iShoot Developer Quits Day Job

[arn]

http://www.iphonesavior.com/2009/01/...umber-one.html

"I'm still in shock," Nicholas said, "I've given my two week notice at Sun Microsystems. I'm gonna do this full time now."

[PoV]

/jealousy

[Talon Raines]

I really like his story. I've seen 'Lite' apps do very little for games too, so it makes me wonder what kinds of things a developer should be putting into a Lite version to give it the best chance to convert to an actual sale.

As for quitting his day job, if he is making 21k+ per day as the article suggests, then I guess thats not such a bad thing to do. He'll make enough money before its popularity wears off to at least justify taking a couple years off, and hopefully he can get a team together and make some really great games.

[Little White Bear Studios]

Wow, that's a fairly odd thing to do after only a few days of good sales, on a single app. I'm guessing he doesn't have a family to support.

[nattylux]

Originally Posted by Little White Bear Studios

Wow, that's a fairly odd thing to do after only a few days of good sales, on a single app. I'm guessing he doesn't have a family to support.

The article said he sold 16,000 copies in one day. He's now at #1, so he can expect to be there for at least one week.

16,000 * $2.99 *.7 *7 = $224,000

And that's just in one week. If he makes $0 for the next 2 years, it's plenty to support most families. Many have made the jump to full time on much less funding than that.

[lithiastudios]

I'd be curious to hear about of the experiences of people who haven't "made it big".. definitely seems like if you're fortunate to be on the top 25 list, you can make some serious money..

But what if you never reach the top 25 or top 50 list? Are you looking at just a couple of sales a month due to being doomed to obscurity? Or are sales good, just not "quit your job" good.

[Little White Bear Studios]

Originally Posted by nattylux

The article said he sold 16,000 copies in one day. He's now at #1, so he can expect to be there for at least one week.

16,000 * $2.99 *.7 *7 = $224,000

And that's just in one week. If he makes $0 for the next 2 years, it's plenty to support most families. Many have made the jump to full time on much less funding than that.

Take out the new additional taxes he's not used to paying, and it's really not that much for a family to live off of, especially when he won't be getting free healthcare/401k matching, etc. anymore.

But the money isn't the issue I was having with it. It's the rash decision to quit your job after only a few days of success at something else. Especially when it involves a single product, which 1,000 other people will now be making clones of, some of them better clones. Sure, now he's got time to make another app, but like the article said, his app was not a hit at first. Dangerous business, this App Store!

But hey, if he's got no ties, more power to him! I hope he gets a long ride out of it.

[rootbeersoup]

*goes out to buy a mac and the SDK*

[Little White Bear Studios]

Originally Posted by lithiastudios

I'd be curious to hear about of the experiences of people who haven't "made it big".. definitely seems like if you're fortunate to be on the top 25 list, you can make some serious money..

But what if you never reach the top 25 or top 50 list? Are you looking at just a couple of sales a month due to being doomed to obscurity? Or are sales good, just not "quit your job" good.

Depends on what your current job is. I'd say if you were one of the top 150 games, and you sold exactly the same amount every day, you could probably quit most jobs. If you're always in the top 100 games list, I'd say you could definitely do it. Whether it's safe to do, that's up to each person's comfort level.

[rootbeersoup]

Now once someone makes an app that lets you fart bullets... Then we will see the first iMillionaire