Why is Candy Crush as popular as Angry Birds? ($750k/wk profit)

[cronos]

level 65 is one of the toughest levels. Then level 125 (IIRC) is really hard. I'm at 147 and have not spent any money other than $.99 for each new section (about $5 total).

I'm also at 147 now..... have been for about two months. I was pretty addicted before but 147 made me stop playing.

 

[BladeVenom]

The popular one in Japan was Puzzle & Dragons.

 

[bearxor]

I'm also at 147 now..... have been for about two months. I was pretty addicted before but 147 made me stop playing.

I haven't even paid to open new levels. I just do the quests. 24h between each one isn't bad.

 

[AdamK47]

Advertising + dumb people = $$$

 

[StrangerGuy]

The fact people is paying to win a game that is entirely dependent on the RNG is laughable.

 

[MrDudeMan]

The fact people is paying to win a game that is entirely dependent on the RNG is laughable.

It's not laughable...at all. I want to progress past the levels and my time is way better spent working. I have practically unlimited work that I can bill at $200/hr, so if it takes me 10 minutes to get another life in Candy Crush, that's worth $33 to me, so $0.99 is a steal.

Those of us with busy lives would rather pay to advance faster. It allows us to keep a balanced life. I can still play games and actually see all of the content without sacrificing time with my kids or work. When I was in college, I wouldn't have paid, but now there's no way I would sit there for longer than 10 minutes playing a mobile game without purchasing every possible power-up to get through it.

Narrow-minded dumbasses in this thread. Feel free to waste all of your time to save a dollar.

Edit: Also, I released an iOS game 3 years ago that grossed over 2 million dollars, most of which was paid through in-app purchases. I got countless emails from professionals (I know because of their email addresses) asking for higher amounts of in-game currency to be sold as a bulk option to save more time. I've seen this particular concept from both sides - consumer and developer. The vast majority of people making in-app purchases in my experience don't want to dick around with grinding pointless levels. Games are already pointless as-is, so adding monotony on top of it makes it a waste of time.

 

[eits]

fuck candy crush and all other bejeweled-type games. trajectory-based games is where it's at.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Edit: Also, I released an iOS game 3 years ago that grossed over 2 million dollars, most of which was paid through in-app purchases. I got countless emails from professionals (I know because of their email addresses) asking for higher amounts of in-game currency to be sold as a bulk option to save more time. I've seen this particular concept from both sides - consumer and developer. The vast majority of people making in-app purchases in my experience don't want to dick around with grinding pointless levels. Games are already pointless as-is, so adding monotony on top of it makes it a waste of time.

Woah that is awesome. How involved of a game was it? I'm seriously starting to think I need to look at trying to come up with a game and code it, a basic mobile/facebook game can't be too bad to code, is it? I was actually thinking something like Evony. Make it standalone, mobile, and facebook based.

1 million dollars and I'd be set for life, and would live like a king. Probably donate a lot to charity and stuff too.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Woah that is awesome. How involved of a game was it? I'm seriously starting to think I need to look at trying to come up with a game and code it, a basic mobile/facebook game can't be too bad to code, is it? I was actually thinking something like Evony. Make it standalone, mobile, and facebook based.

1 million dollars and I'd be set for life, and would live like a king. Probably donate a lot to charity and stuff too.

It was pretty involved (RPG). It was a lot of work, but it was definitely easier than what I do from 8-5. The money didn't go as far as it sounds like it would. It's not even close to enough to live like a king or be set for life especially if you have a house and kids. I'm not complaining, but I'm still working for a reason.

 

[MrDudeMan]

lulz man that GPL must make it 100x more fun.

Sometimes you remind me of the parents of this kid I knew in school. Everyone talking about the new Mario Bros game, and his parents make him play some sucky Linux clone.

lol. I was going to post something similar. I'd much rather pay for proprietary code to have a game that doesn't suck. That's basically the entire point of working and acquiring money. If I was homeless, I'd play GPL games at the library. Otherwise, I'm paying for new stuff.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Really? How did you blow a million so fast?

 

[cronos]

I haven't even paid to open new levels. I just do the quests. 24h between each one isn't bad.

Oh I haven't paid a single cent, and never will. Every 15 levels I just bug some friends (who also play and in turn bug me all the time) to click on the link and give me tickets

 

[MrDudeMan]

Really? How did you blow a million so fast?

