Friday, August 3, 2012

Chapter 4, Milestone 3 reached!


It's August which means that THIS MONTH will see the release of Chapter 4! Good thing that I happen to have finished the third milestone and actually have spilled over to milestone 4 a good portion. The reason for this is that a long scrolling panel started right at the end of this milestone and I didn't like to split it so I incorporated it completely into this milestone instead. That also takes a bit of pressure from the last two milestones which I should now be able to finish right on time.

As you can see in the illustration above, I've left the jungle and entered the ruins of Ankal Aasha. That's a very nice change of location for me although it also means to paint a lot of stuff in perspective. Anyway, here are some images from this milestone:




In other news:

Two weeks ago the Wormworld Saga App was prominently featured by Google on Google Play (former Android Market) resulting in a huge boost of downloads. During the feature, which lasted for a week, the app was downloaded over 100,000 times. Just to give you an impression of the proportions: the app had around 8,000 downloads since it's release in October 2011. With a little bit of luck it might have been possible to reach 10,000 downloads in its first year on our own steam. The feature on Google Play now propelled the app WAY beyond that point. Even a week after the feature ended the Wormworld Saga is still in the top 10 of some local stores (actually place 4 in Germany right now) and was downloaded over 125,000 times as of today. This is quite amazing.

To be honest, I had already lost my hope that the app would do what I originally pitched in my kickstarter video last year: to provide me the income that I need to continue my work on the Wormworld Saga. It was much harder to find users for the app than I thought it would be. What kept my spirit up was the fact that a high percentage of those who downloaded it actually purchased the Collector's Editions of the chapters in the app and I figured that it would just need some more time until enough people found out about the app. Now a LOT of people have found out about it but the downside is that a lot of these people are not really closely attached to the project and the percentage of users who make an in-app purchase has dropped substancially. Still I'm curious about the bottom line after the first year which I'm going to write more about in October.

Still trying hard to make this all work!


10 comments:

  1. Congratulations for your actual achievements and your lasting commitment to your dream. I hope very much, that one day you will actually succeed in what is your main goal. In my opinion you have already achieved much of what most people would love to be able to achieve some day.

    Concerning your app, I myself hate buying things inApp . I mostly don't. I prefer trying out a lite version and then buying the full version.

    I'm sitting in a cafe right now, so I can't really check out with my slow connection, but do you have an iOS Version, too? I have both an old (one year old sgt, yes that's old) 7" Android and a new iPad and guess what I prefer browsing and working with ;) So, maybe an iOS Version - if not already existent - would be cool.

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    1. The iOS version for iPad actually existed first and I would consider it to be the perfect device to run the Wormworld Saga App regarding performance and screen aspect ratio.

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    2. Yes, indeed. Sorry, my bad, I just recently bought myself a new iPad, so I'm still missing some essential apps. Looks really great on the new iPad.

      Maybe, just maybe you should think about the price tag. For a fan supporter it is totally ok, but for the normal reader it may be a bit high. Maybe gearing towards more quantity in terms of selling would help. For each product there is the perfect price, maybe playing around with it could help.

      Just my two cents of course.

      Good luck and best of success.

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  2. I'm so excited! I was lucky enough to discover the WormWorld Saga only a month or so ago, which prevented me from going mad waiting for each chapter to drop, but this is great news! We're all very proud of you!

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  3. Dear Daniel,

    inspiring. Awesome. You rock the stage and I love it.

    Greetings from a fellow author,

    Mike

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  4. I don't know how you do it man... you must be a machine, or have machines working for you, you work so fast. Congrats my friend.. can't wait to see it. (I also can't wait to see it published as a book, but hey)

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  5. For me as a freelancer aspirant it is pretty inspiring to see, how it can work when you do things just for fun. I am so glad to read about your step-by-step-success resulting from ideas, work and before all your love for painting and drawing, and I wish you to be able to stuck with it as long as you love doing it, or that you love doing it as long as you stuck to it, as your pleasure :)

    And pleeeease tell me, the fourth chapter goes online Aug 31st (would be the nicest birthday present for me ;)

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    1. The release of Chapter 4 is indeed planned for 31st August! Thanks for your nice words!

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    2. Hooray! :D Imagine me doing and looking like that http://www.gb-shit.com/upload/e9a36629.jpg

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  6. Fantastic...cant wait to read this new chapter. Oh, and thanks for the return on my Email Daniel. Very helpful.

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