I'm almost certain this question has been asked before, so I apologize if it is a repeat. I'm a complete noob when it comes to programming whatsoever. Not trying to sound like a d-bag (I love Corona and am about 50% done with my first game), but other than the Bubble Ball example, has anyone here created a Corona game and even broke the $50,000 mark?

I mean, let's face it: Bubble Ball was a huge success, and I might be WAY off by asking this, but isn't that one exception rather than the rule? And just because Bubble Ball was downloaded two million times (including by yours truly), that doesn't mean that those same people are going to purchase the paid version just because there are more levels. I've seen a few games where people's reviews are "Nice game, but I would not pay $0.99 for it." Are there websites that tell you just how many total downloads a game has had? The App Store doesn't even do that. Shoot, my bar is so low that if I even make $15,000 off my game, I'll consider myself successful.

Then again, and with all due respect to the Nay family, being a graphic designer I never would have expected such a simple (read: graphically-lackluster) game like BB would have even achieved such success, so what do I know? At the rate I'm learning Lua, I'm guessing I'll only be able to make one game every 2-3 months or so. Heck, we are even starting to see a half dozen blatant Tilt Monster clones every month in the Showcase alone. I'm not hating either; more power to their respective creators. Shoot, I've even considered taking that route myself.

Thoughts? Testimonials? Please chime in.

there's a lot games made with Corona with 100 000+ paid downloads
something like Grisly Manor sold around 300 000 copies

frankly, you can make even a billion dollars, thats not Corona troubles, only yours and your commitenment and willing to spend resources
Corona is an engine, SDK, its not helping or makes sales worse, its just helps make games

@ marlon8

Interesting Topic I always wondered if apps develop by Corona Sdk have
broken $5,000 / $10,000 / $50,000 +?

We all know Bubble Ball had over 8-9 million download but lets face it
majority of those downloads is thanks to the news for him being so
young. (I learned about Corona SDK thanks to bubble ball) So im not
trying to say he didnt deserve the downloads because for his age I was
impress the game was pretty cool and free!

What im trying to point out here is not all of us will have the news for
exposure like bubble ball so "honestly" has anyone make a "good" amount
of money to make a living from making apps using corona?

My first app revenue wise was horrible not even worth saying it, but I had
no experience in programming so the game has no music a bit of control
problems so I didnt expect to make much from it but the free version
downloaded a few thousands (that was cool).

So now I hire a professional designer and I studied more and my next game
should be finish in a few days and Its a huge difference in all aspects to my
1st app I hope this one does a lot better ;)

Thanks for Sharing

@ darkconsoles

Where did Luffy Go?!!!! lol

Wow 300,000+ downloads thats impressive I recently played the game
when I bought the corona indie bundle is an awesome game I was hooked
on it for a few hours until i completed the game.

I absolutely LOVED Grisly Manor. For those of us old enough to remember, it hearkens back to games like Myst, Eleventh-Hour, or even the Text Adventure games like McMurphy's Mansion.

In fact, I was planning for my next Corona project to be along the lines of Grisly Manor, using an idea I had for a text adventure game when I was 15. The challenge, of course, is finding the time to develop the graphics and code for it. I believe the Fire Maple guy is a F/T indie developer, whereas I gather most of us have a F/T day job. Not making excuses though.

Also, the Corona version of Grisly Manor was a port from GS. Great example, regardless. It just slipped my mind to mention it. Any more?

Tilt Monster, a Corona SDK app sold more than 300,000 copies at $.99 cents.

And it is not about the framework, its about the letter "E"

Read my blog

http://blog.anscamobile.com/2011/03/eight-elements-to-a-successful-game/

C.

@ carlos

I read that very article on E's this morning while searching for this very topic, and I agree with everything said on there. I just didn't see an article about actual generated revenue, so I created one. If it's true that it's not about the framework, does that mean I can use the Beebe template and marginally expect to have the same success? :)

Wouldn't people recognize it as virtually the same exact game in a different clothing? How many of us would pay $0.99 again for what is essentially a clone of Tilt Monster?

Don't really mean to play devil's advocate but I have a feeling these questions have been burning in other people's minds too. Since I'm a noob I'm just bold enough to actually ask :)

of course people will recognize clone and will not buy it, you do not need to be a genius to understand it
people buy good games, pretty games and interesting games, do these and spend resources on marketing and you should be fine, there's no fool-proof method to sell millions, its hard work,money and luck

@ darkconsoles

With all due respect, I think your heart is in the right place, but it still sounds like conjecture. Otherwise, someone would be able give more examples other than the usual (Tilt Monster, Cut The Rope, Bubble Ball, etc). Have you yourself had a successful app in the App Store? If so, how much did you make?

I want to hear from the average joe/soccer mom/full-time day job worker who has maybe 2-3 hours a night during the weekdays to do Corona, and has had marginal success with it. I work as a graphic designer in marketing Full time. I know there are no shortcuts to success, and that the sky's the limit if you put your mind to it. I was just looking for examples of actual revenue numbers because let's face it there aren't many online or even on here, for that matter.

i dont have an app yet at all, it still in production

i'm average joe(hardcore gamer though), we'll see how things will turn out for me

You're asking the wrong question.

