Maybe,,,i should leave appstore now as a developer...

Lite version is missing!!

 

I agree with Mr.Blue (no relation). It's important to have an exit strategy. Hopefully, you would have thought about this before, and not just hit the panic button when there are no sales.

1. Other markets. There's always facebook, web, android, palm, etc.
2. Consulting. Some devs do consulting to pay the bills, while still remaining independent to do their own thing.
3. Get a job. You can work for a game company, iphone company, software company, etc. I have the added option of working in the hardware industry.
4. School. The time honored tradition of delaying adulthood and responsibilities.

If you continue down the iphone path, you should seriously consider working on business development, networking (attend GDC), and marketing.

 

If you enjoy making your own games, keep at it I say!

Have you tried making your game free for a day? It seems to have helped get some people's games some attention.

QS

 

someone above mentioned games getting lost a day after release... try 30 minutes.
for a clone of zombieville .. id have thought marketing it well.. you would have sold some units... maybe not the 1500 units plus they sell a day.

your graphics.
your style is quite labor intesive , and appears inconsistantly coloured... not sure if thats intentional or you ran out of time.
but look at zombieville and see they have spent less time on there graphics
but they look cute... sure .. i know you kind of had to change the graphics.. but thought you could get away with just lifting the design..
many devs do that.. so .. as long as you can sleep at night.. no problem.

look at a company like imangi.. theyll never win any design awards for there plagerism but they have an excellent business and marketing sense you should try to copy.

next time.. dont stop at copying the game design .. copy the quality and simplicity of the graphics. and maybe throw in some origonal design feature.
this is tough love.. im not pulling any punches.
so dont take it to heart.

you could try recruiting a beta tester that thinks the sun shines out of your ass.. and spams the forums waiting on your every post.. thats worked for a few devs here at TA.

youve already had some good tips here, good luck .
if you are in the same position 9 months from now.. welcome to my world.

 

stupid games > ALL, FACT in USA.

So i think that small dev teams must to produce just such games...

my game which i developed nearly ~ 3 months sale worse than the game which I did for 2 weeks

 

I think this says it all. If you like making games or apps or just programming in general then keep at it. I make apps because I like programming and I like seeing my ideas come to life in the form of an application. I make other things too but as far as programming goes...the App Store is probably the easiest method for a small dev team or an individual to get their idea/app out there. Hey if my idea makes money then yay...that is the whole point for me really. To do something you like and have that thing in return be able to support you so you can keep doing it

So I say don't give up if you really like making apps or games.

 

It is pretty tough. I don't know how many copies of this exact thread have popped up in the last several months (and I can say that I was probably gonna make one myself sooner or later, as well!)

The truth is that the app store is not for everyone, in fact it is not for most people. Unless you have a million dollar idea, some fancy tech, a way with words, deep pockets, pretty business savvy, etc etc, then getting into this scene will be dodgy at best. There's no "sure bet" anymore (was there ever?) and a lot of people have got burned for putting it all on the line to make the big bucks making applications for iPhone.

Still...

if you are naive, stubborn, end-of-your-rope "this is what I was put here on this world to do," like in many other scenes, then you have some gusto that will at least carry you far enough to hopefully see something (don't know what that is, but something better than what you started with). Not money necessarily, maybe just knowledge and experience at the very least..

Our game has been out 2 weeks and I have made some incredible contacts over the past year, we tested our game to a ludicrous degree, good built-up community etc etc, still it is so hard to get joe schmoe to fork over a measlycouple bucks for a download. Who wants to buy my game when they can have Plants vs Zombies, Street Fighter IV, GTA, any of a bunch of lower-tier but equally known brands at this point.

What will happen to me? We are "halfway" through our launch of 180, if that makes sense, and I have been getting extremely creative with building up some interesting marketing plans. Maybe it will take off, maybe it will fade into vapor like so many others, watch this space

And good luck, my brothers!

 

To be honest, I don't worry about this at all. I downloaded one of Ubisoft's racing games (the ferrari one) for free in their recent give-away hour. I will never be able to match that level of polish. EVER.

And yet, after five minutes I deleted it, bored by it, and bought this instead: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/poodle-invasion/id370850893?mt=8

I don't know why it appeals to me. I think it's the retro aesthetic and the cool music and just the weirdness of it all. It was made by one person, using GameSalad, and I love it so much more than a.n.other racing game by studio X.

I think there's room for big studio games as well as indie ones. And if you look at the best selling games on iPhone, most are 2D, pick up and play games. That's what I see, anyway, so please, don't lose heart!

@TinyTechnician - I couldn't agree with you more. Mainly because you were agreeing with me in the first place!

I have six apps on the app store. I'm proud of that, but not particularly proud 'of them'. There's some nice ideas in some of them, but they're not what I imagined at end of the day.

I've made NO money with them. I could never make a TA post promoting them as they'd get torn apart. But I did enjoy making them. If I didn't, I'd have given up ages ago.

Instead I've moved on, continued, spent more time on my games, and I'm working on some cool stuff now that I absolutely LOVE to bits. They may do nothing at all, just like the early ones (indeed, that's what I'm expecting) BUT - I have loved every second of making them.

It's my time to waste. If making games is what I want to do, then I'll do it!

Cheers,

QS

 

I like your attitude, but I wouldn't call it the "exact same thread" - what I like about this one is that it goes beyond the usual new developer complaining about "extremely disappointing sales." He goes one step further and suggests that maybe it's not worth developing for the AppStore. I'm not sure why so many people are reflexively encouraging them to stick it out.

