But it’s clear that Pangea’s success was dependent on a lot of factors, that other App Store developers may not be able to control. For a start, he concedes that Pangea, as a long standing maker of Mac games, “got a lot of love from Apple,” including being highlighted in the App Store. Or as he said, “It is just a matter of having the right thing at the right time, with Apple’s help.” Greenstone also advised that developers shouldn’t spend a lot of money on creating their app, since there was “a lot of randomness” as to what succeeds and what doesn’t. Greenstone said, “Horrible apps can still make a lot of money.”

It seems that the key to success these days is getting into the App Store’s Top 100, which means that an app has to sell 1200 – 1500 copies a day. Once an app cracks the Top 100, however, “it’s self-perpetuating,” which means as moves up the list, it sells even more.

Still, one thing did help for Pangea. Enigmo and its other hit game Cro-Mag Rally, a driving game made full use of the iPhone’s accelerometer, and didn’t need a lot of buttons to work, Engimo, for example, made a lot of use of drag and drop using the touch interface, while Cro-Mag Rally turned the iPhone into a steering wheel.