The Pocket Cyclone

Actually this is not so much about my personal resolutions. Those Ueber-Me things that typically fail within weeks and then fall apart.

This is about setting business goals. Which is a great exercise I thoroughly believe in. It forces me to think about the different aspects of my business and what I envision/plan for the next year. It provides me with an anchor point throughout the year to see how I’m doing. The trick is to create goals that are measurable and achievable, yet still challenging. So here we go.

1. Release two major games and three small games

I have not released a game since 13 months. For a lot of good reasons, but frankly, it’s painful to admit. And it should be. Potentially I’m in a “writers block”. So this is a first order priority for me and I want to release my first “self-made” small game in January. Good thing I know I’m not the only one fighting this.

It seems to me as if most devs are settling for a big-small-big-small cadence and I find that working well for me, too.

2. Update existing portfolio with at least one round of updates

The first goal is about timing, so I need to take updates into consideration as well, as they cost a lot of time. And yes, I’m committed to updates, I think they are still a great vehicle to push apps. And a natural one for developers to embrace, because, hey, it’s coding!

3. Increase revenue by 100%

There are a lot of great goals that you can set but there is really just one that is important if you are in this for real. Revenue. Revenue is the one metric that is 100% merciless and resistant to excuses. If revenue doesn’t happen, this all won’t happen. My revenue is moderate right now, so I’m setting out to double it. If I achieve more, I will be celebrating, if not, this one is the biggest metric that will force me to re-evaluate everything I’m doing in a year from now.

The sole reason this is not Nr.1 is that releasing stuff is my current Top priority and directly related to this. I see these first three goals as a package with Top Priority.

4. Get one game into the Top 100 US

Very next one on my list. While you would find this typically in the “soft goal section”, for me this is in fact a top priority for the upcoming year. It typically requires making a game with mass appeal and I think that’s an art in itself. It forces me to do market research (which I like) and to try to understand the mindset of our potential customers (which I also like). I also think there are several paths to success so yes, I’m setting this as a goal. A very personal one.

Note to the Pro’s who have such a strong brand name and/or outreach that a Top 100 is almost a given: If you read this, this is a good time to self-reflect on what you achieved already. Note you are part of a minority. Your advice, your help is greatly appreciated and part of what makes this scene so amazing, so please keep being helpful to the “rest of us”.

So this is a deliberate decision to aim “high”. Not always advisable, but hey, these are MY goals.

5. Run an outsourced porting strategy. Port any profitable app to Android, watch the space, look for additional port targets

Since I decided to develop my games myself and embarked on this long learning curve, there is not much time to look over the fence. iOS is my primary platform. I LOVE the devices, there is no Android phone out there coming even close to the iPhone4 and I was wrong predicting this for this fall. Also Android is making fast progress but too many times seems to favor cool features vs. smoothing the at times rough UI edges. Also, my apps on Android slowly earn more money, but so do my iOS apps and the difference is still 1:10.

That said, if you follow me on Twitter you know that I’m generally bullish on Android. They don’t have an “I’ll kill the iPhone” strategy and that’s actually a good thing and working out well. As I said many times, there is definitely money in that market and I think it is a major fail of developers with a successful portfolio to not port their apps to the platform, assuming they are in this to make a living.

My strategy there is simple: No time to code, but money from a successful app? Hello outsourcing. I have a trusted partner for my Android apps, so that might be easier for me, but if finding someone who is good is what holds you back, send me a DM on Twitter and I’ll share my contacts, I’m getting no commissions and I’m happy to help.

6. Increase daily ad impressions from 20k to 500k

I’m making about 70% of my revenue from ads. And my old apps slowly provide less impressions, as they age and get downloaded less and less. Right know, I’m showing like 20k impressions every day, coming from a peak of 150k, like a year ago. This is a commitment to make those updates as well as focusing on a free app strategy.

7. Create newsletter signup system and achieve 10k subscribers. Send out six newsletters.

I think this is a low-hanging fruit and part of the reason why I was delaying updates, all my future releases will carry a subscribe functionality. This is a valuable asset, one that is rather easy to encourage and classically rated rather high with independent companies, I have seen evaluations of small businesses where each quality newsletter subscriber was valued between $1 and $5. And rightfully so, if you build a quality newsletter base, this is great to kickstart new app releases.

8. Increase number of downloaded apps from 700k to 2 million

This is another priority 2. I am planning to bet big on free apps with IAP and this metric reflects this. If I don’t achieve that number, I can check what went wrong with that strategy.

9. Increase Twitter followers from 1,300 to 2,000, maintain high quality

Twitter has been invaluable for me, for a lot of reasons. However, the number of followers is not really a priority for me, but I try to understand how the Twitterverse works, just like anybody else. I’d say at the current pace this number is where I should end in a year from now, if not I just want to have a metric that I can look at in a year and recall why I came up with it and what changed.

10. Increase the average blog post views from 300 to 1,000

I went from 5 to 300 in a year, can I go to 1,000? This will be tricky, as I plan to give my idevblogaday spot to someone new in January. Can I keep it up? Can I talk with other bloggers and see what creates traffic for them? Is anything tangible coming from a blog? It’s an interesting race between Twitter and blog to see where I can reach more people/influencers with information about my upcoming apps.

11. Apply for one game award

I literally just realized this fall that there are widely recognized industry awards in the gaming industry. I mean, I knew that as a gamer, but it didn’t occur to me that I can actually apply for those and there are highly rated Indie categories. There is one game on my project list that is very non-commercial, artsy yet could be very fun and emotional, if I get a chance to toy with that a little bit I definitely want to apply for such an award. I mean, after 10 years in the vertical photography market where all awards went to the one who paid the biggest contribution fees (Kodak, soon bankrupt), I’m just really intrigued by the idea.

12. Achieve Intermediate/Pro level with Objective-C and Cocos2d, for all aspects of creating a shippable game. Make first steps in web development (like google app engine) and 3D (unity). Look into another platform/understand source code of ports

Again, I don’t believe in soft goals like that, it’s either a given or something you don’t do. But this will be part of my life in 2011, one that I particularly look forward to. I try to maintain a mix between the basics and conquering some new frontiers for me. Unity is definitely something I’m very curious about and I want to do some basic things online, just because I never did that and I know some of my ex-employees will have a good laugh on the thought of me dabbling with Java or Javascript. And I need it for any of the social features I’d like to do.

Summary

This is it. I learned a lot about business metrics in my past life and apply some to my new venture, hope you found this interesting and helpful. Let me know your New Year resolutions and most importantly, have a great, happy and fun New Year 2011, I can’t wait to see the apps you are working on!