

The Teenage App Tycoons - transmit101
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010/05/still_here_the_teenage_app_tyc.html

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neonfunk
"he was ready to submit The Impossible Game ... to the Xbox Indie marketplace
... Unlike Apple's App Store, this outlet has no corporate gatekeeper - the
games are reviewed and rated by the community."

Is that true -- that there's no editorial control of indie games on the Xbox
marketplace (except by the "community")? Edit: impressive!

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chipsy
Yep. The community has a self-moderation system to do stability testing and
maturity rating, but otherwise any quality of game may be allowed in.

It brings an incongruous look to the XBox UI when one goes to the indie games
section and the promotional art changes from lavish illustrations to crude
MSPaint-esque icons.

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mclin
Do you think the $100 + a Mac barrier has been a damper on the crowds of would
be teenage app developers?

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chris24
Perhaps... especially now with section 3.3.1. The other thing that's always
irked me (I'm 16) is that Apple requires registered iPhone developers to be 18
or older in order to agree to the NDA. It's not a huge problem, but it's still
another little barrier.

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gte910h
"Require" is very different than "check".

Just tell them you're 18, and don't care. Just don't flaunt it.

Or, found a company with the state ($30 in Georgia) and sign up for a
corporate account.

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credo
Good story, but I think many people might miss a key point about the one app-
store success described in the story.

When the app was first released in the app store "This was a total failure -
the reviews dribbled out, hits on the website were meagre, and it seemed the
game might disappear without trace."

The app ended up being very successful and getting to the top of the charts
because Apple featured the app in "New and noteworthy" and then in "App of the
week".

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louislouis
Great another kid of x years old makes x amount of $ in less than x days
story. Where have I read this before. Is there like some kind of book filled
with formulas/structures of how articles are to be written where journalists
go and be like 'oh this week I'll use this formula and this and this'?

Anyway, the article could be spun in many ways. How about 'The Should Be
Teenage Tycoons'... The story of how Apple has shafted true innovative app
makers into scraping fractions of their apps true worth on the jailbroken
market, and how the only real success come when Apple decides to
select/feature your app.

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wallflower
> he's done what many British stars have failed to achieve - he's made it big
> in America.

Good article. Common thread is these teenagers are letting the market decide
the value of their work.

