iShoot iPhone game takes App Store by storm
Lite version sends $2.99 premium edition to top of charts
iPhone developer Ethan Nicholas is reaping the rewards of his iShoot game topping the App Store chart - so much so, that he's given up his day job at Sun Microsystems.
The $2.99 game has been available since last October, but at the start of January Nicholas launched a free Lite version, and within ten days the premium edition whizzed to the top of the charts, with nearly 17,000 downloads in one day.
"I'm still in shock," he tells the iPhone Savior blog. "I've given my two week notice at Sun Microsystems. I'm gonna do this full time now... I put zero marketing dollars into iShoot and had no blog coverage. I just created a game I actually wanted to play."
Expect hundreds of his fellow independent developers to put renewed efforts into creating Lite versions of their games in the coming weeks and months.
It's the latest sign of how the App Store is shifting the mobile gaming landscape, and providing a new challenge for the larger publishers who are used to flexing their marketing muscle to drive sales.
