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10/19/2010 Amazing and a modest success for the iPhone games Trainyard

Categories: News , In The News, Strange but true , Opinions , New In Pop Culture

Going from the barebones outline seen above to the top of the iTunes App Store in approximately 16 months, Matt Rix's Trainyard is a runaway success. Rix details the game's development -- and astronomical sales -- on his blog, showing its humble beginnings scribbled in a notepad, development delays due to his other job (he developed Trainyard at home in his personal time), and how the birth of his son allowed him to finish the game last May.

He also delves into the relatively small amount of money he made from Trainyard at an early stage, and it offers a free version of the game ( Trainyard Express) dramatically drove sales. "I released Trainyard Express on September 30th ... A day later, an editor at a prominent Italian blog discovered the game and wrote a fantastic article about it. The game shot up the Italian charts and quickly became the #1 free app in Italy, netting 22,795 downloads in its first day at #1. Along with the Expressboot sales in Italy have also begun receiving more and during the day reaching number 1, I beat my record of one day running a profit of $ 140 from $ 240 in one day. It was surprising to learn that up-sell worked. "

Trainyard "for a short time" to $.99 (from $2.99), resulting in his game beating out Angry Birds for the number two spot in the US. Perhaps fittingly, Rix even has a humble reaction to the monstrous success of his recent sale: "Mission accomplished."

Head over to Rix's blog entry for his far more thorough account (not to mention an lovely picture of his baby son -- congrats, Matt!), and check out Trainyard in action after the break or head to iTunes to pick it up.

Continue reading The amazing and humble success story behind iPhone game Trainyard

The amazing and humble success story behind iPhone game Trainyard originally appeared on JoystiqMon October 18 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .

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