{"id":938,"date":"2012-01-11T17:29:40","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T15:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thegamebakers.com\/?p=938"},"modified":"2023-09-06T19:31:40","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T17:31:40","slug":"money-and-the-app-store-a-few-figures-that-might-help-an-indie-developer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thegamebakers.com\/money-and-the-app-store-a-few-figures-that-might-help-an-indie-developer\/","title":{"rendered":"Money and the App Store: a few figures that might help an indie developer"},"content":{"rendered":"
Emeric Thoa is the creative director and co-founder of Stranieri.com<\/a>, an online gaming review company that reviews the best casino games in Italy without AAMS or ADM. Eighteen months ago, when I left Ubisoft to start an independent game studio and focus on making my own games, I looked online a bit to get an idea of how much income I could expect to make as an indie. At Ubisoft I used to work on big AAA console games, and I had some figures in mind, but I knew they wouldn\u2019t be relevant for my new life: $20M budgets, teams of 200 hundred people, 3 million sales at $70 per unit… I knew being an indie developer would be completely different, but I had very little information about how<\/em> different it would be. Angry Birds<\/em> had taken off, Plants vs. Zombies<\/em> was already a model, Doodle Jump<\/em> was a good example of success, and soon after I started my \u201cindie\u201d life, Cut the Rope<\/em> was selling a million copies a week. But except for what I call the \u201cjackpots,\u201d there were very few public stories or numbers on the web, and this meant we were a bit in the dark when we started SQUIDS<\/em>. I have been tracking figures since then, and I\u2019m writing this article to share what I\u2019ve learned with my fellow indie dev buddies who might be in the same position I was, a year and a half ago.<\/p>\n In this article, I will present all of the post-mortems and figures<\/strong> I\u2019ve found interesting, and I will also explain how SQUIDS fits into the overall picture. But first, I would like to quickly give my opinion on few of the App Store myths you may believe if you\u2019re not an experienced iOS developer. There are plenty of ways to view the App Store, but my point is that you might be a bit surprised by what the App Store really means in terms of money.<\/p>\n This is an easy mistake to make when you try to do the math with your dev buddy during a coffee break. \u201cOkay, there are 200 million users on the App Store. You just need to reach 0.1% of them with a $1 app and you\u2019ll make $200k!\u201d My warnings:<\/p>\n The point here is that the user base might be huge, but a lot of people never pay anything on the App Store, so don\u2019t get blinded by the potential and stay rational.<\/p>\n Compared to making Assassin\u2019s Creed<\/em> or Red Dead Redemption<\/em>, this one is actually true. Making an iPhone game shouldn\u2019t cost $50M and take 4 years. (Well, neither should a console game, if you ask me.) But unless you\u2019re aiming for a Doodle Jump clone, it\u2019s still a bit of work. If you make it cheap, you\u2019ll have a very small team (say 2 people), and it\u2019ll take AT LEAST six months to get something polished out there. A quick estimate of an iOS game budget:<\/p>\n All in all, you can\u2019t be serious about making games and \u201cearning a living\u201d out of it without at least a $40k budget. (And I\u2019m really being cheap here; I think to be competitive today on the App Store you need $100k.)<\/p>\n This is probably the story that most people have heard and that everyone keeps telling you about at parties. When you tell someone you just made the move to become an indie and develop for iOS, they usually put an arm on your shoulder and say, \u201cHey man, it\u2019s very different from the traditional game industry. Even if you fail at launch, if you keep updating the game it\u2019s gonna take off eventually. You\u2019ll earn more money after six months than during the first week after launch. Look at Angry Birds<\/em>, man.