I'm assuming that some of you are slightly curious about the business-side since you're asking about costs and profits. Usually, I answer questions like this through PM but I think it's fine to answer questions generally since there are a ton of developers creating games for the iOS and everything I say applies to the entire market - not just us.
There are basically two ways for us (or any developer) to be successful in the App Store in the current environment.
1.) Make players pay to download the App and then include some minor in-app purchases/power-ups in the game.
2.) Create a "freemium" game that is free to download but relies on in-app purchases for revenue. Players typically encounter the option to pay-and-keep-playing or wait in these games.
Both types of games are very expensive to make... just look at the credits of any game and you'll see between 5 - 100 people on the list. Very simple games can take as little as a month to produce, test, and release, but larger games (like ours) take at least 3-4 months and in some cases much longer. At that point, you have a basic game in the App Store that is most likely still lacking some cool features that you didn't have time to build and there might be some bugs. What I'm saying is that the costs don't stop once a game hits the App Store.
Developers also have to spend a lot of money on marketing games. For the most part, people don't download your game unless it's ranked and there's no way to make it in the rankings unless you spend a lot of money on marketing. I would say that developers at the top of the rankings spend quite a bit more money on marketing than they do developing the game.
Obviously, developers need to make a profit to justify making games. In order for a developer to be profitable, they have to invest a bunch of money in developing and marketing a game. All games have to be fun for a sizeable number of people to make money, but "freemium" games also have to be relatively aggressive with in-app purchases. If the game doesn't stay high in the rankings, then it probably won't make enough money.
Remember, though, that the game has to be fun for everyone that plays - not just those who spend money. Speaking specifically about Monster G, we're taking all of this feedback very seriously. While pricing might not change, we have the option to change the balancing to make certain aspects of the game easier (capture rates, Tamer energy rate).
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