Experience with first Launch on AppStore!

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by kronetgames, Aug 17, 2014.

  1. kronetgames

    kronetgames Active Member

    Aug 14, 2014
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    Marketgin and Game design
    Ukraine
    #1 kronetgames, Aug 17, 2014
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2014
    Hello Friends! I am a Unity3D developer of Kronet Games - Indie game studio from Ukraine. Yestarday we have launched our first game - Banana Rocks Free - with interesting funny idea:

    - " A banana representation of Elvis Presley running endlessly while avoiding all sorts of banana chopping tools! "

    We had some experience with launch in Google Play but not on App Store. Before posting thread about our game in topic (Games for Iphone and Ipod) i would love to asking some advice from members of Toucharcade, about promotion, to get more downloads in appstore.

    About our monetization: We have 2 version of our game: [free] - with little bit ads - by Chartboost, and [no-ads version] by 0.99$. We have some revenue from Chartboos in Google Play Store (About 30$ by 2 weeks).

    Here is a link for our free version of Banana Rocks: Take a look on it: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/banana-rocks-free/id898634910?l=uk&ls=1&mt=8

    What do you think about our game and what strategy you can advice for us?

    (BTW Banana Rocks is our FIRST GAME - and its not BEST GAME IN THE WORLD :) We know it and will do better in the future)
     
  2. endodoug

    endodoug Well-Known Member

    Do you have any kind of marketing budget?

    You can certainly request reviews from all the review sites, it doesn't cost anything other than your time.
     
  3. kronetgames

    kronetgames Active Member

    Aug 14, 2014
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    Marketgin and Game design
    Ukraine
    Yeap, we have some budget but not a lot...I will be appreciative, if somebody can help with review sites, when review will cost about 25-40$ not much! We need approximetly 4-5 site for review...
     
  4. Destined

    Destined Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2013
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    Personally I think you are wasting money on reviews, there appears to be very little connection between review sites and downloads. At the price you are paying they will be sites with little to insignificant traffic.
     
  5. OnlyJoe

    OnlyJoe Well-Known Member

    Sep 29, 2013
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    Auckland
    The app store is a very very hard market now. Not to say this in a negative way, I have made about 20 apps now, and some have been quite successful. One (my clone of don't step on the white tile) was making me over $100 per day in advertising. Still makes around $30 a day now. But my first few games made me around $10 in their first year, but they did teach me a lot about how the app store works. And here are a few pointers as to what I have learned:

    For the small indie studio or hobby game developer, there is a choice between making a simple quick game, or a high quality amazing game.

    If you choose the high quality amazing game, then it has to be really amazing, and have some element that is very different and interesting for people. Think Ridiculous Fishing, or tiny wings, or that game with only sound, or even threes. Very high quality, real dedication to the game, and a very cool idea. But the hidden reality is there are tons of high quality games that don't quite reach the mark as well. Read through the touch arcade review and you will find loads of high quality games that probably haven't made all that much money. This has to be done as a total love of making games, and not for money. It is a big risk.

    The second option is to try and make fairly simple and fun games that only take a week or so to make. Your game would be a good example of this type of game. It looks well presented, and seems fun. But its not at the level that would get reviewed by apple.
    If you want this kind of game to succeed then there are 2 ways that I have seen to get downloads.
    1. Ride a search term. Loads of people get apps from searching, so make an app with a name that matches things people search for. This is what clones do basically, ride the wave of a current popular app by matching their search term. But there are many other search terms that can be used. Try making a game with the title "An easy fun free game" and it will probably get a reasonable amount of downloads each day (70 - 80) would be my prediction.
    2. Have a very large following on twitter or instagram. And then tell everyone about your game. Do this in your first week, while you have your boost from apple, and you can get the game into the charts where it gets a bit of a life of its own.

    Marketing that I have tried that doesn't work:
    1. Paid reviews on websites. No one is reading websites that offer paid reviews. And even the big review websites, like touch arcade, make little difference to download numbers. So its just not worth it at all.
    2. Paid advertising with admob or another service. This does get you downloads, but the cost is high, and to boost the app into the charts where you might be able to make the money back is going to cost way way too much for the average indie developer.
    3. Depending on the app store to get noticed. Have you seen how many new games are coming out every day, and some of them are actually pretty good. These games are not getting noticed at all. You basically only get a few hours now on the new free games section for your games sub category. This probably brings in less than 10 downloads these days, so this just doesn't work at all.
     
  6. kronetgames

    kronetgames Active Member

    Aug 14, 2014
    40
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    Marketgin and Game design
    Ukraine
    Thanks a lot! I should working with SEO for my game! BTW what free promotion methods working well? Maybee threads on the forums or facebook promotion on dev-groups, or working on twitter an so on...?

    Here is a link to my toucharcade thread: [thread]239887[/thread]
     
  7. endodoug

    endodoug Well-Known Member

    Agreed. I wouldn't do any paid reviews. I was talking submitting for free review sites. I'm not saying you'll get to the top of any rankings like that, but every bit helps and it won't cost anything.

    +1 to everything OnlyJoe posted. I've learned (or in the process of learning) pretty much the same things.
     
  8. psj3809

    psj3809 Moderator

    Jan 13, 2011
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    England
    What doesn't work are fake reviews/posts by the dev. Of course create a thread but DO not 'shill' as that'll put off lots of people
     
  9. Stingman

    Stingman Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Aug 14, 2012
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    App / Game Developer
    The Bay Area
    Lots of great points on here. Some great advice that took me a lot of time to learn as well. My first game was released 2 years ago so I still consider myself to be "new" in this industry. I've also tested the water in pretty much every single avenue regarding promotion, from paid advertising in apps, on websites and TV.

    First I would first say congratz on releasing your first game. Anything is a great start and your game looks like a solid first effort. I would consider it just that though : a first effort. I would either do what Joe said : ride the clone wave or spend the time to create something more original, innovative and polished. If you do come up with the later of the two then sites like TouchArcade, 148apps etc will review your game! Quality will rise to the top if you are persistent enough. The runner wave has long since passed though and it doesn't monetize that great compared to other genres so if you want to create a clone I suggest a "copter" game haha. :). Not my cup of tea creating clones but to each their own. Gotta pay the bills somehow eh?

    If you are still very intent on promoting this game then you should spend time optimizing keywords as that is how you will generate downloads. I would not, I repeat, would not pay for any sort of advertising service. Indies simply don't have a sizeable budget to make a dent in the market. Unless you have $80k USD lying around I can't recommend anything that WILL work, so spend some time optimizing search terms as that truly is your best bet!
     
  10. optimizemyapps.com

    optimizemyapps.com Active Member

    Jan 10, 2014
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    App Store Optimization Expert
    I would definitely recommend that you optimize your Apps Keywords + App title. Like OnlyJoe suggested, you should ride on the search terms people are searching for a game like Banana Rocks.
    You could also optimize your screenshots to drive more downloads
     

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