What if...

I think this fictional “mother of all games” might have a chance to succeed if it manages to be picked up by the major review-sites and have a theme/graphical style that people respond to. (=Birds)

I am however 100% convinced that it might quite as easily fail, as the odds are frankly against every title by default. Marketing is obviously an important factor in a market as crowded as the App Store.

 

I think for such a game, it would all be about finding the right price point the masses would agree to. If that is found, then I think it would eventually find its way to the top. If the right price point is not found early enough, it could take very long, if it ever gets attention in the charts. Also, the genre of the game is important. There are many who deem a 99c puzzler more useful to them than say real racing 2 at 99c. So yeah, it all depends on even more factors then you listed. No one can cover all demographics.

 

Quality, fun, art, gameplay, music are all subjective criteria.
Let's say though that you ran a large focus group and those people all fell in love with every aspect of the app. Chances are very good that it will enter the charts and rise based on strong word of mouth and user reviews.

Part of the "luck" factor that baffles many a developer is that we don't usually run focus groups, and so don't have a realistic sense of the elusive "mass appeal" factor.

 

You need look no farther then history for your answer. There have been really top quality games that have fallen to the wayside on the app store. Marketing is everything. Without it, how is the word about the game going to spread?

 

Let me tell you a story:"A long time a go in a village far far away there was an app made! It was the most beautiful app ever made!
The app died alone because it was to far for people to see!THE END"
Joking aside, if this game is that good, i think just by writing on forums about it will do the trick on making the game sell!

 

I think it'd be incredibly foolhardy to release "the mother of all games" and not at least try and get the word out a little bit. You'd be running a big risk. It doesn't even have to involve spending money, just posting threads and communicating with fans to build up a fan base.

This was our biggest goal for the Kickstarter project we are running. It doesn't look like we'll make our funding (unless magically a ton of pledgers pour out of the woodwork in the next few days), however we now have a pretty big list of new fans and friends who are totally stoked about the game and looking forwards to buying it, and getting their friends into it.

For us, that's a big win since previously we were totally unknown in the iOS gaming world.

Then again, you look at games like Tiny Wings and Air Penguin which came out of nowhere, weren't really marketed, and somehow made it to the top 10 list and you have to wonder...

 

not to get your expectations up, but that is a strange thing about kickstarter, once in awhile some things look pretty dark and then totally get their S together in the final days.. anyway, I'll keep watching

As for Das Übergäme, I believe many folks have released what they thought was "the one that would take the world by storm," in fact I have even done this, the World just has not realized it yet The issue is that if you are an unknown and your game doesn't look like serious money in an out-of-context screenshot alone, and you've got no hype surrounding you, then odds are definitely stacked against you. You are competing against the likes of Infinity Sword and likewise Unreal-powered apps which command the high-end of the tech spectrum on the iPhone, and anything not labeled Official Angry Birds or Words With Friends is fairly yawn-inducing to the generations-jaded typical mobile gamer.

That all being said, it's in any developer's best interest to do all they can to get their ducks in a row. Figure out a decent promotional campaign, build up a strong list of contacts, write competent press releases and support all of this with competent media. It's all a lot of work and you could still be run over by some newsworthy even that just blasts out of nowhere. All you can do is make friends and try to play nice with your heartland (hang out amongst the people who you are trying to sell your game to). This is a hard thing as well 'cause "hey, we are developers, who has time to hang out and chat on forums all day?"

Good luck!

 

there was a über game released? i somehow missed it.. it must be a console quality game that knocks you off the shoes and makes infinity blade look like tetris.. it would have 60 hours of unique non repetive gameplay with such a sleek learning curve that its for casual and core gamers interesting and it should be fun to play in short burts of 5 minutes or in longer sessions of hours and still keep you on your toes.. it would have elements of all genres mixed into an behemoth of a game.. a fantasy, sci fi, tower defense, roleplaying , action fps, racing, world builder, puzzle, zen game..

wow.. and thats to be released soon.. looking forwards to it.. of course it needs to be free.. at maximum 99cents else it will fail miserably.. and it can't be freemium.. actualy best would be for each copy of the game you give away a free iphone4 or an ipad2.. yeah.. that would be awesome..


at the end promotion is important.. but i can only hope indies don't overestimate their potential to reach out to the masses.. even the biggest indie campains i've yet seen are just a tiny fart in the storm of the appstore.

good luck..