Quote: (11-06-2013 08:02 AM)roid Wrote:
Quote: (11-03-2013 10:29 PM)speakeasy Wrote:
...but you're not an Android or IOS programmer, what's the best way of going about bringing your ideal to fruition? I figure I'd have to write up a non-disclosure form for any prospective programmers I hire so they don't steal the ideal. And probably not hire any programmers in another country like India where they may not respect our intellectual property rights. Though hiring an American programmer may be prohibitively expensive for me. Has anyone done this before?
I am going to tell you exactly like it is. You need to learn how to code AND market if you're still a peasant. If you have money and I am talking big money not a chump change, then you should hire LOCAL developers. Cheapskates like to use shortcuts and pay shit rates to developers in third world and expect quality. Newsflash: you get what you pay. I can see that some of you will jump at me, but I don't give a shit because I know my shit well.
You're right, Roid...if you have 6 figures + just for development and want to produce games with extremely high ARPU that compete against the studios like King.com then all your advice is spot on.
Then after your app is ready you will need minimum 6 figures a month to float ad costs to get traction by acquiring users across the ad networks since the only way you'll get to the top and compete is by running cpc ad campaigns or buying installs across the ad networks. Even so...you'll be competing with other studios who run huge burst campaigns that pay up to $5 per install.
I think you are missing the main point though. We're talking independents who want to get a viable product to market as quickly as possibly to see whether the mechanics of the product have potential rather than risking a huge amount of cash upfront before they have a viable business model.
Despite your comments about source code let me explain this to you more. The point of source code is to purchase game mechanics which have proven to be popular in the market and build upon that.
For example match three games have been extremely popular over the last 12 months proving demand for the basic game play and physics that make up this style of game.
The benefit of buying source code is you can utilise proven code which has proven demand in the app stores and build upon it cheaply rather then going out and building something entirely from scratch. It's a way for the smaller guy to get into the market at lower cost and also with less risk.
I appreciate you are probably building apps to the calibre of candy crush that take many months and 7 figures to complete but for someone who is working off a budget the best thing they can do is control costs at the beginning, and focus on getting a product to market as quickly as possible to test demand and build upon it.