14 DAY TRIAL // With all the complaints from rejected iPhone developers and their apps swimming around, we hardly come by positive news regarding the App Store lately. Nevertheless, Steve Demeter, the developer of one of the best puzzle games released for the iPhone (Trism), is quite pleased with Apple giving him the opportunity to promote his app. In fact, he's so pleased with Apple that he's passing on the chance to work for other platforms.
Demeter reveals he has generated an astounding $250,000 in profits since he started selling Trism on the iTunes App Store this summer. The $4.99 game itself generated profits for Apple as well (30% of the total earnings), and paid Demeter back his $5000 investment to create the game, leaving the $250,000 as net profits.
Trism is a puzzle game that has players matching three or more triangles of the same color to accumulate points and advance through. Using the iPhone's touchscreen, as well as tilting the device from one side to another, players move the on-screen triangles in different directions. The real twist is the ability to let gravity put triangles in their place by tilting the iPhone.
As it turned out, Demeter's idea was a winner. Now he's so pleased with Apple, that he's going to work exclusively with them, Silicon Alley Insider is reporting. What's more, he's passing on offers from platforms like Google's Android. Steve believes that Google's strategy of distributing its OS to multiple handset makers is not something he'd rather get involved with. More devices mean more headaches for developers like him, he suggests.
“Do I want to be spending 6 months to write the game, and another 6 months making it compatible? If I had Trism available for Android, and there are 50 Android devices and every time one of them crashes (the users) contact me, do I want that?,” said Demeter.
Steve started off on his own, and now has four people working for him on new iPhone games. In an interview with GameSetWatch, Steve referred to himself as a “little” guy not once, but twice. He expressed his anxiousness to get Trism up on the iTunes App Store ASAP, not because he desperately wanted to cash in on the game, but because he was afraid he might get swallowed by the big fish. We'll bet Steve is a tad more confident now with 250K in his pocket. Our congrads go to him.