Indie iPhone Games Not So Profitable?

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Indie iPhone Games Not So Profitable?

Want to turn a quick buck by making an indie game (or fart app [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/89358-Over-30-iPhone-Fart-App-in-90-Seconds]) on the iPhone? It might be harder than you think - at least, if critically-acclaimed Dapple is anything to go by.


using paint to mix colors [http://streamingcolour.com/games/dapple/] - resulted in the game being rather well-received by critics. It was simple, it was a fresh twist on an old classic, and it was cheap at only $4.99 on the iPhone App Store. Sounds like the recipe for success, right?

Not quite. In a post on his blog [http://www.streamingcolour.com/blog/2009/03/09/the-numbers-post-aka-brutal-honesty/], Dapple creator Owen Goss discussed the raw numbers: He had developed the game on a budget of $32,000 dollars, including general business expenses, paying contractors, and also, y'know, paying himself a small salary so that he could live for the six months he was developing the game. At $5 a download - with Apple taking 30% of that - he was earning $3.50 every time someone bought the game. With exchange rates, Goss would have to sell 9,150 copies of Dapple in the U.S. before he broke even. At last count, despite favorable reviews across the board, Goss' return on investment was $535.19. Ouch.

It's no secret that indie game development is rough. For every World of Goo or Audiosurf, you have a game like Dapple that slips under the radar. Let's look at this, though - critically acclaimed or not, Dapple is at heart a match-3 game. I don't have an iPhone, but fellow Escapist staffer Jordan Deam does, and he points out that most people who buy games off the App Store probably aren't gamers, and probably don't read reviews. Gamers who do read reviews for iPhone games are much more likely to go for games slightly deeper than match-3 - if they get a match-3 game, it'll probably be something like Puzzle Quest.

It's a genre that's done to death, and even its creative little twist and generally positive reception probably didn't help Dapple stand out from the crowd. Even a genuine labor of love can sometimes be doomed from the start.

(Twenty Sided [http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=2525])

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Pipotchi

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Jan 17, 2008
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On the one hand I can sympathise it must be hard to work on something for six months and not get the accolades you(and critics) feel you deserve

On the other hand though, he took six months off and a salary so he was clearly looking at this like a business and i phone users don't owe him a profit so thems the breaks.

You pays your money and you makes your choice to quote Aldous Huxley
 

HobbesMkii

Hold Me Closer Tony Danza
Jun 7, 2008
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See, there's his problem, too high an initial investment. The guys who make a cool half-a-mil in 30 days or less don't develop it over six months and put $32k into their work. They do barely any work and end up with Sound Grenade or something that's supported by ads. Building tech-heavy games for a phone platform is kind of a joke, anyways. At least, until Nintendo finally decides to do iPhone Pokemon.
 

Virgil

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Jun 13, 2002
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Pipotchi said:
On the other hand though, he took six months off and a salary so he was clearly looking at this like a business and i phone users don't owe him a profit so thems the breaks.
If you read his blog post, there was no complaining - it was pure information. And very interesting.

There have been a lot of stories on the wild successes of certain indie games or iPhone apps. Companies (and press) love to talk about up the bottled lightning that stunningly successful indie products capture. You rarely see anything well-reasoned about the projects that don't make it big though.

Because of these stories, a lot of people out there are currently working on projects that they expect to release on the app store (or Steamworks, or the Xbox community games, etc...) and make multiple thousands of dollars. I know people that have seriously considered it. Sometimes it's good to hear the other side.
 

mark_n_b

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Mar 24, 2008
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I am working on an iphone game as part of my studios first projects, we'll also be presenting the title to Blackberry and ms casual.

The primary studio income is coming from other projects and development grants however, developing an ipod game is about getting the background in software development to qualify for development kits as well as getting our name attached to published material.

My budget is about $10,000 and we have a three man team.

Business in the app store means mass production, it's good he has broken even, but that and profit is a one in twenty occurrence (if that, don't quote that number it is just a way of saying it doesn't happen all the time).