Unless there's an actual problem that affects the game, the name of the technology under the hood has NOTHING to do with whether a game sells a lot of copies or not.

You need one of the following to have a money-making game:

1. Name recognition so people will buy a game simply because of a track record/credibility.

2. A large marketing budget and people to implement it correctly.

3. Ginormous amount of luck.

Creating a fun game isn't enough to get rich from. And using Unity or Corona SDK or Cocos2D won't change any factors of the game. If you don't have one (or more) of those three things above it really doesn't matter what engine you use to create the game.

So the real question should be, how much money can you REALLY make with mobile development?

The answer to that is, the sky's the limit.

Of course, that's how much you CAN make. How much WILL you make with mobile development?

That's a question you don't want to ask because if you run the numbers it might depress you. But it has nothing to do with the engine you use. It's just the nature of the beast. :)

Jay

All great responses. The reason why Corona is associated with being a "tool" that helps you achieve this is for the following reasons:

1) Some people who might've not been motivated to learn complicated frameworks like Xcode/Obj-C, or who didn't have the confidence/experience/etc to learn something like that on their own, can now give mobile app development a shot because it is exponentially easier.

2) Corona reduces the risk-factor by speeding up the development process (time = money, especially if you're hiring developers).

Everything else all depends on you, your project, and more than you think: your mindset :-)

Read Carlos' blog he posted, it's a great place to start.

Hi,

I totally understand why you want to situate yourself in the market (how well is doing the average mobile game developer) but I think that you have the wrong approach.

The rule is, if you talk about a market where there is a lot of passion in the mix (video game, illustrator, singer), the proportion of people failing is much bigger than in any other market.

Passion

Why?
If you work in a bank, it's not hard to understand that the job is composed of many different tasks and that you need to master all of them *or* delegate to the right people (specialists).
You can analyze your progress by tracking your progress in each area.
You don't have the choice, you have to do it or your boss will do it for you.

For a lot of people working in the bank, there is much less passion involved that in the game development field.
Emotions don't come much in the mix and it allows them to track what actions that they take are working, and which ones are not.
Without all the emotional barriers disturbing the analysis.

When your passion becomes your job (or you have the feeling that you are able to do the job because you are passionated) you become much less rational.

"Believe in yourself", "make a Facebook page and it will work!", "work hard and some day..." are misconceptions of passionated people that don't track the right datas.

They can't even notice that they lack a major part of the required skills (or they don't want to delegate) because they are blindfolded by their passion.
I know about this *very* well, I have been a professional illustrator and book author for years and struggled to find my way for a long time (but I have been doing very well since I changed my mind about some things that I am going to talk about in my post).

Passionated game developers are able to delegate the creation of the framework to (in our case) Corona to save some time. That's a strategical choice.
But what about the marketing? What about the promotion? What about market analysis?
Those skills take years to master.
And game developers are not conscious about that. Or they don't want to be, in some cases.

Money, marketing

First, there is a big misunderstanding about money and marketing.

1. "If you are a 'sincere' artist, you care about making something great more than money"

One of the worst misconception (invisible script) about the people who want to get paid to follow their passion, but don't want other people to tell them that "having a job" is a bit different.
If you don't bring any value to the market, to the people, to their life, then you are just trying hard to get paid for doing what you love.

You can be sincere *and* bring value but it takes a lot of preparation.

2. "Put a lot of money in your marketing campaign so you can push people to buy your game"

Wrong, marketing is communicating around the fact that your game solves a problem that exists, and that you (or your company) have already identified.
Don't make the mistake to think that marketing = mass marketing (tv ads that want you to buy by interrupting you).

Mass marketing is expensive and you don't have the resources.
Mass marketing require constant investments. You need to interrupt new people all the time.
You don't create any relationship with your customers.
As soon as you stop investing, your customers are gone.
They were just looking for the *new* app, the *cheap* app, the *discounted* app, the one that everybody is talking about, and that everybody will forget when there will be something *newer*, *cheaper*.

Permission marketing, marketing by establishing a relationship with your customer by solving one of his fears/pains/needs is another way to do things.
Angry Birds is doing well because Rovio invested a lot in their brand.
The marketing efforts are just communicating well about the value of the brand.
Behind success, there is always more than just "lot of money in marketing campaigns".

Doing the real work

A lot of people spend too much time on the things that they think are the rights things.

Setting up a Facebook page. Spamming followers on twitter. Printing beautiful business cards "in case I need it".

I think that the article that Carlos wrote is a nice mix of "passion + market analysis" wisdom.

To do the right things, you have to understand the market. You have to know your customers.
You need to give it a name :

• My customer is called Jenny.
• She is between 22 and 26.
• She likes A, B, C.
• She fears D, E, F.
• She is struggling to G, H, I.
• My app can help her J, K, L.

And yes, even a game like Angry Birds digs so far.

That is called "doing the right things at the right time".

Get to know your prospects, what forums do they use? Which sites are already in a relationship with them?

