Hi, I was just wondering if anyone has actually had success at generating revenue from games/apps they made with Corona.
I’m new to games making in general, (as I am learning Corona SDK). If anyone has any tips about how to go about generating revenue, and could pass that on, that would be helpful.
I’ll be brutally honest: monetizing a mobile app as a game developer is very, very, very difficult. Either your game needs to be very very good or good-looking, or you need to be very lucky. All things considered the odds are a bit like playing the lottery - at least that’s my take on things.
Hi Mejon;
What Thomas says is very true. Your game does need to be quite good and very nicely polished to make money – and it needs to have a good monetization design where users will either:
Watch a lot of advertising (between rounds, etc.)
Want to pay money for additional levels, greater powers, etc. (in-app purchases).
In either case, your game needs to hold a users attention over time – even if that time span is only a few days of intense play.
My best advice is to look at many games in the game genre you are planning to enter and see which ones have been successful and which haven’t. Use a free account on App Annie to judge success. And google articles on app monetization and building traffic for your app – without laying out a lot of money.
My little company (www.adveractive.com) has made money on games. But it is hard work. 
Steve
I’ll put it another way, using my own experience:
I spent over a year painstakingly making my game. Check it out: it’s called Bombaroo! I made about 50 dollars in total, from ads and in-app purchases. That was for about 20.000 downloads.
On the other hand, I made three small games for clients that were about three weeks work, and sold each for about 5.000 dollar.
@sbullock, you forgot one, “Pay Once and Play” My app made more the $50.00 with this model(not much more lol). Also, Apple is starting to promote this revenue model People are slowly getting fed up with freeium apps because they end up paying and paying.
But definitely don’t invest more then 500.00$ on any app, you will probably never even make that money back. If you look at the guys who made money from any app Look at what else they made – you’ll see they made 15-20 apps!. So, your first 10-15 apps might have to chalk up to experience. You have to pay your dues.
That’s why Corona is so awesome, its free.
I’ll be brutally honest: monetizing a mobile app as a game developer is very, very, very difficult. Either your game needs to be very very good or good-looking, or you need to be very lucky. All things considered the odds are a bit like playing the lottery - at least that’s my take on things.
Hi Mejon;
What Thomas says is very true. Your game does need to be quite good and very nicely polished to make money – and it needs to have a good monetization design where users will either:
Watch a lot of advertising (between rounds, etc.)
Want to pay money for additional levels, greater powers, etc. (in-app purchases).
In either case, your game needs to hold a users attention over time – even if that time span is only a few days of intense play.
My best advice is to look at many games in the game genre you are planning to enter and see which ones have been successful and which haven’t. Use a free account on App Annie to judge success. And google articles on app monetization and building traffic for your app – without laying out a lot of money.
My little company (www.adveractive.com) has made money on games. But it is hard work.
Steve
I’ll put it another way, using my own experience:
I spent over a year painstakingly making my game. Check it out: it’s called Bombaroo! I made about 50 dollars in total, from ads and in-app purchases. That was for about 20.000 downloads.
On the other hand, I made three small games for clients that were about three weeks work, and sold each for about 5.000 dollar.
@sbullock, you forgot one, “Pay Once and Play” My app made more the $50.00 with this model(not much more lol). Also, Apple is starting to promote this revenue model People are slowly getting fed up with freeium apps because they end up paying and paying.
But definitely don’t invest more then 500.00$ on any app, you will probably never even make that money back. If you look at the guys who made money from any app Look at what else they made – you’ll see they made 15-20 apps!. So, your first 10-15 apps might have to chalk up to experience. You have to pay your dues.
That’s why Corona is so awesome, its free.