The Indie Game Developer Survival Guide
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Can an indie survive in the mobile world? It may look like games for mobile is a paradise for indie developers, but truth is that it is quite hard to be noticed among the swarm of apps. In this presentation, Raul shares the tips & tricks he has learned about how to survive as a mobile indie game developer for the past 3 years, including a post-mortem of all the games of The Pill Tree and also a post-mortem of The Pill Tree as a company.
Transcript of The Indie Game Developer Survival Guide
The (Mobile) Environment
The Mobile Advantages
Huge amount of potential customersSimple distribution channels
The Mobile Problem
Lack of dedicated, quality channels(aka Discoverability sucks)
Apps != Games
Surviving is tough
Survival Tip #0
Lower your expenses
Do not rely on overnight success stories
Advantages of being indie
Quick to reactPersonal touch
Competing with AAA
Quick to reactPersonal touch
Fun
Visually Appealing
Works (no crashes or freezes)
Players know about it
Don't reinvent the wheel
Don't try to do everything alone
Know your Players
Measure EVERYTHING
Single Player Multiplayer
Freemium
Free2Play
?
Objective
Figure out the market ASAP
Single Player Advantage
Easier to build
Premium Advantages
Easier to buildSimpler to monetize
Chalk Ball
2-3 months of developmentSingle Player
Freemium10K/200K downloads
Chalk Ball Graphs
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Current User Installs
Current User Installs
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Success: Survival costs covered
Failure: Did not got enough traction
Fact
90% of the dowloads while Featured
Objective
Get more downloads and traction
Free2Play Advantages
Easier for people to try it out“Better” monetization
SpaceCat
4-6 months of developmentSingle Player
Free2Play1.5M downloads
Chalk Ball Graph
20110620 20110820 20111020 20111220 20120210 20120410 20120610 20120810 20121000 20121130 20130130 20130330 20130520 201307200
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Current User Installs
Less than 10K players bought the DLC
The ARPU was under 0.01$
Success: 1.5M downloads
Failure: Absurdly low income
Implementing In-App billing is difficult
It is on the same level of complexity of creating a fun game
Fact
Chalk Ball income > SpaceCat income
Fact
We got “popular” thanks to SpaceCat
Objective
Make the game I wanted to make
Multiplayer Advantages
Better word of mouthMore engaging
Codemon
Almost 8 months of development(First version after 4-5 months)
7 people involvedAlmost 50K downloads
Never featured by Google
Codemon graphs
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Current User Installs
Success: Great user retention
Failure: Not enough downloads
Be prepared
Someone will try to cheat
Fact
Even for a completely Free gameit is hard to get downloads
Fact
Codemon ARPU >> SpaceCat ARPU
Still working on improving Codemon ARPU
Are these the future?
Fact
I make more money freelancing one monththan with my most successful game in one year
Apps != Games
MTG Tracker makes more money per dayThan any of The Pill Tree games (now long tail) per month
Survival Tips Recap
Survival Tip #1
Make the game you want to make
Survival Tip #2
Small projects, ship early
Survival Tip #3
Build a relationship with blog editors
Survival Tip #4
Go for Single Player, Premium games
Survival Tip #5
Measure EVERYTHING!
Survival Tip #6
For updates, define objectives first
Questions?
