One of the work-for-hire projects our team is doing is a mobile game for a kid brand. They've already got a bit of hype around their other products and said they'd take care of the marketing for the game too, but they weren't exactly prepared for the amount of leg work required to get some attention for their game. Marketing to/for kids is something I've never looked at properly before. I've told them I'll help and will be putting in a good bit of time to find the best matches but I was hoping some of you might have suggestions for sites you've maybe targeted before, or that you know are worth getting in touch with. The only one I know off the top of my head is Mumsnet, apart from that I'm working blind on Google search results. Any recommendations of good quality sites would be brilliant. The game is a simple runner with animal collectibles, plus a gallery to see the animals in more detail. There are also mini-games - X&Os, colouring in and slider puzzlers. Their target age group is between 3 and 6. In return I can offer beta testing/proof reading or other similar favours (though it may be a week or two before I have enough free time to help). Please help if you can! Thanks! Emz
Check some sites like Xiaomi and 360. Chilren games are big in China. If you make a good game that has some educational value and translate into Chinese and make it clear it is foreign made you could get some traction. My brother in law showed me some games that have over 50,000 downloads and they are very simple.
Interesting... I was just thinking of putting one of my games into the made for kids section as it is pretty much a childrens game, but some adults would probably play it, if they just wanted something easy to play. Do you know if it was difficult for them to get it approved initially or is it just the marketing they are proving more work than anticipated?
It was just the marketing that was difficult, neither they nor I have experience of marketing directly to kids this young (3-5 years). In saying that, they have decided to change some stuff about how they monetise the game and we're not sure yet what impact this will have on its position in the App Store. Every single game we submit to any of the stores is almost an entirely new learning process. I'm not complaining, each game dev period has gotten a bit more efficient so it's been worthwhile getting through all the issues.
Hope I didn't put you off! If you could get chatting to someone who's released a few kids apps already they'd be able to offer much more sound advice than I can. The brand we are working with are a bit protective of the game so it was hard for me to ask anyone for specific help when I wasn't able to give any specific info.
