Attracting the Non-Gamer

Last week, while chatting around my kitchen table with a friend, she pulled out her phone and proceeded to play a round of Temple Run while we continued our conversation. Taking a cue from her, I whipped out my phone and began playing as well. And there we sat, talking as we individually played our games; eyes on our phones, concentration focused on not running into a tree or getting attacked by demon monkeys. As a non-gamer (I am reluctant to identify myself even as a casual gamer), this was an extremely unusual situation for me to be in. I have never connected with friends over Xbox LIVE or hung in on a Friday night playing Mario, but I am increasingly finding myself in situations where I am bonding and interacting with my friends over an iOS game.

I have never, ever, been a “gamer.” I may have dabbled with some Sims or Guitar Hero, but prior to installing Temple Run I had gone years without repeatedly playing any videogames. While a love of videogames was something I could conceptualize, comparing it to my love of books, it was never something that I personally experienced. I blame that on my horrible hand-eye coordination.

There are roughly 100,000 games currently available in the App Store. The mobile gaming market has grown exponentially in recent years, garnering attention from people who have never owned a console or handheld gaming device, but who own a smartphone. The smartphone has quickly captured a previously untapped market of gamers, getting Dad — who hasn’t played a video game since Centipede at the arcade — to spend spare moments slinging birds at pigs. Recently, the success of mobile gaming has even sparked discussion on the end of handheld devices.

As an iPhone owner for years, I still was never attracted to the games that entertained my friends, using my phone primarily for email and, well, phone calls. There was a gaming revolution occurring around me, but I was primarily immune to the draw of the game. What about Temple Run changed it all for me? As a self-proclaimed non-gamer, I base my addiction on its quick and consistent gameplay. I can pick it up on my two-minute subway ride or do back-to-back runs for an hour and it’s the same enjoyable game. Graphics are irrelevant to me. As someone who has never consistently experienced the almost life-like animation of certain console games, the visual gaming components are not high on my list of importance. Instead, it is the extremely simple, repetitive, yet exciting gameplay that keeps me starting up the only game I have on my iPhone. And small allusions to my childhood fictional idol — Indiana Jones — didn’t hurt at all.

Temple Run breaks taken while writing this blog post: 5

*Imangi, the studio behind Temple Run is a TriplePoint client.

Developer Support Is a Bigger Factor in iPad’s Success Than Some May Think

Yesterday, Apple unveiled its much anticipated and highly rumored iPad to the masses and easily stole the media thunder from President Obama’s State of the Union address as well as becoming a top trending topic on Twitter, not including all the joke references to feminine hygiene products. After all the hoopla settled though, many tech editors started to really break down exactly what was revolutionary about the iPad and the general consensus seems to be that, well, there is nothing incredibly outstanding.

At first glance, the iPad looks like a pageant winner. It boasts the same sleek, attractive contours as the iPhone, which has lured many to purchase it based on aesthetics alone. iPad’s larger screen with its 1024×768 resolution is, of course, very much welcomed in a society that loves to do everything bigger and better. And lets not forget about that enticing price point beginning at $499. Apple could set its retail at twice as much and fanatics would still buy the new peripheral in a heartbeat.

Take away the glitz and glamor though and you still just have a glorified iPod Touch:

– there is no camera present (which means no augmented reality)

– no ability to run multiple applications simultaneously

– Adobe Flash is not supported

However, does this mean that developers will be deterred from creating new apps specifically for the iPad? Not necessarily, but the success of this new device may largely depend on developers making iPad specific apps to help differentiate it from the iPhone/iPod Touch as well as other gaming platforms. Between the three aforementioned downfalls of the iPad, the third one may perhaps be the most hurtful. The Android OS as a gaming platform is already starting to gain momentum despite its OS limitations (mentioned a couple months back). What further distinguishes Android in the gaming space is its ability to run Flash, which could prove to be a major game changer in the mobile gaming industry. With iPad lacking this now almost crucial feature for the next generation of mobile gaming, there’s not much else that separates it from its mobile Apple cousins. Sure, iPad packs a much larger processor, but if the console wars of the last five years have taught us anything it’s that stronger hardware capabilities do not equate to increased 3rd party support which is necessary to drive higher console sales.

Undoubtedly, many developers will initially hop on the iPad app bandwagon but if sales of these apps are lackluster we may just be seeing more iPhone/iPod Touch ports appear on the iPad instead. Though Apple hasn’t given developers anything truly novel to work with, the appeal of success is still there and it may be game developers that really help to shape the future of Apple’s new toy.

