KoboldTouch has been on sale for exactly 5 months (released: Nov 1st, 2012). Time for a “numbers post”.
Let’s start with new user signup rates and popular pricing plans before I get to reveal actual and projected revenues.
New User Signup Rate
With a build-up of anticipation, the first month is always noticably on the positive side. If you ignore that first month, you’ll notice that signup rate has been very steady from December through February when it suddenly doubled in March.
This chart shows the number of new users who signed up to any of the pricing plans, with refunds already deducted:
The actual “new user” numbers (not including refunds) for each month are:
- Nov 12: 44
- Dec 12: 15
- Jan 13: 15
- Feb 13: 16
- Mar 13: 33
I believe the reason for the influx of new users in March is two-fold: first I introduced the 1-Month billing plan in Mid-February. And around the same time frame I started hosting the KoboldTouch documentation and KoboldTouch Sales Pitch on www.koboldtouch.com. Continue reading »
Here’s a crazy thought: with commercial game kits (game source code products) being popular and financially rewarding – why not crowd-fund an iOS game by selling it’s source code, resources and development insights while you’re creating it?
Marcus and I will give this idea a spin. Marcus is a game designer I worked with at Electronic Arts Phenomic for 6 years. I’m sure you know me. Together we’re going to create a tilemap-based physics game using cocos2d and KoboldScript (Lua scripting for cocos2d). And we are going to sell everything we’ll create practically from day one.
If that sounds even slightly intruiging to you, we’d love to get your feedback!
Visit the launch page and take our survey which has already helped us tremendously to focus on what’s important for you. For example I’ve converted the entire KoboldScript library to use ARC seeing how important ARC is to you.
But do keep on reading for more details … Continue reading »
So you have this website going or some source code on github, and like to earn a few bucks. Donations, right? Hold on, there are a couple things you should consider before you add that Donate button!
UPDATE: If you prefer a concise, to the point summary of this post, you should read the follow-up post The 10 Golden Rules for a Donate Button.
In case you haven’t noticed, you won’t find a Donate button here or on my other websites. It may seem strange that the guy who never had a donation button of all people should write a guide to the donation button.
I consciously decided against having a donation button. You’ll find a number of reasons in this post, and maybe at the end of it you come to agree with me that Donate buttons are over-used, and the more developers offer them the fewer donations reach those developers who actually need and/or deserve donations the most.
I also wrote this as guidance particularly for individual indie or open source developers who are accepting donations or considering to do so, because donating to an individual is fundamentally different than donating to a (charitable) organisation or a software project (team) as a whole. You will also get some ideas on how you can improve your donation acceptance rate and which alternatives for voluntary compensation and appreciation exist.
Rule Number 1: Be a charity or a business. Never both!
I sell commercial products, both my own and third party products for which I receive a commission fee for each sale. I am self-employed, I make my living from those products and a few select contract jobs for people I know personally. It is fair to say that I’m running a business.
For me the question of whether I should ask for donations boils down to this: should a business be asking for and accepting donations? Continue reading »
Justin Dike over at CartoonSmart.com created an awesome Starter Kit for creating Sling Shot games like Angry Birds, using cocos2d-iphone.
Click on the image to view the product page with more details:
I should mention that I get a commission fee for each CartoonSmart.com sale. In other words I highly appreciate every sale because it helps me to keep this website running and to continue improving Kobold2D.
I opened an Affiliate Store page to be able to promote and sell other developer’s products.
Recently I decided to write one big post every other week (bi-weekly on Thursdays) as my iDevBlogADay post. I also wanted to create something exceptional each time. In particular the Compiler Directives list worked great. It bothered me that there was no such list. And apparently I wasn’t the only one looking for that.
That made me start regarding the iDevBlogADay posts essentially as paid writing jobs. Regardless of how little that payment may be, it is adding to my bottom line and it is a welcome additional incentive to put my best efforts into it. Continue reading »
I did not create the following products. But I help sell them through ads and affiliate links because they’re high quality and highly recommended. I get a commission for each sale made through these links, which in turn helps me spend more time on this website and on Kobold2D.
