作者：Dave Kalina

《Waking Mars》已推出2个月，我们刚发行一个较大的更新内容，所以现在似乎是回顾游戏在App Store表现情况的绝佳时机。

这里我们也将呈现《Spider》和《Spider HD》的销售情况——这是我们一直想做的事情。

Waking Mars from applenapps.com

为什么要分享数据？

我们坚信分享信息意义重大。在我们刚创建Tiger Style时，业内有许多“淘金热”类型的新闻报道和博文，主要谈论小型开发商如何在App Store获得丰厚营收。

这些文章令我们受益匪浅，促使我们将目标转移至App Store，而不是其他推广或硬件平台。通过查看市场相关信息，及坚信自己能够胜任游戏开发工作，我们踏入iPhone领域，觉得自己能够在这条正确道路上维持生计。

通过进行回顾，也许我们可以充当参照数据点，帮助其他开发者在自己的业务中做出明智决策。

鼓励冒险

App Store令Tiger Style之类的小型独立开发者从中受益匪浅——我们可以选择制作预期的游戏类型，而且在全球范围内销售作品的门槛很低。我们无需经过封闭系统的层层过滤，无需迎合发行商模糊目标用户的理念。

我们工作室的成立清楚说明，公司完全能够依靠着眼于创新和玩法获得生存，但并不意味这是件易事。通过和公众分享我们的销售成绩，也许我们能够鼓励他人采取同样的冒险行为（游戏邦注：同时要留心潜在陷阱）。

App Store的头两月表现

《Waking Mars》于2012年3月1日发行，头两个月游戏维持4.99美元价位，共售出4.4万份，这令我们收获约15万美元的净收入。

WakingMars 2Months from gamasutra.com

头两个月创收15万美元算是个非常不错的成绩，若趋势保持平稳，我们就能够持续维持这一收益水平。但这一趋势并不平稳。我们截自目前的总收入有超过一半是在头7天获得的。本周，我们获得苹果的推荐，同时出现在美国iPhone和iPad的“Game of the Week”中。在iPad平台，这款游戏是美国应用商店排名第九的畅销作品，而游戏在iPhone则排名35——都是发生在作品发行的第二天。

下面就来看看《Spider》推出前两个月的销售情况（可追溯至2009年8月10日）：

Spider 2Months from gamasutra.com

下面是《Spider HD》推出前两个月的销售情况（游戏只有iPad版本，于2010年7月发行）：

SpiderHD 2Months from gamasutra.com

比较结果

查看尾随《Waking Mars》图表之后的iPhone版《Spider》图表，我们就会发现些许有趣差异。《Waking Mars》的单日销售高峰更突出，但总收入下滑趋势比《Spider》更急剧。下面是若干解释这一情况的理论。

* 《Waking Mars》售价4.99美元，而非2.99美元。相比4.99美元，休闲玩家也许更愿意以2.99美元冲动购买无名小型开发者的作品。

* 市场变得更饱和，质量门槛有所提高，涌现更多有价值的低价位游戏作品（游戏邦注：包括免费模式的游戏）。这令冗长的单人游戏越发难以在长期范围内获取成功。《Waking Mars》并非旨在持续吸引用户重返游戏；其预期体验周期是6-12小时。当你完成所有内容的探索，显然就没有什么理由继续游戏。

* 也许《Spider》拥有更广泛的吸引力，是款基于当代社会及熟悉环境的游戏作品，而《Waking Mars》则属于科幻题材，是基于陌生的空间。我们觉得瞄准iPhone用户设计《Spider》是明智之举，而相比之下，《Waking Mars》更属于更深刻、更传统的掌机题材，这也许更适合其他平台。

4.99美元——存有疑义的决策？

需牢记的是，iOS设备的用户安装基础相比2009年8月已提高很多倍。单从这点来看，我们就对《Waking Mars》的销售成绩颇为失望。我常在想若游戏定价2.99美元，而非4.99美元，我们就能够创造更多收益，吸引更多用户。

而从另一方面来看，定价4.99美元让我们拥有更大的调整空间。关键反馈信息显示，多数用户似乎觉得，游戏包含至少5美元以上的价值，以此价位在过去一个月内每天平均售出250份是个不容小视的成绩。我们目前正在进试验，看看降低价格能否在长远范围内带来积极结果。和本周采取的其他举措一样，降价能够有效促使之前无动于衷的玩家开始尝试体验游戏。

此外，《Waking Mars》是款更适合其他平台的游戏作品，我们开始尽早采取行动，于今年将其推向PC/Mac/Linux平台。定价4.99美元同时也强化这一理念：游戏是严肃而有意义的作品，而不只是单纯的手机游戏。我们希望游戏的长尾效应能够延伸到App Store平台外。

