How to Outsource your App: My 5 Step Guide

[Walker411]

Really good information on this thread. I've been burned by coders before (I know I'm at fault since I'm in charge, but these were $40/$50 an hour guys in some cases - price means nothing).

Do you all make your job posts really quick are sparse? I've tried that (with bulleted lists) as well as providing more detail and I never get who I want bidding on my jobs.

It's always a good idea to give them a detailed description because it ends up narrowing down who will bid on your project. Like frieden said, you need to look into their job history and ratings to narrow it down further because you will still have sub-par developers trying to catch a good project. In the end it's really up to you to find a good developer. Make sure your project is lucrative enough for better developers and do your due diligence in hiring.

 

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[DennisC]

Hi Tim

Glad that you are succesful in creating your first app!

Can you PM me your app? also do you have plans to migrate the app to android and google ? Is that easy enough to do ?

 

[openminded790]

Nice man!

I was big into app outsourcing a while ago, now I just do affiliate marketing full-time because it's picked up quite a bit. I actually got my app made for $200! I bargained a lot and picked up some good developers who didn't have that many jobs yet.

The quality of it was not that great though. Since they were new developers, they didn't know how to treat their customers/clients and kept pulling dodgies here and there lol.

I still bragain a lot though. You'd be surprised how low they're willing to go!

~ Mateen

 

[Warrior]

Anyone tried http://facebook.github.io/origami/ ?

Apparently Facebook programmers used it for making their Paper functionality. Seems very easy to use from the pictures. Haven't used it yet though.

 

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[Daniel M.]

Great topic Walker, thanks.

I have one question. Shouldn't we be afraid of hiring developers from elance? I mean isn't there a risk that our app idea is so great that the developer will steal he and will make it on his own ?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[healthstatus]

Shouldn't we be afraid of hiring developers from elance?

This is covered in sooooo many threads. NO, established developers are doing what they want to do for a living. They don't want to mess up their online reputation, and they don't do marketing well, which is why they are willing to pay Elance to get a chance to work for you.

 

[Stabile18]

Would all of this also apply to making a game app as well? My friend and I tried coding some games on our own, but it turned out to be a bit too difficult for us. We think we have some good ideas, but haven't been able to get anything to the app store yet. I'm just worried that we will be on too tight of a budget to get anyone to make a game. We are both only 18 so we don't have a ton of money to spend.

 

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[Walker411]

Would all of this also apply to making a game app as well? My friend and I tried coding some games on our own, but it turned out to be a bit too difficult for us. We think we have some good ideas, but haven't been able to get anything to the app store yet. I'm just worried that we will be on too tight of a budget to get anyone to make a game. We are both only 18 so we don't have a ton of money to spend.

You can very easily outsource a game, but you will find it to be much more expensive. Games require a lot of coding and testing. If your game idea is simple, I would recommend trying GameSalad. It's a drag-and-drop style software developer and is fairly easy to learn with some youtube tutorials. I am currently in the finishing stages of my own game using GameSalad that will be submitted within a week or two. I was able to build and test the whole game within a month without any prior coding experience.

 

[Stabile18]

Huh, I'll have to check that out. I haven't heard of GameSalad. I would definitely much prefer making it myself. The problem is that I do know coding, just not quite enough. I would actually be interested in seeing how your game came out once it's available.
Still, do you have an idea of how much outsourcing a fairly simple game (something comparable to Flappy Bird in simplicity) might cost?

 

[mememan]

Games are a black hole, especially on iOS. There are way too many games out there, people jump from one to the other too quickly, and they honestly aren't that fun. Have you played any of the top iOS games? I feel like I'm a low-grade clerical worker with the timers, nags, and the like. Oh, pay $100 IAP to play this game without interruption for an hour? Screw that. Just play a slightly older on non-DLC game on the PC.

 

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[Stabile18]

I do agree that most iPhone games are too demanding. If I have to commit more than 5 minutes to the game I would much rather just sit down and play xbox. However, I do think that iPhone games have a lot of potential if done correctly. In my opinion, the best games are those you can play for very short periods of time without having to commit to the game. Like Flappy Bird was great because if you had even just a minute or two of down time you could play a round or two then immediately close the app no problem without having to worry about saving or losing progress. Simple but very effective.
Regardless, I would really just like to know the price range I would be looking at rather than the success of the game (I am confident I have that part under control-if not, I'm young and I'll learn from the experience and mistakes).

