Taco - making games is like anything in life. If you put an enormous amount of effort into it, then you'll be rewarded. If you half-ass it and release crap games then you won't make much money. If I can offer some advice, do what I did, play a TON of games and get an idea of which ones are good and which ones are bad. Then write down why the games are good and why the games are bad. Then, in your game, include the features that are 'good' and don't do the things that are 'bad.' It's what I'm doing with my game, hopefully I'll be able to release it in like 2 - 3 weeks.
DrGlickert said: Taco - making games is like anything in life. If you put an enormous amount of effort into it, then you'll be rewarded. If you half-ass it and release crap games then you won't make much money. If I can offer some advice, do what I did, play a TON of games and get an idea of which ones are good and which ones are bad. Then write down why the games are good and why the games are bad. Then, in your game, include the features that are 'good' and don't do the things that are 'bad.' It's what I'm doing with my game, hopefully I'll be able to release it in like 2 - 3 weeks.
Thanks for the advice Dr, Ill be sure to try that out, ive been playing games all my life so that should give me a good headstart
cbowers428 said: that's not necessarily true. many developers do it for money but you should still have fun tho (which is most important). I don't think anyone can say they don't care about having a profitable game. I'm def trying to get some money lol
Well certainly we would all like to make money and that's fine. What I meant was that shouldn't be your only reason. That's my opinion.
I make games for both, I enjoy unlocking my imagination and I hope to do something I enjoy as a job.
Can't say who, but two members of the game salad community told me what they made.
1. Has about a Dozen Games and makes around $100 a day. 2. Has had 21,000 downloads since December. (Keep in mind his game was stuck on top of the sales store for a week due to a Apple error which got him 10k downloads in that week)
I'm in 10-15k debt, if doing something i love gets rid of that, i'll be one happy camper. but i'm def gonna be in this community for a long time to come.
I bet there are more people than you think that make apps with GS for a living not everyone uses the forms so it is very posable. You just have to stick with it.
I'm putting in 12 to 14 hours a day (every day) for my first release. Hopefully I can drop this to about 9 - 10 a day with weekends off after the initial release. I've spent about 5 weeks on the current project and I think I have about 1 week left. I'm doing it as a way to make a living and also as a great creative outlet. I recently received my BFA in Studio and have decided to delay grad school so that I can focus on what Gamesalad has offered me, a fast and powerful way to create GREAT games. I spent 3 months attempting to learn Objective-C and then stumbled on GS. I'm very glad I did.
Clones of popular games will get you far enough to be able to make a living if you're able to produce fast enough and have quality graphics and audio, but innovation is the key in this still young market.
Make the game that will be cloned. Be the pioneer. Make people think, "Wow, I wish I had thought of that." Rethink what you define as a "game".
I'm taking an enormous gamble on doing something that I love, but I truly believe that if I release nothing below my absolute highest standard I will be rewarded with it now and in the future.
DrGlickert is right. ANYTHING in life works this way. If you put your everything into it then you will see SOMETHING return to you. If you're working as a hobby or "half-assing" in any part of your life, don't expect a lot of return. It doesn't mean it isn't fun.
I'm looking at this like a start up business. I have no one to rely on but myself. I have sacrificed social time with work and am dreaming about layers. The other night it started raining outside, and some thunder woke me up. I thought to myself that the rainclouds could be recycled into texture layers later, yeah, that'll save some RAM!
I get the impression that there are some awesome developers out there with some fantastic games/apps . . . but sadly they remain undiscovered. I'm new to the app writing market, but am an experienced entrepreneur, and I'm afraid that producing a kick-ass app is only 50% of the story.
You need to to get potential customers to become aware of your awesome app so that they will buy it - and my experience is that you need to work harder work on promotion than you did writing the coding itself!
If you regularly follow this and other developers' forums, then you will realise that the secret to app selling and marketing has yet to be found (or at least shared), and I think this is going to be a big issue for most of us.
