Whats the most you've invested for your game?
expired_012
Member Posts: 1,802
Im investing around $500 on my current app,
So I was wondering is this too little? Too much? Just about right?
What's the most you've invested on one of your apps?
So I was wondering is this too little? Too much? Just about right?
What's the most you've invested on one of your apps?
Comments
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aalzanki
For me, the main cost is really the licenses and time. Most everything else is free-to-use assets (and time taken to find them and to prep them for GS)
http://itunes.com/apps/photics
I spent $69.90 on audio.
I created all of the artwork for Photics: Revisions - Course Correction, the Photics: Toolbox and Arcade Action. For Puzzling, I used the free "Aiko" model and I created the rest of the artwork.
I spent...
$9.95 on the background for Photics: Fireball.
$19.95 on artwork for Commove.
$9.95 on a Soccer game I stopped working on.
$50.80 on Annoyed Tomatoes.
Also, I spent $44.33 on artwork for Photics: Conquest, a web game for Android and iOS, which I took down recently... but I reused some of that artwork in The Unofficial GameSalad Textbook. All of the artwork in the Textbook was either available for free from Daz3D or I created it myself. (Most of the images are screenshots of GameSalad in action.)
So basically — wow — Annoyed Tomatoes is my biggest game project yet.
I noticed that my artwork, aside from the Toolbox, doesn't perform well. So, to answer the original question... is $500 too much to spend on assets... I don't think that's a lot, if you make your money back. Apparently, good artwork can make a big difference in game sales. The game design has to be good too though. Investing a lot of money on art might not be a smart move if the game design is bad.
$40 for music & SFX
Graphics and project management by me, over 3 months...
Result: Quizicards, great game, small market, $400
Was it a good experience? Was it easy communicating with the developer? Do you think you got value for money?
Regardless of how much money you made back, $2000 dollars isnt a great deal when were talking development costs, but its interesting to know how that works out in relation to overseas talent.
But regarding Artons opening question... nope $500 isnt a huge amount. Its still in the lower end of indie/bedroom development spend for a project, but its definately a good step up from nothing. I guess its really down to what you can manage to get for your money.
I think it definately shows Artons belief in himself and his projects though, and his efforts to build his business. Hes investing in his products, and I think over time, that investment will be worth it.
$99 for GS
$0 for apps
The fact that I get anywhere from $200-$600 every month from Apple
PRICELESS!!!! JOY!!!
I just hope I can make that amount back
Within a few months of getting the mac, I found GameSalad and convinced my brother to cover the rest of me "start-up" costs ($99 for Apple + $99 for GS) in exchange for 20% of any app related profits AND a promise that if I did't make any money, I'd pay him back in 12 months out of my pocket. After 2 paid months in the app store, he had his money back (and more)...
So far I have not had to invest any money into graphics/audio resources... ;-)
As of yesterday sales report, I've netted $3,609 ($5,155 gross), and my first app hit the store on July 23rd.
99 for GS
99 for apple
300 for a mac mini a buddy sold me (that i give to him upon the sale of my first app if i can ever get the level locking and unlocking working correctly, will come out in the next 3 weeks)
the 200 i had to convince my wife was a good investment (not an easy thing to do since we just had a baby a couple months earlier and money isint tight but not growin on trees) hopefully ill see my investment returned.Ive already got an idea for 5 more apps to start on after this one.
So stories like that really help motivate and encourage me even when GS keeps crashin on me and i wanna punch the screen cause ive been working on the same project for 3 hours and still cant wrap my head around the problem (locks and unlocking !!!).
way to go
THRSTN
In general, 1 year subscriptions to a royalty free sound fx web site and a year subscription to royalty free clip art.
Somebody has to handle each discipline, either you do it yourself or pay somebody else.
I enjoy doing everything, but I am horrible at the sound design. I can record different sound effects ok, but I cannot compose music. I would love to pay for professional sound design, but until I become rich and famous, I cannot afford it. So for now I just buy royalty-free tracks from the internet. It's not ideal, but it's the best I can do right now!
So for each of my games, I generally spend about $60 on music. Everything else is just my time.
My first two GameSalad games have netted me about 30K, and I just uploaded my third one a few minutes ago...
Hopefully it will do well, but you never know. The App Store is such a gamble. You might be successful, barely break even, or completely fail.
And you are always just one game away from striking it rich!
Which is why it is so addictive, fun, and frustrating!
Time is the biggest investment you can spend, it is worth the most, you dont get it back, money, cash etc is in the end easy to get back but if you spend the time, make nothing then decide if you got something for the time you spent.
If we are all given a dollar a year for each year we are on the planet, then how many dollars have you spent and what do you have to show for it. I have almost spent all of my allotted dollars but what the heck it is all a game.
The problem with the Iphone etc all I devices is this, its almost impossible to rise to the top of the sales heap without Apples help./ NandN, What we are playing etc, if you dont get there, then your potential is low.
Angry Birds folks have done a great job of milking the cow, I like Tshirt Booth and Firemaple games better then angry birds, but for some reason it has done well, and they have spent lots of cash on that game, much of it in other areas, marketing etc.
The amount of money spent to make PACMAN was around 500 bucks for the computer, so what?
only 1 percent of every app is going to make money, the larger the pool of apps, the less chance we have of making it the holy grail. Some of you are doing this for fun, and learning, dont spend any money, do it all yourself, some like me are trying to find a way to make a sustainable revenue stream, so without spending the money and time there is no chance of making a money machine.
Also, if at first you don't succeed, keep plugging away. Like Joe said, you're always one game away from striking it rich
The More polished titles you come out with, the more likely you are to succeed, so don't give up, and it may not happen until your 40th, 50th, or 100th app.
I need the following things:
-A bunch of images and animations ($400) (Im buying them all from istock.com so anyone who has experience with this site should know that it's pretty expensive)
-Some sound effects and music ($100)
-A trailer for the game ($50)
-Screenshots for the app ($70)
-A GS PRO user to take out the GS splash screen ($30-$40?)
-My own splash screen ($30)