Indie iPhone dev makes half-a-mil, we question our career choices

by Xav de Matos { Feb 16th 2009 at 11:55PM }

Dear Whoever is in charge of this sinking ship,

This games journalism thing has been great, really it has, but word around the campfire says iPhone development is the wave of the future. So, with dreams of owning my own "dive-able" pit of money, like Scrooge McDuck, I'm totally outta here. You can't be surprised. Ethan Nicholas is just one of the developers rolling fat wads of dough after releasing the game iShoot, which was demoed by over 2.4 million users and shot to the top of the most purchased games list when he released a free trial version, iShootLite.

According to Nicholas, he earned $37,000 in a single day with tiny iMoneyMachine. Do you have any idea how many news posts (and lolcats) that is? Right now, iShoot hovers within the Top Ten games on the iTunes App Store -- a store made up of about 20,000 applications -- and Nicholas thinks the small tank artillery game will make him a millionaire by years end.

Now, I don't know anything about programing on iPhone -- nor do I have the patience to read a bunch of online FAQs to learn how, like Nicolas did -- but my plan is pretty solid: 1) Kidnap iPhone developers 2) Steal their ideas 3) ??? 4) PROFIT. Peace out, suckers!

Love,
Xav de Matos

P.S. If this developer thing doesn't work out, disregard this email and I'll see you at work in the morning.

Tags: indie, iphone, ishoot, ishootlite, itunes

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ice~ @ Feb 17th 2009 12:08AM

i got an idea for a game. Give me $50,000 and a bag of Koala dung, and I'll tell you.

Lavat @ Feb 17th 2009 12:09AM

See ya tomorrow.

reppy @ Feb 17th 2009 12:11AM

So this guy made half a million by remaking Scorched Earth?

BigD145 @ Feb 17th 2009 12:44AM

Yes. Now go pick another wildly popular game from the 80's or 90's, call it iShit or iWhatever, and make it run on the iPhone/Touch.

aj @ Feb 17th 2009 2:03AM

If someone has already paid 500$ for a cell phone, then you already know they'll buy anything.

Kevin949 @ Feb 17th 2009 6:01AM

Man I'm glad I'm not the only one that remembers that awesome game.

Seems that scorched earth style games are becoming the rage.

butaneko @ Feb 17th 2009 11:12AM

napalm FTW!

deathxrebirth @ Feb 17th 2009 12:12AM

That is a great story. Good for him.

The App store continues to amaze. When something like iFart gets downloaded a million times (don't know the exact number*), it too makes me question what I am doing with my life...

...iFart! Goddamit...

Baby J Penn (PSN johnnynumber5) @ Feb 17th 2009 12:12AM

I have lots of iPhone games and most of them suck. There are a handful of solid titles but they are few and far between. However, after reading this article it makes me want to come up with a fun concept and make it happen on the iPhone. It could be done in spare time and I do have a background in computer animation. However, I would probably struggle to write any kind of code to run in the background.

Congrats to the developer who saw his project through and made it a reality. Regardless of the economy creative individuals will find a way to make money and prosper.

Levi @ Feb 17th 2009 10:13AM

I'm not an advanced programmer, but I have a decent amount of experience with 2D game programming. I was totally ready to step it up a notch and make a game for the iPhone when they announced the development platform, until I realized you had to have a mac to program for it. I have no Mac, nor am I willing to plunk down the money for one just to make a game that probably won't pay for it. This guy's app being in the top ten makes it an acception. Look at all the low priced games, some of them even look decent, that get no more than like 10 or 20 downloads.

I agree that most of them are crap. My favorite so far (once you get used to it) is Puzzle Quest.

Btw, I replied to your question about the Genesis Collection :)

Dave @ Feb 17th 2009 2:16PM

@Levi

I believe that you can dual boot to OS X if you use VMWare. I actually just read about this the other day and am going to give it a shot.

Levi @ Feb 17th 2009 4:22PM

I may have to check that out when I get my new laptop. It could be infinitely fun to develop an iPhone game. Something with lots of blood. Over the top. I'll check it out dude, thanks.

Longhorn4Life (PSN MariusElijah) @ Feb 17th 2009 12:16AM

Why does the iPhone have to be exclusive to AT&T?
And can the iTouch have these kinds of apps as well?

Lucas Schafer @ Feb 17th 2009 12:20AM

Yes the *cough*iPod touch*cough* can get these apps too, but you have to be in wifi to download them, but not in wifi to play them.

halo 3 sucks. @ Feb 17th 2009 12:21AM

i have this app on my itouch...

Longhorn4Life (PSN MariusElijah) @ Feb 17th 2009 12:33AM

Oh thanks, i wasnt sure about it, I was planning on buying one but didnt want to spend all that money for it to just collect dust, I have my PS3 for that

Rahul (Rurouni Kenshin Forever!) @ Feb 17th 2009 12:41AM

I believe the Ipod Touch can run almost all apps the IPhone can. Infact, I've heard the 1st and 2nd generations of Ipod Touches and IPhones have different processors, with the 2nd gen Touch having the fastest processor.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10106891-37.html

butaneko @ Feb 17th 2009 11:13AM

Can people please stop saying iTouch? That product doesn't exist. It's called the iPod Touch.

Love,
Killjoy Jr.

KE1 @ Feb 17th 2009 12:44AM

I wish I could make money off game starved morons. Yes I wish I could be Blizzard.

VaultICEE @ Feb 17th 2009 1:04AM

...Give it up for KE1 everybody!

Longhorn4Life (PSN MariusElijah) @ Feb 17th 2009 1:09AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngSZWRdyBe8

HippoHero @ Feb 17th 2009 1:11AM

Only half a mil?