I didn't blow it. It's just not enough to peace out of the workforce. The net wasn't even enough to both pay off my house and put away enough for both of my kids to go to college. I did buy some Winnie the Pooh antique posters on ebay for my sister. That was one of the biggest 'stupid' purchases I made. Keep in mind the money comes in slowly, so it's not a bulk payout. For that reason, it didn't alter my life much at all to be honest.

 

[Aikouka]

Really? How did you blow a million so fast?

You'd have to be making quite a small amount of money to have that cover you for decades.

Also, since developing for iOS requires a Mac, you may want to consider coming up with your game plan prior to investing in the hardware... unless you already have one. I've been tempted to try it out, but I'd have to spend the money on a Mac Mini. Even a decent used one would probably run me $600.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Narrow-minded dumbasses in this thread. Feel free to waste all of your time to save a dollar.

So how do I waste time on playing games that I don't play? Please tell me, smart guy.

 

[Kantastic]

You guys do realize that setting your phone's time forward gets you instant lives... right? To fix the Candy Crush timer, just fix your phone's time (which results in Candy Crushing saying you need to wait however much time you set the clock forward to for new lives), reinstall the game (which fixes the skewed timer issue), and sync to FB (which allows you to pick up from where you left off).

 

[lxskllr]

lol. I was going to post something similar. I'd much rather pay for proprietary code to have a game that doesn't suck. That's basically the entire point of working and acquiring money. If I was homeless, I'd play GPL games at the library. Otherwise, I'm paying for new stuff.

Really? Yet another Bejeweled clone doesn't suck? And paying to poke buttons like a monkey?? :^D The *only* point of those games is to occupy your fingers for awhile. You could play the same level over and over and get the same benefit, and you wouldn't have to pay to get some false advancement that gives more of the same with a couple new sounds and graphics.

Btw, the point of the GPL is so you don't get crapware foisted on you, with ads, or other spyware. You don't have to take anyone's word for it that the program is clean. You can look for yourself. Of course iOS and most of Android is spyware anyway, so a phone probably isn't the best place to make that argument :^D

 

[MrDudeMan]

You guys do realize that setting your phone's time forward gets you instant lives... right? To fix the Candy Crush timer, just fix your phone's time (which results in Candy Crushing saying you need to wait however much time you set the clock forward to for new lives), reinstall the game (which fixes the skewed timer issue), and sync to FB (which allows you to pick up from where you left off).

I've done that, but it takes more time than I'm willing to commit when the alternative is to pay a trivial amount of money, which I'm sure they did on purpose. Plus, you're forgetting a big part of the point of paying - someone had a good idea and spent time coding it. If you play it, you should reward the developer so they'll make more good games.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Really? Yet another Bejeweled clone doesn't suck? And paying to poke buttons like a monkey?? :^D The *only* point of those games is to occupy your fingers for awhile. You could play the same level over and over and get the same benefit, and you wouldn't have to pay to get some false advancement that gives more of the same with a couple new sounds and graphics.

Btw, the point of the GPL is so you don't get crapware foisted on you, with ads, or other spyware. You don't have to take anyone's word for it that the program is clean. You can look for yourself. Of course iOS and most of Android is spyware anyway, so a phone probably isn't the best place to make that argument :^D

To be fair, it's significantly different in a few ways from vanilla Bejeweled. Overall, though, I agree that it's just poking buttons. I usually play it when I'm waiting in long lines and can't afford to be hardcore distracted by the game. I demand new and exciting content for these random, infrequent bursts of gaming.

That argument is actually a little bit of a fallacy. There have been malicious GPL programs. You probably won't be able to convince me that you actually inspect ALL of the code in a program to make sure it isn't screwing with you somehow. I use GPL stuff semi-frequently and I know I sure as hell never do. I treat it exactly the same as anything else. Thinking it's secure is probably a good example of crowd psychology - "someone else looked."

 

[Red Squirrel]

You'd have to be making quite a small amount of money to have that cover you for decades.

Also, since developing for iOS requires a Mac, you may want to consider coming up with your game plan prior to investing in the hardware... unless you already have one. I've been tempted to try it out, but I'd have to spend the money on a Mac Mini. Even a decent used one would probably run me $600.

