

Make an awesome iOS game and enter to win a trip to Palo Alto - jvrossb
http://makegameswith.us/contest

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bennyg
My biggest question is, what if I publish this game myself? I have a developer
account, a game at about 75% completion, 6 apps on the app store, and a decent
plan to monetize it already. The only thing that would be nice is the press
for winning, or placing. That and a free trip to beautiful California. What
turns me off about publishing through this route is the first $1k is yours,
and 30% after that. So, after Apple and MGWU, I would be left with 40% of all
sales - something I don't think the publicity would offset, even long term. My
gut says this hinges on the fact that I'd have to publish through MGWU for it
to count as an entry.

I'm also wondering about guaranteeing 10,000 installs. That would be nice, but
I have over that on one of my apps and that doesn't really equate to blips on
the App Store internal marketing/searching system in my experience.

EDIT: After reading the detailed rules, it looks like you do have to publish
through them. And, instead of being left with 40%, I'd be left with just under
50% of the price/prices of items for sale in the App Store.

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This is probably a good deal if you can't make the art for your game, and can
make the mechanics/playability fairly quickly.

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andymoe
This not a good deal even if you can't make art. You can get plenty of art on
iStock photo and what you don't get when publishing as an indie with someone
else is the network effect of publishing multiple games on your own. This is
essential if you want to grow your brand, user base and revenue over the
course of multiple titles.

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jvrossb
Cross-promo is actually one of the draws of publishing with us. We already
have a larger network than most indie devs will be able to build (10 games and
counting) and they all cross-promote each other. When you publish with us you
get exposure in every single other game we've published.

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andymoe
I'm saying that long term people are better off not publishing with you and
should just be cross-promoting within their own games or just using ads so
they don't have to give you a cut.

Every time someone does publish with you they are setting themselves back
because they are not growing their own portfolio of apps but instead enlarging
your network at significant cost to themselves.

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earbitscom
This is an awesome idea. We're always kicking around shitty ideas for contests
that probably won't deliver enough value to offset the cost, won't attract the
right types of users or clients, and take too much effort. I don't know if
this one meets all of those criteria, but it's such a cool concept for a young
person interested in programming, gaming and startups, to bring them out to
Palo Alto for their own game's launch party, etc. Anyway, kudos to the Make
Games With Us guys. This is outstanding.

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MattyRad
I'm mildly interested in this. I might have a go at making a game, but do you
know what date the winner would be flown out to Palo Alto?

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DesaiAshu
We're flexible on this, depends on the winner's availability

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jayfuerstenberg
Palo Alto?

I'd rather win a 7-day trip to New Calendonia, all expenses paid.

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robbiea
great idea. How do you "guarantee" installs?

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jvrossb
We buy ads in a trackable way and run them until we can prove to you that we
were responsible for driving N thousand people to download your app.

