Congrats Zaphod/Nimblebit

[Thrik]

It would take a long assed article to really analyze all the stuff we have done and to try and figure out which things specifically were the most effective, but here are some bullet points of stuff off the top of my head:

:arrow: The iPad market is still pretty small compared to the iPhone / iPod market, so it is tough to sell a lot of units there. It will grow over time though, especially every holiday season.

:arrow: Try to leverage free if you can, it can be a very powerful tool, especially if your game has mass appeal.

:arrow: Try to get on TA, the more your game is in the press the more chance Apple will feature you. *edit* Have a video of your game!!!

:arrow: Do promotions.

:arrow: Listen to feedback and make changes to your game.

:arrow: If your game is a niche game, charge a niche price.

:arrow: Have a great looking icon.

:arrow: Make more than one game, try to gauge what worked well in each one. Experiment.

:arrow: Use whatever resources you can to cut down on development time.

:arrow: Don't make it perfect, polish it enough for initial release and then see what the reaction is.

Some great advice there Zaphod.

[Defrag]

Noel at Snappy Touch posts some very useful things on iPhone development, marketing and stuff like that, too. Well worth a read, especially since he shares his full sales figures for periods when he launches new payment models etc.

[Zacker]

The iOS stuff up until recently has provided enough to make a comfortable living, but Pocket Frogs is earning enough to make a comfortable living.

I must say that I have the utmost respect for this business model where you regularly release small titles that on average make enough enough to make a comfortable living. This allows you to try out lots of cool ideas and if one does not work, then you are still ok. While doing this, which is already cool, then you still have that chance or probability of that one of your ideas, such as Pocket Frogs, will really hit home - which is just even better.

[zaphod]

It takes a lot of discipline and constant design changes to actually keep the development time short, but we kind of see it as a fun challenge. Whenever we are brainstorming ideas for another game, the most important factor is always how we could reduce the concept down enough to be developed in 2 months or less.

Also, it is pretty easy to keep it up in the long run because once you get used to releasing games every few months, you start to get really antsy when things start taking longer than that.