iPhone Game Developer Quits Job After Making Bank
Submitted by mildmint on Monday, 22 September 2008

Steve Demeter developed the iPhone puzzle game Trism as a side
project, but now he’s quitting his day job. Why? Because he says he’s
generated $250,000 in profits since he started selling the $4.99 game
on iTunes this summer. That’s after Apple (AAPL) has taken its 30% cut
of total sales, and after subtracting his initial investment of about
$5,000.

So while we’ve heard plenty of griping from developers who complain
about Apple’s restrictive grip on its store, you’re certainly not
going to hear Steve joining that chorus. In fact, he says, he’s so
pleased with Apple, that he’s going to work exclusively with them, and
will pass on the chance to work on other platforms, like Google’s
Android.

Why cut himself off from other markets? In part, because he’s doing
just fine with Apple. But Steve also says that Google’s strategy of
distributing its OS to multiple manufacturers who will create multiple
handset models will actually cause him more headaches than its worth.

“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?”

So if he’s not expanding to the other mobile platforms, what is Steve
going to do with his newfound wealth? He says he’s actively looking to
hire more people – engineers and artists specifically. While he
started off on his own, he now has four more people working for him in
San Francisco, working on 5 more iPhone games.