Expense Report: WordSearch Hero

In the interest of sharing information…

WordSearch Hero went out yesterday. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rhs.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.com/android-development/11196-my-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

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?

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.

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.

  • 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!

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

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 :slight_smile:

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

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 :slight_smile:

I know the apple hardware problem :slight_smile: I’m actually using libgdx which should(!) theoretically(!) port to ios … but I never tried because I don’t want to buy the hardware needed.

I think you didn’t mention, but with that investment in creation have you planned additional expenses for marketing or do you try on your own?

I come from a country, Chile, where everybody is constantly looking for a way to game the system. Being raised in that culture i would never hire someone hour-based instead of goal-based. I mean, how do you measure how long has he been working? Furthermore, from an operation´s management perspective, don´t you think incentives are aligned in a way he is awarded for taking as much time as he can/wants?
Have you had bad experiences with a fixed contract? Or bad output?

I come from Africa and a similar culture. I pay him by the hour, and if he takes 45minutes and charges for for 1 hour… meh… cost of doing business. I do however watch his output VERY carefully!

At least this way, it is done when I say it is done, not when he delivers what he thinks is something acceptable. It also means I can say “give me 3 different versions” and I can then choose which concept to work on further.

I come from Africa and a similar culture. I pay him by the hour, and if he takes 45minutes and charges for for 1 hour… meh… cost of doing business. I do however watch his output VERY carefully!

At least this way, it is done when I say it is done, not when he delivers what he thinks is something acceptable. It also means I can say “give me 3 different versions” and I can then choose which concept to work on further.

mind,

it seems not available in Amazon (possibly in review?). If you have not uploaded it there - DO IT NOW!

apart from SCREAMING above … all the very best - hope it will rank high in Google Play.

Same DO IT NOW applies for all the other markets (Samsung, Opera … you know them).

5* done

“The only Word Search game more addictive than most drugs” :slight_smile:

Good luck with your game! Looks really polished. I will surely try it some day.

Couple of questions:

  1. Can you tell us how much you’re planning to spend on promotion? And where?
  2. What’s your expectations for downloads? How many downloads you would like to have in first 30 days? How many downloads you would like to have daily after 30 days?
  3. Your expectations of period required for returning invested money?

Once again, really good work - i wish you a big success.

Good questions. To answer.

  1. Probably around 30k on FB ads targeting users of existing Word games in the USA
  2. I would like to hit 3-5mil downloads with at least 100k+ in the first 30days.
  3. I would like to pull USD $600k out of the game over a 3 year period.

Then again… it might be a complete fail and I need to look for a day job fast :slight_smile:

Please consider changing screenshots to give more professional look.It is good but not telling me a unique reason to download your app.Your screenshots and presentation should compel users to download your game.Read the thread by that guy who made his first musicplayer app a hit.

This is super interesting, actually this thread made me join this forum :slight_smile:

You have spent close to 88K in total so far if I read the numbers correctly. In my world that is alot.
I saw that you have two other games in the play store with 1.1m downloads (that I can see), have you made that kind of money with your other apps?

Anyways, thanks for the inspiration, and I think we indie developers need to raise the bar both when it comes to ideas, coding and grapichs in order to compete with the big guys, like you are doing!

And now when you have shared your expenses I am looking forward to the income report :slight_smile:

It is a lot in my world too. More than I was earning/year before tax and medical deductions a few years ago!

HOWEVER… don’t include the 30k for FB ads just yet… it seems that targeting 15mil users of existing word apps does not mean FB will actually spend that $1k/day (= 30k over first 30 days of the apps life!). At the moment all I am getting is 1-200 installs/day from FB… so if anyone has any ideas… let me know!