In a speech at Casual Connect Asia, Mike Hines analyzed what makes successful in-app purchases. “It turns out there are a handful of things that most of the top 50 do that other games don’t do,” he says. For a quick rundown of what can help a good app succeed, see the video below.
As developer evangelist at Amazon, Mike Hines claims, “I have the best job in the world. I fly around the globe helping developers make more money with relatively low effort and cost. Now, who wouldn’t want that job?”
Finding His Way in Business and Games
Early in Mike’s life there were hints about his future career in the games industry. His family had the first Atari 2600 in their town, and when they got an Apple ][+, he taught himself Apple BASIC and started writing games. In fact he is still a gamer, describing himself as a huge tower defense fanatic who is almost always playing a new tower defense game on his tablet.
He was also interested in business and economics. He earned his college degree with a major in business and economics and a minor in computer science, so it is no surprise that he enjoys focusing on the business success of gaming startups.
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Understanding and Defining the Industry
When Mike sold his last startup, he did some careful analysis as he decided what to do next. He imagined what he would like for his perfect job, wrote it down and then began approaching companies to see if they were interested in hiring him to do that job. And Amazon agreed to do just that.
After 13 years of experience working for Microsoft, he understands what it is like to try and innovate at a large company. Mike also understands the challenges facing both small and medium-sized developers because he has been there. He has founded startups, two in financial services and two in software; he has seen them succeed and he has seen them fail. He keeps very much in touch with developers’ concerns through the tiny one-person company he has kept just because he loves the process and the work.
He is able to put all this together to offer unique and helpful insights to game developers today.
Sharing the Insights
And clearly developers value these insights. For example, he was attending a conference where he gave a presentation on monetization. Afterward, one attendee ran up and hugged him, saying, “You just saved my company millions of dollars.” This is a moment Mike would like to have on camera; he would watch it whenever his research turns frustrating.
At Amazon he is constantly working to help developers. With his research, third-party research and data from their app store, he has a good view of what is working for developers and what is likely to work in the future.
He helped Amazon to launch the Kindle E Ink development app, has written mobile app test criteria and is a blogger for Amazon Appstore. He takes his knowledge to developers in dozens of national and international conferences, and he hopes to bring developer feedback to Amazon in his continuing mission to discover what works and doesn’t work in mobile app monetization.
The Future of Casual Games
During the next few years, Mike expects the games industry to explore monetization using social marketing in ways that have never yet occurred to anyone. He emphasizes, “This is how developers can win and make money in the race to increasingly affordable games.”
Insider Advice
Mike stresses the importance of passion to those who are interested in following a career path similar to his. He says, “You have got to have a passion for what you will say. You have to want to learn something new every day! Once you find where your passion is, continue to work at being the best at communicating what you have observed and what you have learned.”
