How much are you guys making?

DanielAvni

Im a 15 year old kid and 100$ is kinda a lot for me. im wondering how much u guys are making, if u dont feel confortable to tell me its fine. how much on ech game or in all?

Thanks DanielA

Eastbound

Well I have made a simple body fat calculator and quadratic formula calculator (made in the iPhone SDK, haven't worked with GS much, yet) and each of them have several other competing apps that are almost the exact same, yet they both manage to sell. In under a month I've sold a little over 80.

Now this isn't much at all, but it goes to show you can make a good amount of cash if you put a lot of work into your apps and provide a great polished app.

The current app I'm making I've actually put a lot of hard work into, and expect the payout to reflect that. Then I'll experiment with game salad

-Follow me on twitter! twitter.com/westboundstudio

jonmulcahy

I've made my money back, and I bought GS when it was $500.

Patronus

Thanks for an interesting topic. It's good to hear that people are buying the apps.

Mulcahy I hope you do even better with your new app.

DanielAvni

Thanks guys for responding

giacomopoppi

hey, im 14, ive published 5 games so far and in a week i have made 40 euros (about 60 US dollars). The sure thing is that even if everything goes wrong u will surely ge.t at least your money back.

beefy_clyro

giacomopoppi, thats great, for me its not all about the money, sure its a bonus and you want to feel like it was all worth it and if you can make money at something then billiant but i just cant wait for the feeling to see one of my games/apps, that me, a non coder, has produced on my own (with help from the good community of GS members of course when i've been stuck). I havent got anything yet but im working on a couple of ideas so i cant wait. I just love the fact that after work i can do a few hours here and there and really start seeing it come along, it can all be done part-time as a hobby. What games have you got out there gia?

Eastbound

And just so you guys know, what you're doing is VERY similar to coding. In fact in some aspects using GS is harder.

If you try taking a programming class once you get a little more experience in GS, you'll realize the edge you have over your classmates.

giacomopoppi

@beefy_clyro i completely agree with you; it's not all about the money, i was actually just answering the post in this case.
So far i have published:
Untouchable: my first game through gamesalad, it still needs improving.
Boredom Buster: just a test that actuaally turned out to sell a lot.
Tap This!: another test that sold quite a bit.
Bounce-A-Ball: 3 test that didn't sell much.
Flying Cow!: entertainment app , sold quite a bit.

already submitted but not published:
- Defender!: no anticipations
- Securepod: An entertainment app. a fingerprint scanner simulator.

Auric

Speaking of which... what is everyone seeing for publishing times (turn around from Apple)?

Patronus

Reading what giacomopoppi says, it is interesting how something you think will be successful sometimes doesn't sell, yet an app that you had little hope for sells surprisingly well. The golden rule has always been that good stuff will sell and crap won't. However we are all aware of the fact that a good, solid app that took months to develop is sometimes outsold by crapware such as a fart app that couldn't have taken a day to slam together. I find it sad but I guess that's what life is like in the App Store.

jonmulcahy

with my gamesalad apps, I've seen 10-17 days for both updates and new games.

giacomopoppi

my gamesalad apps take about 7-8 days from submission

giacomopoppi

my gamesalad apps take about 7-8 days from submission

gregr209

Gia - is that 7-8 days from the time it goes into review with Apple or once you submit it? Mine has been with Apple since Nov. 20th but only went into Apple review mode on Nov.25th.

I hope I hear something in the next couple of days :-)

Greg

giacomopoppi

@gregr209 im pretty lucky, ive notice it varies from the review store you chose when you submit it.
all my games have been exactly 7 and a half days using the british review stores. i tried it in an american one and it took 3 times as long!!
ah BTW it is 8 days from the day of submission. it takes about 6 days to enter review and the 2 days after that it goes in ready for sale.
my "untouchable" update took 6 days!!!!

quantumsheep

I just wanted to say how awesome it is that people as young as 14 are making iPhone apps. I would have killed for such an opportunity back when I was that age, but we only had abacuses back then

The GS lot need a few rounds bought in their honour I think!

As to me? I've not made very much money at all, certainly nothing like Mulcahy has! But the point all along was just to get those games out there!

To be fair, I've not yelled about my games too much, for a variety of reasons. The main one is I don't feel my games are 'complete' yet. A simple save/online high score thingy would change that though!

