Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

kerebus.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 73 posts

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#41

Post by yome »

leon_ wrote: 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 would also like to know which games you've made. I'm starting as an indie game dev myself but I have a good amount of experience on the App Store (and 5+ years of writing games for mobile devices as an employee). I can give constructive criticism too if you're willing to get some.

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#42

Post by dpcan »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #17

Couple of things from someone who has been in a similar situation: 1) You don't have to be a good marketer to set up a twitter account and tweet when you add new levels and new features. Retweet them from your personal twitter account and it will at least hit your followers. Don't feel ashamed of asking a few friends to also retweet to their followers. The effect might be small, but it's a minimal effort. 2) Focusing…

I've been in the android market for a year and have done over $100k in sales of my games, and you hit the nail on the head. Create lots of games, and not just for the money. You have to be having fun while creating or it becomes a miserable job. I'm falling into that rut myself, and because I've spent so much time working on my flagship game, I've gotten behind. Competition of that game has increased, sales have slowed down, and I'm scrambling a little now to get my other games polished and selling at a higher rate.

All the while, I'm sick that I'm not loving what I'm doing anymore as I chase the dollar. I think it's time for me to reboot and spend my time on a game I've always wanted to play and make. If I love doing this again, my success will sustain itself.

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#43

Post by MatthewPhillips »

dpcan wrote: post #42
MatthewPhillips wrote: post #17

Couple of things from someone who has been in a similar situation: 1) You don't have to be a good marketer to set up a twitter account and tweet when you add new levels and new features. Retweet them from your personal twitter account and it will at least hit your followers. Don't feel ashamed of asking a few friends to also retweet to their followers. The effect might be small, but it's a minimal effort. 2) Focusing…

I've been in the android market for a year and have done over $100k in sales of my games, and you hit the nail on the head. Create lots of games, and not just for the money. You have to be having fun while creating or it becomes a miserable job. I'm falling into that rut myself, and because I've spent so much time working on my flagship game, I've gotten behind. Competition of that game has increased, sales have slow…

Congratulations on your success! And good luck with the reboot.

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#44

Post by palguay »

Here is my experience with the app store , I created a website for toddlers http://microangels.in , Someone suggested that I make an app, since I had the HTML and Javascript ready I used the android webbview and Jquery mobile to create the Toddler books app https://market.android.com/details?id=in.microangels . The app was released on February 10, As of today there have been 7951 installs with 68% active. I have integrated the app with admob and it has made $45 so far, I don't know if this is because kids tend to click on advertisements or its because the list scrolls below the screen and the clicks are accidental

My other app Taekwondo forms https://market.android.com/details?id=form.TaekwondoForm is webview based and released on Feb 25 , it has 532 downloads with 68% active installs and has made .83 cents so far.

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#45

Post by bnenning »

Temporarily de-anonymizing myself because my Android experience is apparently not typical. My main paid app (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dozingcatsoftware....) is getting around 25 purchases per day, with no marketing effort whatsoever. It was featured in a few blogs and podcasts, but they came to me. It's had over 10k downloads in a year, and my original goal was 1000. Reasons I think it's done better than average:

- It's not a game. As patio11 notes the competition in that area is incredibly intense. In the last few days I've picked up Angry Birds Rio for free, Galcon for $1, and AirAttack for $3. If you aren't an experienced game developer, you're not likely to produce something at that level.

- But it is fun. It has unlimited "replay value" and lets users be creative and show off what their phone can do.

- The free version converts really well, paid downloads are around 20% of free downloads. It does everything the full version does except for saving pictures and videos. There are no ads, other than a Market link to the full version.

- I don't have to spend any time or money on custom artwork. Even the buttons in the latest version I took from the camera app in AOSP.

So maybe I'm just lucky, but creating a quality app in a non-saturated field has been enough to produce a decent side income, without having to deal with business or marketing at all.

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#46

Post by jotr99 »

eob wrote: post #33
ryandvm wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

For what it's worth, I shelled out $10 for a Minecraft "alpha" release. You make the call. :-)

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#47

Post by metageek »

neebz wrote: 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.

It costs $99 just to register to sell through Amazon. He'd have to make a lot more sales to be worth it.

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#48

Post by wallflower »

eob wrote: post #33
ryandvm wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

There is always Kickstarter

http://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/video%20games...

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#49

Post by interrupt »

reitzensteinm wrote: post #37
patio11 wrote: 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…

Glad to see it's not all gloom and doom. I released a game on the market last week (https://market.android.com/details?id=com.interrupt.retrospa...) which has gotten 3500 downloads, earned me $1.30 in ad revenue, and enough in paid downloads to pay for a latte. I'm planning more updates and fixing things based on reviews and feedback so I haven't given up on it yet, but gaining traction is going to be slow from what I can see.

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#50

Post by metageek »

bnenning wrote: post #45

Temporarily de-anonymizing myself because my Android experience is apparently not typical. My main paid app ( https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dozingcatsoftware.... ) is getting around 25 purchases per day, with no marketing effort whatsoever. It was featured in a few blogs and podcasts, but they came to me. It's had over 10k downloads in a year, and my original goal was 1000. Reasons I think it's done bette…

Oh, very cool. I'm going to have to try this out on some place more interesting than my office, and buy the paid model if I like the results.
Post reply on HN