Thank you! So far, zero money advertising it! But it is getting organic sales in the Google Play (Android), about 20-30 sales per day. The free version (a 2 stages demo version, no intrusive ads, no iap), has more than 5k downloads in 3 weeks. This site has helped immensely: http://www.slidedb.com/games/foxone Where it has been very high-ranked. However, in iTunes, it was featured in the first two days, where it got nearly 200 sales of the full version, then it dropped to barely 4 units sold per day. It had a orientation issue with iOS 8 (we fixed it in latest version) and it got a below average review from an angry customer, I think this has impacted and hurt a lot the prospect in iTunes.
If you are only interested in programming time then maybe a week (by 6-8hours a day) for an arcade style game. But a complete project takes me 2-3 months. 1th month: 1 day base concept 1-2 days playable prototype 1 week web research on similar concepts 1-2 weeks framework programming ( on top of a game engine ) 1-2 game logic & content programming unknown time artworks or hiring artists 2nd month: creating secondary content ( website etc... ) creating app icon writing description analyzing big cloud of matching keywords for best results a.s.o. But in the end time is relative . I have created some games in 40 hours from 0-100% and also created games in 2-4 months.
I've never been good at culling sarcasm from sincere thought...but if you like we can PM you with our new game developments and keep you posted It would be impossible to have much subtlety and refinement in a game that was (re)built in four days...but I’m making assumptions based on knowing your game(s). I've seen unique concepts and prototypes built in time-limited game jams that are utterly amazing.
...But take that with a grain of salt, weve been working on the same game (in different iterations) for quite a long time. Obviously, to make money, development should be fast but time should be set aside to bang out the kinks in a game and to add some bells and whistles. It's worth it, in my experience. You see it time and time again in top app store games. People see value in detail, depth, ingenuity and effort.
When I say good luck I mean it because I know how much of yourselves go into a project whether it be a business, game or a piece of art. The fact that you are doing it deserves a lot of respect and I give you that without a moments hesitation. At this moment I am building an inventory of simple games and puzzles. My people and I are looking at building 3 levels of games from small to big. My long term plan is to go far beyond just making these games, I am working on putting together the investment needed to form a strong publishing company. From my first steps into this business I discovered that a new game from an unknown developer needs to have a kick start with as little as 10,000 serious players. 50,000 to 100,000 would be a better. Then the game, big or small would have enough momentum that if the playing public likes it, it will climb and start to produce a decent return. The cost of advertising to get each player is about $2 to $3. If you do the math you need to have $30,000 to $300,000 ready to invest per game. That is out of the reach of most developers. I want to make it possible to offer that strength to a new developer. This idea of forming a company came about after I started to read the posts here. I think I can form such a company and am working out how to do it.
Granted you need some luck in some examples (Look at crap like Flappy Bird) but i still think the old fashioned way of 'releasing a good game' works. Look at Leos Fortune, awards everywhere, featured by Apple, just turned up here at the forum with no marketing, just word of mouth from people saying 'woah where did this come from' and went from there. Same with Monument Valley, dont think there was any PR, took iOS gaming by storm, yeah it was 'shorter' than most games but the level of polish and love given to this game by the devs you could just see. And it went viral, everyone was talking about this game, the devs had million+ plus downloads so obviously made a lot of money and they're now working on a proper sequel Releasing (yawn) another 2048 clone, a Flappy Bird clone, a temple run clone seems like it requires tons of marketing/promo codes/help from shillers/marketing companies etc. If you do create something original/highly polished like Leos Fortune/Monument Valley then you wont need any 'clever' marketing schemes/payments etc. The cream will rise to the top, the boring clones we've seen a 10000 times will just float to the bottom amongst the other 23423423424 clones. Is it easy ? Course not, but look at Leos Fortune - a VERY polished platformer, Monument Valley - a very polished puzzle type of game. Fake reviews, crappy marketing spammers might get you a few downloads but its all fake/temporary. Create a polished game and it should do well. Again those two games i've mentioned hardly had any marketing and just 'appeared', as they were so good people loved them. I would spend time/money polishing gameplay/graphics rather than paying some crappy company xxxx amount to get 500 5 star reviews and other rubbish like that. Look at the epic polished RPG's from Crescent Moon, compare those great games to crappy cheap/nasty/quickly done RPG's from other companies (which do nothing). If you want to go nowhere then keep doing cheap crappy clones in a few days development
You also comment about paying anyone $ to get 500 downloads and reviews. We all know that is crap and that is why all developers here try to warn developers against these. I get a few of them emailing me every week since I started to advertise on google. Heck google even contacted me to give me a free service on how to use word ads to get the best results which by the way I will listen to but with a grain of salt. Simple, stay away for these people because they have no way to make you successful, if they did they would do it for themselves because there is more money in a successful game then get a few hundred for some phony uploads. My short time in the business I have seen games surface from nowhere because the developer pushes intro ads to their existing customers. There is no way that a new developer can compete against this. They will always show at the top of the lists when they launch a new game whether it is go or bad because they will have the critical downloads to draw attention to their game. And if it has some value it will start to rise further and the company will get new customers to continue this loop. And it goes on and on. I will find a solution to this like I did for many of my business. You can check me out by google my name Lajo Cymbalski and you will read about how I made a mark in the Apple iPod, iPhone Macbook business by building it from scratch. I make noise and not afraid to take on a challenge and this is a big challenge and I love it. Of course there are some who don't like it and ban me. Is that going to be you?
