This is a presentation I did at FlashInTO (http://flashinto.com) on October 27th, 2010. It covers the process of creating and marketing Trainyard, my iPhone game.
Prep: Start HD Trailer loading on Youtube, open FITO folder on my screen
-Intro: Matt Rix, went to Humber for Multimedia Design and Production
-Started working at Indusblue five years ago doing Flash development
-I’m here to talk about Trainyard, my iPhone game
-Why an iPhone guy at a Flash thing? CS5 packager. Not an iPhone person? It’d be similar with Android
-Explain the basic gist of the game. Puzzle game where you have to *crash* trains.
-Mention that trailer is coming later
-The actual game isn’t really the point, it’s the journey
- I’d work every day making flash game prototypes or in notepad
- Was gonna be on Kongregate or FlashGameLicense, originally called PaintTrain (NO show proto)
- Take the GO Train (lib ville), use commute to work. Puzzles were XML on Aspire One
- Given a week by Indusblue to start playing with iPhone stuff (I did Cocos2D, Cam did UIKit)
- Cocos2D is like Flash API: display tree, tween system, texture loading etc
- Can use low level opengl if needed
- Wanted to make Trainyard, but first made quaddy, Finished but never released it
-Was gonna use christmas break to put finishing touches on and submit
-Tons of scope creep and unexpected work. Kept making puzzles the whole time
-CTVOlympics was great, my first major iPhone project , but ate Jan and Feb
-Came back in March after Olympics
-It was fun to come back, usually it’s hard after a couple months away
-Used my flash and php skills to make solution sharing
-Toren was due on June 11th, born May 12th, a month early
-Awesome baby. Was given a month off from work, baby slept a lot
-Helped wife and finished off Trainyard
[[PLAY THE TRAILER]]
-Don’t explain Toucharcade too much yet
-Used facebook and all that
-Explain chart, 140 at top, first two weeks
-Made $30/day for four months, decent part-time income
-Not a hit. I knew if I reached the masses, it could do much better
-Single bullet point because it’s a big deal...
-I’m pretty sure Apple reads TouchArcade more than anything
-Saw similar games like Aqueduct + LandFormer get mentioned by TA and featured
-Explain the “risk difference” between $1.99 and $2.99 (should have launched at $2.99?)
-Did updates based on user feedback, and Retina because I had an iPhone 4
-Top chart shows four months daily
-Second spike was being mentioned in Italian blog ($100) about an update
-Chart showing the $3200 over four months
-Explain what lite versions are, how
-iSpazio.net
-The paid sales started following the free downloads
-Made $240 in one day, the most up to that point
-On day after my birthday (Oct 4th) I got the email from Apple “asking for art”
-Like a lottery, but one where you work hard to buy ticket. Explain featured list.
-Explain the $240 spike, show where it is on the graph.
-Was already doing well, but I wanted to literally change my life. Explain #48 visibility
-Asked to beat Angry Birds, I knew I couldn’t beat Cut the Rope
-AMA means ask me anything. I got a lot of cool questions. Over 434 comments on Reddit
-Trainyard feature + crazy sale made Trainyard Express really popular
Android
Featuring and being high in the charts are by far the biggest influencers
You have to reach people while they’re on their device
Most big sites aren’t as influential on the App Store as you’d think
Users should want to share the lite version for what it is, conversion is 1-2%
If you’re developing for Android, it’s a very different market, should consider free with ads, like Rovio
There is a ton of room for high-quality niche apps
Especially if part time, work hard
//could show the original flash prototype or puzzle editor (in dock)
//dell mini hackintosh ($400) vs macbook ($600) on craigslist //Talk bout AppFigures
//debate how much the featured mattered, it was climbing anyway because of Express
