Colobo
New Contributor
Hello, everybody,
How are you doing?
I am writing to you because I have a decision to make and I think there are many people here who can help me.
The background
Five years ago we set up a company among 5 friends. A close friend is a graphic designer and I am a professional game developer. We had an idea and wanted to launch it legally, so we set up a company. The other three friends joined the team. Although only 1 had a technical profile, they wanted to participate and we thought they could contribute other things.
The project
The project is based on a character who created a friend of ours and whose intellectual property we have registered. The character's name is Dicky Dick, and it's a caricatured penis. The idea was to take that character and put it in a game, as a virtual mascot, like a tamagochi. The character worked very well because it was Cartoon, Disney type, so it was funny without being ordinary. The character had a lot of possibilities and everyone who showed it loved it.
At that time I wasn't working and in a few months I was able to have it finished and we launched it in the Android store.
The Business Model
The business model was based on two fronts.
The game
The game had publicity and micropayments. With the micropayments you could buy points, and with the points you could buy things inside the game (costumes mostly)
Merchandising
Where we saw the most possibilities was in merchandising. Our idea was that the game would make the character famous and then license him to sell items with his image.
Reception
If any of you have uploaded applications to a store like Google Play, you will know that there are many applications and it is very difficult to highlight. We lead to being in the top 100 of free games (I think we hit 40 at the best time)
When the game was going better (it was beginning to have traction and to be downloaded in a more massive way), Google took it from the store for not complying with its conditions of use. Although we complained to Google, there was no way. The game was out of the store.
At that time we had 33000 downloads, a 3.78/5 average score and we had about 70 euros in revenue per month.
The revenues might seem small, in fact they were, but they had increased exponentially, we had no expenses and our idea was to have several products of the same style as once.
After being banned
The ban left us completely stunned. The other guy and I, the two of us who knew more about development, are already working and we couldn't spend so much time at the company.
We spent about 3 years trying to reinvent ourselves, doing virtual reality projects and stuff like that. In the end, only the two original companions stayed.
The last thing we've done has been to remake the entire game, from scratch, so that it can be compatible on more platforms and give it more quality. The result of redoing the game from scratch:
We also made a Marketing dossier and sent it to everything we could think of (erotic shops, game creators, comic book creators, online animation series creators, LGBTB associations, etc.), but without much success.
The Decission
I really don't regret undertaking this project. For me the most frustrating thing has been the bureaucratic issue. You have a project on your hands, you spend most of your energy and money on things that don't add value to your business. Perhaps if I were to start again, I would not start a company, I would take out the product and then if I had a considerable income I would consider formalizing the situation.
The decision I'm facing is to definitively close down the company.
I still think that the idea is a good one, but after so many years without it taking off and after dedicating so many hours and so much effort to it, I think there comes a time when we have to give up and move on to other things.
I'm sure that many of you have been in the same situation, in a project that you have dedicated a lot of effort and that there comes a time when you have to let it go.
What do you think?
Thank you very much for your opinions.
Resources:
Dicky Dick
Dicky Dick
Dicky Dick (@dickydickgame) | Twitter
Dicky Dick
Dicky Dick - Direct Download All Google Play Apps - AllFreeAPK.com
https://shop.spreadshirt.es/dickydick/
How are you doing?
I am writing to you because I have a decision to make and I think there are many people here who can help me.
The background
Five years ago we set up a company among 5 friends. A close friend is a graphic designer and I am a professional game developer. We had an idea and wanted to launch it legally, so we set up a company. The other three friends joined the team. Although only 1 had a technical profile, they wanted to participate and we thought they could contribute other things.
The project
The project is based on a character who created a friend of ours and whose intellectual property we have registered. The character's name is Dicky Dick, and it's a caricatured penis. The idea was to take that character and put it in a game, as a virtual mascot, like a tamagochi. The character worked very well because it was Cartoon, Disney type, so it was funny without being ordinary. The character had a lot of possibilities and everyone who showed it loved it.
At that time I wasn't working and in a few months I was able to have it finished and we launched it in the Android store.
The Business Model
The business model was based on two fronts.
The game
The game had publicity and micropayments. With the micropayments you could buy points, and with the points you could buy things inside the game (costumes mostly)
Merchandising
Where we saw the most possibilities was in merchandising. Our idea was that the game would make the character famous and then license him to sell items with his image.
Reception
If any of you have uploaded applications to a store like Google Play, you will know that there are many applications and it is very difficult to highlight. We lead to being in the top 100 of free games (I think we hit 40 at the best time)
When the game was going better (it was beginning to have traction and to be downloaded in a more massive way), Google took it from the store for not complying with its conditions of use. Although we complained to Google, there was no way. The game was out of the store.
At that time we had 33000 downloads, a 3.78/5 average score and we had about 70 euros in revenue per month.
The revenues might seem small, in fact they were, but they had increased exponentially, we had no expenses and our idea was to have several products of the same style as once.
After being banned
The ban left us completely stunned. The other guy and I, the two of us who knew more about development, are already working and we couldn't spend so much time at the company.
We spent about 3 years trying to reinvent ourselves, doing virtual reality projects and stuff like that. In the end, only the two original companions stayed.
The last thing we've done has been to remake the entire game, from scratch, so that it can be compatible on more platforms and give it more quality. The result of redoing the game from scratch:
- Amazon store won't admit it
- We tried it again at the Google Store and were banned again.
- The only place where we have the game available is on our website, because they can't take it from us.
We also made a Marketing dossier and sent it to everything we could think of (erotic shops, game creators, comic book creators, online animation series creators, LGBTB associations, etc.), but without much success.
The Decission
I really don't regret undertaking this project. For me the most frustrating thing has been the bureaucratic issue. You have a project on your hands, you spend most of your energy and money on things that don't add value to your business. Perhaps if I were to start again, I would not start a company, I would take out the product and then if I had a considerable income I would consider formalizing the situation.
The decision I'm facing is to definitively close down the company.
I still think that the idea is a good one, but after so many years without it taking off and after dedicating so many hours and so much effort to it, I think there comes a time when we have to give up and move on to other things.
I'm sure that many of you have been in the same situation, in a project that you have dedicated a lot of effort and that there comes a time when you have to let it go.
What do you think?
Thank you very much for your opinions.
Resources:
Dicky Dick
Dicky Dick
Dicky Dick (@dickydickgame) | Twitter
Dicky Dick
Dicky Dick - Direct Download All Google Play Apps - AllFreeAPK.com
https://shop.spreadshirt.es/dickydick/
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