We're targeting the iPhone, and hoping that we didn't miss the gold rush.
Has anyone else taken a similar plunge? What have your experiences been? I'd also be happy to answer ANY questions you might have about getting started on the iPhone.
Yeah, we're learning that the App Store alone is not enough marketing -- I'm amazed at how many games are released every day.
We've reached out to app review sites (avoiding sites that charge $$ for reviews), which seem to be the lowest hanging fruit (if your game gets good reviews!). Facebook and Twitter are all the rage these days, and we're trying these as well.
However, by far, the most important thing that we did was release a free "Lite" version. Our best single-day sales had been about 75 copies, until our demo version was released yesterday and had over 1300 downloads in a single day, and drove up our sales. I highly recommend this approach.
Funny story about trial versions -- don't call your free version a "DEMO" -- we were rejected by the Apple store last week ("DEMO" phrase is bad, "Lite/Free" is good), and had to wait 7 days for our renamed "Lite" version to be approved and put up for sale.
Repeat after me: The App store is NOT a marketing strategy.
Create a webpage, do advertisements, etc. Good luck, and keep us informed!
Having not done the indie game entrepreneurship thing myself, I can't speak with any certainty, but I know enough about the business to know that some of what works for web startups won't work for game companies, and yet this industry has a lot to learn from the cutting edge of how software gets made in other sectors. I'd be interested to hear if you've got any thoughts about all this that might be interesting to the HN crowd.
I'm happy to say I've heard of Kids vs. Zombies, though I don't remember in what context (I don't own an iPhone, so I don't keep up much with games there). Given that indie games seem to be a growing segment of the industry (or at least an increasingly coherent cultural force and identifiable subsection within the industry), I hope you're doing your best to get indie and casual game press on your side. A lot of free publicity can be gained that way, and can really help word-of-mouth advertising.
Best of luck!
The problem is that people seem to be somewhat averse to paying for a browser based game (like a Java applet or webstart app), even when they'd have no problem paying for the same game as a standalone program (literally simply using a JPanel instead of a JApplet, or providing an installer to a local version instead of a webstart link).
Of course browser games still get a lot more hits than locally installed ones.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/132665-mobile-ad-market-shar...
iPhone + iPod touch sales: 37,000,000
iTunes Apps: 25,000-35,000
Apps downloaded: 1,000,000,000
Device to App ratio 1,480:1 - 1,057:1
Attach rate: 27
G1 sales: 1,000,000
Android Apps: 2,300
Device to App ratio 434:1
Attach rate: 10-15? (hard to find good data)
http://www.leaderpost.com/Technology/store+BlackBerry+Google...
http://www.pcworld.com/article/163671/ipod_touch_iphone_sale...
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/04/24/most-g1-owners-love-app...
In less than a year's time a ton of android handsets are planned to enter circulation. The iPhone is just Apple.
So I'm guessing we have yet to see Androids peak of popularity.
Our conversion rates are low, but we've managed to get enough people playing to sustain itself, one full time employee (me!) and a few contract employees.
It's been a lot of fun. If you are passionate about games I highly recommend it since it can definitely be sustainable. Having said that, I'm not sure it's necessary a lucrative path for most people.
The site is http://www.forumwarz.com
Have you ever considered making more games that are essentially gameplay clones of forumwarz but with different themes? That seems to be a lot of what Zynga has done with their facebook games - Mafia Wars, Vampire Wars, Zombie Wars, etc. Also have you considered social network integration yourself. I hate to suggest such un-innovative strategies but it might work.
I'm asking because I run a webgame myself, of much smaller scale and niche purpose, and I'm wondering if I should invest the effort it takes to scale it up.