All-In-One Games

I think the '6 minute abs' approach your suggesting doesn't scale when your dealing with collections of other developers, or for the consumer. If that were true, then that 72-in-1 bundle we saw would be crushing the 22-in-1 one, which it isn't. People are going to determine the bundle purchase based on the number of games they find attractive. You simply cannot do that evaluation based on that many games. And I doubt any developer would sign up for 1/72 (- overhead) of a game's profit.

We actually have the ability to do that within our framework, but have no plans to pursue it in the near future for several reasons. First, the payment tracking is considerably more complex (and paying out to all the developers and properly handling taxes etc is already complex). Second, we're not sure how Apple would feel about it. Third, it only really makes sense once we have a solid user-base.

However, if things go well with our first few bundles it's an option worth considering. It also drastically reduces the clutter on my screen, which is a nice side effect (here's hoping os4.0 adds folders).

 

im on my iphone right now, so my response cant be as detailed as i would like. i am getting ready to fly to san francisco to speak at a small indie convention. we will be discussing these exact issues- how to get noticed.

mindjuice- i meant that the entire industry is devalued, not individual apps. the fact that Geared has sold 13 bajillion copies doesn't suddenly make my app worth more. it is a single app. likewise, Geared doesnt devalue my app for the same reason. it takes a huge trend to devalue.

 

allinoneboxs = sh1t box

 

i guess others might have their reasons to dislike it but i feel that the trinity game box is great. most of the games were kinda crappy initially but they have been keeping true to their word to add more full version games as free updates. the app has already had a few updates and the games have been getting better and make me believe that trinity games is making a sincere effort at improving the quality of their games. its especially evident in the new isniper sequel they just added whichj is really good

 

Noidea what r u talking about! But no idea how to solve ur probblem....I think Trinity is an excellent Gamebox~

 

This is more or less the most troll-like post in the topic, but also the one I identify with the most.

slipster216 says his collection will feature ten well-recieved apps but that still doesn't mean they'll all appeal to me. Even if five of them are enjoyable I've wasted space on five apps I don't like and also indirectly supported people I don't believe are making games worthy of my money.

In a way I suppose that sounds rather mean of me, but I could have given all of that money to the five developers of the games I actually thought were good, which surely makes more sense. If a game can earn it's place on my iPod, it's developers have earned my money and they shouldn't be forced to share it. I'd rather collect the individual apps and display them proudly on my springboard than waste the extra memory and start amassing a collection of games I don't particularly want.

 

These app are by no means a home run. I was invited to put Zombie Karts into the All-in-1 ZombieBox, which contained quite a few New & Noteworthy / What's Hot games (including my own). I figured the bundling of so many games together with the acclaimed Zombie Pizza was going to be a highly attractive bundle. It never gained enough momentum, unfortunately. Had 100% of its income gone to a single developer, it would have been a nice chunk of change. When divided among 10, however, the ROI isn't so hot!

I have my theories on why it wasn't a big hit, including we launched after the zombie wave started to see some backlash, but I'm sure part of it is the reputation these all-in-1 packages have earned. The odd part is many of us saw sales boosts in our individual apps!

One thing I'll note is that you'll really need every developer on board. I certainly had the thought that I could make $1.40 off of each copy of Zombie Karts or I could make less than $0.07 off each bundle sold. While I pushed hard for the bundle, I felt like there was an initial conflict of interest. I had to have faith that the bundle would sell 20X more copies, which ultimately didn't happen. Another issue is how you slice up the revenue pie. Some games are more popular, more complex, etc. Should the revenue really be split evenly? Or should the star(s) of the show earn more? Many folks asked me how the "survival tips" app or "Zombie Saw" app could get the same share as me... and in turn there were better apps than mine in there.

To answer the technical part, it was not easy to cram my game (made with Torque) into a bundle parent skeleton. The engine wasn't designed for it. So it's possible that just to get your existing app into a bundle will take weeks of coding, as it did for me. In the same time span, I probably could have put out a decent sequel app instead and seen more money.

This is meant in no way to bash the organizers of the bundle. I love those guys and appreciate the affiliation and promotion of my brand. But there are issues involved that I definitely didn't foresee that I think others might appreciate knowing.