How awesome is that? Having the chance to interview the indie shop that created Warbits (a game that was recently had a top banner Editors Choice feature in the App Store). What's cooler is that they are right in my backyard (Dallas, TX). I hope you have a lot of good takeaways from this interview. It's important to get out and about in your local development community. I was connected to these guys because I was a regular speaker at a local app developer group. Nick (the facilitator of the group) knew I was writing a book and connected me with Reilly and Joe. If I wasn't a regular at the group, I probably would have never gotten this interview.
With regards to Reilly and Joe, they didn't quit their day job while building their game (I don't recommend rage quitting Corporate America and selling all of your worldly possesions like I did).
How old are you? What's your professional and educational background?
Reilly:
I'm 30 years old. I studied visual communication design at UTA and currently work in the apparel industry.
Joe:
I'm 30 years old. I attended college for 2 years, but took an extended break when I landed a job with a bank I interned at. No formal education in computer science, but I would love to go back someday. I currently work as a business intelligence analyst at my day job.
What technologies/frameworks did you use to build Warbits?
Reilly:
Being the art/design side of things I mainly used Adobe Illustrator with some Photoshop sprinkled in.
Joe:
Warbits is written in Objective-C using the Cocos2d engine. Our day to day workflow revolved around Dropbox, Trello, Git and Google Hangouts.
Warbits reminds me of Daisenryaku. I loved that game and spent many many hours playing with friends on a modded XBOX. Not a question, but comments welcome!
Reilly:
Hah, I've never even heard of this game! Warbits was actually a homage to Intelligent System's fantastic Wars series, specifically Advance Wars for the Game Boy Advance. After reading up on Daisenryaku's history it looks like it first launched in 1988, just a couple months after Famicom Wars was released. I'll have to give it a try.
Joe:
I was introduced to Advance Wars by Reilly and quickly fell in love. I've always been a fan of strategy games and a turn-based game sounded like a gentle introduction to game development. I was wrong, it wasn't gentle.
How long did it take to build Warbits?
Reilly:
4 very long years. Though we had never worked on a game before and kept our full time jobs during the entire development.
How big is the code base?
Joe:
45k lines of code. 1,215 commits.
How much lifetime revenue (gross) has the game generated on iOS?
Reilly:
At the moment Warbits has sold almost 60k units grossing roughly $180k.
During the sale and development of Warbits, what was one of your happiest moments?
Joe:
Driving home from breakfast with my family and having to pull over to the side of the rode when Reilly broke the news about our editors choice award. Getting into the groove of game development and tinkering away night after night, feeling productive and optimistic.
Your saddest moments?
Joe:
Moments of doubt and impostor syndrome. Wasted money on flaky contractors. Going to bed before I fixed that really annoying bug.
What tips do you have for those that are just starting with programming and game development?
Joe:
Start small and fully publish a game. You'll learn lessons by going through the motions that will be more valuable when the stakes are higher.
We may have a couple of project managers reading this interview. Any tips for them with regards to managing a project/interacting with developers?
Reilly:
I think one of the most important things is to know when to cut something. We spent countless hours talking in circles about features that never shipped.
Also, we may have a couple of ad men reading this interview. Any tips for them with regards to marketing a game?
Reilly:
We're no experts at marketing, I think that's what many indie teams struggle with the most. We mainly stuck to Twitter and Facebook as well as staying active on some forums such as TouchArcade. Engaging the community is one of the best way to gain fans that will turn around and promote your game for you.
You went for a premium game as opposed to a game that was free with IAP. Why?
Joe:
We liked the straightforward nature of offering a quality game for an honest price. It felt right to present our first game as a premium offering, especially for the Advance Wars crowd eagerly awaiting a comparable game. We also could afford to do it, since this was a part-time project for us. The wide reach of a freemium game is a much safer bet for a full time studio trying to keep the lights on.
Reilly:
Free to Play games are a relatively new concept and take a lot more careful consideration to execute properly. On the flip side, we've been playing premium games our entire lives so the checklist was much more straight forward.
Given hindsight is 20/20, would you have done anything differently with regards to building and selling Warbits?
Joe:
In hindsight I regret not building the game in Unity, but 4 years ago cocos2d was a very popular and well documented engine.
You are one of the few people that I know of that have been featured by Apple's Editors Choice. This is a big freaking deal. How many downloads did you get during that time period. Did it help your premium sales after you went back to paid?
Reilly:
During our two week feature we sold around 46k units. Now with the feature over we sell about 1,000 units a month. Having editors choice also means you're more likely to be pulled into other small promotions which helps a lot.
Any other tips with regards to getting featured by Apple? Any "must do this or don't come crying to me" kind of stuff?
Joe:
Focus on the factors you can control. Nothing wrong with wheeling and dealing, but the biggest variable you can influence is your game. Pick something you're passionate about, execute and present it well.
Reilly:
Don't expect a response from anyone. The only contact we received before our feature was an automated email from iTunes Connect asking for promotional artwork. We had no idea what was going to happen.