3DWeapons
Augment Reality 3D Shooter simulation app.
The app reached a total of 1.5 million downloads. Used on both mobile phones and tablets. The app has seen heavy growth. However, growth is stalling. And the number 1.5M is the total downloads. Not the number of active users. That was running around 50k at the time.
While the app did have quite some users. And some money was flowing in. I decided to not work on the app anymore. I removed all the advertising, and removed the paid app. To only deliver the value of the initial app to users. I wanted the app to still be published. But I didn't want to focus on it anymore. It was one hell of a roller coaster ride!
Started creating a paid app. Grew MRR to around 500 Euro. The first time somebody paid for a product I build. This felt amazing!
Ads were not paying a lot. In total it paid off my study debt... Which was huge ;-). Learned about In-App Purchases, Paid apps, Google Ads, and other Ad Networks.
All in all, only about 1 to 2% of all users paid for the app.
The app reached a total of 1 million downloads. At this point in the time, the amount of active users was at an all time high of around 60k active monthly users. I switched job, and worked 20% of my time on the app, working on a backend part and social part.
After releasing version 1.1, 1.2 and finally 1.3. And making sure to reply on all users comments. The app kept growing. The number of downloads grew to 50k... This was still a 100% part time project. Just for fun. I didn't expect it to grow fast. Time for monetization?
App was first published on the Google Play Store.. Being one of the first app in this category, it quickly picked up downloads. And user reviews where mostly positive. The app did not have any monetization elements. It was completely free. The goal was never to make money.
Playing with the accelerometer and OpenGL, I was able to rotate a car in 3D by moving the phone. But what if I could combine it with the Camera: Augmented Reality Shooting app.. The idea was born. I started building prototypes, and got something to work soon after.
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