A Dark Room: The Best-Selling Game That No One Can Explain
newyorker.com
newyorker.com
Notice how open sourcing their product had no impact on their sales. I'll be so happy when defensive software licensing dies after people realize code isn't worth protecting.
(Some code is worth licensing. It was most of Id Software's revenue stream. I'm referring to all other code that isn't designed to be licensed, which people still insist on being paranoid about protecting.)
I think what's really happening though is that they're not relying on the MPL at all for permission to do the iOS port, but on a direct license from Townsend. It sounds like there is even some kind of formal business relationship (the article is a bit vague on it, but it sounds like Townsend is involved in the port and getting a share of the profits).
Additionally, I didn't write the game in JavaScript. So none of the original source was used. I used a snapshot Michael gave me as a reference and rewrote the entire thing from scratch in RubyMotion.
If he isn't getting a share of the sales and didn't explicitly provide a license to release the ios app under different terms, then I feel it should be open source (at least the parts derived from the original).
Based on... what? You don't see it as possible that when granting permission for the iOS adaptation he just assumed it would be freely available, like the original? (at the time of my previous comment, there was no response from the author of the iOS port)
Okay. Let me make sure sure everything is crystal clear:
- I found the game online via a tweet.
- Viewed source and saw's Michael's contact information.
- Emailed him and asked him if I could do a for-pay rendition of it on iOS and that I'd split profits with him.
- He agreed.
- I built it with his oversight/input.
- He get's a 50% royalty on all sales.
- And now? Well, Michael and I get to deal with ADR clones that just wrap the original via PhoneGap.
- And what do the clone say when we try to report them to Apple? "hey! it's open source!"
By [Townsend's] estimate, making one game a year that performs like A Dark Room would make it possible for him to quit his day job, but he’s unsure whether this whole experience was just a fluke.
It's worded in a way that makes it ambiguous whether he means that as a pure hypothetical, or something like "I made about a year's worth of income from A Dark Room, and if that were repeatable I could quit my day job".
EDIT: it's explained in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7892535 -- TL;DR: the iOS port developer has an agreement with the original developer.
How can flappy birds be making $50k per day, and your #1 paid app only makes $2k per day?
Now, given that we're no where near the #1 spot, we're averaging about $1,000 a day. But that figure is dropping too. ADR is a depreciating asset with a life span of two years I'd say (making this assumption based on what I've seen with other paid apps and their rank history).
Do you have any statistics on how far players have made it in your game? I, for one, downloaded the game just to see what it was about. This is not my type of game, so I quit after only playing about 10 minutes.
Reason I ask is that you could test this out as a freemium app. Free to download, but after a certain period, the user has to pay to continue.
Let's say 20% of people that download it are hooked. If you get 20x the download rate on free, that means you could have a 400% increase in revenue. It might be worth testing out.
I just bought the game to thank you for no ads, no IAPs.
Have you considered a single IAP that does nothing, but gives you (and Apple, and the IRS) a bit more cash?
There is an order of magnitude difference between the downloads rates for premium vs free apps (probably 2x). So it is entirely possible that a top ranked free app gets a ton of downloads a day relative to a top ranked paid app.
>Garbage ★ by XxlCraiglxX - Version 1.6 - Jun 13, 2014
>It's so nice to have this hive-mind community full of hipsters and morons raving about the worst goddamn games. Same thing happened with Angry Birds and Flappy Birds. You people are disgusting. Horrible unwashed masses of brainless consumers. Hey morons, take a step back and really consider the piece of crap you rated 5 stars. No, really, just take a moment.
The entire experience has been a roller coaster. Every time ADR hits a top spot, I dream about a future where I don't have to work a 9-5. But then it drops, and those dreams are taken away. That being said, 50k a day would definitely bring me to that goal quickly (just not the case for me).
The Apple Bar Geniuses at the Store in Palo Alto all loved it as well.
I hope just one of our heartfelt loves can equal at least a thousand haters, who, as we all know, just gotta hate. :-)
Perhaps a few indie authors could collaborate and write a blog article about it?
I imagine the "feedback" emails of large software projects must be similar.
