What do you believe is the reason why your game has been successful? Please be specific, as in what gameplay elements, what balances you implemented etc.
So no one made a successful game here?
Depends on what you call “successful”. I think there are many people who are satisfied with their work so far, though their work may not have brought in much dough or recognition.
Honestly though, the pros are just going to tell you that:
hard work + experience + patience + thousands of dollars + luck = maybe a successful game.
That’s generally what they always say. 
thank you Chiggafoo, it was only a matter of time until I was gonna post the same thing.
And to clarify on successful, I mean it has lived up to their own expectations, no matter what they are.
and yea cyangamer, it seems like thats gonna be the response im gonna have to go with 
Aimed to make one game in a week (it was made in C++ and xcode) and ship it, and I did. Its still being very successful over a year later with 130 downloads average a day (good for over a year after it launched). I think in part its because its wide appeal stuff ideal time waster for mobiles… very simple play mechanic. It wasn’t successful at the start, I had to tune it, add power ups, make it easier and update it - then it was successful.
So once you release a game, your job starts. It doesn’t finish there. Watch, see whats wrong, fix it and upload a new build. You won’t get it right first time no matter how confident you are. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get it right.
Hope mikamobile reads this, they are a very successful team (I would hedge a bet that they are the most successful with unity + ios at least) - making hits like zombieville, omg pirates! and battleheart (the latter is quite addictive, you have been warned).
I think their combination of irresistable graphics and simple pick up and play mechanics is a good bet for what is successful.
HippoCoder : imo that is a great achievement, at 130 downloads a day. I am curious, what kind of game is it and is it free or if it costs money how much is it?
Attention to detail, good marketing and keeping of promises. Lots of experience (more then 13 years) with similar games. And luck on perfect team, that mean people, who were reliable and did work they promised.
How come? Its possible that this formula may exist as shown below…
Unity free + hardwork = successful game
In the real world, luck isn’t dependable, sure the guy who made minecraft got lucky with that crappy game (imo) and has made millions, but whats the chances of that. Patience, sure i suppose but anyone in this industry who does not have patience, should go work at mcdonalds, money isnt always required, unity, blender, and bimp are all free after all, experience ties in with hard work, with hardwork comes experience correct?
Hi, its barnyard bounce, a family game. Its success is largely based on presentation and energy. There’s a lot of apps people flick through on their devices or eyeball on mac / pc. If you don’t have a game that bursts with charm or energy, to hook them, they’ll never download it. It is soul that a game needs to be successful.
Graphics, theme. These don’t matter. You need energy and enthusiasm surrounding it, from its basic presentation to the text blurb before they download it. No energy, no sale.
it was for sale initially but I pulled it in place of a free version which has netted me 10k over the course since its release. Not bad for ad revenue alone and a week’s hard graft.
But let me tell you that it is no longer possible to get that kind of cash from advertising. Because now, there are so many games popping up every single day with ad sponsored revenue, that you do not get many unique ads served to the device. I hit it when ad revenue was at a peak, and it paid off.
Now because there are so many games with adverts in them, they cannot vendor a new ad to you, and so you get a repeat of the same ad, which you don’t get paid for. I am now getting a quarter of the ad revenue I did before - and the same number of downloads. The ad revenue bubble has well and truely popped.
I haven’t really released any of mine. But I think one of the key things to being succesfull as well as the obvious (work hard/experiance) is to have fun while making the game. I try to have fun when making any of my games, I think if you do that it comes across to the player too.
Heya,
I’ve been in this industry a while, on the side of learning games. Firstly, let me say that this is a fantastic time to be developing games. Yes, the market is saturated, but this is still the golden age of indie development.
This is pretty close. One thing you might add is research. Many new designers/developers assume that being a game developer just requires knowing how to code and having played a lot of games. When, in fact, game development is like rocket surgery. It is both the science of a rocket scientist and the artful grace of a surgeon.
The number one way to increase your odds of making a successful game is to read books on game design and psychology. I link to a bunch of great ones on my blog, but if I had to pick JUST two, it would be: Schell’s Art of Game Design and Schwartz’, Paradox of Choice. Read them. Twice. You will be a better game designer. I promise.
Gigiwoo.