Origami Rose v3.0 for iPhone: Now AVAILABLE!

[Adam Schmelzle]

I've finished up the initial version of 'Origami Rose' for the iPhone this morning and submitted it for release on the Apple app store. The free one(ads) should be available whenever it gets approved(week or 2?). The ad-free $0.99 one will take a bit longer as I still need to obtain some more tax info, and mail it to apple before they'll approve the app for sale.

The initial version of 'Origami Rose' does NOT include the online scoring. This is not because it's hard to do, it's simply because I need to rewrite the server side code to handle the expected increase in traffic. I do some horrible stuff on the server side to store the scores because it was developed based on a low-traffic assumption that no longer applies. Highscores code is written and working already, and can be added as soon as the server work is complete.

....now I actually have to do the server work.


*update* Here's a link to the app store: phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=289745214&mt=8

[chrisl]

Congratulations, that was quick! When you have time, it would be interesting to hear about your experience getting your first game all the way to the Apple app store.

[Adam Schmelzle]

Yeah, I'll make a good post or two about it. I now don't expect it to be all that soon, as I'm just waiting for Apple to reject the build I sent to them. I wasn't handling events like incoming calls / locking the phone properly. I have no way of updating the build I sent in until it's reviewed and rejected though, which is stupid.

[Adam Schmelzle]

Yay! Apple updated their system to allow developers to reject their own uploads before they get reviewed. I have now uploaded a better version of the game, and expect it to pass the review process now.

[Adam Schmelzle]

It took just about a week to go from 'in review' to 'Ready for Sale'. Unfortunately it's not actually on the app store yet. Now I just wait for the app store to make it available, since it's passed the review process.

[Adam Schmelzle]

After about a day in 'ready for sale' it's now whowing up in the app store!

phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=289745214&mt=8

[Adam Schmelzle]

I have now submitted the 'for pay' version of origami rose to the app store. I was intending to wait until I put online scoring into the game, but since the ad revenue from greystripe is next to nothing at the moment I need to bring in any cash I can. It turns out that there's so much new traffic from iPhone apps that greystripe has already served up all the ads available and now there's little or nothing being displayed to players. When there's no ads to show players, there's almost no money for me

[chrisl]

Ouch! Good news (success of iPhone apps for GreyStripe) translates to bad news (ad revenue drying up for all mobile apps). Does this look like an epiphenomenom, or could GreyStripe have been over-ambitious with this audience expansion? Wouldn't it be logical that this success soon drives more ad budget to them (and you in the end...)?
I was also surprised to learn that the iPhone audience shares the same ads with all other mobile sets: maybe they could have used this better-known audience for more targeted advertising?
Apart from revenue, how successful was Origami Rose for iPhone so far?

[Adam Schmelzle]

Well, I don't have any other iPhone games to compare to, but for the last week my iPhone rose game has had MORE games played per day than all my other Java games COMBINED. That's seriously crazy.

I've averaged around 40,000 plays/day on Origami Rose for the iPhone. That more than doubles my games played. Unfortunately, I've only made $101.00 on the iPhone game in the last week, and that's in the range of 250,000+ games played. Ugh.

I do expect bigger spending because of the larger inventory, but the companies that spend cash in those quantities make decisions on a quarterly basis, and we won't likely get it until the 'fall/christmas' advertising push in Mid to late October.

[chrisl]

But does that also impact your Java earnings, or are they separate and still strong ?

Those iPhone stats are definitely impressive! How many downloads generated such traffic?

[Adam Schmelzle]

All the ads get served to the entire system, so I'm also making next to nothing with my java games at the moment.

I haven't got a real total on my downloads, since the apple reporting site doesn't give you one(stupid), but it does offer a TEXT file, and no parsing tools, ugh. Upon closer inspection it looks like about 20,000 downloads in total up to Monday morning, with 355,000 games played. Not too shabby, but next to no money.

I've now disabled the AdWrap'd version because the $1.99 one was made available this morning. So sorry folks, if you didn't grab the free one while it was available, you're out of luck until the greystripe revenue kicks in again. It won't be hard to make more on sales than $10.00/day, which is what I'm earning from 40K ad impressions daily at the moment. 7 sales/day and I'm ahead of the game. I didn't even want to put my games up for sale until the advertising revenue dried up, but I hope this can make up for the losses so I'm not worried about paying for food+rent for my family.

