Released back in November 2009, it's fair to say iPhone time management game Creamy Ice didn't set the App Store alight.

The product of two-man German developer ThumbFire, it's since been downloaded over a million times in three days as part of a Free App A Day promotion at the start of May.

Once again, this demonstrates that with an install base of 85 million iPhones and iPod touches, if you can hook up with an audience, things can change very quickly.

We caught up with art director Rainer 'ram' Michael, to get his take on the situation and what it means for ThumbFire in future.

Pocket Gamer: Why did you decide to get involved with FAAD?

We had our game Creamy Ice running in the App Store on a pretty low level, so we knew we had to do something to get it going.

As FAAD offered us their service, it was a no-brainer to give it a try, even if giving away your work for free feels a bit strange in the beginning.

What sort of sales had you experienced beforehand?

With no marketing at all, we made it to the top of a few of the Kids charts in Asia and were very proud of that. But in terms of sales, we had less than $100 a day.

We simply were not present in the important markets, but we knew that Creamy Ice had more potential.

As the game was already 99c, why do you think going free made such a difference?

The main difference is that you're listed in the charts with the free apps, not in the paid charts.

It seems that the audience looking for free games is much more active so you have instantly more viability there - especially with an app that is polished enough to be a paid app and has a more professional appeal.

How long were you free for and how many downloads did you get?

We wanted to go free for one day, but as soon as we saw the data, we decided to keep the app free for longer to see the effect. After three days, we cracked a 1 million downloads.

What happened when you switched back to paid?

First of all, you instantly disappear from the free charts. To this point, Creamy Ice was at the top of charts in more than 20 countries and our other app FrogHop had done very well too. It was pretty hard for us to cut that flow.

But to our surprise, Creamy Ice climbed the paid charts constantly and now is in the top 40 of the US overall charts, which is pretty amazing.

How will this change the way you approach making and marketing apps in the future?

We never thought that the FAAD promo would have such an impact, but now we are very happy that we've had the opportunity to work with them. Of course, we would love to try another FAAD promo for our new app.

As well as this, we cross-promote our games within our apps and we will try advertising on iPhone and games portals as well.

I think we will keep our apps simple as we are just a team of two. We have a few new concepts in development that will hit the App Store soon and we're starting to think about Creamy Ice 2 because people seem to like it.

Thanks to ram for his time.