Hey, I'm new here, so first I want to say hello. I believe I had an account a few years back, but I'm not sure. Either way, you'll see a lot of me on here. The next thing I want to ask is how you all market your game, and have you been successful? We made a game that has some good reviews, and people seem to like it. However, it doesn't seem to be catching on. I guess the first step, from what I have read, is to make it appealing right off the bat. The game is here, called BloxZon 2. Take a look at the graphics and stuff. I think changing the main icon would be a good start to making it more appealing, but I think the icons and graphics are great. We also have a couple of videos... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmeuuqvDkwI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtXkN_wfPs0 I have submitted the game to quite a few app review sites - probably about 15 - none of them seem to have the time to review the game, or they seem to be asking for money for a guaranteed review or whatever. I also gave the game away for free a few times - that seemed to help with downloads and reviews - we got quite a few downloads of the game, but no one pays for it. So, I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for other marketing tips and ideas, without having to spend a bunch of money. Making a lite version of the game has been an idea we have been tossing around. Does it seem to benefit to make a free version? Does anyone have a lot of experience with free games and if they work for upselling to full versions and all that? What about advertising in those free games. Can that be profitable? Anyway, let me know what your experiences are or if you have any ideas about how I can get my game known! Thanks a million! Adam
Greetings and welcome. Your game looks pretty decent and the videos are good. I can't seem to find your website or a site for the game, however they come up in Google. We are also trying to figure out what works for advertising and promotion. We've recently bought some Facebook ads and AdMob as well. The AdMob ads get a lot more clicks, but we have yet to see a jump in sales. It's tough getting noticed. Who would have guessed there were so many damn programmers? Our strategy is just to try and keep quality high and put out a bunch of titles. More = merrier in this market, it seems.
My thinking at the moment is to go with free games containing advertising and an in-app purchase to get rid of the ads and maybe add content. i.e. one version only. Reason for free model is it gets you a higher placing in the rankings as a free game, which equals more downloads, which equals a higher ranking, etc, etc. A few thousand downloads per day equals only maybe $10-20 per day in advertising return with Adwhirl (iAds and Admob), but in your case you may get a decent conversion rate with IAP upgrade to adfree.
Most people recommend doing a "Lite" version to get exposure of your game. Either a cut down version or unique levels, something that's a taster but wont preclude them from buying the paid version. Success breeds success. The more the Lite version is successful, people will be more inclined to purchase the paid one. If you do plenty of updates as well, it'll also keep your product in people's minds longer and hopefully make the game even better as well. The other thing is networking and getting your video etc into as many people's hands as possible. It takes a while for word of mouth advertising to take effect, but for me, it's all about gradually building a client base up over time. Sustainability is the key and Rome wasn't built in a day
I appreciate you sharing this with us, really good to know. im sure there will be someone else with a good ADMOB experience. but what it ultimately comes down to is that your game is not attractive enough for marketing purposes. we face the same problem, we made a freaking card game!. How hard is it to get people to try and play a card game? (although we havent released yet i for-see challenges) The ol' blocks arkanoid type games are just not what the majority of the app crowd are looking for. developers like us have to come to terms with that and adapt. People want shits and giggles, they want fads, they want whatever everybody else is doing. (SEE - PLANKING) over saturation is an understatement when talking about the app store. developers are going on spamming sprees just to get notice (me at fault as well). Goddamn im negative. But we are happy making games aren't we? i guess i just wish there wasent such a polarization between the top10% that leads the app store and all the other apps down in s#@t creak [/rant]
@adpro, I can understand what you feel / undergo. There are too many review sites and everyone has a business model to make money, they forget that there are not many indie developers that make the BIG bucks, so many end up spending more money on a project than making from it. That is where we, OZ-Apps have stepped in, we are an Indie developer too, we also have a site http://reviewme.oz-apps.com where we review software, hardware, books, etc. It has been mostly Software and Mac/iOS Now, one thing to consider is that writing a review does take serious time and efforts, so not all games can be reviewed, and specially not the ones that are a clone of a clone of a clone written by a 11/13 year old. As, if there is nothing better to write about it, we'd rather not write and crush their aspirations/hope. SO, if you or any developer has a good game that they want reviewed, please send us two Promo Codes and pledge at aleast one additional Promo ode later for giving away to one of our lucky readers. cheers, OZ Apps http://www.oz-apps.com twitter : @ozapps ReviewMe http://reviewme.oz-apps.com [email protected] twitter: @whatsin4me Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/pages/ReviewMe/137640632964588