Sorry folks, but I need the money

[chrisl]

So, now that you've experimented iPhone development and commercial release, what can you tell us about your experience so far? How does it compare to Java game develoment?
Do you like it? Is it the way forward for you, or will you alternate with Java development?

[Adam Schmelzle]

Well, I still haven't made the type of game that would typically sell well. However, I have sold more coppies of 'Origami Rose' for the iPhone than I have for all my other games combined during the last year. That only amounts to 80 or so coppies though

As for development, I don't like the Xcode IDE that we are forced into. The API's and libraries work well, and I like it much better than Microsoft's XNA. Porting games over from Java will be a very easy process. Nobody will ever convert me into liking C/C++/Obj-C more than Java though. It'd be better if the language was C++ or plain C, 'cause I don't really see the benefit of using Obj-C over either of those. Some of the libraries are in C, some are C++ and some are Obj-C... Why? Who the hell uses Obj-C? What a waste of effort, when alternatives are widespread, universally known, and just as capable. If their implementation of Obj-C used the garbage collector like it does for Mac development it would be better. Why no love for the garbage collector in the iPhone? I don't buy any arguments about performance, 'cause I've been writing Java code for 10 years.

The process of setting up the environment for testing on the device and eventually releasing is quite painful. The documentation is not all that helpful, and sometimes actually wrong. Once you get it working, it's not much trouble though. Uploading, and releasing was painless. The waiting period for release only sucks because there is zero indication of how long the process will take.

I'll be upgrading Rose soon, but I don't expect the process of updating an application to be any more trouble than the initial upload.

[chrisl]

Well, once the initial launch hype is over (speaking of the App Store, with the novelty of plenty new apps released daily, many with a cool indy flavor), I don't know what to expect regarding genres that sell well. Many of the iPhone early adopters probably are in the geeky/trendy/wealthy category, but that doesn't say much about games they may like. Plus the audience is quickly growing and thus probably more and more diverse.

From what I can see (mostly stating the obvious here):
- Players are quite fond of game mechanics that make good use of the iPhone unique features (multi-touch, accelerometer). This will most probably not be enough to sell in the future though.
- At the moment, indy developers who try to do unusual things can still get good hype (but for how long, considering the deluge of licensed products which are expected in the coming months). And customers may not be ready to pay much (if at all) for innovative but sometimes half-baked games.
- Games (or apps) that are short and immediate but with a strong initial "whow factor" (humoristic or zany or ultra-retro or innovative in one way or another) seem to stand a good chance, at least in the short term. If they can be developed very quickly, they may fit the platform well.
- Games with high production values generally get big thumbs up even if there's nothing new in the concept (people like their mobile doing things close to a dedicated portable console, such as PSP). This category already seems out of reach of (most) indy developers.

So maybe a smart approach (for an indy developer) could be either of those:
- Find a very fresh idea that can be executed cheaply/quickly (but still with a decent level of polish), so that the risk is balanced with short development.
- Identify a niche genre that has not been cloned to death yet, and execute it with extreme polish, lots of features, etc. (to create one of the top games in this niche). A bigger investment, but which, if done well, can attract word-of-mouth and develop into a nice mini-franchise.
- ...or maybe go with the flow and just clone one of the most successful genres, but with a twist (possibly unique to iPhone).

How do you see the iPhone game market developing?

[Adam Schmelzle]

I see it going much the way of any/all other game markets. The only difference with this one is that the little guy like me has the opportunity to be listed along side all the big boys.

I still plan on utilizing ad supported free games for the most part. Because of the popularity of the system and ease of finding/downloading applications, people making ad sponsored free games stand to make a good chunk of change.... if the revenue starts coming in for the ads that is.

[chrisl]

Nothing evolved yet regarding the revenue situation with Greystripe?
Are there alternative solutions for adwrapping on iPhone?

[Adam Schmelzle]

Still no real revenue from Greystripe yet

I haven't tried any alternatives yet. I have been thinking of trying out AdMob, as they always have a lot of ads to display, but are based on clicks. Also, I've been reading some really bad stories about AdMob's iPhone implementation. Apparently their click-through code has been broken for at least a month. They will pay for clicks, but the clicks don't actually go where they are supposed to. Until I hear about these issues being fixed, I don't really want to be a part of that problem.

[Adam Schmelzle]

v3.0 update is now on the App store!