Finding the Mythical Immersive iPhone Game

The future of iPhone gaming?  Probably not.
The future of iPhone gaming? Probably not.

As the iPhone and other smartphones accompany their owners everywhere, so does the chance to have fulltime access to games. Gamers and journalists alike are asking for more immersive iPhone games, but it’s unlikely they’ll flood the App Store anytime soon. Sure, it would be fantastic to have a lengthy, engaging iPhone game with depth, character development and a solid narrative, but it’s highly unlikely.

With the current benchmark for a “premium” app being anything over $5.00, developers can’t afford a fully-fledged staff. Great games like Mass Effect use cinematics and professionally-delivered dialogue to draw in the player, but both budget and hardware constraints prevent this sort of experience on Apple’s ‘slippery brick,’ as evidenced by Mass Effect Galaxy.

However, there are other inherent flaws in iPhone gaming. Even with your earbuds in place and zen-like concentration, gaming time can be interrupted at just about any moment. This isn’t even kept to the external problems of your average day – even the device insists on bothering you with incoming calls or text messages. While one could set the device to airplane mode, this effectively turns it into an iPod touch – a quandary. By the very nature of being connected on the go, one makes the gaming experience tough to establish.

I find that I have the most fun playing puzzlers on my phone, and the reviewers agree. Over half of the top 15 games on Pocket Gamer are puzzle games, and as developer Tale of Tales founder Michaël Samyn points out, small screens are better suited for shorter, more abstract titles. The device’s limitations are not likely to hinder your play in a puzzle game, whereas shooters and RPGs can be a real headache.

Between the hand cramps and screen glare, I, like most gamers, prefer my iPhone sessions to be short and sweet, relegating my larger-than life gaming experiences to the sofa.

iPhone App Business Models 101: Paid Downloads, Advertising and In-app Purchases

We here at TriplePoint are frequently asked by developers, “What is the best way to monetize my iPhone app?” I thought it would be helpful to create a high level overview of some of the different business models that developers are utilizing to make money from their iPhone or iPod Touch applications and games. Below you’ll find an overview of several of the most popular business models, including paid downloads, mobile advertising and in-app purchases (otherwise known as microtransactions). Additionally, I’ve included an overview of the correlation between units sold and ranking in the App Store – essentially, a brief synopsis of what it takes to be in the Top 100 Paid Apps list on the App Store.

Option 1: Paid Downloads

The most popular way to monetize your iPhone application is through selling paid downloads of it at retail in the App Store. While Apple reported that the most common price point for iPhone apps is $0.99, according to an October 2009 report from analytics firm Distimo, the current average price of an application in the App Store is $3.42. In this free report, Distimo also provides a list of the top 15 highest ranked paid applications and their price points, which ranged from $0.99 up to $2.99. Although choosing a price point based on popularity and what appears to be working for the top 15 paid apps is certainly common, developers are also taking into consideration the value that their app provides and what it is potentially worth to customers. This perceived value may be based on uniqueness of functionality, depth of gameplay, quality of graphics, and other criteria.

Many developers are also testing their app’s price point post launch and finding that offering discounts or special offers can provide a boost in sales numbers. Additionally, some developers are offering “light” versions of their iPhone game for free and leveraging the user base to drive sales of the paid full version of the game. The flexibility to alter the price point is certainly helpful as developers test the waters with their first application.

Option 2: Mobile Advertising

As mentioned above, $0.99 is the most common price point and FREE is reportedly the second most popular price point. Currently, there are over 100,000 apps available in the App Store and thousands of them are free. Developers that offer their iPhone game or application for free may consider monetizing through mobile advertising. Leading mobile advertising networks include AdFonic, AdMob (recently acquired by Google), InMobi, Millennial Media and Quattro Wireless. Mobile ad networks make it simple for developers to begin serving advertisements directly within their iPhone application in order to start generating revenue, and advertisers are eager to reach the iPhone and iPod Touch using population, so the market is growing. Magna projects that mobile advertising revenues will grow 36% in 2009, in part, due to growth fueled by iPhones.

While some developers rely solely on generating revenue from free applications through mobile advertisements, others are testing multiple business models through their iPhone games and applications and seeing success. Backflip Studios recently reported that revenue generated by advertising sales on free applications has supplemented their income from paid downloads, and is currently driving 50% of their overall monthly revenues. As demonstrated in this instance, advertising revenue can be more than just incremental income, and can be a real substantial revenue stream for developers.

