I love Gaston (I'm French...). If you don't know this BD, you should really look into it. PS: sorry if it's out of the thread subject.
We created both games. The publisher is the owner of Gaston's and other franchises from Franquin. And, as the wish of Franquin, the challange was to respect the original drawing. Each game is a sequel to a mini story of Gaston. Great article NickFalk
I have to disagree with you, Nick. Poor response on Touch Arcade does not really mean anything except that the Touch Arcade audience is not your audience...and Touch Arcade does not represent the mainstream. Listen to the crickets chirp in this thread about my latest game, 7 Little Words (7LW). Of the few comments that are there, most are by me! http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=93413&highlight=little+words However, reality is that in the big picture, TA means nothing, nor does any other single blog or reviewer. I have submitted my game to TA for possible review, but I would fall over backwards if they actually covered it. But it doesn't matter if they do or not. The impact would be minimal and wouldn't last beyond a couple of days anyhow. On the other hand, guess what? Despite the underwhelming reception at TA, someone at Apple must have liked the game because we got a feature in 2 countries. 7 Little Words is now the #2 App on the Australia and New Zealand app stores. In less than two weeks since being released, 7LW has gotten almost 100,000 downloads and earned over 700 five-star reviews between US and Australia alone. Current download rate is about 20,000 per day. The forums do not love 7 Little Words, but that doesn't mean people aren't excited about it.
OK, I'll modify my answer slightly. Agree 100% If you are "lucky" enough to being featured by Apple then I guess everything else pales in comparision. The interesting bit is what your sales looked like before you got featured? If they were lackluster it seems safe to say that people weren't excited about the game. Getting the stamp of approval from "Big A" will probably make people excited all by itself. I think the majority fo people aren't excited about games in general, but will check out things if someone they trust tells them it's good. Oh, and congrats on your success by the way.
Never featured in the US and have floated around the top 40-50 puzzle games since release. In Australia we were a Top 30 puzzle game before the feature. Keep in mind that I work very hard to promote my apps. Thanks!
1. Ignore what people on the forums are saying is effective. It's 99% bunk. 2. Study and read about the mobile communications business every day. 3. Think for yourself. 4. Experiment with different tactics and gather data on your results. I'm not being patronizing. This is the real secret.
Eh, this isn't entirely true. I know Apple closely follows TouchArcade for feature suggestions. In fact, I've had a few conversations with Apple higher-ups about things on our end that we've changed to use TouchArcade as an even more valuable resource to them. While Apple definitely is largely responsible for the majority of the exposure games get with featuring, favorable coverage on blogs just makes whatever blip you might have on Apple's radar even stronger. Also I've got a writer assigned to check out your game, we had a hectic week last week. As far as what you need to do to get a response from us, I really don't have the personal bandwidth to respond to many emails. I read all of them, but rarely respond unless something specifically requires a response. I'd need a personal assistant to handle all the email we get if I responded to everything we got. I'm not sure how this is still a secret by now, but a lot of what we covers comes from the forums. I've got several private RSS feeds that I use to attempt to gauge what games are new and hot on our forums, and usually go off that for assigning stories. As an American, I have no idea who Gaston is and I was entirely underwhelmed by the first Gaston Doodle Jump style game... Which also is the most popular Gaston thread with 30 posts, most of them belonging to the developer. If the community isn't interested, and I don't see much appeal in the game, we usually just skip it.
If i see that right the game is free, so 100k downloads in two weeks is pretty low. 20k per day is also nothing impressive ive seen higher numbers on absolutly unknown apps going free without any promotion from apple. So i fail to see the success, at least the economical one. Your iap sales would be alot more interesting than free download numbers
Very interesting to know that Apple looks at TA for possible features. And true the blogs provide a good reinforcing effect. Wow! Thank you very much!
Exactly, it seemed to me at the time Ground effect was released that every dev who could generate an active thread in the Upcoming Games forum got very good treatment from TA. This is understandable, if TA wants to cover an upcoming original game that's exciting people, where better to find one? If a game can't get any attention in upcoming games, where the most forgiving (lots of them are beta testers) and interested TA gamers hang out, why would anyone want to cover it on the front page? In fact, if you can't get interest there, it's probably a sign that you're making the wrong game.
Agreed mr.Ugly, the IAP numbers would be more interesting. Granted, but many of those apps DO receive promotion though OpenFeint or FreeAppADay. Still, everything must be taken in the context of the market. The market Downunder is tiny next to the US market. So the numbers will of course be smaller than if we got a feature in the US. Consider this though...7 Little Words has the 15th feature spot and is the #1 ranked app. Metalstorm:Online has the 1st feature spot (the first app you see when you open the app store) and is the #7 ranked app. So considering the market, I think we're doing OK.
so? here are some numbers (dev only) http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=86919 if you go to the later pages.. none went faad or with OF offering or are featured by apple and got similar/higher numers of downloads.. but in the end free downloads are not as important as iap sales numbers
maybe if you look at both gameplay, you will have a other vision of the games. We are not making clones as you may thinks. We understand that many developers tell you the same things but, sometimes, you should give a chance, specialy if you look at the gameplay and not just because the community isn't interested or whatever else. Regards
I just dropped by to say that it is great to know Apple follows Touch Arcade. I would think they would have some interaction with media and other forms of public medium, and it is great to know we are in one of their main choices. In the grandest scheme of things, touch arcade might not matter. But as a developer, I think it always should. Touch arcade is a growing community, and people who do not register still check the forums for info, so this site has more reach in the mainstream than you might now. The digital age is more viral than the world has ever been before. It does not matter where your success starts from or how the word gets out, all that matter is how well it latches on and spreads. So I would suggest exposing your game to all audiences and getting word out everywhere. One dev attributes his success to an apple feature because that is where he saw his downloads increase. Another might attribute it to Touch arcade for getting great community support that snowballed into more features and word getting out. I guess you just never know where your game will latch on if you think it is unique and has the polish, in the end it is getting out all the word you can and hoping for a spot of luck here in there. At least, this is a consumer's perspective of it.
