How to get on "New and Noteworthy" - experiences shared

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by M of IMAK, May 27, 2009.

  1. M of IMAK

    M of IMAK Well-Known Member

    May 26, 2009
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    iPhone App Developer
    Austin, TX
    As we all (should) know, being featured in the New and Noteworthy section will result in a significant increase in sales. How much of an increase? It doesn't matter - you want to be featured in this section. An analysis of apps featured will show that any size developer can have their app featured, and almost any app has a chance to be featured. So, the obvious question is:

    "How do I get my app selected as one of the chosen 8?"

    This thread attempts to answer this question. If you have ever had an app featured in the New and Noteworthy section, please share your experience.

    Here is mine:

    IMAK Creations has had two apps featured in New and Noteworthy.
    1) Our first was ColorTilt, a finger painting app. It was featured in July, 2008. We released it the opening day of the store and priced it at $0.99. It was moving up the top-100 list on its own (oh for the days of only 500 apps on the store). I think it hit 40 or so when it was featured. It then moved quickly to #3 before fading back down the list. Because of this ride, it became one of the top 50 apps for 2008.

    Recommendations based on this experience are:
    a) Price your app at $0.99 (or at least low enough to generate high sales)
    b) Have an appealing icon (Apple likes the ColorTilt icon. If you look closely, you can find it in the iPhone Apps from the TV Ads picture, even though it has never been featured on TV, afaik).
    c) Have a unique feature - the 'tilt to select drawing color' was something people wanted to try out

    2) We also had a 2nd app make it. I'll save that story for later if there is enough interest in this topic.
     
  2. dangerz

    dangerz Well-Known Member

    Apr 23, 2009
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    #2 dangerz, May 27, 2009
    Last edited: May 27, 2009
    Awesome, I'd love for some more advice on this. How'd you get your 2nd app there?

    I think that's my biggest drawback.. I don't know how to market my app.
     
  3. menhorng

    menhorng Active Member

    Apr 13, 2009
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    Atlanta, GA
    I'd be interested in hearing your story as well. Thanks!

    --
    George

    CounterBalancE - logic-puzzle game for the iPhone / iPod Touch
     
  4. Great post

    Thanks for the great input, I love to hear other developers share their stories. Please talk about your 2nd App. Also maybe you can give me some feedback on how my App Icon looks, since that is one of the variables.

    Here is my icon and some pics of my newly submitted game "Mummy's Revenge": (PRICED AT $0.99 as you suggested in your post)

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Look forward to your input.
     
  5. PixelthisMike

    PixelthisMike Well-Known Member

    Love the icon, if I was Apple i'd be drawn to that :)

    I have already posted our story of having Sheepish featured in Staff Favorites in another thread, pasted here for your convenience:

    "We released a minor update that fixed a memory bug fix that was showing up only on phones running the beta OS and we made mention of the beta in the release notes for that version. Next thing, and this is genuinely bizarre, Apple rings us to tell us our update has been held up because we're not allowed to make mention of the beta. Now as most will know it's near impossible to get an email from Apple (we bear no grudge, sheer volume of email must be insane!) so to receive a phone call from them came as quite a shock! Next day we're featured. Who knows if that's got anything to do with it though."

    Eric who created Realmaze 3D has a story almost identical to ours.
     
  6. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5 Well-Known Member

    ^^This. ;)

    --Eric
     
  7. Anders

    Anders Well-Known Member

    Feb 3, 2009
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    Co-owner and CTO at Color Monkey
    Sweden
    a) I strongly recommend against this for good apps and games. If it is a crap app and you think it is worth the price of a soda, then yes. Otherwise you are killing the app store. Apart from the customers, who of course want things as cheap as possible (who wouldn't?), it is very bad idea for numerous reasons.

    First of all, you can never raise the price again. IF you do it, expect a lot of people waiting for the next "sale". I wouldn't buy anything that used to be cheaper and then all of sudden is twice the price. I would would feel like I would be getting a bad deal. And wait for the price to be lowered again, which could of course mean that I would wait forever.

    Second, expect a lot of bad reviews. A lot of people will buy stuff for $0.99, just because it's cheap, and not necessarily because they actually want it. I like to have a good reputation and build a brand. I want people to expect quality and innovation from Illusion Labs.

    Also, if you price something X, and lower the price to 0.5f*X, you will double the sales, but only for a short while. In other words, you will make the same amount of money, but just for a limited time, and after that you will start making less money than you initially did. But then you may suggest that you raise the price again, see my first point.

