6 ms·

I'm surprised this game hasn't earned you enough to retire on. It's been #1 on the paid list for a long time, I figured you guys must be rolling in the dough,

I'm surprised this game hasn't earned you enough to retire on. It's been #1 on the paid list for a long time, I figured you guys must be rolling in the dough, but in the article it says you would need to repeat the success of the game every year for you to quit your day job. That's unbelievable. How can flappy birds be making $50k per day, and your #1 paid app only makes $2k per day?

jaredsohn 12y ago
I don't recall seeing any ads in the game; could that be the difference?
- amirrajan 12y ago
  No ads. No IAP. We didn't wan't to break the immersion or cripple the gameplay in a way that would encourage someone to buy an IAP.
  - DanBC 12y ago
    > No ads. No IAP. I just bought the game to thank you for no ads, no IAPs. Have you considered a single IAP that does nothing, but gives you (and Apple, and the IRS) a bit more cash?
    - amirrajan 12y ago
      We thought about it, but the moment you do that, the game is marked as "offers in-app purchases". At initial glance (if you don't take the time to actually look at what purchases are available), you're left thinking that it's "yet another game that'll present a pay wall when I'm about to finish it".
ghshephard 12y ago
Everybody says that flappy birds was making $50k/day, but I highly doubt that the game would have been pulled from the appstore if it really had been making even 1/10th that much money a day.
- amirrajan 12y ago
  We made ADR free for two days back when it wasn't doing well. In that two day period we received ~15k downloads (and we weren't even a ranked game at the time). There is an order of magnitude difference between the downloads rates for premium vs free apps (probably 2x). So it is entirely possible that a top ranked free app gets a ton of downloads a day relative to a top ranked paid app.
  - ghshephard 12y ago
    Lots of downloads, yes - but I don't know what kind of person could turn down $50,000/day, which is what a lot of people have claimed flappy birds was making when it was pulled off the AppStore.
    - amirrajan 12y ago
      Tough call. I get a small taste of what he went through. You start to question the value of the game when you get reviews like this (but 10x worse for a top free game): >Garbage ★ by XxlCraiglxX - Version 1.6 - Jun 13, 2014 >It's so nice to have this hive-mind community full of hipsters and morons raving about the worst goddamn games. Same thing happened with Angry Birds and Flappy Birds. You people are disgusting. Horrible unwashed masses of brainless consumers. Hey morons, take a step back and really consider the piece of crap you rated 5 stars. No, really, just take a moment. The entire experience has been a roller coaster. Every time ADR hits a top spot, I dream about a future where I don't have to work a 9-5. But then it drops, and those dreams are taken away. That being said, 50k a day would definitely bring me to that goal quickly (just not the case for me).
      - DanBC 12y ago
        Reading reviews must be soul-destroying. Just really crushing. Perhaps a few indie authors could collaborate and write a blog article about it? I imagine the "feedback" emails of large software projects must be similar.
amirrajan 12y ago
We've had 630k downloads to date. 30% goes to Apple. Michael and I split the rest. From my half, the IRS gets 45%. So my net so far is $120k. Now, given that we're no where near the #1 spot, we're averaging about $1,000 a day. But that figure is dropping too. ADR is a depreciating asset with a life span of two years I'd say (making this assumption based on what I've seen with other paid apps and their rank history).
- sixQuarks 12y ago
  Wow, I'm shocked at how less frequently paid apps are downloaded. Don't get me wrong, 630k downloads of a paid app is very impressive, but it's ridiculous that you only make ~$100k out of the deal. Do you have any statistics on how far players have made it in your game? I, for one, downloaded the game just to see what it was about. This is not my type of game, so I quit after only playing about 10 minutes. Reason I ask is that you could test this out as a freemium app. Free to download, but after a certain period, the user has to pay to continue. Let's say 20% of people that download it are hooked. If you get 20x the download rate on free, that means you could have a 400% increase in revenue. It might be worth testing out.
  - amirrajan 12y ago
    We didn't want to break the immersion. ADR simply wants to be that game you pay for one time up front and enjoy (hopefully). No strings attached. We simply request that you gift the game to someone else if you like it :-)
    - sixQuarks 12y ago
      Well, the good news is that you have 600k fans. The next game you put out will probably be a hit as well.

