Make an awesome iOS game and enter to win a trip to Palo Alto

by jvrossb • 14 years ago

31 18 14 years ago

earbitscom• 14 years ago

This is an awesome idea. We're always kicking around shitty ideas for contests that probably won't deliver enough value to offset the cost, won't attract the right types of users or clients, and take too much effort. I don't know if this one meets all of those criteria, but it's such a cool concept for a young person interested in programming, gaming and startups, to bring them out to Palo Alto for their own game's launch party, etc. Anyway, kudos to the Make Games With Us guys. This is outstanding.

robbiea• 14 years ago

great idea. How do you "guarantee" installs?

jvrossb6• 14 years ago

We buy ads in a trackable way and run them until we can prove to you that we were responsible for driving N thousand people to download your app.

bennyg3• 14 years ago

My biggest question is, what if I publish this game myself? I have a developer account, a game at about 75% completion, 6 apps on the app store, and a decent plan to monetize it already. The only thing that would be nice is the press for winning, or placing. That and a free trip to beautiful California. What turns me off about publishing through this route is the first $1k is yours, and 30% after that. So, after Apple and MGWU, I would be left with 40% of all sales - something I don't think the publicity would offset, even long term. My gut says this hinges on the fact that I'd have to publish through MGWU for it to count as an entry.

I'm also wondering about guaranteeing 10,000 installs. That would be nice, but I have over that on one of my apps and that doesn't really equate to blips on the App Store internal marketing/searching system in my experience.

EDIT: After reading the detailed rules, it looks like you do have to publish through them. And, instead of being left with 40%, I'd be left with just under 50% of the price/prices of items for sale in the App Store.

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This is probably a good deal if you can't make the art for your game, and can make the mechanics/playability fairly quickly.

jvrossb6• 14 years ago

Your interpretation of the rules is correct. You do have to publish through us to count as an entry. On the rev share split: if a user spends $99c on your app, Apple takes 29c, we take 20c (70% post-Apple), and you are left with 50c which is just over half.

Our publishing contract is very developer friendly - we don't take ownership of any of your IP. So, you could publish your game with us (and we'd probably end up touching up some art here and there) and if you didn't like what we were doing with it, you could publish a version yourself. If we aren't worth it, you're not tied to us. If we are we hope to publish a bunch of your games :) Very low risk in giving us a try if you already have a game on the way.

joshAg• 14 years ago

"Winning games must be free during the time that we are driving your guaranteed installs."

Does that mean you take 20% (28.5% post-apple) of the sale after the guaranteed installs and you take the first $1000 after the guaranteed installs?

andymoe3• 14 years ago

This not a good deal even if you can't make art. You can get plenty of art on iStock photo and what you don't get when publishing as an indie with someone else is the network effect of publishing multiple games on your own. This is essential if you want to grow your brand, user base and revenue over the course of multiple titles.

bennyg3• 14 years ago

No offense, but iStock Art isn't gonna' net you a solid brand if that's what you're looking for.

I'm not going to go through with this either way - this seems like a good deal for those that really don't have their feet wet with games or creating their own art. I graduated with a BA in art (graphic design), so I don't really trust a whole lot of people when it comes to them creating the graphics for my own products. They'd have to be damn good. No offense to Make Games With Us, but I could handle my own on this one for sure. Hopefully you get some good contestants and creative ideas though. Can't wait to see how it all turns out.

jvrossb6• 14 years ago

Cross-promo is actually one of the draws of publishing with us. We already have a larger network than most indie devs will be able to build (10 games and counting) and they all cross-promote each other. When you publish with us you get exposure in every single other game we've published.

jayfuerstenberg• 14 years ago

Palo Alto?

I'd rather win a 7-day trip to New Calendonia, all expenses paid.

MattyRad• 14 years ago

I'm mildly interested in this. I might have a go at making a game, but do you know what date the winner would be flown out to Palo Alto?

DesaiAshu• 14 years ago

We're flexible on this, depends on the winner's availability

Make an awesome iOS game and enter to win a trip to Palo Alto

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