App success story

by **Tokyo Sexwale** @ Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:01 pm

Grats to your man teakay. I see he's featured now. Kerching.

by **thekungfury** @ Fri Dec 21, 2012 11:45 am

The Sun's app of the year

by **Turntable** @ Fri Dec 21, 2012 12:06 pm

Good. Not suprised, but happy for him. Has he made much money out of it, do you know?

On this topic, I have always wondered- How do you actually find games like this?
When I go on the APP store its the same games all the time that naturally come to the top and it is impossible to find this sort of thing unless you know of thier existence.

by **Strawman** @ Fri Dec 21, 2012 12:13 pm

Well done him, about the game above when it says "by the time the credits roll, you'll find yourself taking a long hard look at yourself as (a) person" is that because you've just spent hours playing a video game?

by **thekungfury** @ Fri Dec 21, 2012 12:27 pm

Turntable wrote:On this topic, I have always wondered- How do you actually find games like this?
When I go on the APP store its the same games all the time that naturally come to the top and it is impossible to find this sort of thing unless you know of thier existence.

I only found it from knowing my mate and I find the same thing in the app store.

Apple decide what is/isn't shown and it seems very arbitrary. It was immensely frustrating for him because his game wasn't in the "sport game" category for some reason whereas other footie sims were.

He had the top grossing app and the World Cup was about to start but Apple just ignored him when he said it might be a good idea to feature his game in their football promotions.

In terms of cash I've no idea how it's doing now. Looking on iTunes it's 30th in the top grossing chart for 2012. He was peaking around £5-6k/day when all the papers reviewed it but I don't see how that can last for more than a few weeks.

by **minimoog** @ Thu Dec 27, 2012 9:43 am

It was amongst the Guardian's apps of the year yesterday.

by **thekungfury** @ Wed Mar 06, 2013 8:32 am

Last night he won a frickin' BAFTA for the best sports game.

Beat FIFA 13, F1 2012 and Forza Horizon.

Mental.

by **Käsemeister** @ Wed Mar 06, 2013 8:38 am

Fantastic! Though we won't congratulate him until the binmen get an award.

by **Tokyo Sexwale** @ Wed Mar 06, 2013 8:44 am

A Bafta for a phone game seems incredible! Well done to him though - it's a superb game.

by **nakedninja** @ Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:05 am

Nice work him.

I expect his biography will now be called 'Bedroom to BAFTA' or some such tosh. I'll probably read the first chapter and bin it.

by **Strawman** @ Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:22 am

It says he's given up his day job to do this, does that mean for the last year or so he's been working like a maniac doing two jobs, he must have been frazzled as a frazzled thing.

by **thekungfury** @ Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:22 am

Here he is up on stage looking utterly bemused as to how he has just beaten developers from Codemasters, Sony, EA and Microsoft

by **dirtyboy** @ Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:24 am

I downloaded it back when you mentioned it and loved it, told my mates and they loved it, soon my fb wall was littered with us all posting our stats trying to outdo one and other.

I'm pleased for him, I had hours of fun with it.

by **thekungfury** @ Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:32 am

Strawman wrote:It says he's given up his day job to do this, does that mean for the last year or so he's been working like a maniac doing two jobs, he must have been frazzled as a frazzled thing.

He gave up his job in 2006 and set up New Star Games Ltd. It sort of bimbled along for a few years with games on Steam and his own website. By the sounds of it he was able to pay a small mortgage and he was enjoying the job.

New Star Soccer is actually in its 5th iteration and it started as a hobby when he was still working.

It's been an overnight success 10yrs in the making.

by **DI Burnside** @ Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:32 am

I don;t think it's to much of a stretch for CTF to claim an assist here.

Did he thank us ? Of course he didn't. Ungrateful shit.

by **Strawman** @ Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:35 am

TKF wrote:It's been an overnight success 10yrs in the making.

Laugh, it must have been a write up using theDailyMail SchoolOfJournalism TM

by **nakedninja** @ Wed Mar 06, 2013 9:50 am

TKF wrote:It's been an overnight success 10yrs in the making.

All the best are.

by **Turntable** @ Wed Mar 06, 2013 1:15 pm

Im delighted for him. That must have been a phenominal moment to stand up there and get that prize.
If it were me, I would definitely find some way of fcuking that award

by **thekungfury** @ Fri Aug 09, 2013 4:37 pm

A good read about the history of this app but also about the debt situation he got himself into whilst developing the games.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013- ... tar-soccer

by **span** @ Fri Aug 09, 2013 4:51 pm

What a great story

by **Tokyo Sexwale** @ Fri Aug 09, 2013 4:54 pm

TKF wrote:A good read about the history of this app but also about the debt situation he got himself into whilst developing the games.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013- ... tar-soccer

Interesting.

As an aside, it always makes me laugh when people are surprised by tax bills.

by **span** @ Fri Aug 09, 2013 5:02 pm

Second Marine wrote:As an aside, it always makes me laugh when people are surprised by tax bills.

Yes, I thought the same. Made me suspect his wife probably wasn't doing the best job of helping with the accounts and admin. :hehe:

Though I do know some people who seem to regard all money in as entirely theirs until the tax bill arrives, IYSWIM.

by **thekungfury** @ Fri Aug 09, 2013 5:09 pm

Second Marine wrote:
TKF wrote:A good read about the history of this app but also about the debt situation he got himself into whilst developing the games.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013- ... tar-soccer

Interesting.

As an aside, it always makes me laugh when people are surprised by tax bills.

When I asked him about it he'd sort of forgotten that you pay tax. Previous to the £17k bill he'd spent a few years where tax bills were pennies so he'd always just paid it out of the next month's earnings.

A massive stroke of luck that he got that game to pay for it otherwise he might have had to give it all up and get a proper job before the app got developed.

by **DI Burnside** @ Sun Jun 01, 2014 6:34 pm

I just started playing this again after forgetting about it for months, he's ruined it and I hate him now !

If you're not prepared to shell out regularly for in-app purchases you're not going to win anything, all you'll end up with is a miserable player sat on the bench.

by **thekungfury** @ Sun Jun 01, 2014 8:59 pm

DI Burnside wrote:I just started playing this again after forgetting about it for months, he's ruined it and I hate him now !

If you're not prepared to shell out regularly for in-app purchases you're not going to win anything, all you'll end up with is a miserable player sat on the bench.

Funnily enough I tried it again the other day. I didn't like the "improvements" either. All about the in-app purchases these days.

by **DI Burnside** @ Wed Nov 16, 2016 6:31 pm

They've got a new one out, New Star Cricket. See you in a few weeks.

by **thekungfury** @ Wed Jul 11, 2018 4:38 pm

He’s launched another version. I’ve yet to play it but apparently it’s more of a soccer manager game than the last one.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/new-star-soccer-manager/id1360417684?mt=8