Amir Rajan
Pastafarian. Coder: Ruby, JavaScript, C#, ObjectiveC, F#. OSS: NSpec, Oak Mvc, Canopy F#. Creator of A Dark Room for iOS.
Making it to the #1 Spot in the App Store
@amirrajan
Binge Coding - Languages
- C# 4.0+, Scala
- F# ★
- Objective C
- Clojure ★
- JavaScript
- Ruby
Now What?
Meaningful Work
Trust and Like Minds
Me: "Have you thought about porting A Dark Room as an iOS game? I'm actually a developer on sabbatical right now and would love to give it a stab."
Michael: "If you want to do a port to iOS, you have my blessings. I'm sick of working in the corporate world, too. If this goes well, there may be a mutually beneficial partnership in our future =)"
Failure in Dollars
Success in Meaning
"I've got my 3 sisters addicted to the game, and since we're all blind, we all appreciate the new additions to the game, so thanks to the developers."
"A Dark Room helped me to get through a particularly tough time in my life. Thank you for providing such a fun and accessible way to tune out and heal."
Technology Spans Oceans
Connection Across the World
Connection Across the Free World
-_-
Connection Across the Free World
-_-
Meaningful Work
"I was inspired by your game, I would like to create my own game using javascript. I am 14 years old which also makes it difficult (or maybe easier as I have a lot of time) to do this. How do I get started?"
A legend (Latin, legenda, "things to be read") is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude.
(from Wikipedia)
Legend of A Dark Room
Verisimilitude
Verisimilitude, in a narrow sense, is the likeness or semblance of a narrative to reality, or to the truth.
Note to self: this is where you show your chart topping game.
First Week of Downloads
57 downloads at $1.99
Obsession With Twitter
30 dl's...
less than 10 downloads per 1000 followers
But it works! Figure out your sales funnel.
Notable interactions (but, don't just target the people with the most followers).
First Unsolicited Review
Forum Entry by the TouchArcade Bot
Turkey Day!
All this happend in the same week!
Here are the download numbers
203 downloads...
December 27th, the day my life changed
The results...
56 downloads...
Keep realistic expectations
Now what?
I posted more stuff....
Promotions and Engagement
100 promocodes per release. Be generous. Encourage engagement. Release again for more codes.
Give aways for a month...
Better than December at least ;-)
Now what?
And the results...
Went from 22 downloads to 351! But it tappered off quickly.
Now what...
Then...
Another promotion and engagement push followed on TouchArcade and Reddit.
And the results...
294 downloads at its peak!
Ranked in the top 10 for my category!
But the sale and Spring Break brought in more.
Now what?
I made A Dark Room iOS free. Thinking that I'd keep my rank.
I lost my top 10 ranking in my category...
The results after being free two days...
15,000 downloads
Went back to paid. Surely this will carry over...
Nope. Back down to 187 downloads.
Now what?
I "happily" gave up.
November: $ 555 December: $ 943 January: $1,300 February: $1,760 March: $2,500
Added a well placed review button.
Did an iPad release.
Did a postmortem on /r/GameDev. Presented about it at a local user group.
Then...
A Dark Room iOS went viral in the UK and became the #1 app overall. Netting 23,000 paid downloads. US ranked remained unchanged.
Then...
I got bombarded by 1 star reviews.
Bit of a scam - I bought this a week ago thinking the reviews looked positive. Now having played the game and read through further reviews I feel scammed. Poorly hidden “I don’t usually write” fake reviews are littered everywhere.
Fraudsters!! - This game is awful. All the reviews are fake. The people behind this have broken the law as this is clearly fraudulent activity designed to get you to part with your money for false promises. Absolute disgrace. Pure theft. Pure criminality.
note to self: talk about how reviews work.
Then...
A Dark Room started to climb in the US.
#1 RPG. #5 Game. #10 App.
Then...
It became the #1 app. US app store being 3+ times larger than the UK. Mostly positive reviews! More staying power.
Then...
It continued to stay number 1. But downloads did start dropping. They spiked again on 4/20.
Then...
A Dark Room fell from the top spot. Even with news coverage from Huffington Post, two writeups from Cult of Mac, and a write up by a former tech editor of Bloomberg Businessweek.
Now what?
Increase engagement.
Note to self: talk about timing releases.
Results...
It rose to and hit the #1 spot for another 2 days! Then dropped...
Then...
The interview we did for the New Yorker published. Leading to a substantial increase in rank. But not #1.
Eventually A Dark Room was forgotten.
There is no leveling out. I was back at the #6 spot in the RPG section. #1 app in 5 countries, now totally forgotten across the board.
Now What?
Made ADR free again.
Day 1: 36,831
Day 2: 111,209
Day 3: 203,882
Day 4: 223,006
Day 5: 213,379
Day 6: 187,014
Day 7: 43,307
Total: 1,018,628
After ADR went back to paid, The Ensign hits the App Store
- The prequel The Ensign releases and get's featured as a Best New Game
- The two games complimented each other
*reminder: talk about featured lists
45 days after 1 Million Free Downloads
45 day average before: 907
45 day average after: 1,022
45 day average after (including free days): 901
Low point after 60 days later: 200
After all was said and done....
Total Paid Downloads: 715,000
Revenue: $707,850
After Apple's 30% cut: $495,495
After 50/50 split on profits: $247,748
After taxes of 45% (income + self employment): $136,261
Income: $9,732 a month (with a falling average)
TL;DR; Don't do it. Unless you're doing it because it means something more to you than money.
Time to actualize profits: 14 months
$60.83 (net) per hour working full time, which is $111 per hour (before taxes)
Adorned App Page
Now what?
leanpub.com/survivingtheappstore
Amir Rajan
twitter: @amirrajan
amirrajan.net
Making it to the #1 Spot in the App Store
By Amir Rajan