It's curious that @DreamLab's question to @mynameisace was "what game made $8k?". My very first thought was, "how did @mynameisace market his game?".
Some good comments there. I feel that doing some form of PR for your game/app is important. If your game is being mentioned out there on blogging sites, and review sites etc...if it's good, people will go and check it out.
On saying that, luck seems to appear to play some sort of part in getting good sales.
I seem to remember Joe (Firemaple) did little to no PR for his grisley manor game, and still managed to shift 50K units in a week.....then again, he did a lot of thoings right with regards to the game. It looked good for 1, and also was a little bit different (in a good way) to a lot of other stuff on the store.
It's deffo a bit of a free for all in the app store, but I think there are things you can do to help your cause.
1. Make a good game. Might seem simple, but if a game is good, I believe that people (however many) will find it 2. Do some PR. If you don't want to pay for any PR services, you can do a little yourself. Get on Facebook and Twitter. Post it to groups on both, as well as on your own profile. 3. Make your game look appealing to potential customers. Your Icon and screenshots are a VERY important part of the mix.
Then again....if we all knew this magic formula this discussion wouldn't be happening.
debugdesign said: Quizicards was my first app and done in Xcode and has got me £479.25 / $800...
but as it cost me $2000 to get it developed I am in the red to the tune of $1200+ (plus all my design time)
Reading you comment brings back (scary) memories!
Last year, I was getting excited about braking into the mobile market and once I realized that Flash is no longer the horse to bet on, I started to look for a developer to port one of my flash apps so that I could then sell it in tTunes. To make a long story short, if it wasn't for gamesalad, I would have had to pay a LOT of money. Knowing now what the instrument made and what the development cost would have been, I would have had to swallow a loss of about $3000. Interestingly, now, about a year later, Flash isn't as dead as "they" predicted and things are starting to look up
Q3 and Q4 look good and I can't wait to get the new app into iTunes ... soon
I've made a grand total of $13 US dollars in 3 months on my first two apps. Not much but I was brand new to this and have learned a lot. I've spent about 2 months on my next project so I'm expecting sales to be much better for this one.
Braydon_SFXMember, Sous Chef, Bowlboy SidekickPosts: 9,273
Hey there,
Just a little something i thought i might start, this thread is for you to post how much you make off your apps each day. This isnt meant to be a discouraging thread, however I think it'll be a great encouragement to others just starting to see that this program CAN get you up to the top.
we make about 3 to 5 sales a day ...so about $3.50 a day. I can't quit my day job yet! (we also had 3 weeks of no sales at all) ...not very encouraging after spending $1500 for 2 mac minis and Gamesalad Pro.
I think to make a real income you need to have at least 15-20 good apps and cross promote them as much a you can. You could also get lucky with just the one app but this is very very hard because you need way more than a very good game.
tenrdrmerMember, Sous Chef, Senior Sous-ChefPosts: 9,934
This has really been beat to death.
You could have posted in any of these threads if you had searched for something first.
(merged)
Now if someone wants to be a peach I just found 7 threads that can be merged into this one. LOL If not I'll do it later.
steve86 said: I think to make a real income you need to have at least 15-20 good apps and cross promote them as much a you can. You could also get lucky with just the one app but this is very very hard because you need way more than a very good game.
I agree! we have 4 games with 1 more coming. and by putting a "more games" page on just one game (with links to our other games), we've had a small increase in sales ....so more games up on iTunes the more money made!
Comments
Can't say who, but two members of the game salad community told me what they made.
1. Has about a Dozen Games and makes around $100 a day.
2. Has had 21,000 downloads since December. (Keep in mind his game was stuck on top of the sales store for a week due to a Apple error which got him 10k downloads in that week)
I'm in 10-15k debt, if doing something i love gets rid of that, i'll be one happy camper. but i'm def gonna be in this community for a long time to come.
Welcome to the Team : )
Clones of popular games will get you far enough to be able to make a living if you're able to produce fast enough and have quality graphics and audio, but innovation is the key in this still young market.