It would be much easier to make that kind of money by robbing a bank or through insurance fraud, you know; you needn't give up your days of gaming journalism to make a paltry 500 grand. There are plenty of other less labour-intensive endeavours one could pursue to earn such coinage.

I would recommend marrying in to wealth. There's practically no work involved and if you ever want to call it quits, you get to take half of everything your partner owns.

WiredKnight @ Feb 17th 2009 1:14AM

Ah, the app store, where anyone can make a million dollars reinventing the wheel.

kevin @ Feb 17th 2009 1:15AM

LMAO @ author of story

and wtf is an iTouch. You mean contact lenses?

Kool_Kid_Joe @ Feb 17th 2009 1:31AM

DUCK TALES

Woo-ooh!

aj @ Feb 17th 2009 2:01AM

So you're saying that someone made a game that was fun and simple, worked on a popular platform, charged a reasonable amount of money for it, and he made a lot of money?

Someone should tell the games industry about this. It would be revolutionary.

EndCat @ Feb 17th 2009 2:07AM

I could probably make an iPhone game, if I was just a little less lazy.

But I'm not, so fuck it.

Deone @ Feb 17th 2009 3:51AM

It saddens me that I'm getting old and still don't have my own "dive-able pit of money". I was totally supposed to have one and bask in all its really dirty glory by now, if I remember my 'age: 8' goal set correctly.

I heard some guy named Bob has a really totally awesome game that would be perfectly suited for the i-whats it called, but fucking apple wouldn't send him any developer FAQ's. So he is locking himself in his parents basement and using exclusively Windows comps and HTC Touches with Windows Mobile on it for 12 hours. He was gonna go longer, but than he realized Windows teh sucks.

(Before the Windows majority offhandedly down-votes me, bear in mind I'm using Windows and don't own a single Apple product, so do it for my terrible attempt at humor and not because I took a stab at Windows, thats what all the cool kids do)

(Before the Uber Cool Apple folks offhandedly down-vote me for my admission of not owning a single Apple product, bear in mind its because I'm a starving graduate, can't afford it, and my Zune was a gift. I did buy my woman a shuffle [and not because i thought it was those new Trojan finger stimulators])

WiredKnight @ Feb 17th 2009 4:41AM

Can I downvote you because you think "Apple folk" are "uber cool?"

Deone @ Feb 17th 2009 3:25PM

Shew, tough crowd. The uber-cool remark was a bit satirical.

jynxycat @ Feb 17th 2009 4:10AM

This story isn't as awesome as the guy who programmed iFart, and made a ton of cash off of it.

This game probably took more than 15 minutes.

Either way, this is no different than shovelware for the 360/ps3/wii, it's just that those companies don't come out and talk about their success as much.

PinkMachineGuns @ Feb 17th 2009 5:02AM

this guy sez: let me show you how its done

Lee @ Feb 17th 2009 7:05AM

Hasn't everyone made even a bit from iPhone apps yet?

aristokrat @ Feb 17th 2009 7:30AM

And I was just wondering when the next train to invisible town was leaving...

Patrick @ Feb 17th 2009 8:04AM

Bull, this guy made money remaking this one online game where you are a tank and there is wind and different shells...in fact it had shotgun shells as well. I smell a lawsuit...seriously. I wish I remembered the name...oh yeah its called TANKS.

yaksplat @ Feb 17th 2009 8:08AM

This game was cooler when it was called Worms.

ToRo @ Feb 17th 2009 8:22AM

What a shame. The G1 blows the iPhone out of the water. But it's been proven that people are stupid. They'll buy/watch anything that has an i before it.

Jeezus, I can't believe my little sister watches the abomination they call iCarly. Seriously, I sat down and watched it with her and these kids are like 12-13 and their already worrying about dating. Go climb a tree or something!

Lee @ Feb 17th 2009 8:28AM

Because the G1 has all the features under the sun but a horrible interface and design. Slide out screen, really?
The G1 just feels like some kind of cheap early 2000 Korean MP3 player where the website would say "NOW WITH MUSIC PLAYER 3 PLAYING TECKNOLOGY" and half the links didn't work. All they need is an industial designer.

Also: no multitouch.

ToRo @ Feb 17th 2009 11:50AM

Are you serious? Have even tried texting on the iPhone? It's like wearing gloves. Not only that but the iPhone was WAY over priced when it first came out.

You obviously haven't been with a G1 long enough. http://tinyurl.com/5nc9td

Apple is a disgusting company, who takes advantage of there brand by over charging for there products. ($600 for a non 3G iPhone, really?) No thanks, I'll stick with my G1.

Deone @ Feb 18th 2009 3:57AM

yeah ok it can register multi touch, but if i read the page you linked to properly, it has no actual implementation of it on the Android OS. That makes the capability as useless as the expansion bay on the N64, which was going to allow you to play Earthbound 2, with a CD.

I'm no iFanboy. Partially because I'm too poor and put most of my focus into being a video game nerd instead of a yuppie. I will probably become an Apple afficionado when money becomes no object for me.

Martin Greenberg @ Feb 17th 2009 8:42AM

eh, it's not that fun. imagine how rich he'd be if it was, though

Hedgeson @ Feb 17th 2009 9:54AM

Scorched Earth! I don't know if it was the first game of it's kind, but it was awesome on our 386. Falling dirt, exploding dirt, and sliding down mountain slopes was great. Now that I think about it, the code of Scorched Earth must have been really well done. It had terrain deformation!

Ah! the days where programmers had to really watch how much ressources their programs used. Code was optimized to the maximum.