There's little doubt that Windows Phone game developer Elbert Perez has had his fair share of success. With over a dozen games in the Marketplace ranging from Armored Drive to Steam Castle to Impossible Shoota, Perez has definitely left an impression over at the Windows Phone gaming aisle.
He recently posted his thoughts on the past year, reflecting on lessons learned. 2011 marks the year Perez became an independent developer, his own boss, and he shared a few of these lessons.
- "Better marketing is just as important as better game development." You need to aggressively market your game across several platforms to be successful. Perez notes the use of Twitter, blogs, and ad campaigns being among the many techniques he's used.
- "Having a cash cow that can sustain your other games..." Perez earned over $61,000 in 2011 from his games but not every game performed equally. He points to a handful of titles that provided the income to allow him to experiment with other titles.
- "Money is never consistent and you can only do so much about it." While 2011 was financially successful for Perez his revenue graph shows that what he earned was far from consistent. He recommends to either have a low monthly expense or a big enough savings to cushion against weak income.
Perez also touches on running his own business and how it was different from being an employee. He had to quickly learn about accounting, invoices, expenses, taxes and other aspects of running his own business and being the boss. There became a realization that a good amount of work involved in running his own business did not directly relate to developing games.
2011 was a good year for Elbert Perez and reflective of the potential the Windows Phone industry has for independent developers. If you're looking for a model for success Elbert Perez isn't a bad choice. Let's hope the successful momentum continues into 2012 and beyond for all our Windows Phone developers.
source: occassionalgamer