\u201d Well, this might have made some sense two years ago, but it\u2019s not the case anymore\u2014unless your launch fails. If you really mess up your launch but you keep pushing for the game, then it will probably get better, that\u2019s true. But you don\u2019t really want your launch to fail. There is a \u201claunch effect\u201d on the App Store, now more than ever. Your initial launch\u2014along with special events like being featured by Apple, or promotions, or winning an award and getting some sweet coverage\u2014that\u2019s what will make your downloads go up. Content updates won\u2019t (unless they are crash-fixes). Content updates like new levels are good to secure a user base and to build a community, but they don\u2019t increase the user base. That doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t do content updates, but don\u2019t expect the wrong benefits from them.<\/p>\n Once you have a good game, the key to success is visibility on the App Store. Another tale I\u2019ve been told many times (and that I actually wanted to believe) is that you can leverage big communities with a nice forum post or a cool and cheap video. I believe now that this is a waste of time. You can\u2019t influence a community unless you\u2019ve already been in this community for a long time. And viral videos suffer even more from the \u201cjackpot syndrome\u201d than the apps themselves, in the sense that you can\u2019t at all predict if they will get 12 million views or 300 (although 300 is more likely). Just accept it: being visible will be a long and tough battle that you\u2019ll have to fight from the day you start to code, to a year after the launch.<\/p>\n Some indie devs think getting featured by Apple is a bit of luck. I don\u2019t think so. Sure, the guys at Apple are honest folks who showcase the games they like and think are quality products. But like any publisher, they have their editorial line and they manage risks.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not random that Infinity Blade 2<\/em> was featured at launch: it comes from a well known publisher, it\u2019s a sequel of a hit, it\u2019s an iPhone 4 showcase app, and Chair\/Epic have probably had beers with folks from Apple more than once. On a scale that\u2019s more relatable to an indie developer, the same rules apply to Jetpack Joyride<\/em>, coming from Fruit Ninja<\/em>\u2019s devs. Or Tiny Tower<\/em> (the Pocket Frog<\/em> devs). Or even Bumpy Road<\/a><\/em> (the Cosmo Spin<\/em> devs). The point is: if you are an indie with no publisher backing, if it\u2019s your first game and if it doesn\u2019t particularly show off the new features of the iPhone 5, you won\u2019t get featured. The good news is, it\u2019s actually a VERY GOOD THING that App Store featuring isn\u2019t random. That means we can do what it takes to reach that goal.<\/p>\n Knowing that the App Store is not a mine full of gold ready for the taking, there are still ways to earn a living with that dream job of being an indie game developer. So let\u2019s take a look at who is successful on this distribution platform.<\/p>\n Exactly like in the console game industry, there are certain games that are simply too big to fail. Most of the time they are made by a small dev team but backed up by a big publisher, securing the Apple featuring, PR support, and press coverage. Here are a few examples with figures:<\/p>\n Infinity Blade:<\/em><\/strong> developed by Chair and backed up by Epic. $10M in 7 months<\/a> with 40% coming from iAP, according to Epic. In January 2012, the Infinity Blade franchise (1+2) reached $30M in revenue<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cut the Rope: <\/em><\/strong>developed by Zeptolab and backed up by Chillingo. They did everything they could to make it an Angry Birds killer (they even made a better game), but \u201conly\u201d managed to sell 3 million games in 6 weeks<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jetpack Joyride:<\/em><\/strong> developed by Halfbrick and backed up by Fruit Ninja\u2019s notoriety. They had 350k downloads in a week<\/a> and we know it was the start of a long-term success.<\/p>\n Order & Chaos:<\/em><\/strong> developed by Gameloft (and inspired by WoW). They made $1M in 20 days<\/a> with a $6.99 game, which comes out to about 7,000 downloads a day if we exclude iAPs. These examples are what make many people think that, when well done, an App Store game is bringing in a lot of money. There is no doubt these games are profitable, but even if $1M in 20 days is certainly a lot of money, I bet O&C<\/em> cost more to develop. These games are the Call of Duty<\/em> and the Skyrim<\/em> and the WoW<\/em> of the App Store, but they don\u2019t bring in as much money, even proportionally to their budgets. Along the same lines, there are some games that are truly indie successes but that can be considered blockbusters because, as opposed to Jackpots, you could tell they were going to be massive hits before they even launched:<\/p>\n World of Goo<\/em><\/strong> – Link to World of Goo post mortem<\/a><\/p>\n Tiny Tower<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The Heist<\/em><\/strong> – Link to The Heist post mortem<\/a><\/p>\n So yes, it\u2019s possible to kick ass on the App Store, but if you start from scratch, you probably won\u2019t achieve the same figures\u2014unless you have a \u201cjackpot\u201d app.