Interesting.. all these success stories about making lite versions have made me want to try it out.. Also, congrats, Ethan, for making it into #1. And I admire your willingness to start a business (in other words, quit your day job), because it's actually pretty hard to find anyone with that mindset where I come from. Everyone's into working for banks these days.. (and I graduated off a software degree.. strange huh)
its a fun game...and that's only the lite version! You'll be getting my 3 bucks shortly, the lite version was fun! Best of luck, if you did this in 6 weeks I'm sure you'll have more great ideas to come!
Ethan: First of all, I'm happy that you're doing well enough with iShoot to have quit your day job. It's an inspirational story, and I wish you the best. Secondly, I appreciate your candor regarding iShoot's provenance. Again, I do not begrudge you your success, but I think that it's pretty much Exhibit A when it comes to how utterly broken the App Store is at the moment. iShoot's pretty freakin' good for a "novice hack job," as you call it, but it was immediately obvious to me that it wasn't a professional product. I am as mystified by your success you seem to be. My best guess is that it's a structural issue. I think that you have a killer name for your app (iShoot is about as good as it gets), and that you released the free version at exactly the right time--right after Christmas, when lots of inexperienced iDevice users started delving into the App Store. In other words, I think you got lucky. Nothing wrong with that. I also think that you're a talented developer, and I am looking forward to seeing what you do with iShoot and any new games you may design, now that you have some financial wiggle room.
Actually.. Yeah it is.. I obviously would be making more in a real job but no where near that, and ALMOST EVERYONE around doesnt make 200K in a year. Strike that, even 100K(including medical/retirement) even the developers. So your safety number is significantly higher than pretty much everybody here... But Damn, good for you!! But now he's made 200K this year(probably significantly more since I dont believe with the structure that he can fall out of the top 100 quickly)... If in 1year he hasnt estabalished something out of it.. Well, he can join the job market again. Its not inconsistent income at all. In February its like 200K in his bank account. But yeah, in your specific situation it would make it harder.. But even if I had your job and the iShoot bump, I'd already be planning my heading out the door..... Hopefully we both have a chance to see a decision like that...
Oh, I wasn't saying I make 200k a year. Just that with what I do make at my job, there are a lot of free/tax perks that I would have to pay, post tax, out of the proposed App Store 200k, that it makes that number a lot smaller than it seems. So take that 200k, and take about 40% away for state/fed taxes. Then take out family medical coverage. Then take out retirement money, and don't forget to double it, since you aren't being matched. Take out life/disability insurance fees. So generally, that could work out to well below 100K in the end. Of course, that could still be more than enough for a year for someone. But after that, you're going to have to maintain that number, which is where the lack of consistency comes into play. I am not saying anyone should or shouldn't quit their job after App Store success. I'm just saying that someone should really think about all the issues before jumping ship. I wish everyone who has/hasn't quit their jobs the best success possible.
How to track "Lite" conversions? I'm working on an iPhone game now, and fully plan on releasing a Lite version. My question to developers is, how do you know how many of your sales are "Lite" conversions? Is there a way to track that?
I couldn't think of a truly reliable way to. I mean, you could count lite downloads, then the number of full version, but that isn't completely reliable. I bought both Tanzen and iShoot, without buying the lite versions. I guess you could take off a few hundred downloads, and that would give you a fair number. If it tracks accounts or IP's, then that concerns me about the security of my personal info.
There's no accurate way to tell. But if you know how much you make each day without the Lite version, and then you release the Lite version, and your number goes up dramatically, then you can probably assume it comes from the conversion. Generally, you're going to get 1-5%, assuming your game is any good. If it's not good, the Lite version will only hurt your sales.
We don't get any personal information. We get a list each day of the following general info: TanZen: New U.S. 10,000,000 copies TanZen: New France 5,000 copies .... TanZen: Update U.S. 50,000 copies TanZen: Update France 500 copies .... TanZen Lite: New U.S. 500,000 copies TanZen Lite: New France 10,000 copies .... TanZen Lite: Update U.S. 40,000 copies TanZen Lite: Update France 20,000 copies ---
Holy moly, are those examples or for real? Hehe Anyway, so how many devs now are scaling back the type of games they want to make? Seems the App Store is all about luck. Not that I think iShoot is bad or anything, I actually like Scorched Earth games.
Now that would be cool! Alas, no. I think it's going to be 50/50. There's always going to be people who want to make a big game. I think the bigger companies are going to be more careful, and not release bad games at high prices. But there are going to be a lot of indie devs pumping out the small games, at small prices. I agree, the App Store does involve a lot of luck. I have no doubt there are tons of games sitting in the top 500 that are better than most of the top 10.
i think this is good to stress. Everyone goes into it with the impression that all games are created equal and if only they had enough exposure, their game will do well. Most games suck. If you make a lite version of a game that sucks, it will only serve as a warning to not purchase the full version. arn
And that's why dev forums are filled with people saying that Lite versions do not work. Most games suck = most Lite versions have no conversion rate. Now, if you do have a good game, and the Lite yields nothing, then you've either: a) Given too much of your game away for free. b) Not given them enough of a taste. c) Not given them an easy way to get the full version. d) Not made your Lite version visible enough. e) The price of your full version is too high.
Which is one of the big reasons why Tanzen needs a lite version. Most people have never heard of Tangrams, so it is needed. On nearly any other $.99 game, it isn't needed. iShoot got the right mix of all of those.
This gives me some hope. ^_^ Things were going well and my first app is getting submitted to Apple tomorrow or Tuesday. Well I got called into HR on friday saying my services were no longer needed. Well I got paid out for 2 weeks at least. So my day job quit me. Hehe. Anyways so my first app is going to the store and I will be working on my next apps as planned even before the "news" I got on friday. So what im going to do is work on Iphone stuff until I run out of cash or I maybe see some returns. I honestly dont have much faith for my first app but at least I polished it and the fact that is a parody might get some attention... I hope. When I release my next app thats more graphical I hope I can get a little buzz going on that one of the last projects I did was doing CG for the Watchmen film coming up. Either way congrats to all who are doing well and IShoot. I hope I can make enough to buy a cup of coffee.
