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Focusing only on for example the Apple app store in deciding whether to go into making games or not is not a great idea, since it's by far the most congested (a

Focusing only on for example the Apple app store in deciding whether to go into making games or not is not a great idea, since it's by far the most congested (as the article also shows). But for the moment other markets also exist, such as desktop where one can still be very successful (as long as you can hit a certain level of word of mouth).

supercoder 9y ago
What evidence do you have that your game will make any more on the desktop than it would on the App Store ? (Given the same amount of word of mouth)
- LoSboccacc 9y ago
  Top paid app on the app-store show games that are of significant age (minecraft, plague inc) or with significant name recognition (monopoli, risk, etc) hinting at a stagnant market for independent, paid for games. Now, evidence is a hard word, but I've the hunch that unless your game is an addictive style freemium incremental, all other genres are as of today more suited to desktop, because of user disinterest on paying a mobile game upfront.
  - animal531 9y ago
    Pretty much this. It's far more difficult to gain recognition and get word of mouth going on the app store (due to volume), combined with the lower selling point as compared to desktop (for example $1 vs $15). People don't want to pay up front for games and the race to the bottom on prices have really hurt the little guy. All graphs I've seen of sales on the app store show an inordinate amount of sales for the top sellers, whereas the tiers in the middle and below don't make anything significant at all. Then go look at steamspy etc stats, even games 2/3rd's down the lists for a year's releases would have made a few thousand $ (as compared to app store where they might have been sitting on tens of $). Either way, learning to code via writing a game is something I recommend for anyone, anywhere.
    - clarry 9y ago
      And then I guess mobile gamers don't feel so excited and invested in their $1 break time distraction that they would talk about it on chats, streams, forums, or with friends. Heck I don't think I've ever seriously heard people discuss a mobile game, whereas discussions or passing mentions of PC & console games (both old and new) happen all the time on various media.
      - lfowles 9y ago
        The only two examples of that I can think of are Puzzle&Dragons and Clash of Clans. I suspect it definitely contributes to them being so large.
- douche 9y ago
  The price point of an average game that is sold tends to be about an order of magnitude higher on PC than on iPhone ($9.99 vs $0.99). PC gamers haven't been sold on the race to the bottom quite as much yet - there's more disdain for slot-machine type in-app-purchases, which as far as I can tell, is the only way to make any money in the mobile market.
taway_1212 9y ago
The general sentiment is that, for a regular guy, the app store is beyond hopeless and Steam is "just" extremely difficult and competitive.
Dzugaru 9y ago
You can also make free games just for the challenge and fun and getting some hundreds of people to play it is easy for web-based games.
p0nce 9y ago
You can have people very happy about your product and still little to no "word of mouth" if your product is niche. For a niche product each happy user would have to tell many other potential user to make one conversion. So practically niche products rarely get viral. Hence why Steam focuses on games that can be sold easily, not especially those with the happiest users. To make a game greenlit the voters vote on the screenshots and the beginning of the video, not the gameplay.
JabavuAdams 9y ago
To be successful, one still has to be focused on the business, something that many devs complaining about the app stores are not. Game development is more of a passion / calling / addiction than a rational business decision. It's an even dumber idea than startups. But if it's all you want to do, then...

supercoder 9y ago

What evidence do you have that your game will make any more on the desktop than it would on the App Store ? (Given the same amount of word of mouth)

LoSboccacc 9y ago
Top paid app on the app-store show games that are of significant age (minecraft, plague inc) or with significant name recognition (monopoli, risk, etc) hinting at a stagnant market for independent, paid for games. Now, evidence is a hard word, but I've the hunch that unless your game is an addictive style freemium incremental, all other genres are as of today more suited to desktop, because of user disinterest on paying a mobile game upfront.
- animal531 9y ago
  Pretty much this. It's far more difficult to gain recognition and get word of mouth going on the app store (due to volume), combined with the lower selling point as compared to desktop (for example $1 vs $15). People don't want to pay up front for games and the race to the bottom on prices have really hurt the little guy. All graphs I've seen of sales on the app store show an inordinate amount of sales for the top sellers, whereas the tiers in the middle and below don't make anything significant at all. Then go look at steamspy etc stats, even games 2/3rd's down the lists for a year's releases would have made a few thousand $ (as compared to app store where they might have been sitting on tens of $). Either way, learning to code via writing a game is something I recommend for anyone, anywhere.
  - clarry 9y ago
    And then I guess mobile gamers don't feel so excited and invested in their $1 break time distraction that they would talk about it on chats, streams, forums, or with friends. Heck I don't think I've ever seriously heard people discuss a mobile game, whereas discussions or passing mentions of PC & console games (both old and new) happen all the time on various media.
    - lfowles 9y ago
      The only two examples of that I can think of are Puzzle&Dragons and Clash of Clans. I suspect it definitely contributes to them being so large.
douche 9y ago
The price point of an average game that is sold tends to be about an order of magnitude higher on PC than on iPhone ($9.99 vs $0.99). PC gamers haven't been sold on the race to the bottom quite as much yet - there's more disdain for slot-machine type in-app-purchases, which as far as I can tell, is the only way to make any money in the mobile market.

taway_1212 9y ago

The general sentiment is that, for a regular guy, the app store is beyond hopeless and Steam is "just" extremely difficult and competitive.

Dzugaru 9y ago

You can also make free games just for the challenge and fun and getting some hundreds of people to play it is easy for web-based games.

p0nce 9y ago

You can have people very happy about your product and still little to no "word of mouth" if your product is niche. For a niche product each happy user would have to tell many other potential user to make one conversion. So practically niche products rarely get viral. Hence why Steam focuses on games that can be sold easily, not especially those with the happiest users. To make a game greenlit the voters vote on the screenshots and the beginning of the video, not the gameplay.

JabavuAdams 9y ago

To be successful, one still has to be focused on the business, something that many devs complaining about the app stores are not. Game development is more of a passion / calling / addiction than a rational business decision. It's an even dumber idea than startups. But if it's all you want to do, then...