It will take me 25 years to make 1mil at my current salary, yet I'm very well off. If I made 1mil right now I'd probably be able to consider retirement, though what I'd probably do is take 200k from it to pay off the house and have some play/toy money, then invest the rest and keep working, since I like my job anyway, but at least I know that if I lose my job I'm set.

And 600 bucks is a pretty paltry amount of money when you have a mil at your disposal, even if you do decide to waste it on mac stuff.

This thread definitly has me inspired to look at making a game, either mobile, facebook, or PC. Start small, and move to something bigger, or maybe just go straight to something bigger. For the longest time I've been thinking of how fun it would be to make a minecraft like MMO. My big issue is I'm not that good at graphics though, but if you look at minecraft the graphics arn't that complicated so I could start with something like that. Use placeholders, code the logic/gameplay first, then can always figure out the graphics after, perhaps premade creative commons stuff.

 

[mugs]

heard when u get past lvl 65, it's more like 10days of trying if u dont want to pay or if you dont have a strong social network

You. It's three letters. You're not writing a text to your 13 year old BFF, communicate like an adult.

 

[MrDudeMan]

It will take me 25 years to make 1mil at my current salary, yet I'm very well off. If I made 1mil right now I'd probably be able to consider retirement, though what I'd probably do is take 200k from it to pay off the house and have some play/toy money, then invest the rest and keep working, since I like my job anyway, but at least I know that if I lose my job I'm set.

It's different when you actually get it. Everyone says they'll do _______ and ______, but things change when it's in your hands. I didn't get it all in one large payout and it was still different than I expected. Getting it all at once would have made it worse and I'm savvy with money. This is also the reason why athletes end up broke - they usually aren't financially educated and everything is different when the money is in their hands.

My house has 500k left on the mortgage and my kids will each have 300k at their disposal by the time they graduate from high school. I didn't bother using the money specifically for either thing. I set more aside into various investments each month than I would have without the additional income stream. Other than that, nothing changed. I paid and continue to pay my bills like nothing happened, but now I'm significantly closer to achieving both goals. I wasn't willing to sacrifice the opportunistic income by paying off a 3.125% mortgage with money that could easily earn way more.

1mil sounds like a lot more money than it really is when you have a family. I figured I'd be able to live off of it for a while after paying off my house. That may be true, but the gravy train stops within 10 years and then I'd have nothing if I didn't continue working. I could quit my job and indefinitely maintain my current lifestyle with 5.5mil, though.

 

[MrDudeMan]

It will take me 25 years to make 1mil at my current salary, yet I'm very well off. If I made 1mil right now I'd probably be able to consider retirement, though what I'd probably do is take 200k from it to pay off the house and have some play/toy money, then invest the rest and keep working, since I like my job anyway, but at least I know that if I lose my job I'm set.

And 600 bucks is a pretty paltry amount of money when you have a mil at your disposal, even if you do decide to waste it on mac stuff.

This thread definitly has me inspired to look at making a game, either mobile, facebook, or PC. Start small, and move to something bigger, or maybe just go straight to something bigger. For the longest time I've been thinking of how fun it would be to make a minecraft like MMO. My big issue is I'm not that good at graphics though, but if you look at minecraft the graphics arn't that complicated so I could start with something like that. Use placeholders, code the logic/gameplay first, then can always figure out the graphics after, perhaps premade creative commons stuff.

Speaking from experience, that's not the right way to do it. It sounds like a logical plan, but it's backward from how it's really done. I've been working on a sequel to my first game and I haven't even been able to start writing the underlying code for the game after 5 months of paying several people for assets (graphics, menus, characters, etc.). If you try to design a game before the graphics are at least partially understood, you'll end up starting over from the very beginning multiple times. Placeholders don't really suffice. You need a basic, but at least particularly accurate representation of the real assets. This is how it's done for more complex games, so simpler games will be different. However, even simple games like Angry Birds were expensive to develop (hundreds of thousands of dollars). I easily put 70k into my first game and it would have been far more had I not done most of the work myself.

 

[xSkyDrAx]

there's a plants vs zombies one on fb that's fairly decent

 

[BUTCH1]

You. It's three letters. You're not writing a text to your 13 year old BFF, communicate like an adult.

So people don't use stuff like AFAIK or IIRC or IDK on here all the time?, the guy uses "u" once an you go all grammar Nazi on him. Lighten up little Hitler..