Hey everyone, great discussion here. I would like to share our experience with Appstore. So far we've made 2 games (Blimp and 33rd Division). Originally we were design studio (product design, logotypes, web development, etc.) and once we said we could try to make a iPhone game (back in 2008). After a long period of learning we finally started working on Blimp (January 2009), while we still were doing design and some web development. It was hectic. It took 5 months to finish Blimp and we really put hearts to that game. It sold ok (far from what we were expecting though , but it enables us to quit designing and focus only to iPhone development. Then we released 33rd Divison. That took us about 3 moths and sold better than Blimp. Although we expected better sales Now we are about to release a new game. We are 5 man team now (3 originally). Looking into 2010, it won't be easy. But if we'll be able to remain competitive, do more games (which sell better than we see it very positive. And we're still doing what we enjoy and that's the best on it!
Developing for the iPhone is fun, creative and relaxing (at least for me). However I would not quit my daytime job. Even if there were some serious spikes in sales, I don't consider this a stable income.
I never had a dayjob. I knew from the very begining that I will not be able to quit my dayjob to make games. So I quit college and started doing games, in order to avoid quitting my dayjob.
Do you have the luck, vision, skill and dedication to take on the App Store? That's the answer to your question.
I entered the iPhone Development business nearly a year ago. (Technically, 9 months and 14 days, but who's counting?) Prior to this, I designed and created board games for players outside of the digital realm. Games like Risk, Settlers of Catan, Etc. Since video gaming was a huge interest of mine and game design an equally as powerful passion, it felt right to develop games on this new and exciting platform known as the iDevice. From a financial perspective, I earn more in a day than I used to in a month, but the work required is far greater. Not only must developers create a product that the market wants, but must do so with enough polish and quality to demand buyers attention.
Some very good thoughts and comments. Thanks for the sale, MEE! And Mr. Jack too, thanks for the honesty. I guess I have to admit that my effort in promoting my app was pretty weak (I'm easily the worst salesman I've ever met), and I paid the price for that in the app store. At the very least I have a better picture now of the division of labor required between actual development versus marketing and promotion.
Do you guys know how "regular" customers buy games? I never decide to buy a game using itunes or the appstore... it is useless. I go here on touchArcade, listen to gaming podcasts... but strangely, I have customers, and I don't believe they all come from toucharcade forum... and LITE versions are getting downloaded fairly regularly. So how do they do it? Do they browse the appstore or use appshopper.... I would think that maybe 1%-5% of all iphone/ipod customers use forums to buy games... then there could be a big group browsing the top 10/100 charts... I want to believe that my customers just stumble by accident on my games... that would mean that I could expect sales to continue, right?
