Hacker News Reader

Comment by AdamAtomic | Hacker News Reader

hey hackers, matthew pointed me here and I thought I'd share some stats (more about the Flash version than the iPhone version but yea)

  Days spent making Canabalt: 5 (long ones)
  Hits on my server: ~2 million
  Hits on other major portals: ~2 million
  Estimated hits on crappy portals: ~4 million+?
  Hits on my server from twitter: 50k+
  Best Referrer: Stumbleupon
  Money from donations: ~$500
  iPhone sales: can't say but good enough!
  Top App Store Ranking: 37
  Bandwidth Bills: $1000+
  Top legit score I've ever seen: ~30km
  My top score: ~8km
  Resolution: 480px x 160px
  Initial Piracy Rate: 12%
  Current Piracy Rate: 25%

Inspirations: Half Life 2, District 9, Banlieue 13, Another World/Flashback/Prince of Persia, War of the Worlds (book, not movie)

Trivia: I never finished drawing the space ship that flies by since it is barely on-screen for more than a few minutes. Sadly, multiple screenshots have captured it in all its under-realized sloppiness.

View on HN

Those donations were well-spent:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flashbangstudios/4069363572/

(I'm the goon in the top-left of the frame)

"Best Referrer: Stumbleupon"

What's this based on? I've tried StumbleUpon ads before. The bounce rate is insane. Approx 99.5%. It's basically useless for anything other than real-world load testing.

BTW, Reddit's new self-serve ad system is awesome. Dirt cheap, quality traffic, commenting on the ads to talk with your customers directly, and general Internet Bonus Points™.

we didn't do any ads with anybody

Can you talk about revenue that came from the flash version? millions of hits seems like it should give some nice ad revenue. And did you consider seeking sponsorship for the flash version?

I have one request: the little guy should roll like a paratrooper when he comes down from his jump while moving fast.

iPhone has piracy? Is this from Jailbroken phones? Why would someone pirate something worth $3?

Yes. Yes. Because they are cheap bastards who won't pay for anything unless they absolutely cannot get away with stealing it.

Which is why it's ridiculous for developers to worry about it, those 25% would never have bought the game in the first place, just pretend they don't exist. Do you know how much effort it takes to pirate an iPhone app? First you have to find out that pirated binaries even exist, then you have to jailbreak, then you have to fight through mountains of spam and scams until you find the right communities, then you have to spend time learning the technical tricks, then you have to hunt down the pirated app binaries. These people are determined not to pay, they aren't your customers.

I agree that those people are not going to buy the game no matter what. What I think might be worrisome is the bandwidth charges that the pirated iPhone apps could use up if they are contacting his server for anything. That adds up. I would imagine that the lions share of the $1000 Bandwidth bill is for hosting the flash game but in other cases the bandwidth bill could be substantial if he is serving images or videos from the phone.

I think that it would be ok for an app to verify that the app is not pirated and then lock the pirated people out of the expensive use case.

Now that I think of it, they're probably in other cultures/economies, where frugality is much more noble and $3 could be a reasonable amount to go through some trouble to avoid it. I imagine Chinese or Russian programmers would take pride in going through some effort to save $3.

So you're right: they're not your audience to begin with.

It's worth noting that the normal piracy rate for iPhon games is similar to normal software from what I've heard anyways 90%+), and I definitely don't view our lower rate as havig anything to do with our sales!

Some are unable to pay (app store i18n, etc.)

wow only 5 days making the game? Does that include programming, artwork, music all from scratch?

My friend Danny made the music but otherwise all programming, artwork and original sound engineering/foley was done by me in basically two serious weekends ( one in matthew's office). But that's why I made flixel! I made space invaders in two hours this afternoon :)

so 5 days to create using a sophisticated framework you created over months (years?) - that makes more sense.

I'm amazed by your team's work. you're now bookmarked and on my 'check back often' list ;)

i'm looking forward to checking out flixel when I have some time.

keep up the great work.

Just had a look at flixel, and... well, I'd like to have your babies. Unfortunately medical science isn't quite up to it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com