{"id":2156,"date":"2020-12-13T18:10:52","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T18:10:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/?p=2156"},"modified":"2020-12-13T18:10:52","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T18:10:52","slug":"revenue-expenses-and-statistics-of-starlight-x-2-a-mobile-puzzle-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/revenue-expenses-and-statistics-of-starlight-x-2-a-mobile-puzzle-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Revenue, expenses and statistics of Starlight X-2, a mobile puzzle game"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Starlight X-2 is a puzzle game released on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.frozax.starsandasteroids\">Google Play<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/starlight-x-2-galactic-puzzles\/id1517377176\">iOS<\/a> in June 2020. Six months after release, it&#8217;s a good time to evaluate the success or failure of this project.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/feature1024_slx.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-2162\" src=\"http:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/feature1024_slx-1024x500.png\" alt=\"feature1024_slx\" width=\"640\" height=\"313\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/feature1024_slx.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/feature1024_slx-300x146.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For those interested by the big picture, here is a simple visual summary of the expenses and revenue of the game:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_blog.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-2180\" src=\"http:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_blog-1024x694.png\" alt=\"slx_blog\" width=\"640\" height=\"434\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_blog-1024x694.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_blog-300x203.png 300w, https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_blog.png 1059w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>With Frozax Games, I&#8217;ve specialized in puzzle mobile games (even though I just released an hypercasual game last month:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/3sec\">3 Seconds<\/a>). Starlight X-2 is my 8th mobile game, and 7th puzzle game. It&#8217;s based on lighting, space and planets.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/0001_1_640x960.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2178\" src=\"http:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/0001_1_640x960-200x300.png\" alt=\"0001_1_640x960\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/0001_1_640x960-200x300.png 200w, https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/0001_1_640x960.png 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The development of the game lasted about 6-8 months, between November\u00a02019 and June 2020. I quickly got a working prototype in the end of December. After a few tests with friends and family, I realized the game was interesting and promising, but quite difficult to understand. After a lot of time spent iterating on the tutorial, I found an artist and we worked together during the first lockdown in France (from March 2020). The game was released in mid-June 2020 on Google Play and iOS.\u00a0It\u00a0has only 9970 downloads on Google Play and 920 on iTunes.<\/p>\n<h1>Expenses<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li>Art: \u20ac1200. This was a\u00a0low price because of my relationship with the artist.<\/li>\n<li>Translations\/Proof-reading: \u20ac1600. The game is translated in 16 languages.\u00a0Also, there are much more texts than in my usual games because of features such as &#8220;Did You Know&#8221; that gives fun facts about space to the players.<\/li>\n<li>Advertising (Facebook): \u20ac2100. That&#8217;s quite a lot. And once again (see my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/an-indie-game-developer-discovering-the-world-of-user-acquisition-and-advertising\/\">previous experiences on UA<\/a>), it was really not worth it. Acquiring players through advertising with a puzzle game seems difficult, or at least I don&#8217;t know how to do it (see below for details).<\/li>\n<li>ASO: \u20ac630 ($750) I hired a company to improve ASO in August. Without much surprise, I didn&#8217;t see any change or improvement at all&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Total: 5530 \u20ac. Of course, I didn&#8217;t count my time developing, designing and releasing the game here, just external charges.<\/p>\n<h1>Revenue<\/h1>\n<p>The business model of the game is quite classic:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Free download<\/li>\n<li>There are sometimes interstitial video ads at the end of levels.<\/li>\n<li>You can unlock\u00a0new levels or get more hints by using rewarded video ads.<\/li>\n<li>You can purchases packs ($1), hints ($1 or $2) and remove interstitials ($1).<\/li>\n<li>You can subscribe to get everything for free (weekly: $2, monthly: $5 or semi-annually: $20)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screenshot_20201213_100643_com.frozax.starsandasteroids.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2173\" src=\"http:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screenshot_20201213_100643_com.frozax.starsandasteroids.jpg\" alt=\"Screenshot_20201213_100643_com.frozax.starsandasteroids\" width=\"320\" height=\"376\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screenshot_20201213_100643_com.frozax.starsandasteroids.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screenshot_20201213_100643_com.frozax.starsandasteroids-255x300.jpg 255w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As seen on the first image of this post, most of the revenue comes from ads: \u20ac1852, then in-app purchases brought \u20ac423 and subscriptions, \u20ac279. You can also see the split by in-app type, and by subscription duration.<\/p>\n<h2>Split per platform<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2165\" src=\"http:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_pf.png\" alt=\"slx_pf\" width=\"598\" height=\"367\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_pf.png 598w, https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_pf-300x184.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 598px) 100vw, 598px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Split per country<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2167\" src=\"http:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_countr_dl.png\" alt=\"slx_countr_dl\" width=\"597\" height=\"368\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_countr_dl.png 597w, https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_countr_dl-300x185.