Expense Report: WordSearch Hero

[mind]

In the interest of sharing information....

WordSearch Hero went out yesterday. https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...wordsearchhero

Development time: 16 months

Costs to contractors:
Outsourced Programming: $23k
Outsourced Graphics work: $35k

Misc other expenses too.

What did I get for all that work ?
- 2450 drawables.
- 76k LOC excluding all libraries/addons/jar files/etc

Comments:
1) Don't reply saying "I could have got the graphics work for cheaper/etc" .... the last person that tried that ended up finding out it was only true if the graphics were shitty.
2) Don't spam this thread with "congrats" messages. Use this thread: http://forums.makingmoneywithandroid...y-3rd-app.html
3) I am probably going to drop a decent amount into FB advertising...

And for some unknown reason... it is available in Google Play via search..... but not showing up in the "What's New" lists..... grrr

[jim]

Nice Game.

Avatar Creation seems a little overkill.
I thought you are a developer and did original Word Hero development by yourself. Any reason for outsourcing development of this game?

[Mateusz]

It's pretty impresive ammount of money. I hope it will pay off

What I can say: avatars on the beginning are bit pixeled (Motorola Moto G) Also faces have their forhead cut. Another thing are all those communicates at the beginning. I don't mean tutorial but avatar change or version info. I think it's too much for people who just started the app for the first time.

[mind]

Any reason for outsourcing development of this game?

I outsourced the creation of the game board, and dragging/selecting of letters.
I also outsourced the following, but did not use them in the game:
- Timely like timer that counts down (if anyone wants to redo this in AndEngine, I will pay you. You will need to be comfortable with low level OpenGL though!)
- Using Facebook to exchange 'items' (eg: unlock levels, extra lives)
- QuickBlox chat client implementation

Yes... there was meant to be realtime chat in the game too... but I cut that feature as it would take too damn long to make it look/feel decent.

[mind]

What I can say: avatars on the beginning are bit pixeled (Motorola Moto G) Also faces have their forhead cut. Another thing are all those communicates at the beginning. I don't mean tutorial but avatar change or version info. I think it's too much for people who just started the app for the first time.

- Avatars are 512x512, but it will downsample based on the size of the image requested. Quality depends on the drawable downsizing algorithm.
- Forehead : try the zoom button on the right side of the Avatar
- I know.... but wtf do you do when people complain they cannot understand your game ? However, look at how complex Puzzles&Dragons is.. That sucker needs a manual!

[BaksaiApps]

WOW, that´s a HUGE investment for a single person (at least in my country). Good luck! Bring 5MM downloads!

[mind]

Incidentally... to the person who tried to sell me fake reviews ... and their website also sells GP accounts.... you might want to rethink how those two look together

[mind]

WOW, that´s a HUGE investment for a single person (at least in my country). Good luck! Bring 5MM downloads!

Yeah... it's like a year's salary after tax here for an Engineer (not a software engineer... a REAL one!)

[reiti.net]

That's actually a pretty high amount of money but I think it also shows how expensive all this work actually is. In that region I would actually question if the game is able to pay it back - I hope it will, at least because it means the mobile market is still open for opportunities if someone decides to invest a lot of money/time into it.

Can I ask why you target the android market - it still seems true, that there is more money on the iphone market (talking about ROI) - not sure if andengine is capable of crossplattform?

[mind]

That's actually a pretty high amount of money but I think it also shows how expensive all this work actually is. In that region I would actually question if the game is able to pay it back - I hope it will, at least because it means the mobile market is still open for opportunities if someone decides to invest a lot of money/time into it.

Can I ask why you target the android market - it still seems true, that there is more money on the iphone market (talking about ROI) - not sure if andengine is capable of crossplattform?

Technically, I have a really good graphics guy I am paying $35/hr. I feel that is reasonable and a lot cheaper than someone in the USA. Remember those costs are over 16months, not 12.

Why Android only ? Because Android has 80% of the world market, and I could leverage all the WordHero leaderboard + low level networking code. I would love to be able to release on all platforms.... but with 70k LOC excluding all the 3rd party SDK's.... how long would it have taken 1 guy ? Oh... and I don't want to buy Apple hardware