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

I don't want to quote the whole thing, but the entire post is worth reading and then reading again.

Although I was a software developer professionally for several years and had success in the corporate environment, I've never made a commercial game in my life. I've been playing video games for almost as long as I can remember and that initially caused me to think that I can be making really Awesome Games. Maybe not get rich, but enough to live on.

It was really in the post-mortem that I began to realize why we lost mid 5 figures in cash outlay and that's not even counting opportunity costs. By not coming from a game design background and having zero experience in developing games, we were at a severe disadvantage. Once I realized this, I started to dissect popular games down to how the buttons do this little bounce back when sliding onto the menu. I still haven't found the right formula yet, but maybe I will one day.

If I were to do it again, I would look at getting paid to make games for other people first. Learn how to design and make games before releasing my own titles.

 

I'll chime in here quickly.

Don't give up...but...

I just released Daredevil Dave 3 days ago. I designed it 100% by myself, except for Dave's voice, which a friend did for me. Yesterday Dave appeared in the New And Noteworthy section and he is sailing up the ranks. I don't want to mention any monetary figures at this time because he hasn't been up there for a full day yet, but things are going extremely well! Dave is #74 in all paid apps in the app store as I type this, and climbing.

I mention that because somebody mentioned that being featured ain't what it used to be. Well I am living proof the App Store is still open to indies, but it is not easy.

This is the first game I've ever tried to sell. I've made games in Gamemaker and other "platforms" as a hobby, but I've never worked in a game studio at all or made a dime doing it.

It's all about the game (mainly). I feel I was lucky in coming up with the idea of Daredevil Dave before anyone else did. Honestly, I wasn't thinking too highly of the whole App Store thing until that idea came to me. EA even contacted me out of the blue about publishing the game. They saw my video on Pocketgamer some months ago. It didn't work out but I was stoked that I attracted their attention.

Long story short (I'm in a hurry), there is still room in the App Store for us little guys. There are still future success stories to be told.

Good luck to all, and don't give up or let anyone discourage you!

 

I think people run into the game in the few places you can find the game on the Internet (several reviews sites, Youtube, news sites that reproduced our press release, etc.) and by searching for our keywords on the AppStore. We've also updated it a couple of times, and we're doing cross promotion in our other games and through OpenFeint, all of which may help a little.

As for why they get it at $2.99, I think the price is just right (it's high enough to convey it's a quality title and not so high that you'll think a lot before buying). Also, Silent Swords is really unique (sorry if it sounds like I'm boasting ) so if you think it's a game you'd like you just can't find a cheaper alternative.

Well, our strategy is quite the opposite. In our experience, more complex games tend to have a longer life on the AppStore. Even if they don't get huge sales in the first few weeks, they can generate a steady income for months. Besides, at higher price tag you don't need so many sales to start getting a profit. Most simple apps (and I mean those that you couldn't possibly sell for more than 0.99) have the potential to generate a lot of income, but a much higher chance of just sliding into oblivion a couple of weeks after being released.

For us, it's also a question of what sort of games we like playing (and making). As all of us at Oniric are long time gamers and given our previous experience is in making games for the PC (averaging 1.5-2 years of development each), we just enjoy making "bigger" games. I personally have a hard time enjoying most 99c games for more than a couple of minutes and rarely buy any. We'll probably release a couple of simpler games in between our bigger ones, but only if we can come up with ideas we really enjoy.

For us the key is to find a balance. Right now we try to have a 3-4 months development cycle for a 2.99 game.

The question is, would that half a dozen 99c games together make as much money as your bigger game? Yes, there are games that take a few weeks to make and earn a lot of money, but for each one of those there's probably thousands that make close to nothing...

 

There are lots of Apple reps outside of the US... I'm UK based and Dave Currall who is Apple's 3rd party dev manager for the UK has been a great help...

But tbh you can just fly out for GDC and meet them, and shoot them an e-mail later

 

Android could potentially work, however I dislike it as a market as if your making android games then your limited to the worst android capable handset if you want to capture 100% of the market/ not piss people off, which I imagine isn't far above being a simple text based game... I prefer having a higher "minimum spec" to work with .

Just my opinion on it tho, I'm sure it could still be a very viable platform if your focusing your games in that direction.

 

The big names have moved into the App Store, but there is still room for the small independent studios. Look through the charts and you will see them. But there are a lot of indies wanting those chart positions.

Work on making your game the best it can be and spend time and effort on marketing it. That doesn't guarantee success, but it does give you a chance.

There is probably no better opportunity for the indies at the moment.