This message is a shout out to the gamedev community for your help over the years (particularly Yann L and Sneftel; its always been enlightening reading your posts to my threads or others). I've been reading GD since univiersity over the last 8 years.


Last year i felt i needed/HAD to quit my day job (for another gaming company) and do something much more creative. Creatively, I felt like a game dev with ED and it was driving me crazy. It was tough because i needed to satisfy my creative urges. my only plan/desire was to make a great, unique and fresh game that had mass appeal. I rallied some guys to help me (on rev share) and together we set out to make BarStar. We worked out of Starbucks day after day. They all thought we were crazy spending so much time there so we cycled starbucks :) we snuck onto university campus for meeting space. I reduced my spending during the development (i put myself on 3 zero dollar days a week). All this before getting some financing and small office space (the guys that financed us really believed in our game)!

After 4 different iterations on how the game worked. We launched Bar Star last week: Bar Star


And so far we are doing really, really well! Apple gave us great deck placement.

We are a top strategy game in many countries, top action game, and a top paid app as well:

Screen grab from HK itunes (Strategy page):
#1 strategy (hk)

We are getting very great reviews.

Its too early to tell how well the game will do in the long hall but so far this is beyond what i had hoped for!


even though i dont use GD much any more, it was instrumental in my up training in industry! In a city with very few game developers I had no one to get answers from. thanks GD Community for equipping me with the ability to succeed!!


Wes Tam

Wow man gratz! Do yall do the artistry or one of your buddies know how to do that?

congrats on your popularity. Would you mind updating on monetary success after a few weeks? Always curious how well it correlates.

Congratulations! I agree though, could you please post back in a few weeks to tell us about all the money you're making? :)

I'm trying to determine whether buying a used Mac mini for iPhone development would be a smart purchase. Seeing you making the big bucks would give me a push towards yes, even if making as much as you is probably not likely.

Congrats on your success! The game does look great and very polished, I'm not surprised it's doing well.

Quote: Original post by BenThereDoneThat
Congratulations! I agree though, could you please post back in a few weeks to tell us about all the money you're making? :)

I'm trying to determine whether buying a used Mac mini for iPhone development would be a smart purchase. Seeing you making the big bucks would give me a push towards yes, even if making as much as you is probably not likely.

I purchased a used iMac for 1k from Apple and I love it.

Quote: Original post by nick5454
Wow man gratz! Do yall do the artistry or one of your buddies know how to do that?

thx man, i have an artist do all the work for me (he also helped in the design of the game).

I told him i'd pay him 1k once game went live with rev share. he took a big leap of faith because there was a lot of content and man hours he put in.

Quote: Original post by way2lazy2care
congrats on your popularity. Would you mind updating on monetary success after a few weeks? Always curious how well it correlates.

I'll loop back in a few weeks and see what i can say for numbers

Also i wouldnt recommend quitting your day job to make a game. it's a really competitive marketing. i think we succeeded because i was able to pull in all my contacts, and also industry exp has helped as well. even with that, i had to cut my spending down to almost nil to build sweat equity before i could even go talk to investors about money.

if ur doing it for a hobby and dont have high expectations for returns then its a great way to pass time and learn ;)

Quote: Original post by _walrus
Also i wouldnt recommend quitting your day job to make a game. it's a really competitive marketing. i think we succeeded because i was able to pull in all my contacts, and also industry exp has helped as well.

That's a pretty bold move, quitting like that. How many years experience did you have making games professionally? And do you think you would have been able to do this before now, had you wanted to?