    Since the current top 100 lists are solely based on nbr of sales, you will need to sell a lot of games to make it. Do this by making a good app, and not solely by giving it away for free. Also if you look at some of the apps/games, you can see that a lot of them a terrible and have a very low rating (3.5 or less). Why is a bad app on a top 100 list?

    I hope Apple fix the ranking problems and rank after some other criterias. Google/Android for instance use install time, price and rating to compile their top lists.

    Imagine in six months, all apps are $0.99. Customers happy. Good luck making a living on your App Store sales.

    b) Agree.

    c). Agree, don't do boring clones of existing games, think of something new and fresh. Lead the way, don't follow.

    and some of my own suggestions :)

    d) Spend time with it. Polish it. I've spent about a week alone on the in-game menus for our next game.

    e) And if you are the programmer, get someone else to make the graphics ;) You are probably good at programming, but semi-crappy at drawing. Stick to what you are good at. A friend, a relative, your sister etc.

    f) Make something you are proud of and something you enjoy. It is more likely you will spend the extra time to make it polished if you actually like what you are doing.

    Sorry for the lengthy reply, I just don't want you to kill the app store.
     
  8. asbjoern

    asbjoern Well-Known Member

    Apr 30, 2009
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    Part of the Tactile Ent. team
    Copenhagen
    Hi Anders,
    For a more elaborate discussion on pricing you should check out this thread http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=10960&page=4

    Altohugh you point about not lowering the price because it is killing the Appstore is noble I think that it is really hard to go agaist the flow in the app store as an indie developer. You have to have a really strong brand when entering the appstore to be able to maintain a high pricepoint.
     
  9. Anders

    Anders Well-Known Member

    Feb 3, 2009
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    Co-owner and CTO at Color Monkey
    Sweden
    Thanks for the other thread, I'll check it out.

    Well Touchgrind did well, it was priced $4.99, and still is, and it's been on the top 100 since November. Illusion Labs were unheard of at the time.

    One solution is to have different top 100 lists, say one alone for homebrew/$0.99 etc. I don't think most people really know what indie means, most people mistake it for "one man shows". We are "indie", as in we have no publishers or investors, so we can do what we want -- we are independent -- but I think people think of us as a "big" company, but we are infact only four friends! ;)
     
  10. asbjoern

    asbjoern Well-Known Member

    Apr 30, 2009
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    Part of the Tactile Ent. team
    Copenhagen
    I think there is no doubt that something like this will happen eventually. But then agian this would require some sort of quality stamp, that is sort of what apple do already when featuring products. I am not sure what the criterias for these list would be.
     
  11. M of IMAK

    M of IMAK Well-Known Member

    May 26, 2009
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    iPhone App Developer
    Austin, TX
    I would like to clarify my recommendations. I didn't want to start a pricing discussion, as I know from experience that those can go on all night. However, focusing on the goal of getting on New and Noteworthy, you obviously don't need to be priced $0.99, which is why I put 'as low as necessary'. I am not suggesting that everyone price their app at $0.99. I currently see 2 $4.99 apps and 2 $9.99 apps (with 2 $0.99, a $1.99, and a free rounding out the mix).

    Regarding raising prices, you do make a good point but I don't 100% agree with it. Most of our apps were launched at $0.99. Now we charge $1.99. We do have a rare sell back to $0.99 for some (like right now we have one on sale for the spelling bee), but generally we hold the price. We will probably go to $2.99 next after adding new features.

    I agree with your comment on bad reviews. The ONLY reason that our latest trivia game app did not come out at $0.99 was we didn't want to sell it to anyone who wasn't willing to pay at least $1.99 for it. So far, only 3 2-star or less reviews. Once we build up some sales, we will raise the price permanently (with a few rare sales) to $2.99 and then try to get to $4.99 after we add a few more game modes. That's the plan anyway.
     
