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If you're developing Age of Empires for the iPhone then maybe you're missing the boat, but for pong, pacman, collapse, tetris et all it is a great way to make a

If you're developing Age of Empires for the iPhone then maybe you're missing the boat, but for pong, pacman, collapse, tetris et all it is a great way to make a buck in a week, so you have plenty of time to develop more games instead of a couple of years and a huge team to develop the next Quake or duke nukem. The iPhone is the best platform to develop games right now and it will get better. Early settlers will get the best land. See you in a couple of years looking for a 500 sqft one-bedroom flat in iPhone land.

jcl 18y ago
I think you may have missed the point of the article. This guy specializes in making one very specific type of game, and he's pretty good at it. It earns him enough money to live on. He doesn't think his genre will work on the iPhone, but he believes it will continue to work on desktops, so he's going to keep writing for desktops. Where is the evidence that "early settlers get the best land"? To the contrary, iPhone apps seem to be largely hit-driven; their revenue streams dry up once they fall off the charts. I'm guessing that the author's contention is true: that most iPhone games do not pay off for the time invested.
- avdempsey 18y ago
  I like your point here. It sounds like Apple's MO for content sales to be hit-driven. I suspect that the billboards built into iTunes drive a lot of music sales too. The parallels between music revenue and app revenue might make a good post.
- TweedHeads 18y ago
  I´ll give you some examples: iSlot, iPoker, iBingo, iBackgammon, iChess, iCheckers. Once you develop a beautiful game it will be there for a week, a month, or a year from now, even a decade or more. There might be some cheap knock offs which can sell but there will be few professional looking apps that can last forever and those who get the early lots will be the real winners. "most iPhone games do not pay off for the time invested." again, one week of work may be worth thousands of dollars if you know where to dig. Like everything, there will be people raking millions and the majority won't see a dime. When the AppStore hits the billion download mark, one billion dollars will be in the pockets of the few who used their brains, and not those who waved the pioneers from the sidelines as they passed by while heading west.
- TweedHeads 18y ago
  One more thing, those who get the best names will have an edge. So hurry up to get your piece of land or your app will end up with names like iPokrFaze or iChezz4Kidz.

jcl 18y ago

I think you may have missed the point of the article. This guy specializes in making one very specific type of game, and he's pretty good at it. It earns him enough money to live on. He doesn't think his genre will work on the iPhone, but he believes it will continue to work on desktops, so he's going to keep writing for desktops. Where is the evidence that "early settlers get the best land"? To the contrary, iPhone apps seem to be largely hit-driven; their revenue streams dry up once they fall off the charts. I'm guessing that the author's contention is true: that most iPhone games do not pay off for the time invested.

avdempsey 18y ago
I like your point here. It sounds like Apple's MO for content sales to be hit-driven. I suspect that the billboards built into iTunes drive a lot of music sales too. The parallels between music revenue and app revenue might make a good post.
TweedHeads 18y ago
I´ll give you some examples: iSlot, iPoker, iBingo, iBackgammon, iChess, iCheckers. Once you develop a beautiful game it will be there for a week, a month, or a year from now, even a decade or more. There might be some cheap knock offs which can sell but there will be few professional looking apps that can last forever and those who get the early lots will be the real winners. "most iPhone games do not pay off for the time invested." again, one week of work may be worth thousands of dollars if you know where to dig. Like everything, there will be people raking millions and the majority won't see a dime. When the AppStore hits the billion download mark, one billion dollars will be in the pockets of the few who used their brains, and not those who waved the pioneers from the sidelines as they passed by while heading west.
TweedHeads 18y ago
One more thing, those who get the best names will have an edge. So hurry up to get your piece of land or your app will end up with names like iPokrFaze or iChezz4Kidz.