1. What can you do to make their life better?
2. How will you solve their problem? Which kind of benefits will your service provide? Be specific.
3. How will you communicate the fact that you care about them and that you have something to solve their problem?
4. How will you make it profitable, scalable, and repeatable?

Promotion

I am always surprised to see that apps are mainly advertised on ... app review websites.
That's only targeting a small potential customer base.

Apps are not only for the geeks.

the iPhone and the iPad are that great for us that they put a great device full of technology in the hands of our parents. It opened such a big market. They don't care about "apps".
They care about convenience.

Let's say that you have an app to help people choose the right shoes with the right shirt depending on the color they want to wear that day / or the kind of party they go to (I just got the idea of that app now) then the right place to advertise is on Gq, men's style etc... not app review website.

This is just marketing basics. And that's an app that solves a real problem.
Ok this might not be as as exciting as working on the platform game that you have always dreamed of.
But this is called "doing business". You can always profit form that app and then invest the money in your platformer.

And most of the time Game Developer don't know about it.

Your job is to choose your strategy, not only follow what everybody else is doing.

One rule

If there was one thing to remember :

• if 95% of the game developers are not making money from their app
• if the answer to success is always "try harder"
• and if still the average level of success doesn't increase

then probably people are doing things wrong.
And you should not take that path.

About Corona

Some people will tell you that the tool is just a tool (but a great one in that case).
A hammer is not enough to build a house, but it's not easy to build a house without a hammer.

However, you need many other tools in order to ship (yes, that was my point).

Giving advices

I am not in a position of giving advices on how to make money with apps because I *just* installed Corona.
I want to make a game / ebook from my published books and see if that would make my stories more enjoyable for the children and more profitable for me.
I don't know anything about apps (except my market analysis).
So you really should take my advices with a grain salt. If you don't like it or think it's nonsense, then i Completely understand and this is ok :)

But I have been able to make money in different fields by learning how to do the right things first.
That's my job to help people and companies to make their business profitable.

Great communities

I want to learn Corona and I feel that the community will bring me a lot of good things.
I thought that if in some way I can bring something too, I would be more than happy.
i understand that some people would not like it.

And I feel that it's really great that communities are supportive and most of the time advices are good "in essence".

But telling somebody who wants to loose weight "eat less, do some exercises!" is not in my opinion the best way to help him.

I really don't want to teach anybody about how to do their work.
This is just my job (I mean, I am paid for that and that's my job) to tell people what they really don't want to hear so they can get back on track and achieve success.

I guess some people, sometimes, really just don't want to pass the reality check.

I am sorry that I wrote such a long reply. I just try to help (but it's boring, I know ;)

Long ps :
Here is something else that I wrote some day about Facebook marketing.
Maybe it's kind of related to the conversation? I don't know much ^^

Facebook Marketing

There would be many things to explain, but to make it short I would say :

Do your market researches before even developing anything. Know your audience, who they are, what they like, what are their hopes/fears/desires/dreams.
Don't build something if no market has expressed a need for a solution.
Ex : I need to show to the people that I am very clever and I can solve the hardest puzzle-games
Ex2 : I need to show to the people that I contributed to help the people in Sendai by displaying a badge given by the Red Cross after I have confirmed my payment

Provide a solution to those needs and you will make money.
Focus on building something that people will want to talk about and share, and that makes them appear good to the others (in many ways, see below)
Find the tools that your audience use the most to encourage them to share (facebook, twitter, blogs, forums, digg, stumbleupon, many others)
It's all about them. Make the people shine.

Social networks and social games are all about giving the user the ability to display his values and habits (strength/cleverness/happiness/likeability/cuteness/silliness/coolness/openness/whatever he wants to express) to the others in order to find his place and importance in a group.

Give them that tool that will help them find that place, and tell them how to climb (by playing more, by buying items, by destroying the others, by helping the others, by sharing more, by playing with cleverness, by being more 'social', by contributing more to the society ex sending the highest amount of money to the red cross etc etc etc).
For you, the money is there.

You can apply that to any group that you target by, first of all, knowing what are the core values that drive them.

That would be the short answer. It works.
That's (one of) the key(s) to facebook game marketing.

There would be a lot to say about monetization also. But my post is already too long.

Hi Mr.Mells,

I`ve read all your "little reply" and I really enjoyed it at all! So thanks for sharing your "brainstorms". :)

PS: What are you waiting for? Subscribe to the Corona SDK and make part of this team too! Looking forward getting your "ideas" in the near future.

Regards,

MrMellis, very nice reply, thanks for sharing :)
As for the main subject of the post, there is an interesting survey result here:
http://www.streamingcolour.com/blog/2011/09/28/results-ios-game-revenue-survey/
Even if it's not the most accurate survey, it shows that the majority of developers don't make money from their apps... But themore time you are into it, the more you earn, so it's a question of persecerence, and to learn from your errors :)

@r.pudlowski & Mells

That's exactly what I needed. Thanks! Sounds like for a P/T indie like me the best route is the developing a new-game-every-month-or-so approach.

I always say it's better to ask these difficult questions, because nobody is helped by sugarcoating things, right?

basically more games- more money, but it must be at least decent games)