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[Bennett]

I'm the record-holder in the 1-minute challenge. 

[Bennett]

I'm the record-holder in the 1-minute challenge. 

Another possible bug - the list of longest words you get in the top score section doesn't seem to be sorted in any particular way.

[AdamAtomic]

Woot, top 40!  Also, a nice review or two:

http://weblogs.redeyechicago.com/iphoneblog/2008/08/iptib-shops-the.html

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Wurdle/news.asp?c=8350

[increpare]

Might well get a spot on gizmodo soon

[moi]

Congratulations.
What's your percentage on the price?

[Bennett]

I just wanted to say you inspired me to get off my arse and enroll in the iphone developer program. I already have managed to make it draw a grey circle on my iphone's screen.  As any coder knows, that means I'm 85% of the way to having a complete game.  :D  (Seriously though, why does it have to be so hard to set up an IDE and an SDK?)

For those of us who can get by the economic barrier to entry (mac, iphone, developer subscription) I think the app store represents a pretty cool opportunity for indies. The royalty rate is currently good, the device is good, and there is this whole untapped market of potential gamers who can purchase your game by pressing a button while they're on the train.

[AdamAtomic]

Benzido - glad to hear that!  That's great 

In the last 2 days sales dropped, we did 200 and 150 respectively.  We're working on putting together a few things that we hope will entice more people to buy in the upcoming weeks:

1 - Press Release
2 - Video showing play and features
3 - "Lite" version that can be downloaded and played for free (very feature-limited)
4 - Update with bug fixes and new sound effects

The saga continues....


EDIT - we appear to be sitting pretty steady at #46/47 top-selling game right now, this is a pretty comfy spot to be at.  Also, my wife and I designed our next game earlier today.  It's not a clone!

[Bennett]

My game isn't a clone either. I have animation and multitouch up and running, which is very exciting. Programming is fun!

Can I ask: Did you use OpenGL or Quartz2d for Wurdle? I'm guessing the latter, since it appears antialiased. Were there any big performance killers?

[MekanikDestructiwKommando]

What language are Iphone apps written in? You just need a Mac to develop, right?

[Bennett]

You just need a mac running Leopard to develop. The IDE is free, it uses 'Objective C' (which, like all variants of C, is just C with a whole lot of new mumbo jumbo). The SDK is free, but if you ever want your program to run on an actual iphone, either for testing or release, you need to pay $99 to join the developer program.

[AdamAtomic]

 

Just wanted to post an update, for anybody who was interested.  Basically, we peaked on Official Day #1 with that wild 300 units sold number, and steadily decreased to our all time low of about 90 units (#65 or something in the top paid games list) just this past Thursday (a couple of days ago).  We got a nice, two-line writeup in the mac community uber-blog Daring Fireball on Friday (yesterday) night, and suddenly things were...different.  We're currently the #53 app overall and the #25 game, and still going up.  Somewhere in there we got tweeted a bunch, and about a hojillion blogs all syndicate Daring Fireball's content, so word about wurdle has been spreading really fast the last day or two.  We live in a mighty strange world!

Meanwhile we are working on completing the v1.1 update, with bug fixes, better online scoring, new sounds, some new graphics, and a couple of pretty cool new features.  We'll submit the update and the "lite" (free) version of the game sometime this week I think.  This update should address most of the feedback we've  gotten here and in the app store I hope.

I really don't know what moral to take from this experience yet.  Some thoughts:

1 - Your scope can be small as long as your work is polished
2 - iPhone consumers are much more into games than I ever expected
3 - Low price, combined with aforementioned polish seems to be a powerful COMBO

That last one is more than a little tricky though.  I think for the hours people put into it, Wurdle is worth way more than $1.99.  But I'm also fairly certain that none of these influential blogs that we never actually contacted would have picked it up on a whim if it was a pricier title.  We've also been getting really...hyperbolic reviews due to the perceived difference in price and apparent game quality, which as a first time developer with no reputation, licenses or experience on the platform has been quite a boon I think.

My thoughts so far anyways!  Hope they are of some use to someone

Finally, we've done well over 1500 sales in our first week and a half of being on the store, which is really exciting and encouraging.  Onward, and I hope upward!

[Golds]

Haha yeah, I saw the namedrop in Daring Fireball and figured it'd net you a ton of traffic.  Congrats on the success!

[Bennett]

I think for the hours people put into it, Wurdle is worth way more than $1.99.

That's not the right way to think about it. You have to compare the hours you put into it to the total revenues you make.

Congratulations on your success, by the way!

[AdamAtomic]

I think for the hours people put into it, Wurdle is worth way more than $1.99.

That's not the right way to think about it. You have to compare the hours you put into it to the total revenues you make.

Congratulations on your success, by the way!

Well that's not exactly the right way to think about it either, I think both perspectives are valid though.  Yeah, "success" can be defined as simply having your time repaid, but if you're going to be selling a product I think that pricing should really be more about what the product is WORTH, rather than how much time you put into it.  It drives me nuts that Super Mario Galaxy is cheaper than like...4x4 OffRoad Quad Racer 3.  Better games should cost more!  But, like I said, I think that pricing iPhone games at $.99 or $1.99 can put them in this funny position where if the game is decent at all, you can't not buy it.  The built-in marketplace and easy downloading is so impulse-buy oriented that I think making these small but polished games that you can afford to price the way you would price a song has had a lot to do with Wurdle's popularity.

I think we also got very lucky because word games are not so much a niche on the iPhone, and more of a like powerhouse genre, sort of the FPS of the iPhone!

[AdamAtomic]

Looks like we've just poked through the 3000 copies mark!  This was a good first 2 weeks.

[Bennett]

I just posted my first app to the store. It's not a game, it's just an experiment really. The game is coming along well though! One of the nice things about their setup is that once you have all your paperwork done, you can just go crazy posting games to the store.

I really hope a few indie devs get on board - the iphone could be the ultimate indie gaming portable!

[Golds]

Holy crap, wurdle is #9 paid app in the store!   

[mildmojo]

I just read an article about iPhone development that says part of Apple's NDA prohibits one from talking about development with other developers.  Everybody has to make mistakes for themselves?  Coding in a vacuum?

[AdamAtomic]

I ah actually haven't read the contract, and probably should...

[AdamAtomic]

The update is finally out!  Hopefully this addresses most of your feedback and suggestions.  Our next update should include some cooler online high score stuff and also some hopefully better international support!