You only need $100 and a Mac to develop iPhone apps
Developers cut back on unprofitable Android Development
apps for the iPhone. Genuine 13" Mac books are $800 at MicroCenter
this week.
How game developers drive iPhone’s app store growth
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/dailyloaf/2009/11/20/how-game-developers-drive-iphones-app-store-growth/
November 20, 2009 at 12:23 pm by Alexis Santos
You only need $100 and a Mac to develop apps for the iPhone. If it’s
Twitter, games, email, GPS navigation or Facebook, “there’s an app for
that” on the iTunes App Store. The iPhone’s success is largely owed to
the developers, ranging from big name studios to a few guys in a
garage (a la Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak) who have made the device
the Swiss army knife of phones.
Since its launch in July of 2008, the iTunes App Store has reached
over 2 billion downloads and now has more than 100,000 unique
applications available. What has made the rapid growth and success of
the App Store possible are the more than 125,000 developers in Apple’s
iPhone Developer Program.Super Monkey Ball for iPhone
What’s it like developing for the iPhone? Why are developers
gravitating towards it? Where do developers see mobile gaming going?
The Daily Loaf sat down with a few iPhone developers last week to
answer these, and other, questions.
“When we first started out it was a gold rush to say the least.
Everybody was jumping into the iPhone market,” CEO of Rock Ridge Games
Mike Mann told the Creative Loafing. In fact, iPhone game development
was a gold rush within the App Store race as at least 20% of all
applications released for the iTunes App Store are games.
With those kinds of numbers, it’s difficult to get your game noticed.
“You have to focus not so much in the games that your competition is
doing, but in the quality that they’re doing. And when you’re putting
out low quality games to get stuff out quickly, you’re not going to
make any money. You’re not going to go anywhere,” Mann explained. “So
we have to raise up our quality level and raise the bar on what we
expect out of ourselves in order to compete with these heavy hitters
that have entered the market.”
iPhone developersThings weren’t so “sweet” at first. iPhone developers
were restricted to web based apps until the release of the iPhone 3G
and launch of the iTunes App Store.
“We’re putting a lot out there but when you have people like Gameloft
and Electronic Arts, you know, these heavy hitters that are jumping
into the iPhone with both feet, it’s really hard to compete when it’s
just two guys spending a month on a game, putting it out and hoping it
sticks and then trying to support it afterwards,” Mann said.
The diversity within the iPhone development community ranges anywhere
from one-man operations to big teams at major game developers. In
fact, the Austin, Texas based Rock Ridge Games is composed of Mann and
his partner, both video game industry veterans. “Being a small
bootstrap company, we don’t have the resources.” Mann explained. “We
are basically having to barter and beg and call in every favor we’ve
ever been owed to get these games done.”
Anyone with $99 and a Mac can purchase the iPhone development kit and
begin to develop Apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Because of this
accessibility, iPhone development has in a way become the epitome of
the “If you build it, they will come” mentality and has, by making the
barrier to entry low, enticed a throng of developers to come forward.
Western Wind on iPhone developed by Rock Ridge Games
“One of the wonderful things about the market is how open it is. It
just opened itself up to creativity,” CEO of Super Happy Fun Fun
(SHFF) Mark Pierce said. “And I think we’ve all been the beneficiary
of that, seeing all sorts of games that would have never made it past
any sane publisher’s radar.” One such game may very well be Rock Ridge
Games’ “Western Wind” which is loosely based of off an (in)famous
scene in Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles.” “Western Wind” combines cowboy
flatulence with “Simon” and includes a mode which allows users to
create their own musical tune.
“I totally enjoy the fact that there’s that many developers. Now that
makes it a problem as a business man. How do you make money if you
have a 99 cent app and there’s about 50,000 game developers and I
imagine 20 to 30 thousand of the apps are games and 70 percent of the
apps are free?” Pierce wondered. “I think “Buck Hunter” is an exact
expression that our strategy is the correct one. You bring a a high
quality title out there and it gets noticed.”
Buck Hunter on iPhone developed by Super Happy Fun Fun
Buck Hunter, based on the popular arcade game of the same name, is a
hunting game released by SHFF which combines pretty impressive 3D
graphics for the iPhone with simple controls. Adding to the polish
that makes it stand out from other titles are its networking features
that allow for score boards and its GPS functionality which allows
users to find the nearest physical “Buck Hunter” arcade game.
When games like Buck Hunter or Western Wind strike a cord with Apple
or iPhone gamers, Apple posts them on the home page of the App Store
under “What’s Hot” for some added exposure. The “good” titles are
further given weight over the more mediocre ones thanks to the top 20
sales charts.
Mobile phone games had often been looked down upon and were seen as
little to no competition to dedicated handheld gaming machines such as
the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP. Even Nintendo of Japan President Satoru
Iwata is beginning to recognize that the App Store is becoming a force
to be reckoned with. “If we can’t make clear why customers pay a lot
of money to play games on Nintendo hardware and Nintendo software and
differentiate ourselves from games on the mobile phone or iPhone, then
our future is dark,” Iwata recently stated at a company event.
Phil Schiller iPhone GamesApple’s Phil Schiller frames the iPhone as a
gaming platform at a recent Apple press conference.
Still have some doubts that the iPhone can compete? Revenue from
iPhone and iPod Touch games is expected to rise from $46 million in
2008 to more than $2.8 billion in 2014. That’s a lot of downloads.
“I personally love the Nintendo DS and its kind of interesting because
I very seldom play it anymore. The iPhone has replaced it for me,”
Pierce said. “It’s just the platform to be on.”
“Never underestimate Nintendo,” SHFF producer Bill Lacoste said. “If
you’re not Nintendo, you’re not really a player. With iPhone, as we’re
seeing, even two small guys in a basement can come out and have a huge
hit.”
“It’s almost going to be like a web experience where anybody can make
a website,” Pierce said. Everything about iPhone development has “come
together in this perfect storm where things are now and where they’re
going to be for the next five to ten years.”