry birds after they dissed the game themselves. That to me is bulls&*t and shouldnt be tolerated .
i wouldn't say there is hidden anger - they serve their purpose; but not for all developers. if you plan to release multiple titles and build your own user base; stick it out on your own. you can have just as much success without a publisher than with - it is not like the publisher have any way of getting additional promotion than you have as an individual - you cannot buy your way into the app store. i can definitely see one advantage of being with a publisher - just look at the top 5 matrix; if an app is there (because it is awesome, not because of publisher) then users are likely to click on it. they can then see other applications by that "developer" (publisher); what you get out of this, is in essence better exposure to more users. but then again; how many applications do chillingo et al publish? you end up lost in a different set of applications; but it definitely is a smaller list
My only arguement is if you go with a publisher and your game is successful , the publisher will continue to push the game so your success will continue. If you game is doing bad , then the publisher will not push your game. There isnt any guarentee , but thats life in general. What I dont like is the distain toward publishers , because if anyone of us became a publisher , we would conduct buisness they same exact way they do. We wouldn't force money into a game going no-where , that wouldnt be logical. As for as making your own brand , Iam all for that. The problem I have is anyone saying they building a fan-base , yet thier 2nd game is $2 less then thier 1st game. To me thats going backward not forward in building a brand and gives percieved less value to the brands future projects.
App Value That's not necessarily true. Sometimes companies make smaller games and sell them for a lower price. See Pangea and their casual games. That doesn't hurt the perceived value of the brand: it's obvious thar Engimo isn't trying to be Cro-Mag Rally. Likewise, Apple released the $500 iPad: that doesn't make it look like Apple has a lower perceived value since they used to only sell $1,000 laptops and $3,000 desktops. It's just a different product at a different price point.
The IAPs has been just amazing, of course thanks to going free as well... we had never intended to KEEP Bug Heroes free, but in the end we're maintaining our success so much better then we ever thought we would, that it is now a real consideration to permanently stay free (the great part is that our revenue is so greatly spread between the entire world... the US is currently only earning us <1/3 of our total daily profit), which means that if we were to drop off in any one country, we're not totally screwed. The doubly great part is our rating has not been slammed as they typically are when going free (4.5 star lifetime average) On topic @ Yemi, I would also have to disagree... different products will sell at different prices. Also as developers you have to learn and adapt with each game... its better to figure out what works and what doesn't (in terms of pricing) sooner rather then later. Most of the time its going to take a few games to figure out what price seems to fit which products.
Not to get this thread off topic but: W00t on that! I love what you have done with your business model and I think it's a perfect example of how to keep an app profitable for a longer period of time! Congrats on the success! You deserve it!
@forsakenmedia Well if your pricing strategy is working , I am man enough to say Iam wrong . Bug Heros is a solid game , more original than gameloft games. In my mind I see you guys challenging gameloft in the future, so I felt a higher price point would give you a bigger budget to make games on a higher level than gameloft.
Really glad its working for you guys. It is always good to have a free/iap game to keep solid funds so you can continue to churn out those quality games. My guess would be that a freemium model might supply more steady and longer income. Any word on any new games?