Companies like apple have a lot of good faith and an established consumer base, as well as the resources to develop multiple apps, only some of which need to make money. Indie studios don't, you have to endure these realities and not put all your eggs in one basket.
 

Virgil

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mark_n_b said:
Business in the app store means mass production, it's good he has broken even ...
He hasn't broken even - the wording isn't completely clear. As of the writing he earned $535.19, leaving him about $31,500 in the hole.

That includes the resulting publicity of a Kotaku and Slashdot posting.
 

Aramax

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Sep 27, 2007
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From what I have learned about indie games for portables devices like cell phones is that you need to do everything by yourself and take things slow. You need to have talent, flair and a really good idea.

Curses! is a good example of what i'm talking about. Castlevania style gameplay game on a cellphone should be fun... right? Why dont you try it out and tell me about it.

http://www.manningkrull.com/games/curses/

Once that game is going to be completed (may take a few more years) it's going to be a good game that will be worth your money.

As for Dapple... even if theres some nifty options and gameplay variation it's the same mix/match puzzle game we often see for free on gaming website. The developers of this game should have had more flair about what game deserve this kind of investment.
 

shMerker

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Oct 24, 2007
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Just to be clear he hasn't broken even yet. The first post says he's sold 131 copies and in the followup says that he sold about 20 copies after that, with a small spike prompted by the slashdot writeup. That $500 figure is gross revenue after Apple takes their cut. Going by the $32,000 development cost he's still net negative by over $31,000.
 

Clashero

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Aug 15, 2008
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Eh... this guy's factoring his own man-hours into the cost, essentially giving himself a salary. That means that the investment is not 32 thousand dollars, really. I might say "I spent 500 million dollars making this drawings because that's how much I think my time is worth."
 

Pipotchi

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Jan 17, 2008
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shMerker said:
Just to be clear he hasn't broken even yet. The first post says he's sold 131 copies and in the followup says that he sold about 20 copies after that, with a small spike prompted by the slashdot writeup. That $500 figure is gross revenue after Apple takes their cut. Going by the $32,000 development cost he's still net negative by over $31,000.
Ouch, at first I thought thats what it meant but then I thought it must mean he has broken even and the $519 or whatever is his profit.

That sucks to be in the hole for $30,000
 

curlycrouton

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Jul 13, 2008
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Wasn't there some who manufactured an iPhone app. that simply displayed the words "I am rich", costing $999.99?

Apparently, nine units were sold.
 

Pipotchi

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Jan 17, 2008
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curlycrouton said:
Wasn't there some who manufactured an iPhone app. that simply displayed the words "I am rich", costing $999.99?

Apparently, nine units were sold.
You are almost right, it wasnt words, it was a big glowing ruby thing in the middle of the screen (the iscreen?)
 

vesperdem

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Mar 13, 2009
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Codgo, I'm not sure why your "friends" are stealing iPhone apps. I also don't understand your "it didn't surprise me when they told me the prices of some of this stuff" statement. There are certainly games in the AppStore that are overpriced. However, there are more titles that are priced under their value as well as equal to their value. Rolando, Edge, Gemmed, MotionX Poker Quest, Archibald's Adventures are just a few that I play regularly that are more than reasonably priced.

Plus most of the titles in the AppStore go on sale occasionally. I have an app called AppSniper that watches the prices of apps and lets me know when an app I'm interested is on sale. Allows me to save a few bucks on ones that I don't feel are worth the price they are asking.

I too am working on creating a few titles for the iPhone/iPod touch. I'm still in the learning stage right now. I expect my first few apps to be free, but the later ones I'll charge for.

I'm not expecting to make a million dollars, but a decent side income would be nice.

Dapple is a great game and I hope that it's exposure on sites like these will help the developer get more downloads. Getting on Apple's top app sites is the usual way to skyrocket sales. At least from other articles I have read. Developers have little control over what gets featured, so it's a bit of a crap shoot.