[ In this article originally published on Tiger Style's official website , studio co-founder and indie developer Dave Kalina breaks down thesales numbers for his team's iOS titles, noting some importantsales patterns that emerge after a game's launch. ] Waking Mars has been on sale for two months, and we just released a bigupdate, so it seems like a great opportunity to reflect on itsprogress in the App Store. While we're at it, we'll also show you the sales numbers for Spider and Spider HD -- something we've wanted to do for a while now. I hope you find it interesting! Why Share Numbers? We believe strongly in the spirit and value of sharing information.When we were starting Tiger Style, there were many 'gold rush'style news articles and blog posts highlighting small garagedevelopers making significant money in the App Store. These articles (viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism andpragmatism) were useful to us, and helped steer our business towardthe App Store, rather than some other distribution or hardwareplatform. Looking honestly at the available information about themarketplace, and considering our faith in our own ability as gamedevelopers, we entered into the iPhone market believing that therewas a legitimate chance we could make a living, given the rightapproach. By giving back, perhaps we can serve as a data point that otherdevelopers can use to make informed decisions in their ownbusiness. Encouraging Risk-Taking The App Store has been a boon to a small independent developer likeTiger Style --we can choose to create any kind of game that we wantand the barriers to selling our product globally are minimal. Wedon't need to pass through the strong filters of a more closedecosystem, nor do we need to appeal to some publisher's idea of anebulous target demographic. As a result, we take on a lot of risk. We care a lot aboutinnovating and inventing new forms of gameplay and moving themedium forward in some small way. Broadly speaking, these goalshave been of greater importance to us than the goal of "being amega-profitable business." That said, we always keep an eye on themarket and our own ability to make an impact there. For Tiger Styleto continue its existence and stay independent, we literally have to sell copies of our games. Lots of them, in fact. Our very existence should hopefully demonstrate that it is possible to survive with a company focused on innovation and gameplay, butthat doesn't mean that it's an easy thing to do. By sharing oursales numbers with the public, perhaps we can encourage others totake similar risks -- with a cautious eye on the potentialpitfalls. Hey, Over Here! This week, we coordinated a bunch of efforts in order to make news.An update with iPad retina assets and new jetpacks . We commissioned an updated app icon from our excellent graphicdesigner friend Cory Schmitz . We updated Spider for the iPad. Maybe we can generate some news and goodwill and interest simplyby virtue of openly sharing information with the public. Your support is truly valuable to us. We're a tiny company andwe're really committed to staying 100 percent independent andcontinuing to do meaningful work. Every week there are literallydozens (hundreds?) of new game experiences clamoring for yourattention. It's hard work to stay relevant and visible in such acrowded gaming landscape. If you haven't tried Waking Mars , please consider checking it out. If you think this post is worthsharing, please share it. Any way we can reach new people isvaluable to us. Two Months In The App Store Waking Mars was released on March 1, 2012, and we sold it at $4.99 for theentirety of its first two months. We sold over 44,000 copies, whichputs our net revenue at approximately $150,000 USD. $150K in two months would be amazing if the curve was flat and wewere guaranteed that income forever! Alas, the curve -- as you cansee -- is not flat. We earned more than half our total revenue todate in the first 7 days. During this week, we were featured byApple as both the iPhone and iPad Game of the Week in the US. Onthe iPad, we peaked as the number 9 top selling game in the USstore, whereas on the iPhone, we peaked at number 35 -- both on oursecond day of sales. Let's look at Spider 's sales over the first two months of its existence, starting backin the stone ages (umm, August 10, 2009): Spider for iPhone earned roughly $244k in its first 2 months of existenceand has gone on to earn $577k to present day. For sake of completion, here are the first two months of Spider HD (the iPad only version of Spider , released in July of 2010): Comparing The Products Looking at the Spider -iPhone chart next to the Waking Mars chart highlights some interesting differences. Waking Mars actually peaked at a higher single-day revenue, but the revenuefell off much more sharply than Spider 's. Some theories on why this is the case: Waking Mars sold for $4.99 instead of $2.99. Casual gamers who might bewilling to make an impulse purchase on a game from an unknown,indie developer at $2.99 are less willing at $4.99. The marketplace is significantly more crowded, with a higherquality bar, and there is greater value available at lower pricepoints (including free). In particular this makes it harder forlong-form single-player games to succeed over time. Waking Mars is not a game that was created to engage people repeatedly over along period of time; it is designed to be played and (hopefully)appreciated over 6-12 hours. When you're done exploring thecontent, there are few reasons to continue playing indefinitely. Perhaps Spider simply has a broader appeal, being a game that is grounded in thepresent day and a familiar environment, whereas Mars is sci-fi,built around the strange and unfamiliar. We believe that we weresmarter about designing specifically for the iPhone demographicwhen we built Spider , whereas, by comparison, Waking Mars is a deeper, more traditional console-style game that might havebeen a more natural fit on another platform. $4.99. I am an expert from led-flatpanellights.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Dimmable LED Downlights , China LED Flat Panel Lights, Dimmable LED Panel Light,and more.
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