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Rolando's Simon Oliver in the Daily Mail

by Mike Schramm Mar 14th 2009 at 11:00AM

The Daily Mail has reported the story of our friend Simon Oliver, creator of Rolando (whom we interviewed quite a while ago when the game originally came out). Apparently things have worked out very well for him -- the game has sold 700,000 copies so far, Oliver's set to be a millionaire, and he's now, as he says, the head of a game studio that already has a hit under its belt. Very impressive (too bad they still call him a geek).

It's stories like this that are pushing the little App Store bubble we've got going nowadays -- every investor with money to spare (not as many as usual, given the current economy) is happy to sink it into releases for the iPhone, and while there is plenty of money being made, not every developer ends up like Oliver (let's not forget he had a quality product in the first place).

But there is some good news here: without the App Store and the iPhone platform, this never would have happened. Say what you want about Apple's release policies or their initial "no SDK" choice, but with the iPhone, they've brought development and distribution down to anyone who can dream it.

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The Daily Mail has reported the story of our friend Simon Oliver, creator of Rolando (whom we interviewed quite a while ago when the game...
 

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togar

What would you say to the article from wiwapia.com - http://wiwapia.com/en/Rolando_(video_game) ? I've discovered a lot of interesting info for myself here.

April 08 2009 at 8:23 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Josh

It was in the Evening Standard as well.

March 17 2009 at 7:52 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
utterer

Do they bring up about how the game is a blatant ripoff of Loco Roco for PSP?

March 16 2009 at 8:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
alansky

Mike,

I completely agree with your comments about the iPhone app store. It is an amazing opportunity for talented software developers and an unbelievably rich resource for iPhone users.

March 14 2009 at 6:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Steven

Oh, I think I found the answer in TUAW's interview. I didn't know he partned with NGMOCO to publish it.

March 14 2009 at 5:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Steven

At 700,000 x $4.99, how is he not already a millionaire? Even with Apple's 30% take, that's still $2,445,100. This isn't net earnings obviously, so could that be it? Or am I missing something embarrassingly obvious?

March 14 2009 at 3:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
JKT

I guess I'm the oddball, for I didn't like Rolando at all and deleted it in relatively short order. But I'm glad you all like it and the author is getting your accolades.

March 14 2009 at 1:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tariq

I am the proud owner of one of those 700K. It's a fantastic game, and I can really see how much effort went into it. The coloring, the animation, and the sounds are all excellent. It's the only game that I've put on my homepage. I really hope they keep cranking out winners like this one.

March 14 2009 at 1:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Stanley

Source article:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1161722/

March 14 2009 at 11:54 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
James

Cheers for a link to the article then.

March 14 2009 at 11:16 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to James's comment
JoolsG4

Er, yeah - that'll be the link labelled "Source" at the bottom of the article.

March 14 2009 at 8:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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