App Store or Kongregate?

News & General Discussion
1

So, I’m working on a new game and before I start doing any coding I want to decide if I want to release it on the App Store or Kongregate.

It seems like if you make a game that people will want to come back and play more than once, you could easily make more money on Kongregate than on the App Store, even with a lite version directing people to your paid game.

I just wanted to know if anybody had any opinions on the matter!

2

Why does it have to be either/or?

–Eric

3

i suppose it doesn’t. it just makes a lot of small decisions easier to make if i decide on one or the other. i guess the main reason is just evaluating what kind of revenue i’d get making a lite and paid iOS app versus a fully-featured web game. if i’m just doing one or the other, it makes figuring out the game’s structure simpler. there’s also extra ad revenue on kongregate if you’re exclusive to their site.

i’m mainly just looking for general input on the two platforms before i commit to prototyping outside of pen paper.

4

You can probably make more money on the app store than kong. I think you have to get 1k plays for every dollar. If you look at the games ranked by unity the highest is around 400k which about $400. However on the app store if you sold at tier one you would only need to sell 400 units which is alot easier.
http://www.kongregate.com/unity-games

5

Yeap. I do agree iOS makes more. But i am thinking how you want the game to be. If it’s not bout the profits i think making for kong isn’t bad too. Making for iOS requres some things like having a Mac which i don’t so i will say go with what Windows can build. Web/Standalone.

6

i probably should’ve mentioned: i’ve both sold iOS apps and had games on kongregate.

i guess my iOS releases have been more successful, but not by much. it’s what’s made me consider just releasing it on kongregate. with the right hooks, you could get a lot of plays.

i dunno. maybe i can find a good way to do both.

7

I would start with iOS and later expand it to a full featured Kongregate game.
Thats for two reasons:

  1. Its easier to expand in that direction
  2. Because you can expand the reach and exposure of the iOS game that way and its to expect that the financial potential is signfiicantly larger on iOS than Kongregate
8

try to publish to as many platforms as possible the more you spread your changes the less risk involved. Also the bigger the reach the bigger the market. Release multiple versions of your game a free version/demo that tries to grab an as large amount of audience as possible and have a full/HD version that brings in the bucks. Also consider letting users pay for DLC or split your game up in multiple parts so you can also sell sequels. Try to keep your buying threshold as low as possible. For example if you have a game of 10 hours of game play split your game up in 4 parts of 2,5 hours. For parts the parts you can get 2$ a part but people will be reluctant to pay 8$ for a game.

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