What is the name of your company?
Tin Man Games
What are the names of your app(s) ?
Gamebook Adventures. We currently have 7 gamebooks on the app store:
The Siege of the Necromancer [2]
Catacombs of the Undercity [5]
The Wizard from Tarnath Tor [6]
Introduce yourself â€" Tell us about yourself, your company, and how you got into developing mobile apps?
I’ve been working in the games industry for about 11 years. I used to run an art outsourcing company called Fraction Studios and worked on a number of high profile ports of games series such as Need For Speed, Tiger Woods and The Sims to handheld consoles and mobile phones (including iPhone in its early days). I started TMG 3 years ago as I wanted to create my own games rather than work on other peoples! iOS was just getting off the ground and I had already worked on a couple of iPhone titles for other companies so seemed like the logical first step.
How many people are on your team? And what are their roles?
There are two core members: Ben Britten Smith and myself. We have a network of more than 20 contractors and contributors consisting of authors, designers, editors, artists, coders and testers.
At what point did you decide you wanted to make apps for the iPhone?
When I started TMG! iPhone dev had a low barrier for entry compared to other platforms. Also I knew I wanted to make interactive role-playing e-books and knew there could be a market on these new devices!
What were you doing before you started developing for the iPhone?
3D art mainly on lots of high profile games. Most of the work was building racetrack environments for most of the Need For Speed games as well as series like Juiced, Nascar and Racedriver.
One of your recent apps has broken into the top 50 of its category on the charts. Tell us about that app.
I think they all have at some point or another!
What was the best rank position that app hit?
Our latest title, Temple of the Spider God was the #1 Dice Game in around 10 countries and top #10 RPG Game in 15 on the iPad. It was top #5 Dice Game in 16 countries and top #10 RPG Game in 7 countries on the iPhone. Many of these were in the large markets like USA, UK, Canada and Australia
Were you surprised to see it reach that ranking?
No, not really. You don’t need to make too many sales to reach the top 10 in your respective category. Plus, we had done a lot of marketing so were confident of hitting those figures.
For your most successful app, how did you come up with the idea for it?
Our most successful app is An Assassin in Orlandes. The idea of an interactive e-book with RPG elements was originally inspired by series such as Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf.
How long does it take for you to write a typical app from start to finish?
How long is a piece of string? Seriously though, it can take anywhere between 4 -8 months depending on game engine changes.
What do you think was the number one thing you did that made your app successful?
Two things… 1) Maintaining a consistently high quality in all aspects 2) Marketing. LOTS of marketing.
With so many apps in the app store, what would you say have been your top 3 ways and/or places to help market your app to gain ranking in the app charts, and why?
1) Twitter (follow me @TinManGames)
2) Building up the Gamebook Adventures brand. Our overall brand is more important than one title.
3) Remaining very customer focused. We answer every email! We also exhibit at shows like PAX.
Have you used any app promotional services, and if so, who, and how did they each work out for you?
No. We steer clear of those if we can.
Are there any marketing services you have heard about that sound interesting that you have not yet tried? If so, whom or what, and why have you not yet tried them?
We nearly did one of those free app a day deals but realised it wasn’t cost-effective for us to do. They are expensive and for a niche product like ours, they wouldn’t help generate any new sales. They only work for quick, easy-to-play casual titles really.
Our readers are very interested on what kind of download numbers it takes to break into the top 50 of a category. Based on your peak app ranking, how many downloads were you getting daily on average?
I don’t know what those figures are to be honest without some proper analysis of our numbers and dates. I can tell you that it’s harder to break into the top 100 of the RPG chart than it is the Dice chart mainly because there are more sales generally of RPG than there are of Dice games.
If you had to pick the top 3 things app developers should always include in their apps to help with the marketing of their app to other users or something that helps your app jump up the rankings, what would they be, and why?
1) Always link to your other games from the app
2) Build a brand! It’s actually more important long-term than the game!
3) Always make sure your app has a market or it doesn’t matter how great the game is.
What has been your largest sales day?
We’ve been known to make nearly $1000 in a day, although most days are a lot, lot less than that.
Why did you decide to go free/paid?
We are essentially books so we like to price ourselves in relation to books rather than Angry Birds . We are experimenting with our next science-fiction gamebook, Infinite Universe, and releasing it as a free app containing the first part of the book with the opportunity of buying individual chapters or the whole book.
Are you creating apps full time now, or do you have another job?
Full-time, although I do mentor university students one day a week too. More so that I can get away from a monitor for a day!
What is it that excites you most about developing apps for the iPhone?
It’s such a dynamic marketplace! I get to design and make my own games and sell them for money without a publisher â€" what’s not to like??
Outside of your own apps, what are your 3 favorite apps and why?
I love retro gaming with a modern edge. My 3 favourite apps currently are Silverfish from Chaotic Box, Hard Lines from Spilt Milk Studios and Forget-Me-Not from Nyarlu Labs.
What is your favorite game app? (only answer if this is not in your favorite 3 apps listed above.)
Probably Hard Lines!
What’s your favorite iOS based websites you check out on a regular basis for your business?
Probably Touch Arcade, Pocket Gamer and 148apps.
What are you working on next?
We have Gamebook Adventures 8: Infinite Universe comig out in February. Beyond that we are working on a licensed Gamebook Adventures title based on Judge Dredd!!
Any advice for up and coming indie developers?
Make sure you have lots of savings. Work hard and keep the faith!
Monster Free Apps gets you the best paid iPhone apps for free!
Links
- ^ An Assassin in Orlandes (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ The Siege of the Necromancer (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ Slaves of Rema (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ Revenant Rising (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ Catacombs of the Undercity (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ The Wizard from Tarnath Tor (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ Temple of the Spider God (itunes.apple.com)
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