  12. M of IMAK

    M of IMAK Well-Known Member

    May 26, 2009
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    iPhone App Developer
    Austin, TX
    First, I love the icon. I think you have that part covered.
    Second, you have a game. Find two game categories that you can make it onto the top 100 lists. Know your competition.
    Third, I realize now that my "price at $0.99" recommendation could be misinterpreted. ColorTilt is an app that has wide appeal. It's an app for the masses. For these types of apps, I think $0.99 is a good introductory price. For your game, I would probably introduce at $4.99. Check sales and top 100 lists for 2 days. Drop to $3.99 or $2.99 on weakness. Release an update immediately. Try to get on and hold on to one of the game top 100 lists. Check reviews. If you are getting good reviews, then hold the price. That said, if you think your game can be sold to the masses, then perhaps $0.99 is the right introductory price. There used to be a few week window for getting on the New and Noteworthy list, but that was before they added 'Noteworthy'.
     
  13. Anders

    Anders Well-Known Member

    Feb 3, 2009
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    Co-owner and CTO at Color Monkey
    Sweden
    Important to note is that these are just my personal reflections and observations -- there is no correct answer ;)

    Well, still, it was your #1 advice to price it low, I don't think there is any correlation at all between low price and getting featured, probably the contrary.

    How was revenue affected by the price increase?

    About raising the price when adding features, look how iDracula is doing for reference. I personally would feel that I would do a bad deal buying it at a higher price (even though it may be worth it due to the new features, it just feels that way).

    That said, I think it could be a good idea to lower the price when the game has been out for a while, say 6 months or so, or when you release a sequel.
     
  14. NickFalk

    NickFalk Well-Known Member

    Having released just one title so far and a title that I believe is priced right at $.99 I might not be the best guy to comment on the price-policies.

    For more advanced titles I have however planned the following strategy: I will have the apps at a strictly time-limited $.99 price on release, but clearly communicate that the game will be raised to its "proper" price at a given date. I will never lower the price again after this initial hike.

    The idea is to reward early adopters and give an initiative to buy early and don't punish the ones that buy it at full price buy doing the roller-coaster sales-price some developers seem fond of...
     
  15. M of IMAK

    M of IMAK Well-Known Member

    May 26, 2009
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    iPhone App Developer
    Austin, TX
    Understood. Mine as well ;)

    Yes, I realize my mistake. That's why I'm trying to clarify it before anyone gets the wrong idea. Certainly, the average price of the current New and Noteworthy support your point.


    All of our apps had been well off the top-100 lists with no recent updates and minimal sales, so I hesitate to draw conclusions. With that disclaimer, since we made the pricing change on 2/22, revenue has been roughly flat. As the top-100 lists are still important for visibility, I think aggressive pricing to maintain placement on one of these lists is still something to consider. However, if you are off these lists, then you are probably leaving money on the table for no good reason by pricing your app too low.

    Could you explain the iDracula reference? It looks like they introduced on 2/19 at $0.99, then went to $2.99 a month later with their update - then had to retreat back to $0.99, twice now, after not being able to hold on to the $2.99 price. Are you saying that they should have come out at $2.99 to begin with and just stayed there?
     
  16. Anders

    Anders Well-Known Member

    Feb 3, 2009
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    I didn't actually know how iDracula progressed, I just knew that it was priced at $0.99, and that they were going to raise the price to $2.99 for the next update. It was #1 for a long time if I recall correctly. Thanks for the recap!

    The fluctuating price probably means that they are unsatisfied with their current sales, which could be due to a number of reasons. And seeing that the price jumps up and down, it is pretty reasonable to expect another price drop soon, and I wouldn't buy it for $2.99 when it probably will be $0.99 in a week or two. And people aren't stupid, hence they will wait for a price drop. So, perhaps they can see it very clear that they sell lots of copies when the price is low, and very few when it is "high". I think they shouldn't drop the price so soon, but perhaps do it when they have a sequel or when the game is old. Pricing it $0.99 will get you a good fan base though, but I personally think it would have done just as well for $2.99 or even $4.99. It has good graphics and good controls, so why not? I think the publisher did a bad job.
     
  17. LostToken

    LostToken Well-Known Member

    Apr 16, 2009
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    iPhone Developer
    Baltimore, MD
    I thought of you as a big company. Great job on polish and quality. Love your games!
     
  18. Anders

    Anders Well-Known Member

    Feb 3, 2009
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    Co-owner and CTO at Color Monkey
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    Thanks a lot!
     
  19. dannys95

    dannys95 Well-Known Member

    Sep 29, 2008
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    Earth
    And yet you still kick ass. Amazing! :cool:
     
  20. Anders

    Anders Well-Known Member

    Feb 3, 2009
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    Co-owner and CTO at Color Monkey
    Sweden
    Thanks!

    ... and back to topic ;)
     

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