This week Crush the Castle hit the top 10 list on the iPhone App Store.
I’ve helped release a dozen iPhone/iPod Touch apps in the last year and a half. Some have made money. Others have tanked. But Crush the Castle is the first to have climbed to the top echelons of iPhone apps. It’s the first to make serious money.
Why is CtC succeeding more than the others? What sets it apart?
I believe that this app has three clear advantages that are working together to propel it up the charts.
Great gameplay. First things first. Crush the Castle is fun. It’s simple to play but hard to master. It has some of the smoothest, most realistic physics on the iPhone (thanks in large part to the Chipmunk Physics engine). And knocking down castles filled with screaming lords and ladies just never gets old.
Very high quality. It’s amazing how many ugly, awkward, crash-happy games there are on the App Store. We worked hard to make CtC friendly, smooth, and solid, and I believe we succeeded.
The iPhone is a slick piece of technology and it deserves quality apps. CtC meets the high bar of presentation quality that the iPhone establishes. Reviewers seem to agree with us that CtC just feels good to play. Although a lot of “bathroom-quality” apps come and go on the App Store, great quality wins in the end.
Strong cross-promotion. Even the highest-quality, most fun game in the world will fail on the App Store if nobody knows about it. Armor Games invested in getting the word out about Crush the Castle and that smart decision has paid off. The browser-based Flash version of the game has cross-promoted the iPhone version since the day it was launched. We also released the free version of CtC simultaneously with the paid version. So a great many people played free versions of the game before plunking down their hard-earned $1.99 for the paid version. I don’t believe that an iPhone game can be successful without a free variant.
I’ve written before about how tough a platform the iPhone is. There are a lot more people making iPhone apps than people making a living making iPhone apps. But success is there if you invest in great design, high quality, and strong marketing. Oh, and if you’re willing to roll the dice a dozen times or so. Persistence was a key factor too.
7 Comments
What? No WinMo version?
In the same way that I feel guilty when I go into work with the flu and sneeze all over everyone else, thus spreading an insidious virus, so would I feel guilty if I helped to promote yet another vile mutation of Windows in its infection of digital devices.
Now you just need to promote my game inside of CtC, and we’ll be set
In all seriousness, congratulations on the milestone achievement. CtC is a great game and you put a lot of work into it. It deserves the top 10 spot.
I heart Crush the Castle! Its one of the best physics games on the iPhone. Great job on developing it Jeff!
Thanks very much.
You say it’s “the first to make serious money” can you shed some light on what that means? For example, a Flash game developer might consider $20,000 in revenue “serious money”. I’d be interested to see how the iPhone market compares and whether it’s really possible to make a living, let alone get rich, through the App market.
I’m preparing a blog post on the financial side of Crush the Castle and I’ll offer quite a few specific details. So check back in the next few days. To answer your question, though, it is possible to make a living making iPhone games. The secret, I think, is to make good ones, make lots of them, and invest in cross-promotion from other sources. You have to do your own marketing. As for getting rich—this is even more chance-y. But sure, make a big enough game (bigger than CtC—maybe something more like Bejeweled), and you could make millions in a single year.