How One Scammer used a $10 GameSalad template to rise to the App Store’s Top Charts

With two developers using the same $10 GameSalad template to send both their apps to the top of App Store charts, one might be wondering if there’s some mischief afoot.

Strangely enough, one of the apps being a paid one, earned its developer, a real scammer, a lot of money in the process.

Of course, right from the time these apps began rising the charts, industry insiders were aware of what was going on.

This GameSalad template is actually a terrible game called ‘Red Bouncing Ball Spikes’. It’s one of those games that don’t require you to think much and is of the ‘Flappy Birds’ variety.

By February 14, this app that was created by Talo Games had already reached the #73 spot on the App Store’s free charts. This game is from a developer who has become well-known for titles such as the Flying Cyrus and the Flappy Bird parody too.

Of course, he released the free version of the Red Ball game long after the paid version was released, in order to take advantage of the buzz generated around the game but not scamming in any way.

The paid version was developed by another developer named Mateen Pekan and which went on to take the #8 spot at the App Store paid list just recently. However, it did take the #2 spot at some point of time.

But the plot thickens. The popularity of the app increased exponentially only after an update was released on January 30, 2014.

Best part: its popularity, according to experts, is vaguely connected to the Flappy Birds game that was pulled down from the App Store without any explanation.