Hi, I wanted to shoot over a link to my latest labor of love on the iOS app store.
I used 3ds Max, Photoshop and Unity engine to create the assets for this project.
It took me about 4-5 weeks of production and I finally got it all wrapped up.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tablet-match/id492315709?ls=1&mt=8
Thought maybe I could give some insights that may or may not help some folks. I submitted this app on Jan. 2nd, I was approved on Jan. 9th, so about a 7 day turnaround for approval. So far, I’ve made 7 unit sales on day 1. I didn’t expect my first game to do amazing, though I made sure to polish it :). It’s geared towards children and adults who might like memory games, so it’s not as broad a genre.
How much of the code did you base off of the iOS matching game tutorial?
Well it was all a base for me to get started. By the end of my production on it, I had either completely modified/changed all of the code. There were a lot of aspects of it that didn’t do what I wanted at all on iOS…thankfully the folks in these forums helped me get the code working! It really helped me learn Unityscript more in depth. I almost consider myself a programmer now, but not quite yet 
I looked through the scripts for that project, but didn’t really understand the code. I’d like to buy a unity iOS license, but can’t afford it right now on top of the apple developer license.
Well I couldn’t either, if it were not for tax time! Last tax year I invested almost all of my refund into iOS development…I even bought the 21" iMac that was new in Feb. of 2011. The code was hard to grasp too…so at first I broke it down into what I could accomplish. For me I wanted to be able to register the touches on the device…so I focused on creating trigger colliders, using raycasts to hit the colliders and then using a function to make that raycast hit do something…i.e. spawn particles, animate some 3d geometry, or turn on/off some textures. There is an article I think called Unityscript for Noobs if you Google it…and it broke it down very simple to understand. If you get started and make a strong effort the folks in here will help you so much with scripts and issues!
Well about 9 sales so far…I realized I didn’t do a very good job marketing the game. It’s my first title, so it’s a start!
Does that mean you just made 70% of $9?
Well, it’s not quite that even, cause I did have sales in Japan. In the conversion they only pay like $.90 for the app, so it’s less. I look at it as 70% of each sale, and then kinda do the math from that. Also Apple has a payment threshold that you have to meet every 45 days, it’s $150 bucks. If you don’t exceed $150 bucks in the 45 day period there is no payout yet.
Congrats on getting this on the stores
You’re 9 sales infront of many other people (including me), so you can build on that ! Hope to see many games from you in the future, instead of these assets that I stumble over everywhere ^^
Good luck with your next project, since you stated your biggest lack was marketing, gonna be nice to see what you change around for the next project !
Well thank you for the encouraging words. I owe alot to the forum members in here for their help. I’m gonna approach my new project a better way!
Congrats on a great milestone.
You can and should be writing all of this off! You are selling under your company name “fatBOX Software” - a sole proprietorship I assume. I’m no tax wizard, but depending on when you registered, when you claim your income for app sales this next tax year make sure to deduct all of your hardware and software licensing costs associated with app dev. You may even claim a loss for your first year or two if you fail to cover your equipment costs in app sales.
Long story short you won’t need to pay taxes on your app income up to the cost of your equipment deductions. You won’t get your full investment back, but you will get 20 - 40% of it back ultimately depending on your tax bracket.
All, a small critique, you may want to make the font a bit easier to read for children. Maybe this isn’t a problem for them to read at all, but you can’t really be sure until play testing with some kids! (Besides it would probably be fun to see some kids enjoy your app)
Well thank you for the advice. I have done schedule C’s in the past for freelance work, so I know just what you’re talking about.
Yeah the only child I playtested with was my son, who’s 6.
You have not done anything wrong. You should still gently market it, get it into reviewer’s hands. I like to do what I call my “10 minutes a day”. I spend 10 minutes a day and so does my artist, on marketing all our stuff. Every day, usually in the mornings when sorting emails.
Not allowed to do anything until those 10 mins are done. It could be a forum mention. It could be a promo code. Or an email to a blog. But those 10 minutes a day add up and 6 months later you will be earning some kind of bare minimum that the game can earn. Looking at your game confuses me what it is so I would from experience, guess it’s bare minimum would be about 10 dollars a day - once you market, with the maximum being a lot higher.
If its not charting, it’s time for a category change + review and update (try to coincide the update launch on the same day as a good review). This may bump your title into visible ranges again. Good luck and don’t feel down about it. That’s an order from the hippo! Second title, get to it 
Thanks for the encouragement! I have discovered if I give promo codes away, which I have plenty…people cannot review the game! What the heck is up with that?
Was a new mechanism apple brought in a couple of months, ago I guess. Guess too many people were catching others with a free game vs. “please leave a good game review”. But then again I read something on december 2011 on the toucharcade forums, that it might be possible again ?
Yeah I just looked at that forum post and it appears it should be working again…hopefully that’s true. I don’t know how to really wisely use my promo codes.
Well for reviewers/editors, I’d say.
Yeh yeh, some of these claim to purchase the games they are testing/reviewing, but many many sites ask for promo codes, after you first contacted them.
@ Acumen - Your portfolio is awesome! Love all of the DS resolution stuff! It’s kinda my specialty too, but I got some catching up to do with you lol.
lol, says the guy who got a superpolished game released by himself and worked on numerous titles (read: actual games) - haha, good one 
One thing that I keep asking myself is, “How does the chosen style fit the actual game(play)”. The realistic style is really different to the usual “casual” style that kids or younger (minded) persons might cherish, yet the actual gameplay is not too complex to flow along the artstyle.
But, um I guess this was your proof-of-concept thing so I’m really excited to get to know your next project. Hope you’ll keep using Unity and posting in here. Very curious what you’ll come up with, cause I only saw your normal game models on polycount so far, from time to time. First game made me interested in your future journey