Cathy it really doesn't matter how you look at it, Ufkah is front and centre in Caveman test. He can become annoying if you lose often! Maybe drebls is right go for the humiliation factor of the app! Modern day man with all his intellect can't beat a simple cave dweller! Maybe that is the spiel to get it going!
Whoo! I was that NZ sale Just out of interest, approximately how many man hours went into this game? There's a lot more to it than I expected from an A-side game is all.
Thanks for the purchase Mike. I hope you have been able to beat the savage? Total cost 4200 US$, + 50 for the caveman mask (out of pocket) Total time AI was 14 hours Photography 3 hours Graphics 24 hours Coding and testing 48 hours (that is what was invoiced) My time was not calculated (sound familiar?) This app was a lot of fun to do, so subtract 1200 US off the bill! Would I do it again. Answer: Yes
Bravetarget, I was worried about getting bashed for this price (too cheap). You are fortunate to be able to do everything yourself. Some of the prices I am being quoted for the coding and other parts would force you to have to have a success just to cover the development. I calculate my risk as follows! I would like my investment back in two years. So I have 730 days to make 4250$ back. If I need to sell more than 10 dollars a day I will not start the project! 10$ is my threshold.
Question, is the $4,250 figure including an hourly rate for the amount of time you spent on the app? Or is it actual cash paid to produce the app? Just curious.
Tyler, I think to take the plunge most of us have to unfortunately set our development time at zero dollars. In business school the professors are relentless in preaching the need to pay yourself first! I am aware of this fact. But the calculation I want to share is out of pocket expenses need to be recouped in 2 years to start a project. personal time spent on developing your own app = possible financial upside I invent games and puzzles for a living and this platform is heaven sent to reach a huge audience with a comparably small effort on our part. Selling to 20 different countries in one day without leaving the cave ( or your mom's basement) is revolutionary to say the least.
The problem is, how many of the huge audience did you managed to reach until now? Don't mean to be rude, but this thread seems to be all about you trying to console yourself about your game selling next to zero copies.
so; if your development time wasn't included - where were the costs? i just finished an application under contract - where they provided a storyboard, audio/music and graphics. the audio/music was taken from istockphoto - so, it had a one off cost and they had an internal art director for the graphics. it took 3 weeks from start to finish; i spent around 80 hours on it (programming). it is now available as a free app on the app store. $4250 for this app seems much more than one would spend on a quick shot. hell - i've spent $0 on some of my games, it has all been my own time. making back $4250 is going to be steep - and you probably are getting most sales from users watching this thread.. to judge truly the success; you shouldn't be posting here and trying to let it organically get successful. PS: the artwork for each gw-xxx game cost me $275 US - with a small royalty sharing after a certain amount of sales.
monk666, I am reading in between your sentences and you are 100% correct this thread is promoting Caveman Test. Next time please just come out and say it! I have no shame! So don't worry about hurting my feelings. What I am hoping that as a side effect the transparency might help a lot of others along the way. App development is tough at the moment and very few are making good money at it. The not making money part is boring to all of us, the explaining and extrapolating why we are not making any money is a lot more exciting and keeps us going. My life is about to change, Str8ts is being published in some big European newspapers ( first one March 1 in Germany) My audience will jump from a few thousand to hopefully several million in a brief moment of time. Caveman Test probably was my last piece of fun, I will have before we try to turn Str8ts into a mass market Sudoku rival. www.str8ts.com This will be a roller coaster ride I will have to face and manage. All my apps will benefit overnight so I have more than 10 apps in place before the flood gates open. So the consoling myself is not what you should have read between the lines. I am hoping it to be a bracing myself instead.
Mobile1up, I know exactly where the on button is on my iMac! That is the grand sum of my computer skills. I use pen and paper and then photograph the concepts to the developers. That is how embarrassing it is! So I don't have the luxury of making cheap games on my own. My brain is wired very differently allowing me to work in 3D. Hard to explain but what it boils down to is, I am able to see just a little bit more than others. Some days I can see the end result of a complex game problem before starting at the beginning. I am releasing an Art app shortly that will illustrate the space I am working in. My genetic makeup doesn't allow me to even consider being a programmer.
Mobile1up, One real quick point that needs to be made following your post. If a game like Caveman Test can't sell more than 20 copies while being on the front page of entertainment (perfect spot) simulation and family games all Saturday, than I think this thread has some merit. We have problems! Furthermore if I am told that I have only five days to make Caveman work and it is best to switch projects if it doesn't pan out than this is amazing news to everyone's ears. 5 days!!!!! I am optimistic that creativity and hard work can be rewarded.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'front page', but if you're only selling 20 copies, you won't be on any Top 25 list. I was Top 25 briefly in Family after being featured and selling 200+ copies a day. Even Top 25 in a category list has debatable significance, since most people don't shop that way. I would agree that you should start working on the next app. No amount of minor tweaking will boost sales. If you're lucky enough to get featured still, that will help a lot. I haven't seen a lot of evidence that constant tweaking of description, screenshots, etc... helps in any significant way. One other thing; I don't think the traditional rules of business apply to the App Store. It's an unknown quantity (has it even been around 2 years?) and the "shelf-life" of a game on the App Store is VERY short. You'd be lucky to get more than a small trickle of sales a year later, much less two. Rather than spending time optimizing this game, start the next one. If you had 10 Caveman games, you'd be selling 200 a day.
lazy peon sorry, should have been more specific. Caveman test was on the front page of new releases in great locations> Letter " C " helped.
Caveman Test now free The sales on this one have been a disaster so with the help of freeappcalendar.com it will be free this week. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/caveman-test/id339056870?mt=8