Option 3: In-app Purchases

For iPhone games or applications that lend themselves well to selling virtual goods and downloadable content (such as additional levels and expansion packs), the microtransaction-based business model is a good fit. Ever since Apple launched the iPhone OS 3.0 in June 2009, which offers the microtransaction system, developers have been exploring ways to leverage this platform for in-app purchases. Although, since this is a relatively new business model for consumers to adopt, some developers are erring on the side of caution about adding micro payments to their apps while others like Bolt Creative are embracing it. In October, Bolt Creative launched Episode 26: Good Will Haunting from their hit iPhone title Pocket God and included in-app purchases via downloadable content. The company reported positive revenue results as well as positive feedback from the community, and plans to continue including in-app purchases plans to continue including in-app purchases as a part of their applications going forward.

Additionally, iPhone applications that sell real-world goods are also a natural fit for the microtransaction-based business model as demonstrated by JamBase, an iPhone and iPod touch application that enables consumers to purchase local concert tickets on the go from their mobile phone.

As paying for incremental content and virtual goods, or even making mobile purchases of real-world items via microtransactions become more familiar with consumers, it becomes a more viable business model for developers to adopt.

What does the Top 100 Paid Apps list mean?

Constantly a moving target, the iPhone apps featured in the Top 100 Paid Apps list correlates to the total number of unit sales per day. At this time, to break into the top 100, an iPhone application is typically selling over 400 per day, and apps at the top of the charts are estimably selling over 10,000 units per day.

Earlier this year, Bolt Creative released a chart that shows Pocket God’s weekly ranking in the App Store along with its daily units sold. As illustrated in the graph, the game entered the top 100 list when the game broke about 500 units sold per day, and reached the number one rank in the list while selling over 10,000 units per day.

Final Thoughts

In addition to the abovementioned business models to monetize iPhone games and applications, developers can also monetize through other means such as lead generation, subscriptions, data sales, and more. The possibilities are practically limitless. While there are many different ways to monetize mobile games or applications and they’ve demonstrated success for many developers, in the end, it’s important to select a business model that integrates naturally with the functionality of the game or application and that suits the target audience.

Eliminate-ing Payment Norms – Eliminate Pro and the Hardcore Quandary

Eliminate Pro – Free – released 11/2/09 – developed by Ngmoco (Rolando)

  • Currently the second best selling app in the Free section of App Store (was the first yesterday).
  • Currently the 11th on the Top Grossing section of the App Store (was the third yesterday).
  • The ONLY free app in the Top Grossing section.

Eliminate Pro is free-to-download and is, in a sense, a free-to-play first-person shooter, ala Doom or Call of Duty. However, unlike f2p MMORPGs, users don’t pay for in-game content, but rather to recharge their ‘credits.’ Without credits, you’re limited to playing offline against bots, and cannot earn experience or gain rewards.

eliminate_iphone_logo

It’s essentially like popping another quarter into an arcade machine, but in this case, your credits regenerate over time. When you download the game, you’re given 12 to start with, which works out to three rounds of play. After a few hours, you’ll be granted another round – and it takes half a day for the full twelve credits to regenerate.

The real money-maker for Ngmoco, though, is that you can buy credits at a rate of 20 for 99 cents, 280 for $9.99, or 975 for $29.99.

The game itself is a fairly typical FPS, controlled with virtual onscreen joysticks – fun, yet far less interesting than its monetization method. These non-essential microtransactions are a bold new form of in-game payment. As DLC becomes increasingly commonplace and piracy runs rampant, publishers and developers are trying their hardest to move away from the classic front-loaded sales model.

In fact, Eliminate Pro’s growth reveals a great deal about the nature of iPhone gaming:

  • The game itself is built to play in short bursts.
  • It’s cheap, with a low barrier to entry – it’s free to start, 3 rounds is enough to get you addicted, and extra rounds are cheap, falling into impulse-buy territory.
  • The industry is rapidly expanding – such is its growth that they’re constantly re-writing and building new payment models.

The DS and PSP appeal to self-described gamers – people who most likely have a current-gen system at home. The iPhone, on the other hand, is in its relative infancy, and those who pick it up and start playing most likely didn’t buy it for the games.

This, however, makes Eliminate Pro an enigma. Many iPhone titles err on the side of simple controls, including Ngmoco’s own Rolando, while this game features twitch-gameplay and requires quick reactions. In fact, it’s somewhat console-ish in its skillset – awkwardness of the on-screen analog sticks aside. Its success is built upon the casual models – easy-to-pick-up, cheap and addictive, yet it is, at its heart, a deeply competitive and aggressive title.

