8 elements to a successful game android 4.2 - App Developer ...

DEV | INTERVIEW
with the in-app structure.
From our experience, if a
customer expects to receive
an app for free and then is
required to pay for content
from within the app, then
many feel like they have been
conned.
We used the in-app function
for our first few apps so
that the customer could get
a feel for the game before
they had to fork out any
money. We thought this
would be a bonus for our
customers, but in the end it
was more hassle than it’s
worth. Our two most recent
paid apps were released for a
set price and these have
brought in around 90% of
our total revenue for the year
alone.
Which mobile ad networks
do you prefer?
We haven’t had much
success with monetizing
from adverts however that
may be less to do with the
networks themselves and
more to do with our apps. So
far we have tried both
Inneractive and InMobi and
although we’re not really the
right people to talk about
which one is better in
regards to monetization we
can say that they both have
great customer support from
our experience with the few
times we needed any help. If
we try adverts again we are
going to test RevMob.
Share some general
revenue numbers on a
monthly or yearly basis.
Our revenue for the first
eight months made us question
whether we would ever be
able to make a living in app
development. Although our
first six apps taking an average
of one week development
time; we had hoped for far
more income than we had
actually received.
Despite the popularity of
Blox, it only seemed to do well
during the temporary free sale
periods so we were unsure
whether the big adventure
game ( Forever Lost ) which
we had been working on for
six months would fall to the
same fate. To our fortune,
Forever Lost was an instant
hit, with five star reviews pouring
in from every country giving
us a promising opening
week. We hit just under the
$5000 mark in the first week
of sales and despite dropping
slightly, it has been pretty constant
since.
What is your development
process (from idea to
release)?
We have a simple system
implemented. We work on one
large app, which at the
moment is the episodic adventure
game Forever Lost, and
during this process we take
temporary breaks to work on
smaller projects which take
around one week to create.
Ideas come to you at the
strangest of times and it is
important, especially with the
increasing number of apps
available now, to be as innovative
and creative as possible. It
is not simply a case of sitting
down and thinking of an app
idea. During the development
16 | App Developer Magazine Imagine • Develop • Launch