Paralaxer Platformer Game KitParalaxer runs on iOS, Android, Windows, & Mac using the same C++ game code. Thanks to the ultra-awesome, open-source Cocos2D-X game engine, Paralaxer is a cross-platform platformer. |
The iPhone RPG Engine
Rapidly create your own RPG or action-adventure game with this complete starter kit. Includes an ebook, game source code and a royalty-free art package. |
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Commander Cool Game Kit
This starter kit includes the complete source code of “Commander Cool” for iPhone / iPad / Mac build with Cocos2d & Box2d, extensive code documentation and video documentation (accessible online or offline) covering every beginning step to modifying the app for yourself. |
Angry Ninjas Starter Kit
Ride the wave of success that sling shot games are seeing in the App Store and create your own popular game. All thats required is a bit of time on your part to build some fantastic levels and add your own artistic twist. We’ve done the hard part. Now you get to do the fun part! |
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Visit the Ray Wenderlich Store! |
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Also check out Sprite Kit by Tutorials! |
 The Starter Kit Bundle: Full Cocos2D source code and tutorials for creating a side-scrolling space shooter game, a platformer game and a beat ’em up game for iPhone and iPad! |
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Ray Wenderlich and his team provide awesome iOS Tutorials and excellent Starter Kit source code. |
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TexturePackerCreate sprite sheets and optimize images for your Cocos2D, Kobold2D, Corona and other game engine projects. |
PhysicsEditorEdit collision shapes for Box2D and Chipmunk based physics games. Supports Cocos2D, Kobold2D, Corona, and other game engines. |
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This is just a quick report that my recent efforts on Kobold2D and on other fronts seem to be paying off. I looked at the sales of my Line-Drawing Starterkit over the past couple months, and I noticed a pleasant trend:
Many thanks to all supporters and customers! Continue reading »
My Line-Drawing Game Starterkit is now up to date with the latest versions of cocos2d (v1.0.1), iOS (compatible with iOS 3.1 and higher, including iOS 5.0), Xcode (compatible with Xcode 3.2 and above, including Xcode 4.0 on Snow Leopard and Xcode 4.2 on Mac OS X Lion).
Existing customers will receive an email with instructions on how to download the updated version of the Line-Drawing Game Starterkit.
Ferries HD was made with the Line-Drawing Starterkit
I’ve added another cool game made to the Line-Drawing Starterkit product page - Ferries HD by Thomas Busse:
Note: the game is not included in the Starterkit. It’s a game that was made with the Starterkit and serves as a great example of what you can achieve with the Line-Drawing Game Starterkit.
Price dropped to $99 (from $119)
I dropped the price of the Line-Drawing Game Starterkit to $99 in anticipation of upcoming commercial source code products that I’m working on. More on that in due time, first things first (Learn Cocos2D 2nd Edition and Kobold2D).
What about Kobold2D?
I know, I know. Kobold2D isn’t too far out. I anticipate the first preview (beta) release in August. Stay alert.
What’s left to do at a minimum is to write the Project Starter tool (to give you the convenience of Xcode 4 Project Templates but with more flexibility), setup the website with the “getting started” documentation plus API references and perform some general project cleanup.
And when is the Learn Cocos2D 2nd Edition coming out?
It looks like the new edition of the book will be out in October, roughly two months later than anticipated.
On the positive side I’m working with a new editor who brought in a fresh perspective from which the book greatly benefits. The delay also allowed me to make more substantial improvements than initially planned.
In particular Chapter 3 (Essentials) was completely overhauled to better explain the fundamental concepts of Cocos2D, and you’ll find the book to be more visually rich in general. For example this exploded view drawing is used to explain the relationship of Scenes, Layers and Nodes:
The book’s source code already uses the recently released Cocos2D v1.0.1 and I will continue to update the book’s source code for the v1.x line of Cocos2D. Several of the game projects discussed in the book will also be ported to become Kobold2D project templates.
