Apple US's iPhone game of the year, NimbleBit's Tiny Tower is a great example that freemium games don't have to be stuck in Zynga's design rut.
Indeed, talking to Inside Mobile Apps, the US two-man (twins) studio also demonstrates a very different approach when it comes to designing such titles.
"All of our in-house testing and later, group beta testing is all done without in-app purchases implemented into the game," said David Marsh.
Not only that, he has a laissez faire attitude when it comes to metrics and analytics, saying "Not quite sure how our ARPU or average revenue per user (gotta love those acronyms!) has changed over time, since it isn't something we actively track."
Elevator pitch
Yet with total downloads expected to reach eight million by the end of 2011, and around 600,000 daily active users, there's plenty of volume in terms of IAP.
NimbleBits reckons that Tiny Tower has a conversion rate of around five percent, with the average revenue per payer of around $10.
The most popular IAP transaction is the $4.99 currency deal accounting for 52 percent of transactions, while most cash is generated by the $29.99 deal, which while only accounting for 4 percent of volume is 30 percent of revenue.
[source: Inside Mobile Apps]
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A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
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