jaredsohn 12y ago

I don't recall seeing any ads in the game; could that be the difference?

amirrajan 12y ago
No ads. No IAP. We didn't wan't to break the immersion or cripple the gameplay in a way that would encourage someone to buy an IAP.
- DanBC 12y ago
  > No ads. No IAP. I just bought the game to thank you for no ads, no IAPs. Have you considered a single IAP that does nothing, but gives you (and Apple, and the IRS) a bit more cash?
  - amirrajan 12y ago
    We thought about it, but the moment you do that, the game is marked as "offers in-app purchases". At initial glance (if you don't take the time to actually look at what purchases are available), you're left thinking that it's "yet another game that'll present a pay wall when I'm about to finish it".

ghshephard 12y ago

Everybody says that flappy birds was making $50k/day, but I highly doubt that the game would have been pulled from the appstore if it really had been making even 1/10th that much money a day.

amirrajan 12y ago
We made ADR free for two days back when it wasn't doing well. In that two day period we received ~15k downloads (and we weren't even a ranked game at the time). There is an order of magnitude difference between the downloads rates for premium vs free apps (probably 2x). So it is entirely possible that a top ranked free app gets a ton of downloads a day relative to a top ranked paid app.
- ghshephard 12y ago
  Lots of downloads, yes - but I don't know what kind of person could turn down $50,000/day, which is what a lot of people have claimed flappy birds was making when it was pulled off the AppStore.
  - amirrajan 12y ago
    Tough call. I get a small taste of what he went through. You start to question the value of the game when you get reviews like this (but 10x worse for a top free game): >Garbage ★ by XxlCraiglxX - Version 1.6 - Jun 13, 2014 >It's so nice to have this hive-mind community full of hipsters and morons raving about the worst goddamn games. Same thing happened with Angry Birds and Flappy Birds. You people are disgusting. Horrible unwashed masses of brainless consumers. Hey morons, take a step back and really consider the piece of crap you rated 5 stars. No, really, just take a moment. The entire experience has been a roller coaster. Every time ADR hits a top spot, I dream about a future where I don't have to work a 9-5. But then it drops, and those dreams are taken away. That being said, 50k a day would definitely bring me to that goal quickly (just not the case for me).
    - DanBC 12y ago
      Reading reviews must be soul-destroying. Just really crushing. Perhaps a few indie authors could collaborate and write a blog article about it? I imagine the "feedback" emails of large software projects must be similar.

amirrajan 12y ago

We've had 630k downloads to date. 30% goes to Apple. Michael and I split the rest. From my half, the IRS gets 45%. So my net so far is $120k. Now, given that we're no where near the #1 spot, we're averaging about $1,000 a day. But that figure is dropping too. ADR is a depreciating asset with a life span of two years I'd say (making this assumption based on what I've seen with other paid apps and their rank history).

sixQuarks 12y ago
Wow, I'm shocked at how less frequently paid apps are downloaded. Don't get me wrong, 630k downloads of a paid app is very impressive, but it's ridiculous that you only make ~$100k out of the deal. Do you have any statistics on how far players have made it in your game? I, for one, downloaded the game just to see what it was about. This is not my type of game, so I quit after only playing about 10 minutes. Reason I ask is that you could test this out as a freemium app. Free to download, but after a certain period, the user has to pay to continue. Let's say 20% of people that download it are hooked. If you get 20x the download rate on free, that means you could have a 400% increase in revenue. It might be worth testing out.
- amirrajan 12y ago
  We didn't want to break the immersion. ADR simply wants to be that game you pay for one time up front and enjoy (hopefully). No strings attached. We simply request that you gift the game to someone else if you like it :-)
  - sixQuarks 12y ago
    Well, the good news is that you have 600k fans. The next game you put out will probably be a hit as well.