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My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

kerebus.com

31–40 of 73 posts

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#31
post #8

This needs a lot more polish. Why not contact some (student) animators or illustrators who are willing to work for a small percentage of the profit ?

Braid wouldn't be Braid without the art. Dirt cheap illustrators won't help him; he needs someone good .

That's why you hire a student - students who are really good will often take on a project just because it, say, hones a skill they're looking to improve, or because it fits in nicely with a class assignment they need to do anyway. Or maybe your game project is part of how they'll get that full-time job they're seeking out at Blizzard?

They say in tech recruiting that "the best people will almost never be looking for jobs" - it's true in creative fields too. In terms of trading off cost and talent, I can't think of a resource as undertapped as art and design students.

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#32
post #21

I have every wish for success of this and every other business, but in the spirit of helping other impressionable developers, making a business is hard enough without making video games. How do I love games and hate games businesses, let me count the ways. User expectations are pegged by AAA games, whose budgets you cannot possibly match. Those AAA products set a price point at $DIRT_CHEAP. (Angry Birds costs what ?)…

agree on the games. In his case, he can narrow his target area and focus maybe on smaller target market. putting a game app out and placing it in that category and competing against big guns is like a suicide mission. You can bleed money on marketing but nothing will happen unless you have another Angry Bird like idea. I would recommend him trying different categories. Not all of them are so competitive. Also he shou…

That's scary, considering that "average" is skewed by the multi-million-dollar end.

What's the _median_ iOS app annual revenue?

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#33
post #7
post #5

> I knew I had a marketing problem but instead I preferred to refractor my code Heh, I know this too well. I suck HUGE at marketing. I've got 4 games in the iPhone app store and made since October 2010 whooping $780 ... Actually I would be very happy if I got 20 sales a day :) I guess my adventure in indie gamedev will end by the end of this year when my funds are used up and I'll have to get an office coding job ble…

Agreed. As a hobbyist Android app developer, I know all to well the thought "I will start the marketing blitz as soon as I finish feature X..."

I'm in exactly that spot right now. So the question is, does it make sense to front the money and start advertising early, when the product is still not as featureful as you want it to be?

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#34
post #21

I have every wish for success of this and every other business, but in the spirit of helping other impressionable developers, making a business is hard enough without making video games. How do I love games and hate games businesses, let me count the ways. User expectations are pegged by AAA games, whose budgets you cannot possibly match. Those AAA products set a price point at $DIRT_CHEAP. (Angry Birds costs what ?)…

You are assuming people write games strictly to earn a living, and maybe that's the big fallacy of the allure of the app-store.

But what if you write a game to learn to code (or code better), or simply to explore some gaming concepts you haven't seen elsewhere?

Personally this is no different than the guy that wants to be a band; if that's his passion, go for it. Just keep in mind a) it's for fun, b) it's a hobby.

If at some point down the road you are lucky enough to be paid for you hobby, all the better. Earning a living is a whole other level beyond that even.

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#35
post #10

I think the next most obvious step should be to go for Amazon Appstore. They are serious and if your app gets selected for a free app of the day ..I am sure you'll be flying.

Do you have any stats on what a featuring on Amazon Appstore does for an app?

Well the featured app of the day is sold for free, which means a lot of people will be downloading it. And when the app is sold for free according to Amazon TOS, the developer gets 20% of the list price. So if the volume of downloads is immense then you should be able to pocket a decent amount of cash from the sale. Will have to wait a while for the stats though.

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#36
post #5

> I knew I had a marketing problem but instead I preferred to refractor my code Heh, I know this too well. I suck HUGE at marketing. I've got 4 games in the iPhone app store and made since October 2010 whooping $780 ... Actually I would be very happy if I got 20 sales a day :) I guess my adventure in indie gamedev will end by the end of this year when my funds are used up and I'll have to get an office coding job ble…

this is for all of you guys. when you mention you have an app in the market, mention the name or at least give your blog link or app link. in a way it would be your free marketing and for readers it would be a reference to see what type of app is getting what kind of downloads.

This seriously drives me nuts. I know as web people we're sensitive to comment spam, but if you're commenting on topic then for the love of god promote yourself a little.

At the very least, put your game/webapp in your profile.

