iOS Game Development

[seenooh]

Greetings,

We're planning to enter the iOS gaming market. I personally don't have that much background on the business side of things when it comes to iOS given the place where I live in. I have some concerns, and I hope you guys can enlighten me about them.

1- How profitable is this market to indie game developers? Is it possible to make a living out of this business? Any indie success story that you guys can share with me?

2- What makes an iOS game really successful? What are the most appealing game types for this market?

3- What are the best ways and challenges for marketing an iOS game? What can iTunes provide for me?

That's it, any help is really appreciated.

Thanks.

[seenooh]

I'd like the mods to move this to iOS forum, perhaps I'll find an answer there. Thanks.

[Mordt]

In all seriousness..... your asking the forum to do research you should be doing yourself.

1- How profitable is this market to indie game developers? Is it possible to make a living out of this business? Any indie success story that you guys can share with me?

Some games can be extremely profitable. I know two companies close to me that created Fruit Ninja and Flight Control/Real Racing and built companies out of their successes. I don't know these guys but they seem to be thriving. Of course you can make a living at it but your product will seriously have to be good or get the exposure it needs.

2- What makes an iOS game really successful? What are the most appealing game types for this market?

If your asking this you shouldn't be making games for the device.

3- What are the best ways and challenges for marketing an iOS game? What can iTunes provide for me?

Your on the wrong forum for marketing advice. To even begin your game your going to need an dev sub from apple. They have a few good threads on the developer forums dedicated to marketing. I seriously suggest you look there. There are numerous iOS sites out there too with many a thread devoted to marketing strategy.

Having worked closely with advertising industry for many, many years all I can tell you is that you don't want to be copying a successful formula for marketing. You need to innovate and not be a follower. Put your thinking cap on, I'm sure you could come up with an idea or two.

[seenooh]

I have done my research, but I wanted to hear what hands-on developers have to say about this too.

So please, if you want to be helpful, respond, otherwise don't bother.