There are a lot of newbie developers still excited about the widely publicized successes of iShoot, Trism, etc. Unrealistic expectations are one of the main reasons the AppStore is so crowded. If there was even half as much attention on the other 99% of apps that never quite catch on, and/or willingness to share sales figures, people would realize that what they consider "disappointing sales" are, more often than not, "typical sales" for the average hard working indie developer.

 

One thing to note is that there IS a middle ground for apps -- its not always either complete riches or utter failure. N.Y.Zombies has just hit the one month mark since release, and it has done pretty well for us, ranging from the #100 overall game all the way to below the #1000 overall game spot (in the US). It hasn't been mind blowing success or instant riches, and our daily sales have really dropped off since release, but its still a nice chunk of extra change in our pockets and will end up being enough to fund our next project's development were we to develop full time (we'll still keep our regular jobs for now, heh ).

Also, if we had 5-6 games which leveled off at where N.Y.Zombies did, we would be making enough to scrape by full time.

I guess my main point is think long term. It may take a few good games to get your company's name out there and start to get recognition. It also may take a few games combined to start earning a reasonable income. But if you really like doing this, then....

 

I totally agree. At Oniric Games we're too experiencing that "middle ground" with our apps, and having now 3 games out there, we know that producing quality games that sell a few copies every day adds up at the end of the month.

If you have a solid title, it'll continue to sell long after launch. Our [app]Silent Swords[/app] has been out for more than 8 months, and it's steadily selling around 15 copies a day, at $2.99 ($2.1 profit in the US), that's almost $1000 a month. It's not much, but it's something, especially for a game that's rather old in App Store terms, is not listed anywhere and never had any kind of advertising (aside from a couple forum posts).

Of course we're always hopeful for a bestseller, but we don't count on it and never estimate our games having more than average sales. That way we know how much effort we can put into the development in order to make a profit. If it turns up to be a huge success all the better

IMO, the problem with most people experiencing very low sales is that, on account of the accepted fact that people want just quick pick-up-and-play, shallow experiences, they make very simple (sometimes low quality) apps. And with those there's no middle ground, either they're a huge success or they fail miserably.

 

Thanks for sharing some actual numbers! I'd kill for a steady 12 sales a day for Karate Fighter or Pocket Boxing.

How do you think people are stumbling across Silent Swords, and what do you think is motivating folk to pick it up for the $2.99. User Reviews?

I'm not sure how you define a "simple" app, but at this point I'd feel a lot more comfortable releasing a handful of fun simple apps vs. spending the same amount of time focused on a single, more complex game.

At least when a simple app "fails miserably" you're only out the relatively small cost it took to produce. If you take the time to create a deeper game loaded with tons of content, it can disappear off the radar just as quickly.

 

I think a lot of it comes down to programming/art/design skills - a lot of years making games boils down to a lot of experience. I don't like to admit but I've been making games for over 20 years and my business partner over 10 years. This certainly give an advantage in producing something that can shine among the releases each day on the App Store.

I think the problem why a lot of people get disheartened with the App Store experience is that they have never really made a game and just thought, I know I'll make a game for the App Store and get rich. These games are pretty awful really, and show the lack of experience in the making of them. But in a way this is good because you just gained experience by releasing a product - the knowledge can be used for the next one. Never give up if you believe that you will make a decent game one day because the more you make it will happen. If you went in it with the thought of getting rich, then you will fail. Passion will win out in time.

Even experience can fail sometimes... Jet Car Stunts can be classed as a medium hit - it's making money and I don't need to work for a company again. I'm not super rich but I can work on the next game with out the worry of paying bills. I say it failed because that game took six months to make and yet there's games that probably took less that a month to make, raking in money. The skills sets between Luke and I could of written well over half a dozen 99c game ideas in the time it took to make Jet Car Stunts. So we learn and adapt and plan some low budget releases.

But skills and experience of making games can get a foot in the door for marketing because, well to be frank, not many people can make a game like Jet Car Stunts, and because of this the press loved the preview videos and such. This certainly makes it easy for the next games we release.

So my advice is don't give up and just learn from the experience because one day you will make a game that people will love - just pick yourself off the ground and make another one

 

I am not a developer.
I am not a graphic designer.

As a gamer I think most of the time what catches me is the graphics for that impulse buy. Some games just look good, for instance Zombie Smash but I found the game play just blah though. Minigore is another game with great looking graphics that caught my eye and the gameplay is ok but I do not know why it has all the hype. As a customer I have to be careful and not just buy on impulse. What I am trying to get at is that some people have the ability to make a great looking game and they will get those impulse purchases. I just looked at ArtCoder's silent sword game, to me he's got just the right look. I cannot tell you what he has that you do not but he hit the nail on the head. The downside he does not have a free version for me to buy so I am reluctant to shell out the cash.

The flip side of this is the games people are looking for. I like hack and slash dungeon crawlers like Solomon's Keep. I bought that game on a whim and from the buzz on the TA forums, I am very happy with my purchase. They may not have amazing graphics but it has solid game play that I was looking for and still very good graphics. Yes original game ideas do well but sometimes just games that do the genre very well will sell. I would just be very careful about clones of games, for instance personally any game that tries to be like GTA I don't even bother looking at. I just feel the developer is trying to make money off of someone else's idea. I guess that is the trick to make a game that is true to the genre but not copying a previous game.

Here are some things I like to see from you the developer. Beta testing just makes a solid product before it comes out and I think it helps drum up interest. Free versions allow me to see if the game play is at good as it looks. Putting your game on sale for a day makes me want to buy it, it must be one of those marketing things that just works because I still catch myself falling for it. Active developer on their website/forums/TA forums, I love when I see the developer soliciting ideas for improvements and fielding questions/bugs.

Just some of my personal feelings on this matter.