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#37
post #21

I have every wish for success of this and every other business, but in the spirit of helping other impressionable developers, making a business is hard enough without making video games. How do I love games and hate games businesses, let me count the ways. User expectations are pegged by AAA games, whose budgets you cannot possibly match. Those AAA products set a price point at $DIRT_CHEAP. (Angry Birds costs what ?)…

While most of your points are valid, they're nothing that can't be overcome with persistance and the willingness to learn, and I fear that you've painted too bleak of a picture of the industry.

I think the biggest problem is that making fun, engaging games is really, really hard. A lot of people assume that because they can program, and they enjoy playing games, making them should be relatively straight forward.

But it just isn't. It's a creative skill that needs practice just like anything else. It's like making the jump from being a technically competent guitarist to writing music. Nobody writes great music on their first try, nobody writes clean code early in their career, and nobody writes hit games out the gate, except for prodigies so rare it's not worth thinking about.

And I think what happens a lot of the time, is that someone who would otherwise be making $100 an hour writing code decides to make a game for the fun of it, ends up making 1-10 cents an hour on the time invested, and ends up writing a blog post to that effect. So it becomes an entrenched view that making games is a hobby that serious developers need to grow out of.

My first game actually did make under 10 cents per hour of development time. But by my tenth, my best so far, it was up to $300+ (and counting). I still have hits and misses, and perhaps I'd be making more putting my skills to use in another industry, but money isn't everything. And I'm still not great at game design, merely competent - there's a lot of room for improvement there.

Yes, you're right about the bad points of the industry, however, there's one big positive - if you're prepared to stick with it, for years with little reward, it's actually not that hard to reach a point where you're making great money, creating products that people love and that you're passionate about. And sometimes people in real life will notice your shirt and say 'oh, you play that too!'.

Also, if done correctly, the path to making games is actually pretty safe - make them as a hobby, after hours, and release them for free. When 100k+ people download one of them from word of mouth alone, then it's time to consider whether you want to make a career out of it. If you can't make games after hours effectively, you couldn't make them full time, either.

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#38
post #21

I have every wish for success of this and every other business, but in the spirit of helping other impressionable developers, making a business is hard enough without making video games. How do I love games and hate games businesses, let me count the ways. User expectations are pegged by AAA games, whose budgets you cannot possibly match. Those AAA products set a price point at $DIRT_CHEAP. (Angry Birds costs what ?)…

I think this was definitely true before smartphone/social platforms got to scale. A few points to consider that are counter to yours:

Check out the top apps on the Facebook platform. http://www.appdata.com/leaderboard/apps Yes, the top games have big budgets (still TINY compared to video games historically). But page 3 or 4 pages in and guess at the budgets of those games (that are merely in the 2M monthly active uniques range). Scroll 9 pages in (600k monthlies). How many consumer businesses EVER touch 600k people, much less in a month?

Gamers are NOT immune to ads. Most of the game builders I know buy installs (i.e. CPA ads) because it makes financial sense to do so.

Virtual goods models allow you to fill up the demand curve. In other words, poor people (who would've stolen games in years past) can play for free. Middle of the road folks can pay a few bucks when they get bored. Rich hardcore players can pay hundreds or thousands of dollars per month.

Virtual goods models make piracy somewhat impractical.

Most of the people I know succeeding in games had never developed games before.

I think your advice is dead on for shrink-wrapped games, traditional shareware, and maybe even fixed price mobile games. I'd throw my weight behind mobile games before I'd throw it behind virtually ANY other consumer effort. All that said, of course, a b2b startup has a much greater chance of survival. The whole consumer-software world is crowded beyond belief.

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#39
post #19
post #5

> I knew I had a marketing problem but instead I preferred to refractor my code Heh, I know this too well. I suck HUGE at marketing. I've got 4 games in the iPhone app store and made since October 2010 whooping $780 ... Actually I would be very happy if I got 20 sales a day :) I guess my adventure in indie gamedev will end by the end of this year when my funds are used up and I'll have to get an office coding job ble…

I'm getting 20 downloads a day without marketing with my iPhone app. Trouble is, it's free.

no money from adds?

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#40
post #19
post #5

> I knew I had a marketing problem but instead I preferred to refractor my code Heh, I know this too well. I suck HUGE at marketing. I've got 4 games in the iPhone app store and made since October 2010 whooping $780 ... Actually I would be very happy if I got 20 sales a day :) I guess my adventure in indie gamedev will end by the end of this year when my funds are used up and I'll have to get an office coding job ble…

I'm getting 20 downloads a day without marketing with my iPhone app. Trouble is, it's free.

Make a paid version. Also, what is your app?
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