Anyone had any experience with Chillingo?

beefy_clyro

Just wondering if anyone has had any experience or know other devs that have had experience with Chillingo? I was contacted by a member from their team regarding my latest game 'Office Racing'.

design219

What do they want? What do they do?

gyroscope

Wow, mighty congrats, beefy_clyro! I've no experience with this company (I've not even made a single GS app yet, anyhow!) but to my eyes, their website design and contents sure looks professional and reading their About page, they seem like they know what they're doing, i'm sure you'll agree.

I guess it'll come down to what sort of contract you have with them. Best of luck!

:-)

---------------------------------------------------------------
Spiral Gyro Games

beefy_clyro

Chillingo publish apps, basically they'd be attaching their name to my game. i.e. they published angry birds, mini gore and lots of other little apps. Im sure it doesnt mean instant success, your game will still need to be good and if it doesnt succeed i guess they dont put any effort into trying to make it succeed. They obviously take a percentage of teh fee as well but in theory, could get your app noticed by a wider audience.

Eastbound

Somebody else on the forums had used them also, with poor results. They basically will only market the games that are already making loads of cash, and if the app isn't they won't bother. So if your app is going to be a success anyway, they could possibly make it more successful. Or jump start a great app to getting noticed. But most likely, it won't be worth the cash.

Chunkypixels

You need to speak with Utopiangames (Darren).

Hes had experience of publishing with Chillingo, through their sister label Clickgamer.

Signing up with a publisher can be a mixed bag, especially on the appstore. Ive seen a couple of friends games doing quite well for themselves, and gaining the interest of publishers.

After signing up with the publisher, theyve then had logos and advertising slapped all over the products, then seen their games thrown back onto the appstore with little to no further marketting or promotion. Subsequently, theyve dived in sales compared to what they were doing previously.

Check the contract thoroughly, and make sure it gives detailed specifics of what changes your going to have to make, and what effort the publisher is going to put behind your game once youve signed it over. in most cases you'll pretty much be giving up control of your game.

Each publisher is going to be different, and the publishers Im talking about were not Chillingo.... but I just thought I'd relate that not all publisher deals are good ones.

beefy_clyro

Ah yes i searched the forums before this post for Chillingo as i knew Darren had a bad experience with them. It would be useful to talk with him more in private about the matter to see how much he's willing to discuss about it.

I certainly wouldnt be looking at this like it was going to be an instant hit and make me tons of money, 1st there is the 30% for Apple and then more than likely a further 25% or so for say Chillingo, so unless it makes a lot of money, i wouldnt be recieving much!

Its a tough decision though as they have been very successfull and also havent. On one hand you could rocket up the charts or you could stay down it and then give away half of teh little money you would be earning. If i was making a fair bit a day i'd probably be more inclined to go for it but as im not, im very skeptical about giving away 50% + of what little money i will be making!

I think i'll probably release this one on my own, see what kind of offer they had in mind and maybe use them on a future collaboration.

gyroscope

beefy_clyro said:
I certainly wouldnt be looking at this like it was going to be an instant hit and make me tons of money, 1st there is the 30% for Apple and then more than likely a further 25% or so for say Chillingo, so unless it makes a lot of money, i wouldnt be recieving much!

I know we've all got rent/mortgage to pay, etc., and that it's important that the games created supply some income (especially if this is your only source of income). But the way I look at it, even if you earn only a small amount of money, exposure to your game is priceless. The more your stuff is out there, the more chance there is of other companies contacting you to put your game on their website; getting reviews, etc.

And without sounding...whatever, 25% seems a fair whack from Chillingo (though I expect there are other companies with a lower percentage); it still leaves you just under half of your game price to receive. Which is better than 0% if you didn't go with them. Just my penny's worth.

:-)

PS The "Wow" in my first post of your thread was referring to the fact that Chillingo contacted you, rather than the other way around; that's not to be sneezed at!!

---------------------------------------------------------------
Spiral Gyro Games

UtopianGames

Hi Beefy,

We did indeed publish Tumble Jumble via click gamer (chillingos sister label).

A friend of mine was also contacted by them and they wanted 40% !!!

I would be happy to give you my opinion on chillingo...the good and the bad.

Darren.

beefy_clyro

Thanks everyone for your input.

@darren, yeh it would be good if to hear your opinion if you dont mind sharing. 40% is loads, whoa!

UtopianGames

toyboxuk[AT]hotmail.com

also on skype utopiangames

Regards,

Darren.

Rattlehead

40%?!?

What in the world can they offer in the way of services that would justify that level of compensation?

beefy_clyro

i dont use skype darren, i'll drop you an email over the weekend. thanks.

AfterBurnett

beefy_clyro said:
If i was making a fair bit a day i'd probably be more inclined to go for it

If you were making a fair bit already it would be best to leave it. No point being greedy and risking it all. That's the key to getting rich... believe it or not, the top stock market investors often pull their money out prematurely... as soon as they see an increase, out it comes... they could wait for longer and hope for more but that is being greedy and also heightens the risk. If you're making good money, stick with it and concentrate on your next apps... no point fixing what ain't broke

On the other hand, if your app isn't selling well at all, it could be worth going with a publisher as you've got much less to risk. Just be careful with contracts.