About to invest 2k
Quasitimp
Member Posts: 8
hi everyone, I'm thinking about investing in a 13" macbookpro, ipod touch, gamesalad, and the apple developers license, just to help compensate my 12% reduction in pay and severely reduced hours. I see some of you are making some reasonable money on the apple market.
In what kind of time frame could i break even. doing hand drawn animations for games with some fairly big levels. one im planning is a side scroller like contra with about 20 levels to start with.
what is realistic. what is your exprience.
In what kind of time frame could i break even. doing hand drawn animations for games with some fairly big levels. one im planning is a side scroller like contra with about 20 levels to start with.
what is realistic. what is your exprience.
Comments
It really depends how good your game is. If you have a macbook or mac already download gamesalad free and design a really good game. If you do invest the money.
And if you are only buying the Mac for GS I agree with tempowebdesign.
also i plan to put in alot of time and energy, and with the apple market saturated i was wondering what kind of monthly income a person could make with 4-5 main applications with level packs that get updated say every two months, Z is for Zombie creator seems to be doing something similar to my plan.
oh and this would be my first venture into the macworld
I would say its been about a year now. I purchase a mac mini for 600, The apple license for $99. This was before game salad btw. I was eager and thought me and my friend could learn to code no problem. We made the mistake of not investigating the market before the investment. after a few months of frustration with learning how to code we kind of gave up for a bit. Then I did some research and found GS. so we bought it on sale during the holiday for $80 and started putting together a game. Our first game idea got postponed due to graphics, so we kind of just threw together another one in about a months time.
I will admit I was very proud of the game at the time, but now I feel like I could have done so much more and I am almost disappointed in myself. I guess the feeling of having something on the app store took advantage of me.
It has been a month later after I released that game and we have seen a little over 200 downloads. almost half of those being free downloads from promos and updates.
So in a nutshell
total put in
$780.00 + tax
our time
received after 1 month
100 paid copies sold at the price of 1.99
apple takes their 30% so we get 1.40.
Total $140.00
But like I said now that I look at my game I realize why we are only getting a few downloads a day. My next project I have invested some time and effort into this one and hopefully it comes out a polished jewel and rewards me for the work I did.
THIS IS PURE SPECULATION:
I'd say way up how much time your going to have to spend on developing the apps.
And how good your ideas are. I get the impression the more games you make the better you will get, so be prepared for 6 months of learning and low paying apps...before you might see some results.
The big hitters, e.g. T-shirt and firemaple have made some very very nice successful games but they've put the hours in for sure. Got a mention in the app store which helps gets the app noticed in a very very busy app store. Plus there games are good enough to back up the press.
Me, I've made two things, one baby sleep app 'Contented Baby Sleep', which I used to learn simple parts of GS, that's made about £150 in 3 months....just made it free with an aim to doing a deluxe paid version at some point.
Quake Builder, my first game which has been on the app store for 8 days, and took nearly 4 months to make has made me around £65 in a week.... currently trying to promote as best I can via blogs, review sites, forums etc etc.
so lets say that continues ....£65 in a week... x 52 = £3380....
On that basis yeah go for it.........
......but obviously sales may plummit tomorrow.
and what macbook...
I use an older white intel mac book...Which I love, even before GameSalad its been superb.
Just started making an ipad app last night and yep...the screen size is annoying...not the end of the world but annoying....would love to buy a new uni body and 15' would be nice, Like you said, your going to plug it into a big monitor so that's fine and dandy.
@Quasitimp
I find it very difficult to advise *anyone* to get into this with the sole aim of making money. It really is a bit of a lottery.
There are games that are really good, really well made, in and out of GameSalad, that do NOTHING in sales.
Then you just need to look at the App store to see the kind of rubbish that sells thousands!
If it helps, you'll use your new MacBook lots anyway - I use mine every single day and love it. It's got some battle scars though, so I'm hoping to upgrade to a 15" model soon(ish) but I'm determined to do it off money I earn through GS. That may take a while!
If you don't already have an iPod Touch/iPhone, then again, it's a lovely bit of kit.
The only thing I paid for *specifically* to use GameSalad was a GS licence and an Apple one.
Also, you mention that your work hours are reduced. How much time do you think you'll be able to invest in making your games?
What I'd advise is, as others have said, get a Mac Mini. They're lovely too. Muck about with the free version of GameSalad, and see if you can make the game you're wanting to make.
That way, your investment is far smaller, your RISK is far smaller, and you only invest in the licences and hardware when you're ready to move on.
I hope this doesn't discourage you too much in any way - It's great fun making apps (I would have stopped ages ago if it wasn't!) and I'd love to play a Contra-like game.
How much of a market there is for it is another matter though!
Good luck!
QS
Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io
Ditto! Even though I'm only 18 I still managed to spend hours and hours playing Contra on my NES
It's a long, LONG list though
QS
Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io
That's what I have/do. It works great. That is, as long as your second screen is large enough
However, I think we all agree that GS is a good investment... otherwise, why would we be here? By "investment", I mean, is this a good investment of our TIME? Do we enjoy making games with GS??? Yes and yes!!! And if we have fun doing it, then hopefully some profits will emerge (for those seeking profits), and then better games will emerge from the energy and motivation and encouragement generated by those successful games. I admire those GS chefs who have crafted games worthy of our time... and I look to join their ranks someday.
I ponder and edit and re-craft my first game idea on a daily basis, even nightly (causing insomnia, ha ha). I try to think, will this be marketable? Could it sell? Because I admit that I want to sell games and earn a profit, having just lost my primary source of income, like many others. In truth, I have no idea if it might sell. What kind of game sells? I think of aspects like "addictive" and "many hours of gameplay", but maybe that's not enough. Polish, nice graphics, and even "cute" will appeal to a wider age group.
But if my game doesn't sell, I will probably still complete it, because I love the concept! I hope to have a prototype complete in the next couple weeks...
Anyway, this topic was started on the notion of "is GS a worthwhile investment?" Financially, who knows? In terms of just having fun knocking out game ideas, YES. And in these turbulent times, I would say that's enough.