Be warned though - I've got a game pretty much ready to go to Apple and phase two is due next year from the sheep!

butterbean

I've done pretty well with my Endless Apples game since it was published in the new and noteworthy section, but that was sheer dumb luck in my opinion.

My next big game coming out is Mystical Woods, and should be by the weeks end.

I think the idea is to maintain this as a hobby, and not to expect much in terms of cash flow, although one game may hit it big, I think it's good to keep things in perspective

I'm just amazed that someone at age 14 has made so many apps, and I would have killed for an opportunity like that when I was that age.

Kudos to everyone, of course we all hope that one of our many games will hit the top 100, you never know!

But getting published in the new and noteworthy section, or hottest games section certainly does help, and if you want to make a bit more money on your app, I suggest marketing a bit.

Otherwise, if it's just for a hobby, or fun, then no need to I guess.

I think a lot of apps do market themselves by word of mouth as well.

My next big App, Mystical Woods has a lite version, so I'm curious to see what that does with sales

Good luck to all!

Player_E

Just a question kinda on topic. has anyone here copyrighted any of their games or "developer" name. A person that I am working with thinks that we should get this done I'm just not sure if it is something that anyone does with app store games.

Eastbound

Well you can actually add the TM symbol legally on anything without an official process, and it shows you have marked it. Make a twitter and a website with the same name, and nobody is going to come along and take your developer name.

Player_E

If we were to just stick the TM by our name and make a website and twitter and someone looks it up and finds out we are not official. what's stopping them from claiming the TM? and making us change our name.

same scenario with a game what is stopping someone TM the main character in the game and claiming the rights to it.

I'll use xbox as an example.
Think about it if Bungie did not TM master chief in some official way some random kid could have paid the $15 bucks to get the TM and own the rights to master chief. which would then in turn end up in bungie not being able to use him in any more games without paying the person and possibly even have to give up all profit previous games have made to who ever TM master chief (not sure about the part on giving up all profits).

I don't know if putting it through apple provides some kind of protection or what.

anyone have any idea?

jonmulcahy

there is something called prior art, but I'm not sure if that's for TM or copyright, but basically if someone comes along and registers something, and you can prove you used the name before they registered it, it's yours.

but, I'm not a laywer

Player_E

I figured there was some way to fight it and prove that it truly belonged to you. I just wanted some input from the community on their experience.

lol at the lawyer thing, actually one of the many careers I'm interested in.

scitunes

I'm a musician and so copyright is an issue I have dealt with some. Copyright has to do with intellectual property such as lyrics, melody, books, etc. Copyright law states that as soon as something has been put down in PERMANENT form it is copyrighted. Registering with the library of congress is just a failsafe way of proving that you own the copyright. Technically if you scribble lyrics down on a napkin those lyrics are instantly copyrighted. One "poor-mans copyright" trick is to mail something to yourself and ask the postal worker to put extra postmarks over the seal of the envelope. Put whatever you are copyrighting in the envelope and when it arrives back at your address just file it away. That way you have an official government time stamp (the post mark). So i guess you could put something with your developer name, game story lines with character names, etc. in an envelope and mail it back to yourself (just remember to have them stamp over the seal so you can prove that it has never been opened - and don't open it unless you are in court in front of a judge!)

Eastbound

Exactly. And nobody is going to see your name or character and say "Oh I want to claim those as mine."

Most people will search for a production name they want, and if it is taken, change it. My production name was Westbound Studios, which I googled before I decided upon it. However, I googled further and found its a movie studio so I changed Westbound to Eastbound haha

gregr209

I just got an email from Apple saying more app is ready for sale. How long does it take to actually show up in the store? All my contract stuff is in place. I just got the email about 30 minutes ago. I click on the link in my iTunes Connect area and it just says app not available.

I am so excited it didn't get rejected...cause trust me it is a dumb app! :-)

Greg

Eastbound

Haha it doesn't take long to appear. A day at most.

jonmulcahy

it's usually about 6 hours

butterbean

It took mine 3 hours from the time I got the email to the appearance in the app store....

DanielAvni

dang this topic got big ahah

gregr209

Only took an hour! Very cool to see something you did...even if it is dumb :-) My next one will be so much better!