Imagine your iPhone without apps... how lonely. Source: AP
IT'S safe to say that Apple's iPhone owes much of its success to the App Store and what developers are doing with third-party apps. Imagine an iPhone without Instagram, Candy Crush and even Google Maps.
As it stands right now, there are over 1.3 million apps on the iOS App Store, with those apps downloaded over 7.5 billion times. The most downloaded of all these apps is, of course, Angry Birds with over 2 billion downloads alone. Oh, and Apple reported over $500 million worth of sales in the App Store in the first week of 2015. Not bad.
Australia has been a big contributor, with dozens of Aussie-made apps topping the charts across the world since the App Store's inception in 2008. One of these is the most downloaded of all time, the game Fruit Ninja. Developed by Halfbrick Studios in Brisbane, by 2014 it had been downloaded over 500 million times.
Phil Larsen with Alex Butterfield and Gemma Refalo, members of his Fruit Ninja team. Photographer: Russell Brown. Source: News Corp Australia
More recently, the success of Crossy Road, a mobile game that reached number one right across the world has shone a light on the indie developer scene in Australia. The aim of the game is to simply get a chicken to cross the road, although a few obstacles make it harder than it sounds.
Crossy Road itself was developed by Matthew Hall, 39, a developer who grew up on a sheep farm in Western Australia. While he had worked for some bigger companies in the past, his true success has come from developing games for the App Store. His first number one app came in 2010, his second in 2012 and then of course Crossy Road in 2014, with over 20 million downloads since November. All of these made at his home in rural Victoria.
He says the App Store has allowed bedroom coders to thrive, taking away the problem that indie developers had with consoles and allowing them to get their games on millions of devices without the need for a big company to push it.
Crossy Road is currently the posterboy for Australian made apps. Source: Supplied
While Mr Hall has had his own independent success with the help of a few partners, there's a place in Melbourne that is helping studios to develop brilliant indie games.
The Arcade, is a not-for-profit organisation that houses over 22 brands and around 70 people with the sole goal of fostering local app development.
Simon Joslin, 30, who is one of the founders of the Voxel Agents, a studio based in The Arcade which created the number one game Train Conductor, couldn't praise The Arcade enough.
"We benefit immensely by being in The Arcade. It's great for the social aspect, but everyone is happy to help and to share resources around. It's also good to have new perspectives from other people, something you don't have when working alone," he said.
Train Conductor itself is a game which involves connecting trains to tracks while avoiding other trains. Since the first game, the team has released two sequels.
Matt Clark (left) and Simon Joslin (right) started The Voxel Agents back in 2009. Source: Supplied
Mr Joslin said he created the company to take away the stereotype that only 'gamers' play games on their mobile phones.
"All humans play, that's our philosophy," he said. "Simplifying the interface and making it more accessible helps to take away that divide.
"Having the App Store makes it so much easier. For the first time, Indie developers like us can go head to head with big developers."
Both Mr Joslin and Mr Hall said the App Stores curation played a huge part in their success.
"We didn't have the big budget major studios have, at one point we were even handing out cards to get people to download the game around Flinders Street Station. But once the word of mouth starts to work, and you start to rise up the app charts, as long as you have a good app the downloads come," Mr Joslin said.
"We were lucky enough to get featured in the App Store, which helped a lot. People trust the curation of the App Store, and that trust brings in heaps of new people to your app."
The three Aussies behind Crossy Road, from left to right, Ben Weatherall, Andy Sum and Matthew Hall. Source: Supplied
While the likes of Voxel Agents and Matthew Hall have created games aimed to entertain, there are other Aussie developers like the guys at Kumobius who are making a real difference in people's lives. Their game Duet, is a soothing yoga experience disguised as a game, with many people suffering anxiety problems messaging the developers thanking them for helping to put them at ease.
Looking to get into app development?
It's now easier than ever to get into coding and app making. Here's some advice from developers at the Arcade to help those looking for a break:
• Try to make a game that's everything for someone, not something for everyone.
• Find out why people played, why they shared and why they left reviews for successful games.
• Do anything you can to maintain the momentum of the app and keep it ranked high in the App Store
• Simply just keep doing it. Keep failing, then exploring why that didn't work until you finally find that great idea.
Harry Tucker travelled to Melbourne as a guest of Apple.
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