[eabandit]

A friend and I quit our jobs to start a mobile game company. The toughest things are we have to work like crazy to meet self-imposed deadlines and deal with a bunch of non-programming related issues like marketing and distribution.

Mobile games are the easiest to get into (since you can rely on the app distribution models from Apple, Google, and Microsoft) and you don't need to think too much about cramming your software into a box.

Our game is called Bouncy Mouse, and we're about to release our first major update with new content and new game modes. We've got over 1 million downloads on Android, but fewer on iOS since discoverability on iTunes is difficult due to major companies buying their way into the top spots through ads and promotions. Competing on iOS is hard primarily due to this reason, though Apple did feature us for a week or two, which was great.

The classic gaming market is still huge and healthy. I would like to branch out into that market once we have some more resources (e.g. once we're larger than two people and have a little cash to finance bigger budget art, music, design, etc.)

You can check out our website here. :) http://www.bouncymousegame.com/

[pawn]

So did you guys save a bunch of money before quitting and are hoping it succeeds or do you have outside funding?

Also, what avenues of marketing are you using?

[eabandit]

We saved some money before quitting. We're staying with friends (paying rent) to save costs on housing. But we live in SF, so it's still pretty expensive. In the Mission, you can get tacos for cheap, and, hey, they're pretty good. :)

For marketing – not much. Relying on blogs, forums, word of mouth, featured promotions in the App Store and in Android Market (and in Windows Phone 7). We bought a few ads, but they weren't super effective. Focusing on marketing is something we will do for our next game, but since we're strapped for cash it's hard to compete with the social farming gaming behemoths in terms of climbing the ranks through advertising.

[dinaiz]

Your game looks really nice ! Maybe the next angry birds ? :-)

[eabandit]

Thanks! We get that comment a lot. I love Angry Birds, while basic, and I'm glad it's bringing gaming to the masses. The more people playing mobile games the larger the market for us!

[chaostheory]

I remember seeing your app either featured in the Apple App Store or being in a Top 100 list on it.

[eabandit]

Great! Apple featured us for a while and it really helped. We soon dropped from the ranks since we can't afford to pump money into advertising like the other mobile game behemoths can. We are releasing the free version and an expansion pack soon, so we hope to reach more users this way!

[danmaz74]

1 million Android downloads - but how are you doing financially?

[eabandit]

Over 1 million. ;)

Great for two people. Not enough for much more. Let's see what happens after we release additional content, in-app purchases, and another game! We have some tricks up our sleeves and we love making our players happy.

We have an ad in the free Android version that users can remove by completing an in-app purchase for 99 cents. So we make a little bit of money from each Android user.

I hope we keep pleasing our users and making more money so we can build more great games.

[danmaz74]

Congratulations! I wish you'll be able to do that.