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As in selling your own apps? Seriously my advice would be give it up. You can make a good living writing apps for other people but the app store is a very very

As in selling your own apps? Seriously my advice would be give it up. You can make a good living writing apps for other people but the app store is a very very unfriendly place for indie app developers. Your odds of making enough to keep food on the table are much better in other niches.

tananaev 8y ago
I completely agree with this. Selling your own app or trying to make living off ad revenue is almost impossible.
echan00 8y ago
Yes, I also agree with this. App stores are not made for indie unless you "know someone"
- vbezhenar 8y ago
  What can you recommend for indie?
  - bufferoverflow 8y ago
    Make good VR games.
    - saintPirelli 8y ago
      Everybody I know who bought any kind of VR system has it sitting somewhere only to be taken out if someone comes over who "hasn't done this already". Then they go back to playing regular video games.
      - zerostar07 8y ago
        Then make good games.
        LyndsySimon 8y ago
        Just my opinion, but I don’t think VR - especially mobile VR - is mature enough yet to support “good games”. Maybe in a couple of years it will be. If you believe that, then yeah, now is the time to be building your skills and user base. I don’t think you’re going to hit it big just yet though.
        zerostar07 8y ago
        right, i meant "good regular games". imho VR may not catch up at all ever, or we may have retinal implants earlier than that.
  - pavlov 8y ago
    The same as for indie rock bands: do it if you have the passion, but don’t expect it to be your day job.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
snarf21 8y ago
I agree with this sentiment. I think the only thing you can do is push very very hard into a new area like AR or VUI. Otherwise you just have to hope to get lucky and spam everything and everywhere to get users. You might also have a very small chance by focusing on whatever the new API is that the platform is adding for the newest release. The app stores want apps that demonstrate how awesome the new thing is and will often feature an app that does it well for free. However, you need to realize that you must do it very very well, not just a knock off app.
eb0la 8y ago
I worked for a company that developed mobile apps for big corporations. There is a lot money as an indie studio there because although you compete with other Big corporarions like Accenture, KPMG, Cap Gemini, etc... It is easy to outbid them because their costs are at least 2X your costs. Even id you pay you developers generously, you hace little structure and can beat them both in price and speed.
- sitkack 8y ago
  Just to clarify, this is what the parent was talking about. Make apps for other people, marketing dept of SugarWater.Co needs a new flashy app? Make 100k off of it, but making your own apps and expecting to get paid if a losing game.
  - eb0la 8y ago
    Sincerely, once you've landed enough bigCo flashy apps, and you've beign paid to promote them heavily, your chances to succeed in the app store are not zero anymore. It will be though still, since building a brand, etc. needs a lot of time, effort, and money (last time I checked pay-per-install was about 2 Euros per app).

tananaev 8y ago

I completely agree with this. Selling your own app or trying to make living off ad revenue is almost impossible.

echan00 8y ago

Yes, I also agree with this. App stores are not made for indie unless you "know someone"

vbezhenar 8y ago
What can you recommend for indie?
- bufferoverflow 8y ago
  Make good VR games.
  - saintPirelli 8y ago
    Everybody I know who bought any kind of VR system has it sitting somewhere only to be taken out if someone comes over who "hasn't done this already". Then they go back to playing regular video games.
    - zerostar07 8y ago
      Then make good games.
      - LyndsySimon 8y ago
        Just my opinion, but I don’t think VR - especially mobile VR - is mature enough yet to support “good games”. Maybe in a couple of years it will be. If you believe that, then yeah, now is the time to be building your skills and user base. I don’t think you’re going to hit it big just yet though.
        zerostar07 8y ago
        right, i meant "good regular games". imho VR may not catch up at all ever, or we may have retinal implants earlier than that.
- pavlov 8y ago
  The same as for indie rock bands: do it if you have the passion, but don’t expect it to be your day job.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

snarf21 8y ago

I agree with this sentiment. I think the only thing you can do is push very very hard into a new area like AR or VUI. Otherwise you just have to hope to get lucky and spam everything and everywhere to get users. You might also have a very small chance by focusing on whatever the new API is that the platform is adding for the newest release. The app stores want apps that demonstrate how awesome the new thing is and will often feature an app that does it well for free. However, you need to realize that you must do it very very well, not just a knock off app.

eb0la 8y ago

I worked for a company that developed mobile apps for big corporations. There is a lot money as an indie studio there because although you compete with other Big corporarions like Accenture, KPMG, Cap Gemini, etc... It is easy to outbid them because their costs are at least 2X your costs. Even id you pay you developers generously, you hace little structure and can beat them both in price and speed.

sitkack 8y ago
Just to clarify, this is what the parent was talking about. Make apps for other people, marketing dept of SugarWater.Co needs a new flashy app? Make 100k off of it, but making your own apps and expecting to get paid if a losing game.
- eb0la 8y ago
  Sincerely, once you've landed enough bigCo flashy apps, and you've beign paid to promote them heavily, your chances to succeed in the app store are not zero anymore. It will be though still, since building a brand, etc. needs a lot of time, effort, and money (last time I checked pay-per-install was about 2 Euros per app).