Yes! I can understand and relate to that. I love nintendo and I am an avid Mario supporter. I usually purchase all the games starring Mario at first release! Just got new super Mario bros for wii anyway, I trust nintendo to produce top quality games every time. However, this system of trust, is fortunately dropping by the wayside as consumers find new ways to purchase games. AISB, people can read reviews and watch vids to see if the game is worth purchasing. They don't necessarily need to wholeheartedly trust a dev/company. For example. I love Rolando and I purchased it the day it arrived in the app store at full price, $10. I do not regret buying it for this price as I believe the game is worth that exact amount, $10. I was so in love with the game that I was sure ngmoco's follow-up games would continue to be top quality. Unfortunately, one year ago when this occured, there were few app review websites, and the ones that did exist were not neatly as utilized as they are today. I made the mistake to purchase dr. Awesome on the assumption that it would, well, be awesome as Rolando was. Unfortunately... It wasn't. It was only $2 so I didn't really care that much, but it goes to show that u can't just rely on a name or previous creation. To go deeper, ngmoco had not, IMHO, delivered a game of equal quality since rolando' release. obviously, "trusting the dev" has not been sucessfull on this case. Especially in This day of age when the gaming industry has evolved from a few sole monopolies to a vast array of indies and companies where exceptionality is expected let alone required from not just big name companies, but from indies alike.
I agree. Rolando is the only NGMOCO game i really cared about and the rest at the time are just shallow throwaway games that got boring in less than a week. I can't really say much about eliminate and touchdog though, I'd rather buy apps once and play them and dont' really support the idea of games with microtransactions. The only reason why I bought all these NGMOCO games in the past was because they were the only big name iphone developer at the time and their games had a ton of polish. They also got famous people in the tech industry like Kevin Rose to advertise them on twitter which was genius.
Agreed, Deewin. It is going to take time and a developers best asset right now is fortitude. They will need to build on their success if they can. This is the Gameloft formula. Love them or hate them, they are consistant. I brought up KOEI as an example of what not to do with this format. With their name alone, they could have gotten me to pay double. Not now. If their initial offering was solid, they could expect the same on their next title.
I agree. Although gameloft is wrapped in controversy, 1. They publish games really quickly 2. Thier games are often rip offs of other titles 3. They never update games they always seem to pull it out and obtain sales because ppl trust them ( I see what ur saying now, scottlarsen) and they are a big name developing company.
ya, and as we in secret exit's problem, they are not a big name company. They do not pop out games like no tomorrow. They do update their games regularly with more content and simple fixes and they do not rip off games and copy other games. All their games are original. So why have they not had the success as gameloft? 1. They aren't a big name company 2. Well I really don't know
I took a look at their games. They look interesting and I may try one. May need to get more ambitious though. While I may try Stair Dismount for a dollar I won't pay 10 for what appears to be a stair climbing sim. If gameloft had put out, idk, say hero of the staircase we would be having a very different discussion. To get top profits games need to be about more than just a novelty.
Good point. With the limited memeory and battery life the iPhone offers, it's difficult to make an in-depth game worth more than the maximum $10. Good point. Looking at sheer quantity, it's hard to charge more Money for for iPhone games
I don't envy the developers. Hopefully these kinds of threads can help them. This is the scenerio right now. In a year or so hopefully we can get most of these boob and fart app developers out of here. Then perhaps this wild west mentality on the app store will settle down. I think I will buy the stair app. Just the other day I slipped and fell down some so I could use the practice.
Hahahahahahahah that's a great point! The fart/boob/video strip poker apps def need to go... Hahahahahahah I haven't bought staring dismount but I have hear that it's good. Zen bound however is fantastic as have it
It may take a while, someone was pitching a game(?) about a farting panda recently. I suspect hippoblast might be around the corner.
Our games are as large as we can financially afford to make them. The only two ways we could make games that are more ambitious are a) giving up our independence or b) outsourcing the development work to a cheaper country, which would affect the game quality in many ways we would not be comfortable with. In any case, it would be suicide to try to compete in the top tier where expectations impossible, instead we try to compete in lower price points where we can put all the polish in the games that we can, and face expectations that are only outrageous
I appreciate that. I was using extremes to make a point. Clearly there is room between the top tier price pt and no price at all. You have already started building the trust that I spoke of earlier with Zen Bound. Keep going. Building a business is a long and frustrating process however it can be done. Even the big guys were small at one point.
I think it would be good for Apple to have a stricter policy for quality. Definitely some of the good quality games get lost/forgotten if they don't have a super strong-out-of-the-gate effect. it would also be interesting to find out what apple considers to be "new and noteworthy": is that original? neat? I dunno... Anyways, I think that most devs, even ones putting out good apps, are not doing it as a "quit your day job" sort of thing. My partner spent 8 months, in his "spare time" working on Running with Scissors: Preseason. It's a good quality game, really great reviews from all who have commented on it, but little notice. Why? A screw-up of Apple's kept us out of the app store until teh 29th. It seems ludicrous that a developer should be placing all hopes of success on the first day the game is released, which most do. I like that the app store makes it so that the "little guys" can compete with the "big guys" but it also makes it so that the complete amateurs get to show off their crap. I've seen paid apps that have really low reviews by their users get in the app store "featured" section. Why? anyways, we're not quitting our day jobs around here yet. And we'll stick it out. About ng:moco - the also got a venture capital investment of several millions of dollars from iFund to start up. that's how they are able to keep going, with a longer list of seemingly substandard apps.
thanks for your imput! im always interested in what y'all have to say bout this topic. you're right about the fact that the app store tries to keep the field even. they boast that "anyone can make and app" and "its so easy" but really this strategy just hurts the devs that really know what they are doing, the ones making quality apps like scottlarsen said before, the app store will only evolve into a profitable gaming network when apps such as ifart and iboobs fall by the wayside
Really? It's not a side scroller? What is it? A side scrolling beat-em-up? Fair enough. The same people?! Thanks for that hot tip. You said nothing about beating it in sales, just 'best'. But I'll conceed on that one since, well you know, that's what the topic is about an all...
hahahaha.... ok maybe it is a side-scroller, kind of. sorta... no need to be saucy you know what i meant. EDIT: i changed it to the "most profitable" side scroller.... happy?