评估成功

成功关乎角度问题。就所耗人工时及目前所获收益来看，有人也许会看着我们的数据，认为我们是失败的。Tiger Style由两位成员构成（我和Randy Smith），我们将继续向各位参与者支付报酬。就一个成立3.5年的公司来说，我们的收益增长势头有时显得有些缓慢。但我们会继续坚持下去。

从创意视角来看，我们算是颇为成功——我们实现自己的目标，创造有意义、有所回馈的作品。我们已推出两款备受赞誉的作品，获取众多用户。

从商业角度来看，我觉得能够存活下来就算是个巨大的胜利。我们以非传统方式经营自己的商店。我们没有办公地点，我们无需支付工资——相反，我们完全呈分散形式，会向许多杰出的参与者支付报酬。我们从未引进半分投资——却还能够偿还账单，依靠自己的力量经营公司是件非常有意义的事情，虽然有时这有点像是起伏不定的过山车经历。

降低价格

也许你有听说，我们降低游戏的销售价格。4.99美元在App Store依然算是相当高的价位，尤其是在iPhone平台。《Spider》在美国售价2.99美元的应用中综合排名第四，我们乐观地坚信，即便是在此偏好99美分价位及免费模式的游戏市场中，我们依然有机会凭借2.99美元出售更多游戏作品，获取更多用户。

或许，也许《Waking Mars》过于瞄准细分市场，其销量很难通过降价而有所提高。将游戏定价4.99美元时，我们就告诉自己这能够帮我们过滤掉寻求一次性娱乐的用户，同时告诉用户游戏比App Store的其他作品更丰富、更严肃。差异化的意义显著。

我们头天的销量非常突出。我们需静观结果，看看自己能否维持此新发展势头。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Indie studio Tiger Style breaks down key trends in its iOS sales data

by Dave Kalina

[In this article originally published on Tiger Style's official website, studio co-founder and indie developer Dave Kalina breaks down the sales numbers for his team's iOS titles, noting some important sales patterns that emerge after a game's launch.]

Waking Mars has been on sale for two months, and we just released a big update, so it seems like a great opportunity to reflect on its progress in the App Store.

While we’re at it, we’ll also show you the sales numbers for Spider and Spider HD — something we’ve wanted to do for a while now.

I hope you find it interesting!

Why Share Numbers?

We believe strongly in the spirit and value of sharing information. When we were starting Tiger Style, there were many ‘gold rush’ style news articles and blog posts highlighting small garage developers making significant money in the App Store.

These articles (viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism and pragmatism) were useful to us, and helped steer our business toward the App Store, rather than some other distribution or hardware platform. Looking honestly at the available information about the marketplace, and considering our faith in our own ability as game developers, we entered into the iPhone market believing that there was a legitimate chance we could make a living, given the right approach.

By giving back, perhaps we can serve as a data point that other developers can use to make informed decisions in their own business.

Encouraging Risk-Taking

The App Store has been a boon to a small independent developer like Tiger Style –we can choose to create any kind of game that we want and the barriers to selling our product globally are minimal. We don’t need to pass through the strong filters of a more closed ecosystem, nor do we need to appeal to some publisher’s idea of a nebulous target demographic.

As a result, we take on a lot of risk. We care a lot about innovating and inventing new forms of gameplay and moving the medium forward in some small way. Broadly speaking, these goals have been of greater importance to us than the goal of “being a mega-profitable business.” That said, we always keep an eye on the market and our own ability to make an impact there. For Tiger Style to continue its existence and stay independent, we literally have to sell copies of our games. Lots of them, in fact.

Our very existence should hopefully demonstrate that it is possible to survive with a company focused on innovation and gameplay, but that doesn’t mean that it’s an easy thing to do. By sharing our sales numbers with the public, perhaps we can encourage others to take similar risks — with a cautious eye on the potential pitfalls.

Hey, Over Here!

This week, we coordinated a bunch of efforts in order to make news. An update with iPad retina assets and new jetpacks. We commissioned an updated app icon from our excellent graphic designer friend Cory Schmitz. We updated Spider for the iPad. Maybe we can generate some news and goodwill and interest simply by virtue of openly sharing information with the public.

Your support is truly valuable to us. We’re a tiny company and we’re really committed to staying 100 percent independent and continuing to do meaningful work. Every week there are literally dozens (hundreds?) of new game experiences clamoring for your attention. It’s hard work to stay relevant and visible in such a crowded gaming landscape.

If you haven’t tried Waking Mars, please consider checking it out. If you think this post is worth sharing, please share it. Any way we can reach new people is valuable to us.

Two Months In The App Store

Waking Mars was released on March 1, 2012, and we sold it at $4.99 for the entirety of its first two months. We sold over 44,000 copies, which puts our net revenue at approximately $150,000 USD.

