^ So do something else (day job or whatever) to live on - and do this part time (evenings and weekends) until you make more in this job than the other! - that's how I started and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.
(BTW you don't always need a so called 'hit' to make decent $ - niche apps or slow burners can do very well)
Start small, keep a regular job... work nights and weekends on games. Outsource as you are able. When you can replace your income then you can THINK about quitting your job.
The bad (or good) thing is if you don't have a job already... Keep working on what I do as a freelancer is probably best for sure. But making a game in only part time is pretty hard if not impossible. If I do something I'm 100% into the project. Doing two things at the same time is going to give mediocre results at best. In the game industry and in every other (artistic) discipline. For my first game I took several weeks off (I had an accident and was forced to). I actually wanted to finish my first game in the monthly trial and it was impossible to achieve. I even prepared everything I could for another month, then studied the tutorials and guides, adjusted the design again and so on. Things didn't go as I planned. But this is part of the process. Someone with already a lot of knowledge probably can make it. But at the end, I'm just impressed how hard the reality actually is. Something I completely misunderstood for sure. When I started to see an opportunity to make a game with Buildbox and to dive into a different industry I somehow believed in the speeches by Trey and others. And I still do, but I see now that a good game is not the entire story of success. Some days ago I read some forum threads at another game maker platform and people commented that their game made 5 bucks in the last 4 months. I was shocked. Combine this together that a good (not necessarily successful) game takes several month to make and it definitely was not was I thought I was going to do. I probably ignored a lot of things but still, I always said to me: you don't have to make the next big hit but at least some thousand dollars to pay the software and the bills should be pretty realistic. I see now that in most cases, this is not the normal outcome, even with a lot of good games. If you think about it, this is crazy. To get back on track to the main interest of this topic: what are the recommendations of you guys to do with a good first game? (just lets imagine it is!) Publish as a lone wolf? Going with the possible biggest publisher (what are the options)? Does it make sense to use time writing to all bloggers? Would it be best to seek a partnership with someone already established? Publish now before Christmas or wait till January? Oh man, it seems my head is going to explode. Thanks for all your opinions already made and keep them coming. It helps very much.
@Christoph .... chill buddy... I can tell you one thing... Right now... you need to really step back... take a deep breath and just go at it again and again... This is from our experience. We're not saying this just for the sake of saying. Honestly we've fell down hard before and it wasn't just once... It's many times... Can you imagine this? We have almost more than 10 google dev accounts terminated for no reasons whatsoever over the past 3 years span. That's more than 100 apps including games. We've had our income at one point 500USD daily dropped to virtually zero. And yet we are still going at it... coz we believe this will definitely work out as we have done it before... We were able to previously come out with crappy games and get downloads of no less than 500,000 in less than 2 weeks in google play for all of our crappy games... Then BANG!! Terminations after terminations... This is due to the fact that both Google and Apple stores have changed... From our point of view.. reason being why most Buildbox games or even other platform of games don't make money or even see good downloads is that many fail to do proper research. We are not trying to brag here... But honestly... how many of us here would be willing to really research to get our apps ranked high and fast in google store? or even in the appstore? The reality is not many.. We can share with you that google market and apple market is completely different. You can get your app featured in apple but when you hit google you can't even make it... Why? Solely because many here do not realize this fact that the ASO in google differs from apple... the research done to capture the google market is different from the apple store... And we often seem to fall into our comfort zones when we get our app featured.. This is human nature... To cut a long story short... How far you wanna continue in this journey is solely reliant on your passion.. Of course having said this income is essential otherwise how are we to survive esp when we are dedicated full time in this? Simple... have a strategy for yourself on how you want to make it in this business... You can create games at a faster rate and make sure that each game is earning you about a few bucks daily... Keep doing that and churning more apps out and you'll see the snowballing effect. Never ever stay still. We know that it is hard sometimes keeping the motivation up esp when you do not have income... In fact as we are sharing this with you... We are not even out of the woods yet but we are still pushing hard solely because of the belief that we will and we can make it happen again... And this time... we'll make sure it stays... So chin-up buddy... You ain't alone here... What we like about the community here is that people in here are really helpful... If you know how to ask properly. Be sincere and you can learn more. There are lurkers which you have to be careful though. All in all... Never ever give up k... Like everyone else has mentioned here... Work hard... but also work smart... Open your eyes more and always be looking at the markets from many perspectives so as you would be able to keep abreast on things BIG HUGS for you buddy... LET'S DO IT!!
