13,3 million Total Downloads

Congrats dude. My goal before I hit 18 years old is a million downloads. Haha im impressed by you !

Congratulations Colburt, you have really done amazing job with your games.. It also proves how great engine Stencyl can be in right hands I think it's really insane that your current game seems to be number 5 on appshoppers most downloaded free games list..

http://appshopper.com/bestsellers/games/free/?device=iphone

Guys, don't be under the illusion that it is easy to do. Colburt and his team were lucky enough to get their well-deserved recognition. The majority of indies stay in obscurity forever. Your goal should be to make games that you are proud of. If you keep doing that, you will hopefully get recognized at some point. Indie game development is an art-form (as stated by the US National Endowment of the Arts). We've all heard of the famous artists throughout history. The number of artists that you have never heard is probably staggering

It is true that it is not easy, but its also important to put things in perspective as well. We are not some elite team of professionals. I had no previous experience before touching stencyl, I was just an obsessive mobile gaming fan.

This is my first game http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/20074 it was great fun learned a lot from it, its not great though. This was 3 years ago.

I then had an attempt to make some money from games, so tried some flash games. I learned really quickly that Art is the key, you really won't get anywhere without decent art. It doesn't have to be professional standard, it just has to be clean and consistent.

This is the first game I Sold http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/22321 got $250, Since I'm terrible at art I made the art very basic, icon based. This was the last time I did the art myself.

As I started working with pixel artists the money earned on my games went up, First on the flash games with Fabian and then onto mobile with Folmer.

Mobile has worked for us because we have been consistent, reasonably fun games, (sometimes even really fun) with clean polished art. First game didn't get featured, second one got a minor feature, third one got a bigger feature etc. It was a process. We build our games in a way that give them every chance to get the apple features.

Congrats dude. My goal before I hit 18 years old is a million downloads. Haha im impressed by you !

Go for it! you have like 2-3 years to get there. Just keep making games and learning.

Any tips on your marketing strategy? I have been posting my games everywhere on facebook, but it just doesnt seem to take off, even tho I have tons of positive feedback on CenterPoint....

I don't really do any marketing in the traditional sense. My strategy is to do everything possible to get apple to do my marketing for me. I honestly don't see posting in forums and in social media as way to get downloads. If I counted all the downloads I got from front page articles on Touch Arcade, Pocket Gamer, all the tweets I and others have done it would probably be in the 100s. The only marketing I can see working is the companies like game of war or king who are spending 200million dollars a year on it.

My approach is to do everything possible to get the highest chance of an apple feature. The design of the game and the art style are generally targeting what we think, and our reaseach and experience indicate apple is looking for, from an indie title. The strongest weapon in this is working with an artist, specifically one who understands what apple like and has a track record.

The alternative is an area I'm not familiar with, but Havana24 is good at it. Keywords and search terms. I was really impressed to see he has over 1million downloads for a game on google play, all through organic downloads I would imagine.

So my tips would be, If you are aiming for iOS, know your market. Research what apple are featuring and try to see why. Specifically the indie titles.

4 Million total downloads for our 8 games now, With Dunkers getting over 1 million downloads in the first week.

It is true that it is not easy, but its also important to put things in perspective as well. We are not some elite team of professionals. I had no previous experience before touching stencyl, I was just an obsessive mobile gaming fan.

This is my first game http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/20074 it was great fun learned a lot from it, its not great though. This was 3 years ago.

I then had an attempt to make some money from games, so tried some flash games. I learned really quickly that Art is the key, you really won't get anywhere without decent art. It doesn't have to be professional standard, it just has to be clean and consistent.

This is the first game I Sold http://www.stencyl.com/game/play/22321 got $250, Since I'm terrible at art I made the art very basic, icon based. This was the last time I did the art myself.

As I started working with pixel artists the money earned on my games went up, First on the flash games with Fabian and then onto mobile with Folmer.

Mobile has worked for us because we have been consistent, reasonably fun games, (sometimes even really fun) with clean polished art. First game didn't get featured, second one got a minor feature, third one got a bigger feature etc. It was a process. We build our games in a way that give them every chance to get the apple features.

I remember when Colin was a newbie. I think he looked up to me in the flash department and asked me on a number of occasions for help. Now I look up to him Keep up the good work Colin

Success rule for mobile and web games  -  dummies must understand the game
test your games on idiots, if they will like it, your game will be popular

Success rule for mobile and web games  -  dummies must understand the game
test your games on idiots, if they will like it, your game will be popular

Success rule for life- try to avoid calling people dummies and idiots, you will be popular.

Success rule for mobile and web games  -  dummies must understand the game
test your games on idiots, if they will like it, your game will be popular

Success rule for life- try to avoid calling people dummies and idiots, you will be popular.

Good rule. But how to calling dummies in  this way? Special people? 

Im not a fan of your theme here, "Mobile games are for idiots"

Mobile games are for whoever wants to play a mobile game. I personally love small compact games, games such as soccer physics, altos adventure etc. They are simple enough for anyone to play but also are enjoyable to skilled users.

Making a game that caters for all skill levels is the real challenge here, and plays a big part in helping that game become popular.

Agree with you, I think you are very right in your conception.
Actually I'm thinking that I am idiot myself when trying to make something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPwHNaMBqFE, some sort of mozahizm may be...

May  be I'm  too harsh in my words, but
 I do not mean that mobile games just for idiots,
may  be for clever people who wants to  be an idiot at some moment, to rest from  thinking,
may be for small children who are not idiots for their ages  but not very clever overall,
and may be for people who played first time in live in the video games. grandpa and granny for example...

I just want to say how to check that your game will be understandable, because this is the main problem in game design actually.
Especially when you are playing your game millions times while testing and you can think that it is very easy, but other people will not able to go far than the  first scene in it

Yeah that is true, I actually got a lot of comments and 1 start reviews for Dunkers because I didn't add a tutorial, I thought people would work it out for themselves but people were tapping the button instead of pressing and holding.

Setting the difficulty level is one of the hardest things I find about game design, getting as many testers as possible is really important.