Also, any tips on recovering from a ranking hit after releasing a new version and losing all your current version ratings?
If your rank is low, release, and release often. Don't sweat the reviews (use them as a means to gain feedback from the people who've downloaded the game). You can also make your app free for a couple of days which will bring in new eyes (you lose your rank if you do that, so just be aware).
As for being a top ranked app (and in my case, a top ranked app that lives and dies by its reviews), I really can't release a new version unless I add something that significantly increases end user engagement.
For example: v1.5 of the game hit the number one spot, and dropped to #2 18 days later. The moment it dropped I released v1.6 of the game which added developer commentary from me and Michael. We went back to #1 for 2 days after a week long slump. That being said, I compared numbers after the fact and our review conversion rates only increased by ~0.2%.
Full write up here: http://amirrajan.net/a-dark-room/#secondwind
For the US, I think the age profile are kids in middle school and high school. Just from what I've heard from my friends, the game spread like wild fire through schools. This is my current working theory especially since the game dropped significantly in rank the moment summer started.
EDIT: welp. it looks like he has ads.... :-(
That being said, I think the atmosphere is far superior on the browser: http://adarkroom.doublespeakgames.com/ (But throw them the $0.99 too!)
He's maintained a developer blog throughout the process. It's a really interesting read: http://amirrajan.net/a-dark-room/
I first learned of A Dark Room when Amir presented it to the local Dallas Ruby group. His presentation on development in RubyMotion is worth a read as well: http://amirrajan.net/12k-lines-of-RM/
window.setInterval(function(){ elems = document.querySelectorAll("a"); for(i = 0;i < elems.length;i++) { elems[i].click(); } },1000);
Edit:
Went to eat someting, the trick gave no money and a lot of broken hearts :P
Afterwards, playing it fast. The game respresents making choices in your live. It's fundamentally good actually...
Here's the previous discussion.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5961205
EDIT: I didn't realize the game had been monetized. Is it worth the 0.99c over the HTML5 original?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ariyalion....
"It just felt like everything was thought through, distilled down, and presented in a form that was immediately familiar to me given my Ruby background (and the “Ruby mindset”)." http://blog.rubymotion.com/post/82087136696/rubymotion-succe...
Certainly for me I find it refreshing and I try to read their magazine as much as I can. I've learned plenty and can choose what I'd like to follow up on myself as opposed to through the guidance of the editor, author, or web designer who is creating the online edition. And the flow is never disrupted by text which indicates a link whether in the traditional blue with underline or otherwise.
We can all google, but to enjoy an article is a pleasure in its own right.
In as much as Doom is, yes.
window.setInterval(function(){
$("#gatherButton").click()
window.setInterval(function(){
$("#trapsButton").click()
window.setInterval(function(){
$("#end").click()
I wish other game developers would take note.
Buy Cheap Fireplace
Don't miss out on our 50%
discount offer. Limited
time only.
https://fireplaces.bizI wonder if there is a way to incorporate ads, so that it does not break immersion? e.g. non-trading aliens visiting earth, being puzzled by the ads. Perhaps some way of mocking them. Or, a game based on ads - finding similarities between them; or links (similar to wikipedia-based games). Unfortunately, I would guess that reacting to ads might breach Adwords' terms of service.
It could be done in a positive way, like TV shows about advertisement (The Gruen Transfer; those best-of compilations). This is kind of crazy, but: given text content, rating ads, for best targeting, worst targeting, controversial targeting, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Black-Swan-Improbable-Robustness/d...
Now, if it was Cookie Clicker (basically the same formula) I wouldn't be surprised - that actually has nice graphics, a broad appeal, lots of dark humor.
This is a great game (the web version, at least) but not at all something I'd expect to go mainstream.
No, Taleb loves to sophistically equivocate between meanings of 'black swan' to neutralize any criticism. Did a perfectly ordinary phenomenon in network dynamics and winner-take-all scenarios happen? Taleb takes this as an example. Does someone point out that this is consistent with all past experience and non-power-law distributions like log-normals? Oh, suddenly, he means black swans are totally unpredictable things like 9/11!