Like they always say "Rome was not built in a DAY" so success cannot be built in a day without hardwork and set-backs. Quick profit does not come easy . You have to burn hours upon hours till you get there. I know this is not what you hope to hear but it's the reality since Flappy Bird saturated the gaming market, everyone is now a DEVELOPER
I don't recommend focusing all your time just on game development. We all need day jobs to stay afloat or you will get yourself in trouble. Plus taking a break from development can help clear your mind. I had a long period where I focused only on game dev and I got burned out as well as behind on many bills. Need variety in life. Also remember that starting and maintaining a game business is much less expensive and stressful than starting a brick and mortar business. We actually have it very nice in these modern times. When I was an Army medic deployed to Iraq for a year, that really helped me get a better perspective on opportunities available to all of us. I saw so many people there who had their path chosen for them and have none of these opportunities that we all have here. Sure it's work but be thankful for the ability to do this because it's not like this in some parts of the world.
Great words and possitive energy from you guys. Thanks for this thread, it was really nice to read all this. Im proud to be here and to know that we are really good community. I wish all of you best luck in the world!
Few thoughts: I started my business while working full time as a real estate agent. Would come home at 5pm and work on the laptop until about 11pm each night. After my business made more than my job, I quit it. You have to really love the game business to make it work. It can't be just about the money. Only the passionate survive because they are the only ones crazy enough to put in the hours that are required to make it work. By the way, this goes for any business, not just apps and games. If you can get in with a publisher, I think it's the best route. It's what we personally do and why I created a publishing company. As for us, we are new and as expected it will require a ramp up period to gain more traction. It's already working which is great. With only two games under our belt, we saw about 1,000 installs come from our network yesterday. Also, the biggest benefit we have is the ability to get people's games in front of the right people in the app store. Of course, it always come down to the app stores' opinion of the game which no one can truly gauge. As I've told many of our customers I would try for Ketchapp before coming to us as they have a larger traffic base than anyone. They are much harder to get in with, but have an killer network to promote with. Releasing on your own, in my opinion, is the most difficult option. Then you are 100% dependent on getting a feature without having any specific way to present your game to the editorial team. The only other way it could happen is an anomaly where your game goes viral on social media... but we've only seen that at a large scale two times without a feature (Flappy Bird and 2048). All of business is a bit of a gamble, but this way has the worst odds. It can definitely happen, but it is way less likely than going with a publisher. The big exception is when you have a REALLY amazing game. Like Clash of Clans / Monument Valley level of quality. Then a feature is nearly guaranteed. Note: I did not feel this way 6 months ago when Apple still showed new games under the subcategory. Then it was still very possible to gain traction if you had a great game because there was a chance for discovery. Now that they've removed this option (because of reskinners), it's very hard to gain traction with just keywords alone because ranking is largely based on downloads and reviews. We're seeing the app industry, like every other media industry before it, slowly mature and move into the publishing realm. That said, I would absolutely love to hear of current success stories from lone wolves (without features). Christmas season is always the hardest market because it's the most noise, but if you break through it can have a much bigger payoff because it's a very active season. But no question it's harder to get featured right now as we've seen with us, Ketchapp, Appsolute, Chillingo and every other publisher. When you should publish is all about your risk aversion. If you can break through right now, you can crush it. Shadows did nearly 250,000 downloads in a week with just a sub-category feature in the U.S.
One final thing I want to mention. Though I think it's much harder to have a hit game by uploading an app yourself, I would still totally do this for any game you can't get published. Then use that opportunity to tweak, test and learn new inventive ways to get shown on search/trending results that others haven't figured out yet. Also, all of this is assuming you are trying to build a real business from creating games like @Simon Crack, @Kevin W and others are doing. If you are just having fun, it's probably much less stressful simply uploading games into your account and enjoying the process... if something hits then that is a great bonus. There is absolutely nothing wrong with either approach. In fact, there is no right or wrong way to do any of this. The most important aspect is to simply enjoy the whole process. If it's stressing you out, then you should take a few steps back as @Rebel Studios mentioned above.
In regards to getting featured, I think there are still some important guidelines about intellectual property that Apple may be considering in its decisions. This is my speculation, as is the remainder of my post here: I want to say something from my observations of a currently very popular publisher (one I will choose not to name because this post is not meant as an attack or to embarrass) -- let's call the publisher Publisher XYZ. Publisher XYZ removed a game that I really like. I suspect they did it because the game infringes on someone else's IP, as one or more of the game characters bears way too much resemblance to another big company's character(s). Yet, this same publisher continues to publish really neat looking, polished games that (a) use character variations that resemble characters of other big companies' games, yet Apple did not feature these particular games. I have seen other publishers publish neat, polished games that also (a) use character variations that resemble characters of other big companies' games, and Apple did not feature these particular games. Worse yet, I have not seen a featured game from this big publisher since. I suspect that Apple does not like to feature games that (a) use character variations that resemble characters of other big companies' games. What I really wonder is if doing (a) will hurt a publisher's reputation with Apple such that Apple will be less likely to publish games from a publisher that does (a). Does anyone have any constructive thoughts on this, especially any constructive thoughts on what to do if your own game happens to do (a) and it does not end up featured? I should clarify that this is not about me - I have yet to publish a single game yet because I am trying to work on something original with original character variations, and have been for a while. Also, this currently is not my job, but I do want to do really well in games soon. Lastly, I hope that my commentary here is taken as both speculative and cautious, but also as something that we should all consider given the importance of character variations in games.
