Friday, April 19, 2013

25 releases in 26 months.

I think I can rightfully call myself a game developer dedicated to his creation. The Little Crane That Could saw 25 releases in just 26 months. Each release making it a better game. (Except for the 4.4.1 version which made the game crash upon launch. Argh!) I can only put the blame on myself for that and a little bit on Apple, who just for that particular release, decided not to test my update. (It got approved immediately after going into state 'in review'). And I did not even count the Android, Raspberry Pi and OUYA releases here.

I clearly remember the first release when frankly, it was an unfinished product. I launched with too few levels, without sound, with penetrating music that could not be switched off and other shortcomings. Still it managed to be a hit from week 1. Not day 1, as I also clearly remember my first sales report. I was horrified to find that the game had managed to sell one single copy. At that point I had given up hope, and decided to do contracting jobs from now on, for other people's apps. However, the next days, sales increased 10 fold every day, hitting a high of 6000 sales in a single day. The game still brings in good money, so that is why the updates keep coming. Today I submitted version 5.07 for review by Apple. I hope they test launch it this time before approving.

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