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 597px) 100vw, 597px\" \/> <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2168\" src=\"http:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_countr_rev.png\" alt=\"slx_countr_rev\" width=\"598\" height=\"368\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_countr_rev.png 598w, https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_countr_rev-300x185.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 598px) 100vw, 598px\" \/><\/p>\n<h1>Ad campaign<\/h1>\n<p>As usual, I found that the most difficult is\u00a0getting downloads. Finally, with the small download numbers, the revenue are not that bad (\u20ac0.23 per download).<\/p>\n<p>The chart\/table below show the\u00a0summary of my ads campaign (&#8220;de&#8221;, &#8220;fr&#8221; and &#8220;en&#8221; is the targeted language of each ad).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2175\" src=\"http:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_fb_ad.png\" alt=\"slx_fb_ad\" width=\"565\" height=\"398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_fb_ad.png 565w, https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/slx_fb_ad-300x211.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 565px) 100vw, 565px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As you can see, I couldn&#8217;t make profitable user acquisition. CPI is really high, and the engagement of acquired users was terrible compared to organic. Even though I gathered a lot of useful information and experience, acquisition was again a failure [if you know how I can get better, contact me!].<\/p>\n<h1>ASO<\/h1>\n<p>The ASO was basically money wasted. Once again, except for the experience. Now that I think about it, I didn&#8217;t hear from the company for a long time&#8230; Are there really efficient and serious ASO companies? If you know some or work in this field, please <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Frozax\">contact me<\/a>\u00a0as well!<\/p>\n<h1>Conclusion<\/h1>\n<p>For now, the game is still not profitable and download numbers are still too low these days.<\/p>\n<p>I think I should have released the game earlier, with fewer features. I especially think of the feature &#8220;Did you Know?&#8221;. The game\u00a0displays various facts about planets and stars and the end of levels. While this is a great feature in my opinion, it might have been a better idea to cut this feature for the\u00a0initial release. It took a lot of time to design and generated a lot of texts to localize (and increased the localization overall cost), and it&#8217;s not the core gameplay.\u00a0I could add this feature later, when\/if seeing interest for the game.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2176\" src=\"http:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/dyk.jpg\" alt=\"dyk\" width=\"379\" height=\"166\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/dyk.jpg 379w, https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/dyk-300x131.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 379px) 100vw, 379px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The game itself is also quite complex. I honestly still think that it&#8217;s one of my most interesting puzzle game. But even myself, if I&#8217;m not in the mood thinking too much, I find it hard. I&#8217;m sure there&#8217;s an audience for this kind of games, though.<\/p>\n<p>Hope you liked seeing these numbers. Feel free to contact me on\u00a0any social network (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/frozax\">Twitter<\/a>, now on <a href=\"https:\/\/discord.gg\/Cz3q65G\">Discord<\/a>, too) and comment here if you have any questions about this article or anything else!<\/p>\n<div class=\"addtoany_share_save_container addtoany_content_bottom\"><div class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list a2a_target\" id=\"wpa2a_1\"><a class=\"a2a_button_twitter\" href=\"http:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/add_to\/twitter?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.frozax.com%2Fblog%2F2020%2F12%2Frevenue-expenses-and-statistics-of-starlight-x-2-a-mobile-puzzle-game%2F&amp;linkname=Revenue%2C%20expenses%20and%20statistics%20of%20Starlight%20X-2%2C%20a%20mobile%20puzzle%20game\" title=\"Twitter\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><a class=\"a2a_button_facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/add_to\/facebook?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.frozax.com%2Fblog%2F2020%2F12%2Frevenue-expenses-and-statistics-of-starlight-x-2-a-mobile-puzzle-game%2F&amp;linkname=Revenue%2C%20expenses%20and%20statistics%20of%20Starlight%20X-2%2C%20a%20mobile%20puzzle%20game\" title=\"Facebook\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><a class=\"a2a_button_google_plus\" href=\"http:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/add_to\/google_plus?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.frozax.com%2Fblog%2F2020%2F12%2Frevenue-expenses-and-statistics-of-starlight-x-2-a-mobile-puzzle-game%2F&amp;linkname=Revenue%2C%20expenses%20and%20statistics%20of%20Starlight%20X-2%2C%20a%20mobile%20puzzle%20game\" title=\"Google+\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><a class=\"a2a_button_reddit\" href=\"http:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/add_to\/reddit?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.frozax.com%2Fblog%2F2020%2F12%2Frevenue-expenses-and-statistics-of-starlight-x-2-a-mobile-puzzle-game%2F&amp;linkname=Revenue%2C%20expenses%20and%20statistics%20of%20Starlight%20X-2%2C%20a%20mobile%20puzzle%20game\" title=\"Reddit\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\nwpa2a.script_load();\n\/\/--><\/script>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starlight X-2 is a puzzle game released on\u00a0Google Play and iOS in June 2020. Six months after release, it&#8217;s a good time to evaluate the success or failure of this project. For those interested by the big picture, here is a simple visual summary of the expenses and revenue of the game: With Frozax Games,&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/revenue-expenses-and-statistics-of-starlight-x-2-a-mobile-puzzle-game\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Revenue, expenses and statistics of Starlight X-2, a mobile puzzle game<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,7,8,10,14,17,154],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2156"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2183,"href":"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2156\/revisions\/2183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.frozax.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}