I agree everyone developer should put their best effort into the games they make but to be fair developers should also know that alone is not going to ensure success. In fact a large number of good games will never be known by enough players to make that game go viral. There is only one thing that can put the game through a true fly or die test and that is a critical mass of people and unfortunately to ensure that critical mass you need promo cash. The cash needs to be spent on promos/ advertising that will be put in front of real players. If you don't have the cash you have no choice but to throw your game into the pile, hope and follow the charts. We also have different views on games Not all people go to a fine restaurant to eat their meals they sometimes go to a hot dog stand and get a quick bit on the run. The same goes for games. There is a place for everything. You don't need to spend a year building a game to have a winner just look at some of the top games this week. An original idea is questionable because nearly every type of action, plot etc that can be used in a game has already been done. It is like a car, it has an engine, wheels etc which are the basics. You can make the car yours with the body you design, size, features etc.
I agree there is room both types of games for sure. There isn't a one size fits all solution. I like making small games as much as bigger games. On being unique I disagree. Monument valley and the room were hits because the experiences were so different to what was out there. Sometimes the uniqueness comes in the design of the experience for example super hexagon a simple mechanic used a lot in a perfect design. There are plenty of ways to be unique. The idea you need no marketing is silly. The idea games like monument valley did no marketing is also false. While didn't use ad's they used other ways to get marketing and reviews. Even just posting a screenshot on a forum is marketing.
Yes one great thing about iOS gaming is that you have huge epic games or quick games. I'm personally not a fan of clones, homages are one thing, so many games are based on ideas from the 80's or 90's but clones are just clones. Just the same game with different graphics often I still think if you create a game in a few days you're asking for problems, i think speed doesnt impress people, if anything it scares them when someone says 'i can develop a game for you in 2 or 3 days'. Again the second you have a huge hit and prove me wrong then fair enough
Here are 2 games that are 2 / 3 days of work Stick Hero Cars Both of these are by Ketchapp and they are promoted using ads pushed onto their existing games to promote these games then they surface on the new free game list and then other people try them and they continue to rise. Both games are excellent examples of quickies and will generate a good amount of money and I am sure you will they publish another game in about 14 days. They are not the only ones, I work together with a developer with such an example the only problem is this developer had to drop their brand from the game and be satisfied with the cash. They know on their own they would have been at the bottom of the pile. This is why I know there is a place for the quick, simple game and worth while pursuing if you can solve the problem of critical mass. I also think there is a good market for renovating older successful games and give it a new spin, not just a new skin. It is like Apple building the iPod. They did not have to blaze the trail to explain putting music in your pocket that was already done by Sony. They only had to convince people that theirs was a better idea. The rest of the story we all know.
If momentum is the same game a friend showed me. I immediate reference it to a famous artist who created images along that line. If the developer used all of the ideas this artist had it would even be a more interesting game. All creative people are influenced by what they see, whether it is a movie, a book, painting, news, a game, carton etc. This is where ideas come from. A lot of simple graphic games I see have lot of known contemporary abstract art in their work.
I personally think that it is impossible to make substantial profit after covering a somewhat large investment (You say you will need between $30K and $300K investment for marketing) from a game that takes 4 days to make...or even a game that takes a 40 days to make. I believe that to make a game that masses of people are going to invest their time (even a few minutes of their time) into, you need to have something in the game that is in some way a valuable comodity, meaning that it must contain something rare or special that's difficult to find elsewhere. If you drop a quarter million dollars of your money (or invested money) into banner ads (etc.), it will certainly spike your sales but after a time, certainly less time than will be needed to recoup your cost, people will figure out (en mass) that the game isn't good...or become bored...and move on to the next developed-in-4-days game. Then you're done. Games that have had any amount of sucess on the app store have something that is rare and special that cannot easily be found elsewhere.
Alchemists Dream There's a certain 'gold from lead' mentality that's leading your vision. Even with fast food, you can't just create an assembly line where you slam a piece of lettuce between two slices of stale white bread, call it 'A Hamburger', advertise it on every billboard and television set and expect to make millions of dollars. It's still just stale bread with lettuce on it. That will catch up to you...people will figure it out quickly and stop patronizing your establishment.
