If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve never played Doodle Jump. Why? Because if you had ever played Doodle Jump, you’d probably still be playing it. The game is addictive gaming at its finest; it’s drop dead simple, yet ridiculously tough to put down. If I had to babysit a kid, I’d just hand them Doodle Jump and then go off and do something else for a few hours. They wouldn’t even notice I left.
Being insanely catchy has paid off. This morning, Doodle Jump’s developers, Lima Sky, are announcing that they’ve smashed through the 1 million download mark – an especially impressive feat when you consider the circumstances.
You see, Lima Sky isn’t some huge development company – they don’t have a massive advertising budget, a team of artists, or PR flacks to do their bidding. Lima Sky is made up of two brothers, Igor and Marko Pusenjak, who do everything from writing the code to reaching out to the media. With each of the 1 million copies sold at 99c a pop, the two brothers are probably swimming around in about $690k after Apple took their cut – not too shabby for a two-man operation.
Lima Sky didn’t just rest on their laurels and ride their way to the top of the App Store. While they did put some of their revenue back towards small ad campaigns, a significant chunk of their downloads stems from the brother’s constant care. Doodle Jump has seen nearly constant updates since launch, with each update adding in a new layer to the game. One update gave the player the ability to shoot, drastically changing the entire mechanics of the game and giving people a reason to strive for a new high score. A more recent update which overhauled the graphics with a Christmas motif (if you named your character “Snow”) was surprisingly well-received, pushing it back into the Top Paid section in countries where it had gone unnoticed.
Of course, a mention on a popular TV show didn’t hurt either.
You can find Doodle Jump on the App Store here.