Interesting line of thought... Lots of examples in the store but Appsolute have a game that was featured heavily with some elements you are asking about. I thought maybe they updated after but all the characters were there on launch. Who knows, Apple is mystery on why they do things. https://www.facebook.com/approarr/?fref=ts&__mref=message_bubble https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/angle!/id1021326550?mt=8
@cbecks noble , yes i notice this one when they launch it. they put all iconic characters on a game (dc,marvel,mario,minion,etc), still got featured, at that time me and my brother wonder is apple really reviewing that game. but like @Jamie post above, we notice also that publisher not being featured regularly as usual, including the other big one.
Ketchapp doesn't need to be featured anymore which could be a reason for Apple to feature others. Just a thought but it would make sense. The number 1 game in a lot of countries is right now Ketchapps Twist. It only was featured in Germany and Austria. Their cross promotion is sufficient to give enough push. Thanks @TreySmith for your comments. I enjoy most of the time but am also stressed out. It probably would be best to make a little break, but on the other hand I think, I just should finish my game first and publish it to see how it goes.
Some great conversation and pearls of wisdom on this thread, awesome stuff - Be sure to read it all, and then read it again - some of the most solid, honest advice I've seen regarding this topic Building a business is hard regardless of industry. Period. All these overnight successes you read about and see splattered around are few and far between. I forgot who said the quote: "It takes 10 years to be an overnight success." Although the number can be altered a little, this should not be ignored. It's also said that "497 of the 500 most popular symphonies were made after the composer’s 10th year of work." - pretty amazing and hopefully you get the point I'm trying to make. You'll need drive and passion for whatever you go at, without that you'll never get through the tough times, of which there will be many! I made the tough decision to close down my 6 figure business in Feb this year because I hated what it became, I'd re-invested all the money back into it but I still closed, why? No passion! For those who say it's hard to do this part time, you're right, but that's what it takes if you need the overlap of the day job to pay your bills. I shut the shop and went 200% into Buildbox - I was ready and hungry If you want to make it as an indie/game business, Stop watching Netflicks, get up an hour early, go to bed an hour later - If you're not prepared to do this, keep it at a hobby. Also, just to chime in on the features, there are tons of variables on Apple's decision to feature games, none of which can be ever understood apart from the editors and business team. Some of these include what is releasing on any given week, how they all fit together to give a varied spread to the Appstore customers, quality and originality. If the game is worthy and the stars align, the game has a chance to make it regardless of who the publisher is. As for Ketchapp not getting featured as often, this is more to do with the higher quality, bigger midcore/hardcore games releasing titles for Xmas, thus pushing available slots out of the mix, as for Appsolute, the quality of their last few titles wasn't there by a mile in my opinion. Pretty sure that on a "quieter week" the new buildbox game would've had a real good chance, but week after week there are a ton of great games that don't. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that just because a certain publisher has been featured before it's a given that each week their games will hit those few spaces. This is simply not true. Ketchapp is a total anomaly and struck out after 2048 was the most downloaded game of 2014 - this gave them a massive network to re-market to - I bet there's only a handful of companies on the Appstore with the same power. There does seem to be an undertone on these forums that it's kinda easy and every game deserves a feature, this sadly is just not the way it works. To get back to the OP, gaining downloads can be achieved by many different ways and if the only business model you have is getting featured then that's a super scary plan, hence the reason for going with a publisher where they have that network already built up and they can leverage that to drive installs. UA / Social traffic / Youtubers and Reviews, same with any product really - dropping an app onto the store and expecting massive success is extremely unrealistic - much like putting a website up online and expecting huge traffic. Quote: "The only games with success seem to be the ones published by Ketchapp (over 1,000,000 downloads, some even more than 5,000,000). Appsolute Games seem to have less success with 500,000 to 1,000,000 downloads." Again, there seems to be some ridiculous over inflation where 1M downloads is only classed as a success - these are utterly spectacular numbers!!!! You should be wary of comparing downloads to revenue also, we have many titles that do less than 100 downloads a day and still bring in a good few bucks. Those games achieving these numbers are pretty few and far between, and again, Ketchapp are in a pretty unique position. I think curbing expectations would be a great lesson here. Just my 2 cents. Tip my hat to @TreySmith , @Simon Crack , @Rebel Studios , @Machine Rises - Awesome Stuff guys
