Journey To 1k Per Month With Mobile Games

Hey guys,

Like many people, i've been lurking around this forum for a while now and finally decided to start posting about my journey.

I studied computer science in university and i've been developing games off and on for a while now. When I first started building mobile games the games were not really optimized to be successful.

The ideas were ideas that were not tested to be wanted by users but just ideas i THOUGHT people would like. I never did any market research to see how many downloads similar games had, none of that.

So safe to say most of my games flopped. I eventually started selling source code and did pretty well with it for a while.

My most recent game did pretty well due to my improved marketing skills and I also built a game with a theme in a niche that most games had a solid number of downloads and took some game mechanics that are already successful to add to it instead of reinventing the will.

I made about $4k from this game and then it fell off. It started to slowly move up the charts but in the end the game did not have the momentum to make it reach the top but I learned a lot during that process.

Eventually I sold the game for $4k and gave up the source code and transferred the app.

So that brings me here. I am currently working on a new idea and combining a hot theme right now with tried and tested game mechanics along with my own touches to it.

I think this game has a good shot at being successful. I've recently started a gaming IG page where I simply to reviews of indie games from the "small guys". I am using strategies i've been reading about here on the forum to grow the account and this involved FL. The account has about 2.1k followers at the moment and engagement is pretty low but I read that during the early stages this is normal with FL. I am doing my best to post more "yes or no" content or content that gets the users to like or leave a comment with an answer. This seems to be working and gets more engagement than regular review post.

Thoughts on what I could do better?

I decided to grow this account because I figured since I am making mobile games, I might as well create a fan base to show these games too. Since the page is all about mobile games, this is the perfect place to promote and show off my own games.

Anyway, I will be using this thread to hold me accountable to making 1k per month from my games combined(hopefully with one game possibly )

Let me know if you guys have any suggestions, thoughts, or comments!

Coder

Good Luck.

Hello there! It sounds like you've got a solid idea building Instagram pages to promote your own gaming apps.

One thing I'd suggest is to create a few more accounts. These can be created & ran (on FL) through your home IP with 0 cost while providing solid roots from which to build your gaming empire!

All the very best OP, Great journey

Keep moving! And dont forget your thread

froger said:

Hello there! It sounds like you've got a solid idea building Instagram pages to promote your own gaming apps.

One thing I'd suggest is to create a few more accounts. These can be created & ran (on FL) through your home IP with 0 cost while providing solid roots from which to build your gaming empire!

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Thanks! Would you suggest making a few of the same pages? Or in the same niche but different style pages? For example, my current page is just reviewing indie games but maybe the second page could be about something else...

CoderForLife22 said:

Thanks! Would you suggest making a few of the same pages? Or in the same niche but different style pages? For example, my current page is just reviewing indie games but maybe the second page could be about something else...

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They can all be in the same general niche, maybe each account could focus in on a sub-niche.

I would suggest looking through https://www.twitch.tv/directory to see the most popular games.

Good luck on your Journey

Good luck

froger said:

They can all be in the same general niche, maybe each account could focus in on a sub-niche.

I would suggest looking through to see the most popular games.

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Not a bad idea! I think if I do more gaming IG pages, they will need to be ones that I can make and post content easily. For example, having multiple pages, one that reviews sports games and another that reviews adventure games, I fear I wont have enough time to make content for both.

I could also make some type of other gaming page.

I currently have about 2.4k followers using FL and I get on average 60-100 likes on each pic/video. Posts where I ask a response question I get about 12-20 comments and the same amount of likes.

Is this good engagement? Any tips?

CoderForLife22 said:

I made about $4k

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Great journey OP..
How long does it took you to earn that?

norhirah said:

Great journey OP..
How long does it took you to earn that?

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I had built about 8 games before that over the years but back then I didn't really care about monitizing but I mainly did it for fun. Needless to say I never made any money from these games. In the past year I've became more knowledgeable in marketing and how to monetize games. Using these strategies I built my most recent game in 3 months(working on it in my spare time besides job/school). And built up a instagram page with 33k followers in that niche and then I also got sponsors for the game to market it as well for two weeks.

I made $4k for the months of June and July and then it went down from there and I sold the game.

You're on the right path.
Add fb, twitter and giveaways: giveaway game keys, you can also promote gamivo's affiliate program.

CoolAdvisor said:

You're on the right path.
Add fb, twitter and giveaways: giveaway game keys, you can also promote gamivo's affiliate program.

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Thanks! And what do you mean by add fb and twitter?

and ill check out gamivo's affiliate program!

Do you recommend any sources for promoting and monetizing apps/games? Good luck with your journey!

elmakurdu11 said:

Do you recommend any sources for promoting and monetizing apps/games? Good luck with your journey!

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Just try to build up a fanbase on social media to promote your apps and gams too. This is what ketchapp and all the big publishers do. They have a very large following on instagram and over a million on Facebook. This makes it super easy to continuous publish top ranked games.

CoderForLife22 said:

I made $4k for the months of June and July and then it went down from there and I sold the game.

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Good Luck with the new projects. I'm curious how much downloads you got on game which you sold for $4k?

I've decided to take some advice from above. I have now started three other IG accounts. These other IG accounts are accounts that are all about mobile gaming but for each category of games I like the most and tend to develop games for.

For example, Adventure games, RPG games, Sports Games.

CoderForLife22 said:

And what do you mean by add fb and twitter?

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Read some recent posts about driving traffic from facebook, twitter, snapchat, instagram, etc