Make the game that will be cloned. Be the pioneer. Make people think, "Wow, I wish I had thought of that." Rethink what you define as a "game".
I'm taking an enormous gamble on doing something that I love, but I truly believe that if I release nothing below my absolute highest standard I will be rewarded with it now and in the future.
DrGlickert is right. ANYTHING in life works this way. If you put your everything into it then you will see SOMETHING return to you. If you're working as a hobby or "half-assing" in any part of your life, don't expect a lot of return. It doesn't mean it isn't fun.
I'm looking at this like a start up business. I have no one to rely on but myself. I have sacrificed social time with work and am dreaming about layers. The other night it started raining outside, and some thunder woke me up. I thought to myself that the rainclouds could be recycled into texture layers later, yeah, that'll save some RAM!
QS
Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io
Ace
You need to to get potential customers to become aware of your awesome app so that they will buy it - and my experience is that you need to work harder work on promotion than you did writing the coding itself!
If you regularly follow this and other developers' forums, then you will realise that the secret to app selling and marketing has yet to be found (or at least shared), and I think this is going to be a big issue for most of us.
It's curious that @DreamLab's question to @mynameisace was "what game made $8k?". My very first thought was, "how did @mynameisace market his game?".
Care to share any insights @mynameisace?
Thanks,
Simon
www.octappus.com
Check out my new game - Sixty Six: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sixty-six/id421133585?mt=8&ls=1
Some good comments there.
I feel that doing some form of PR for your game/app is important. If your game is being mentioned out there on blogging sites, and review sites etc...if it's good, people will go and check it out.
On saying that, luck seems to appear to play some sort of part in getting good sales.
I seem to remember Joe (Firemaple) did little to no PR for his grisley manor game, and still managed to shift 50K units in a week.....then again, he did a lot of thoings right with regards to the game. It looked good for 1, and also was a little bit different (in a good way) to a lot of other stuff on the store.
It's deffo a bit of a free for all in the app store, but I think there are things you can do to help your cause.
1. Make a good game. Might seem simple, but if a game is good, I believe that people (however many) will find it
2. Do some PR. If you don't want to pay for any PR services, you can do a little yourself. Get on Facebook and Twitter. Post it to groups on both, as well as on your own profile.
3. Make your game look appealing to potential customers. Your Icon and screenshots are a VERY important part of the mix.
Then again....if we all knew this magic formula this discussion wouldn't be happening.
but as it cost me $2000 to get it developed I am in the red to the tune of $1200+ (plus all my design time)
Not selling much yet but I am just starting.
Lump Apps and My Assets
____________________________________
http://www.gamesaladforum.com/
http://gshelper.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/GameSaladCookbook#p/
Last year, I was getting excited about braking into the mobile market and once I realized that Flash is no longer the horse to bet on, I started to look for a developer to port one of my flash apps so that I could then sell it in tTunes.
To make a long story short, if it wasn't for gamesalad, I would have had to pay a LOT of money. Knowing now what the instrument made and what the development cost would have been, I would have had to swallow a loss of about $3000.
Interestingly, now, about a year later, Flash isn't as dead as "they" predicted and things are starting to look up
Q3 and Q4 look good and I can't wait to get the new app into iTunes ... soon
Shadows Peak is an atmospheric psychological horror that explores the dark side of a player.
Just a little something i thought i might start, this thread is for you to post how much you make off your apps each day. This isnt meant to be a discouraging thread, however I think it'll be a great encouragement to others just starting to see that this program CAN get you up to the top.
Cheers
My GameSalad Academy Courses! ◦ Check out my quality templates! ◦ Add me on Skype: braydon_sfx
(we also had 3 weeks of no sales at all) ...not very encouraging after spending $1500 for 2 mac minis and Gamesalad Pro.
You could have posted in any of these threads if you had searched for something first.
(merged)
Now if someone wants to be a peach I just found 7 threads that can be merged into this one. LOL If not I'll do it later.
also we just made our web site http://www.SteveandDrewGames.com
asymptoteell