$150K in two months would be amazing if the curve was flat and we were guaranteed that income forever! Alas, the curve — as you can see — is not flat. We earned more than half our total revenue to date in the first 7 days. During this week, we were featured by Apple as both the iPhone and iPad Game of the Week in the US. On the iPad, we peaked as the number 9 top selling game in the US store, whereas on the iPhone, we peaked at number 35 — both on our second day of sales.

Let’s look at Spider’s sales over the first two months of its existence, starting back in the stone ages (umm, August 10, 2009):

Spider for iPhone earned roughly $244k in its first 2 months of existence and has gone on to earn $577k to present day.

For sake of completion, here are the first two months of Spider HD (the iPad only version of Spider, released in July of 2010):

Comparing The Products

Looking at the Spider-iPhone chart next to the Waking Mars chart highlights some interesting differences. Waking Mars actually peaked at a higher single-day revenue, but the revenue fell off much more sharply than Spider’s. Some theories on why this is the case:

* Waking Mars sold for $4.99 instead of $2.99. Casual gamers who might be willing to make an impulse purchase on a game from an unknown, indie developer at $2.99 are less willing at $4.99.

* The marketplace is significantly more crowded, with a higher quality bar, and there is greater value available at lower price points (including free). In particular this makes it harder for long-form single-player games to succeed over time. Waking Mars is not a game that was created to engage people repeatedly over a long period of time; it is designed to be played and (hopefully) appreciated over 6-12 hours. When you’re done exploring the content, there are few reasons to continue playing indefinitely.

* Perhaps Spider simply has a broader appeal, being a game that is grounded in the present day and a familiar environment, whereas Mars is sci-fi, built around the strange and unfamiliar. We believe that we were smarter about designing specifically for the iPhone demographic when we built Spider, whereas, by comparison, Waking Mars is a deeper, more traditional console-style game that might have been a more natural fit on another platform.

$4.99 – A Questionable Decision?

It’s worth remembering that the install base of iOS devices is multiple times larger today than it was in August of 2009. Considering that factor alone, we’re a little disappointed in the sales of Waking Mars. I often think we would have brought in more money and had more users to show for it if we had launched at $2.99 instead of $4.99.

The flip side of launching at $4.99 is that we have a bit more room to maneuver with the product. The critical response demonstrates that most of our players seem to think there is at least $5 of value in this product, and moving an average of 250 units a day at this price point over the past month is nothing to sneeze at. We can now experiment and see if dropping price is a long-term net positive. And, like everything else we’re doing this week, dropping price is a great way to get previously reticent gamers to jump on board.

Waking Mars is also a product that will adapt more naturally to other platforms, and we are taking early steps to bring it to PC/Mac/Linux later this year. Launching at $4.99 also reinforces the idea that the game is serious and significant, and that it’s not just a mobile game.” We hope that this game’s long tail will extend out beyond the App Store.

Evaluating Success

Success is a matter of perspective. Considering the man-hours spent (at last count, over 12500) and the revenue earned to date, some may look at our numbers and think we are failing. Tiger Style is comprised of two owners (myself and Randy Smith) and we continue to pay royalties to over a dozen part time contributors. For a business that is 3.5 years old, our income gets stretched a bit thin at times. But we continue to hang on!

From a creative standpoint, we feel very successful –we are accomplishing our goals and doing meaningful, rewarding work. We’ve released two critically acclaimed games (launching two original IPs in the process) and have reached hundreds of thousands of gamers.

From a business perspective, we consider it a major victory just to survive and create another day. We run our shop in a very non-traditional manner. We have no office space and we pay no salaries — instead, we are fully distributed and pay royalties to our many amazing and talented contributors. We have never taken a dime of investment capital –being able to pay our bills and run our business on our own terms is tremendously rewarding, even if it can be a wildly inconsistent roller-coaster at times.

Dropping Price

As you may have heard, we just dropped our price. $4.99 is still considered a steep price in the App Store, especially on the iPhone. Spider was the number 4 overall app in the US App Store as $2.99, and we’re optimistic that even in a marketplace that is skewing ever more towards $0.99 and free-to-play, we have a chance to sell many more copies and reach thousands of new gamers at a lower price.

Or perhaps it’s true that Waking Mars is simply too niche for sales to scale up dramatically at lower price points. When choosing $4.99 for launch, we convinced ourselves that it would help filter out gamers who were looking only for disposable entertainment, and that it would help communicate that the product is more substantial and serious than much of what’s on the App Store. Differentiating can be valuable.

Our first day on sale was pretty excellent. Now we’ll see if we can sustain any of this newfound momentum. Check back soon to see how we’re doing at $2.99!（Source：gamasutra）