Our own Erik Willemse spoke at the congress about the 'Piet Piraat' app we developed for Studio 100.
Aiming at the number 1 spot in the App store
A snow blizzard can paralyze car traffic and stall all air traffic for days or even longer. But 11 tips to create that very app that’ll bring down any app store? That is truly an ambition beyond reality. Over the past 6 months, the number of cumulative downloads in the Android Market has more than doubled: from 4.5 billion downloads in May to a stunning 10.000.000.000 downloads by the end of 2011. In Apple’s iTunes App Store, more than 85.000 registered developers have made over 500.000 apps available and generated an impressive 18.000.000.000 downloads to date.
Besides high downloading volumes, the iTunes App Store has generated the astonishing high revenue of more than 1.3 billion euro in 2010. Remarkably, the Android Market, with over 57% of free apps, has generated far less revenue than both Nokia's Ovi Store and BlackBerry's App World, despite having much lower downloading volumes.
These are all mind-blowing figures and instead of making that very app that brings any app store down, our aim should be to get a high ranking in the list of popular and/or grossing apps.
11 tips to create the killer app
Considering the top list of apps at any moment in time, no matter the platform or the device, games make the majority of the list. Hence, tip #1: create a game.
The Number one app, i.e. based on the number of days it hit spot number 1 in the iTunes App Store, is Rovio’s well-known Angry Birds game. Not a single reader has not ever played, downloaded or purchased the app. The Angry Birds app made 150.000 downloads in the first week and reached the 5 million downloads mark only after 8 months. At this moment, 75 million players waste 200 million minutes per day shooting birds and attacking green pigs.
Although an additional 75.000 euro was needed to finalize the first release of the game, the initial 25.000 euro estimated budget has been a proven investment: Rovio has made more than 50 million euro. Hence, tip #2: make Angry Birds.
And this was exactly Studio 100’s briefing to Nascom: “make a fun game, something like Angry Birds.”
Pete The Pirate’s Treasury Hunt
That’s exactly what Nascom did: we created a fun game based on Pete The Pirate (Piet Piraat), one of Studio 100’s main and most popular characters. Hence, tip #3: use or design fascinating characters.
We were lucky to be able to use Pete The Pirate, his friends and the evil opponent Captain Toothsmile. Admittedly, we did use a part of Angry Birds' addictive gameplay, but we enhanced it with a two-player mode. Now, a kid can play with his dad, a boy can challenge his little sister and dad can try to beat uncle Joe. Hence, tip #4: design a fun and entertaining gameplay.
In addition, we focused on the details of the scenery (e.g. the submarine in the underwater world, exploding barrels and flying particles) and the look of the game. Hence, tip #5: make sure that it looks astonishingly great.
Nascom decided to develop Pete’s Treasury hunt as a native iOS game and make it available on iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch only. This is the market were the money is and cross-platform development tools would not have allowed us to make the same performing game. Hence, tip #6: choose the right development tools and platform.
To polish the game even further, we wrote an original script and went into a recording studio with the original ‘Piet Piraat’ actor. Throughout the game, Pete The Pirate motivates and cheers on the players with his original yells. Kids love this. Hence, tip #7: pay attention to sound and music.
As said before, the Apple’s iTunes App Store features more than 500.000 apps and it is difficult to become visible in this vast list of other great apps. A part of Angry Birds’ success and visibility comes from the free version that lowered the threshold for potential buyers and generated advertising revenue. Hence, tip #8: invest money and effort in marketing, PR and communication.
Still, to successfully finish a project as described (i.e. within planning, budget and feature limitations), strictly followed-up project management is key. The first version of Angry Birds went over budget: the original 25.000 euro estimate required an additional 75.000 euro to finish. And this is also true for Pete The Pirate’s Treasury Hunt. We required between 3 and 4 times more than originally estimated. Hence tip #9: keep a close eye on your budget.
Fail often
When Rovio reorganized from a game project company to becoming a development and publishing company with original intellectual property and novel characters, they estimated they would need 15 games. Angry Birds was the 52nd game by Rovio and they finally hit the jackpot. Hence, tip 10: fail often, fail early, but keep on trying.
Forget the 10 tips
At the end of the day, there is basically only one tip to remember. You can forget all ten tips and stick to tip #11: be creative and original! Examine the ranking in the app store in detail: there are innovative games such as Tiny Wings (nobody ever saw that one coming, right?), camera tools such as Instagram or creative music apps such as Garageband.
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