Has Eliminate Pro converted casual players into new potential core gamers? Have the hardcore crowds flocked to the iPhone unexpectedly? Or does the game crack some bizarre middle-ground code for making iPhone users buy into micro-transactions?

Ultimately, it could be a combination of all of the above. Who knew that a cell-phone could cause such a hullabaloo?

[Eliminate Pro app store link]

NaturalMotion Tackles the App Store with Backbreaker Football

It took less than 24 hours for NaturalMotion to make an impact on the App Store, as Backbreaker Football has already breached the top 50 for all paid games.  The first in-house game from the development juggernaut that produces the animation technologies euphoria, morpheme and endorphin (rapidly adopted in both the  game and movie industries by companies such as Rockstar Games, LucasArts, Disney, THQ, CCP, Bioware), Backbreaker Football offers a mobile football experience that can be rivaled by none.

The game, which utilizes the iPhone/ iPod touch’s accelerometer controls, presents football in full 3D glory.  Backbreaker Football’s amazing replication of bonecrushing tackles is sure to please both pigskin fans and mobile gamers alike.  Directly inspired by a mini-game taken from NaturalMotion’s  Backbreaker (currently in development for Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3),  Backbreaker Football truly brings a console-like experience to the iPhone/ iPod touch.

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As a standalone title, the action and gameplay speak for itself.  Not only is Backbreaker Football an elite application, but its release marks the unique opportunity to showcase aspects of a future console title on an entirely different platform.  The opportunity for NaturalMotion to create both a superior application, as well as officially introduce the world to the powerful gameplay associated with the future Backbreaker console title, serves as a win-win situation for anyone with an iPhone/ iPod touch.

Backbreaker Football

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To view the vicious tackles, you can find a link to the trailer after the break..

Continue reading NaturalMotion Tackles the App Store with Backbreaker Football

Developers Gone Wild! iPhone Gold Rush Uncloaked: Q&A with Rock Ridge Games

The iTunes App Store is a booming marketplace, full of opportunity for independent developers. At an Apple press conference earlier this month, Steve Jobs said that over 30 million iPhones and 20 million iPod Touch devices have been sold to date. There are over 100 million customers on iTunes, and they’ve been busy – downloading over 1.8 billion apps since the App Store launched in July 2008. But with over 75,000 apps and counting (more than 21,000 in the game category alone), it’s a sink or swim space. The unique iPhone platform is luring talented designers from top names in the traditional video game development industry – ambitious artists, code-monkeys and entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes looking to try their hand at a new medium, and take on whatever responsibility necessary – including new shoes they’ll learn to fill along the way.

There are already more than 100,000 third-parties in the iPhone Developer Program, and the App Store marketplace has created a community mindset among many of these smaller independent companies, who are willing to share some of their “secrets” and learn from their competitors to further their cause and to coexist symbiotically, if you will. One such indie developer is Rock Ridge Games. I had a chance to pick the brains of Rock Ridge’s president and VP, Mike Mann and P.J. Snavely, on what it takes to make the transition from licensed, big-budget console game development to the DIY world of iPhone app development – here’s what they had to say…

RRG Western Wind iPhone

Can you give us a little background on Rock Ridge Games and your experience in game development?
Rock Ridge Games was started in April of this year with the goal of developing interesting and fun original  games for the incredible new smartphones hitting the market. There are only two of us (Mike Mann and PJ Snavely) but we’ve got almost 30 years of combined experience in game development, having come from the console side of development. We’ve worked on everything from multi-million dollar licensed sports games to small independent titles for XBLA. The iPhone is our new frontier.

Continue reading Developers Gone Wild! iPhone Gold Rush Uncloaked: Q&A with Rock Ridge Games

iPhone Game PR – A Case Study

IGN Real Racing

Australian mobile developer Firemint came to us a few months ago with one goal in mind: to make their new iPhone game stand out among the crowd. Of course, this is no small task given the extraordinary rate of proliferation of iPhone games appearing on the App Store since the beginning of the year. But Firemint had something unique: a car racing simulator called Real Racing that had been in development for more than a year and specifically designed with the unique feature set of the iPhone and iPod touch in mind.

Firemint’s unique challenge was that they had a little over two months to officially announce, promote, and differentiate Real Racing from the competition before it launched. And the main competitor in this instance was EA’s Need for Speed iPhone title, a game launching in the same period that had enjoyed months of marketing and PR support from the industry’s biggest game publisher.

Talk about an underdog situation.

Continue reading iPhone Game PR – A Case Study