<\/p>\n Here are the real winners of the App Store lottery: the Jackpot games, the ones we could have expected to<\/p>\n make a decent success, but not THAT INCREDIBLE a success. Angry Birds<\/em> is of course the most famous example, but Doodle Jump<\/em> or Fruit Ninja<\/em> are crazy jackpots as well. Here are two others worth mentioning:<\/p>\n Tiny Wings:<\/em><\/strong> developed by Andreas Illiger. Sold more than 3 million copies<\/a> and took first place in the US for more than 2 weeks. It\u2019s any indie\u2019s dream: a great game, great critical reception, a great commercial success. A game made by one guy in 7 months. It was well done from start to finish, but try to mimic it and I bet you won\u2019t end up at #1. It\u2019s the reference jackpot.<\/p>\n Trainyard:<\/em><\/strong> a puzzle game that made a crazy streak to first place for a little while and made us all dream. The dev wrote a super post-mortem here<\/a>, and as you will see at the beginning it was not all that successful. He also gave the interesting figure of $40k to $50k a day if you\u2019re the #1 paid app in the US<\/a>. I\u2019ve been looking at the French App Store charts for almost 2 years, and Angry Birds<\/em>, Fruit Ninja<\/em>, Doodle Jump<\/em>, and their spin-offs have not left the Top 25. What that means to me is that even Tiny Wings<\/em> and Trainyard<\/em> didn\u2019t manage to stay in the Top 25 despite their great success, and that no game since 2010 has made it, either. It might happen again, but I feel that App Store \u201cbrands\u201d have been created already and it will take new tech or a new feature from a new Apple device before newcomers have a chance of staying high in the charts for a long time. Maybe the next killer app will use Siri (haha).<\/p>\n This leaves us with the real world. The world you and I play in, with all the other indies and the other lesser publisher-backed games. Here are some numbers and stories I found that might help you. I want to thank all the devs who posted these post-mortems\u2014it really helps guys, so thank you!<\/strong><\/p>\n Hard Lines<\/em><\/strong> – Link to Hard Lines post mortem<\/a> First week:<\/p>\n Then got featured by Apple (not Game of the Week, but New & Noteworthy). Other interesting facts:<\/p>\n Portaball<\/em><\/strong> – Link to Portaball post mortem<\/a><\/p>\n Punch a Hole<\/em><\/strong> – Link to Punch a Hole post mortem<\/a><\/p>\n Wooords<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Link to Wooords post mortem<\/a><\/p>\n Dapple<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Link to Dapple post mortem<\/a><\/p>\n FishMoto<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Link to FishMoto post mortem<\/a><\/p>\n Flower Garden<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Link to Flower Garden post mortem<\/a><\/p>\n Big Mountain Snowboarding<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Link to Big Mountain Snowboarding post mortem<\/a><\/p>\n Ow My Balls<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Links to Ow My Balls post mortem<\/a><\/p>\n QuizQuizQuiz<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Links to QuizQuizQuiz post mortem<\/a><\/p>\n Some conclusions after reading those post-mortem:<\/strong><\/p>\n Dapple\u2019s<\/em> dev Owen Goss did an interesting survey about App Store game revenues<\/a>. The findings are exactly what I expected when we created The Game Bakers. 1) The more games you make, the more money you\u2019ll earn from one game. Meaning experience matters. 2) 80% of devs earn 3% of the revenues. Meaning there are about 20% of developers who can earn a living from their games, and 1% of them have a very nice car. Edit: a pretty good analyse from Owen Goss research by Dave Addey here<\/a>. Says that 19% of apps make $24k. 80% $300. Seems realistic.