One such is UK/Swedish outfit ustwo.
It's just released the first game in its 48hApps initiative - a concept in which its creatives have two days to come up with an idea, and get it finished and sent off for Apple's approval.
We caught up with ustwo's co-founder - the enigmatic and determinedly lower case - mills to find out the whys and hows.
Pocket Gamer: Before we start on 48hApp, can you provide some background on what apps ustwo has released to date, and how you've found the App Store environment?
mills: The 48hApp concept was created as a direct reaction to what we refer to as "the futility of app devel(APP)ment".
The time taken to develop and build an app does not guarantee sales. If anything, it makes it more difficult to recoup costs. After we spent over £30,000 on understanding iPhone app development with our first app Steppin - only shifting 1,400 paid downloads despite the 175,000 downloads we had for Steppin Lite - we realised the hard way that marketing and promotion was more important than the app itself (assuming it's a good app of course).
What you do immediately after an app is released is critical. It's at this stage where many developers fall down as they simply don't have the time to go through the huge list of App Marketing To-Dos.
MouthOff, our second and most successful app to date, took two weeks to develop, but we're still continuing to release more promotional videos, creating updates like the forthcoming Hell-oween (below), and communicating with anyone who will listen.
We also recently released 1 MouthOff, which is the free version.
Another important part of such activity is that every time a user makes a video using MouthOff, the app is promoted virally. In this way, we're averaging around 800 new views per day across our MouthOff video portfolio, many of which can be seen on our showusyourmouthoff site.
But while MouthOff is a runaway success compared to 95 percent of apps, it's still not in the top one percent of paid apps.
In terms of sales, it's been downloaded 40,000 times, bringing in £17,500 in revenue. It now sells a consistent 180 units, or £88 per day, which is enough to stock our beer fridge
So what's the inspiration behind 48hApps?
The issue we faced was our apps were taking too long to make. We got frustrated by not being able to talk about fresh apps. As far as we're concerned, there's nothing better than producing quick turnaround projects, so we pulled a crack team together over a beer one night. We then set ourselves a simple task: we needed something cool, something addictive, something that showcased quick thinking, but something that didn't need massive investment.
So we created . [dot], the world's first 48 hour app - concept, design, development, marketing plan - all produced in the space of 48 hours.
What's . about?
The name of the game is survival. It's simple. You are .. Blue circles are food. Red triangles are death. . starves and shrinks without food. You move . with the accelerometer and pick up blue circles and avoid red triangles.
The gameplay is simple, and the name even more so. We named it after the staring character - the . - and there's nothing better than trademarking a full stop!
You have another five 48hApps planned so will they be related?
. is our first foray into what we call casgasm, AKA casual gaming. The connection is that each of the six apps is created in a 48 hour time period, each is about simple, stunning design, and addictive game play.
They will have a similar feel because we created them, but they'll only be related by the time we spend developing them... 48 hours. Still we want people to collect all six games to complete the set as they are very coolectable.
Doesn't this approach go against the desire of developers to spend time polishing their games?
We have nothing against long builds and we are running the 48 hour app concept alongside our bigger projects such as Inkstrumental. These apps are taking months as opposed to days to create the concept, design and build.
The key for us is to have a set of apps out there, each pushing users to the next app, sharing, engaging, and opening up promotion and, being part of the overall 48hApp brand awareness.
For me, app development can be likened to owning a football club. It's all about the prestige of saying you create apps, but just like football clubs, it sucks money in, and it's almost impossible to make money out.
Spending months and months perfecting your app is, of course, essential if it's a big app, but this won't guarantee sales. If you have a decent idea, well implemented, then you have a good springboard to start off your promotion. However, be prepared to spend weeks after you have finished building your app promoting it. Without this, it will sink to the bottom of the Apple App sea.
What's the reaction been so far to .?
We worked out that over the 48 hours - taking into account development, design, animation and marketing expenses - we need to shift 5,750 apps at 59p (after Apple takes its cut) to break-even.
But in terms of the publicity and prestige we've gained, the reaction's been massive. Many developers have complimented us on the idea, while designers see it as a return to the grassroot approach you leave behind at college when you just go for it.
But the hard work is now to get the consumers to buy into the same story. The more exposure . gets, the more chance we have to recoup costs. It's a slow burn, and so far we have hit the 10 percent mark, averaging 19 sales per day, meaning in 276 days we will hit our target...
Hmmm... We expect the pickup to start in a couple weeks and we'll consider it a success once we're getting 50+ sales per day.
Are you using any special tools to make the most of your 48 hours?
Adobe Flash is a perfect tool in terms of prototyping an idea before you start the proper coding. All the graphics can be reused and gameplay can be tested to perfection, ensuring you're heading in the right direction. This cuts the time spent on development right down, allowing us to change direction early on in the 48 hour window if needs be.
In addition, the beauty of using Flash to showcase a 48 hour app is you end up with a fully working Flash game, so in the case of ., we were in a position to release a playable web version prior to the App Store launch of ..
How strict are you about the 48 hour period?
App-wise, we only release what can be done in a two day period. The bottom line is it has to go to Apple on hour 48. But, once the app is with Apple, then the hard marketing work begins.
On this occasion we took advantage of existing social services and while awaiting sign off from Apple, we created a Flickr group asking the question 'Have you seen the .?' where we invited Flickr users to photograph what they thought the app was.
Although it only had limited success, it still achieved over 250 photographs, enough to get people wondering if . was going to be a Flickr app. Over the following two weeks, we seeded three small videos giving subtle hints as to what . was actually about.
I think the key to the success of any app now is a decent video, not only showing what the app is about but something more aspirational that showcases the creativity and vibe which forms the backbone to the game the user will play and hopefully learn to love.
In this way we also created and seeded two highly polished promo videos that told the story of the main . character from the perspective of the good and bad aspects experienced within the game. These videos helped reiterate the design influence surrounding the game to the outside world, while also virally spreading direct links for the audience to download the app.
Will you be supporting any of the 48hApps with updates?
Yes, we wanted many more features than we have in ., but the rules are the rules.
Still updates are key to making sure an app remains on a user's iPhone. According to the latest research most users will delete their apps within 30 days of purchase, so we wanted to do something about that and believe in giving a little extra directly back to our users.
So if we shift the 5,750 units then we will make the update. We have to be strict with ourselves though, as it's all too easy to write off app development as a lesson learnt. At some stage you have to make your money back and we're confident that . will achieve this goal for ustwo.
What about other features?
For the next 48hApp, we want to include a global scoreboard, which we will reinvent across all six apps. We also intend to add Twitter and Facebook extensions. We're interested in anything that allows the app to be spread virally and anything that helps build on current success.
A lesson we learnt from . is that global scoreboard and our users' competitiveness go a long way to help promote the app. I'm pretty sure that users of . don't realise that the world record currently stands at over three minutes of play.
Thanks to mills for his time.
You can keep up to date with the activity at ustwo via web and Twitter.
You can buy . via this App Store Link for 99c, 0.79 and 59p.