 

[mememan]

I do agree that most iPhone games are too demanding. If I have to commit more than 5 minutes to the game I would much rather just sit down and play xbox. However, I do think that iPhone games have a lot of potential if done correctly. In my opinion, the best games are those you can play for very short periods of time without having to commit to the game. Like Flappy Bird was great because if you had even just a minute or two of down time you could play a round or two then immediately close the app no problem without having to worry about saving or losing progress. Simple but very effective.
Regardless, I would really just like to know the price range I would be looking at rather than the success of the game (I am confident I have that part under control-if not, I'm young and I'll learn from the experience and mistakes).

Take a look at this:

http://www.lolerapps.com/baby-maker-costs-and-earning-report-in-the-black

The summary is a retarded app cost Pat Flynn $5k to make.

Are you familiar with Humble Bundle? Triple AAA indie titles going for $0.01 for 5 of them at a time (or $0.99 if you want Steam keys). The market is beyond diluted.

Take a look at the value of game source codes and maybe work off of there. I would not build from scratch, and for the love of god, avoid this cutey lame design everything goes for. Oh, but then if you make a game slightly edgy or non-PC, Apple won't accept it into their network. Then you move to Android, where people are from the Windows computer market and know it isn't worth paying $100 for a Bejewled clone, and if the game is any good, they'll hack it

 

[100k]

Made my first app! I used Fiverr.com LOL

Its a simple app

Its published on Google store and I will start promoting it - either this week or next.

 

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[pcharles]

You can very easily outsource a game, but you will find it to be much more expensive. Games require a lot of coding and testing. If your game idea is simple, I would recommend trying GameSalad. It's a drag-and-drop style software developer and is fairly easy to learn with some youtube tutorials. I am currently in the finishing stages of my own game using GameSalad that will be submitted within a week or two. I was able to build and test the whole game within a month without any prior coding experience.

Walker411,
How'd your game turn out?

 

[GuestUser116]

What's the more profitable thing to do, price your app or make it free and add in app purchases for premium stuff? Say the app is a 2D non multiplayer game.

 

[frieden70]

Free with in-app purchases.

See Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, etc as examples.

What's the more profitable thing to do, price your app or make it free and add in app purchases for premium stuff? Say the app is a 2D non multiplayer game.

 

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[GuestUser116]

Free with in-app purchases.

See Candy Crush, Clash of Clans, etc as examples.

What's the approximate cost of outsourcing a 2D game app?

 

[Jinxus]

Thread should be gold.

Great content in here.

 

[frieden70]

That's like asking what is the approximate cost of a car?

Too many factors...

Could be 1k-100k.

Create a wireframe of your app (I detail how in my first post in this thread) and start getting bids on your favorite outsourcing platform. Voila, approximate cost and it didn't cost you anything but your time to figure it out.


Good luck.

What's the approximate cost of outsourcing a 2D game app?

 

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[MattCour]

What's the more profitable thing to do, price your app or make it free and add in app purchases for premium stuff? Say the app is a 2D non multiplayer game.

Why not do both? That's what I did. It's very easy to make the exact same game but one has ads and is free. The other is paid with no ads. Both have IAPs. You can buy source code pretty easily and have a game created within a month or less for under $1500 in my experience. If you really haggle you could have a sweet game done for under $1k from an Elance programmer. Good luck!

 

[SGBoise]

Thanks for the info. I need to use your suggestions. Being a programmer, I prefer to do it myself but it limits my potential.

 

[John Page]

Great thread! Thanks a lot.

I have four different ideas that will need to wait until I have the money to pay for a coder.

 

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[seamles]

I've posted this elsewhere but I have this app just sitting around doing nothing and am looking for someone to help work on it, https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fitlock/id840642736. I think the concept is actually great and has some good potential but I don't have the time to work on. PM if interested.

 

[CyberBiz]

Thanks for sharing, Walker.