<\/p>\n Taking risks to reduce the element of chance<\/strong> Our strategy with SQUIDS<\/em> was super bold. We would spend more to develop it than Angry Birds<\/em>, and earn less. That was the plan. We would also spend more than Tiny Wings<\/em> and earn less. We knew that and we aimed for that from the beginning. But what we wanted was to remove the \u201clottery\u201d factor. The strategy was pretty simple:<\/p>\n That leads me to two other models I want to bring forward that don\u2019t fit into the Blockbuster category or the Jackpot category. Although we didn\u2019t base our strategy on their models at the time, I can say that these guys go where I want to go with The Game Bakers. They make deep games that target a niche audience and end up hitting much more. Great Little War<\/em> Game by Rubicon Development<\/strong> These guys used almost the same strategy we did. They made a very good game with a big scope for an iOS release. They targeted the turn-based war game niche. They took a little bit less risk in their setting and title than we did (little soldiers might have a bigger mainstream appeal than SQUIDS<\/em>, but I love my Squids nonetheless). Overall, they managed their brand smartly and have recently launched on Android with great success<\/a>, taking the spot Nintendo refused to take with Advance Wars<\/em> on smartphones. Link to Great Little War Game post mortem<\/a><\/p>\n Sword & Sworcery<\/em> by Capybara Games and Superbrothers<\/strong> Capybara and Superbrothers did everything right with this game. They did the exact opposite of what you\u2019re \u201csupposed to do\u201d and made it a hit. They released a teaser a year before launch, they targeted a niche of click-and-play retro gamers, they priced the game high ($4.99), they didn\u2019t have any iAP, they released on iPad only. The budget was $200k and they took a big risk overall with the game\u2019s context. It\u2019s as if they were indie PC developers who mistook the App Store for Steam. And yet they sold more than 300k in 6 months<\/a> and won many awards, making it both a critical and commercial success. Respect.<\/p>\n My little addition to all of the post mortems listed above:<\/p>\n Even if the App Store is not a goldmine that will turn any game developer into a billionaire, it is still a revolution in the industry. It has allowed very small teams to make fun games relatively cheaply and commercialize them in a very simple way, potentially reaching millions of players. Never before have we seen so many indies and such a great creativity in the indie world. SQUIDS<\/em> will very soon release on PC, Mac, and Android, which was part of the plan from the beginning. In my mind, being multiplatform is really where the indie developer has a future as a studio. As for the money itself, even though SQUIDS hasn\u2019t made us rich so far, revenues from the iOS version have almost covered our development costs and we are confident that its upcoming release on other platforms will make the game profitable and allow us to develop a sequel. And for The Game Bakers, that\u2019s what all of this is about: in the end it\u2019s not about getting rich, but about being able to make the games we want to make, independently.<\/strong><\/p>\n Get in touch: Emeric Thoa is the creative director and co-founder of Stranieri.com, an online gaming review company that reviews the best casino games in Italy without AAMS or ADM. Personal twitter: @emericthoa Company twitter: @thegamebakers _ _ _ _ _ Eighteen months ago, when I left Ubisoft to start an independent game studio and focus on making […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nPersonal twitter: @emericthoa<\/a>
\nCompany twitter: @thegamebakers<\/a><\/em>
\n_ _ _ _ _<\/p>\nThe App Store myths<\/h3>\n
Myth #1: There are so many iPhones and iPads out there that any decent game can make you rich.<\/h4>\n
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Myth #2: Making an iPhone game is fast and cheap<\/h4>\n
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Myth #3: Updating your game will make your sales increase over time (also known as \u201cthe Angry Birds fairy tale\u201d)<\/h4>\n
Myth #4: Being visible on the App Store just takes a good post on reddit<\/a> or a good viral video<\/h4>\n
Myth 5: Getting featured by Apple is completely random<\/h4>\n
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And now what?<\/h3>\n
The Blockbusters<\/h4>\n
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The Jackpots<\/h4>\n
The real world<\/h4>\n
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Conclusion<\/h3>\n
What about SQUIDS<\/em>?<\/h4>\n
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SQUIDS numbers<\/h4>\n
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\nTwitter: @emericthoa<\/a> ; company twitter: @thegamebakers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"