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A one-time unlock turns a free mobile roguelike run into a paid full game.
$118.90 gross player spend by October 19 · $4.99 full-game unlock
Put the paywall where players want to continue: 14 of the first 22 buyers paid at the floor-10 stair.
Fewer bars = easier, cheaper, or faster for an AI-assisted solo builder. Editorial judgments based on the case details.
Gold Below is a mobile roguelike combining turn-based fights with loot merging. Players descend through 30 floors; the first 10 are free, and one $4.99 purchase unlocks the rest. The solo developer began on September 23 and shipped to Google Play on September 27, converting another app he had already made into the first release, which is why it shipped as version 2.0. By October 19, 22 people had purchased in 12 days, generating $118.90 in gross player spend across five countries. Store fees and other costs meant the developer was still a few hundred dollars behind overall. Fourteen buyers paid at the floor-10 stair, where the free run ends; four used the title-screen button. Acquisition experiments included YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, store discovery, and creator outreach. The founder reports the numbers directly and describes both weak retention and the operational lessons, making this an unusually candid early-game case study.
For Gold Below, the first customers needed to discover a genre they already liked and trust a new solo developer enough to install a paid game. The founder spent $0 on ads after estimating installs would cost 240 to 380 in local currency while early revenue per install seemed tiny.
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Data credibility: Founder-reported figures from a detailed development and revenue update. The founder says store reports were used to verify purchases and exclude test transactions, but the figures are not independently audited. Revenue is gross player spend unless explicitly described as net.
The first sale arrived on October 8 through Google Play: a US player paid $4.99 at the stair after roughly 15 minutes in the first run. That placement connects payment to a concrete desire: continue the same run beyond floor 10.
Gold Below’s strongest early loop connects playable moments to stories that attract more players. A bug, a strange tester discovery, or a purchase notification becomes a short clip; the clip earns attention; new players generate more moments worth telling.
The early stretch included ten days when store purchases were not yet verified and several days with no sales after launch. Gold Below’s founder paid testers $5 an hour, gave them separate Discord rooms, and used their notes to improve the tutorial and difficulty.
Gold Below takes the pacing of a mobile run and the build experimentation of a loot game. A guided first run introduces combat, gear, merging duplicate items, and room choices before the floor-10 boss. Players then choose between buying the full game and ending the run. The founder built a bot to simulate thousands of runs and identify balance problems, but real players used guard less often than the bot predicted: about 10% of turns, compared with the basic attack at about 45% and skill at 42%. That gap illustrates why simulation needs real player behavior alongside it. The game also has endless mode, a shared gold pot, seasonal competition, and daily runs. The onboarding should teach one mechanic at a time, preserve progress, and make the free-to-paid boundary explicit.
Gold Below sells a single full-game unlock for $4.99 after 10 free floors. There are no ads, energy timers, or paid currency. This avoids recurring purchase pressure and makes the promise easy to evaluate. Fourteen of 22 early buyers converted at the stair, while four bought from the title screen. The founder reports $118.90 gross spend by October 19; app stores keep their share, and the founder estimated roughly four-fifths of player spending reaches the developer before other costs. Six reviews averaged 4.8 at the time described. A free daily run was added to encourage return visits, with the developer watching whether that change affects stair conversion. The model depends on enough players reaching the offer and seeing value in the rest of the game.
The game uses RevenueCat to unify the App Store and Google Play entitlement check. The developer tracks run starts, floor progress, offer views, and purchases, and separately checks store reports because test installs and free tester purchases can inflate dashboards. Reported costs included $101 for playtesting, $99 annually for Apple, $25 once for Google, about $100 for Steam setup, and around $90 for domain and tools; creator outreach added recurring expense. Store fees and payout delays also matter: the founder had not yet received all proceeds by the reporting date. For a similar launch, budget for store accounts, testing, art, support, and delays, and calculate net receipts per platform before projecting break-even.
Copy the careful niche research: the founder read all 56 patch notes for an inspiration game and used player complaints to shape the loop. Copy the transparent paywall, the offer at a moment of earned curiosity, and the use of paid testers before broad promotion. Change the launch checklist by testing a real purchase and completing banking and tax setup before release; the initial Android launch had no real purchase test. Start with one primary content channel and tracked links, rather than spreading effort across many accounts. If a core mechanic resembles a reference game, create distinct art, naming, screens, and wording from the beginning. Do not assume the founder’s early conversion or sales cadence will transfer to another game.
Mobile game discovery is volatile, and the reported 22 purchases are a very small sample. The founder found that almost none of the free players returned by day three before adding a daily run. App review delays, device crashes, payment setup, and unclear store messaging can block revenue even when players are interested. The $4.99 price must support ongoing updates, platform fees, and acquisition costs. Heavy posting did not reliably increase total views, and the developer’s live stream produced only 15 views in six and a half days. Retention, crash-free sessions, and net revenue per real install are the key survival measures. Protect originality when drawing inspiration from successful games, and avoid using ads until cohort economics show they can pay back.
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