Hey guys, i want to share our experience with our latest title Zuki's Quest. Download & sales stats, both great and terrible included! http://www.tinytouchtales.com/why-the-monetization-in-zukis-quest-has-failed/ Best Arnold!
Thanks for sharing! iAP and f2p i indeed really rough, and it's hard to know whether you got it right until you have the kinds of DL numbers that you guys got. Otherwise the sample size is so small that you're just left wondering. So for example with our game Elevator Joe, we made a pretty substantial update a few weeks ago trying to tweak our monetization model, but our daily downloads of 100-200+ make it really difficult to see whether or not the changes we made really make any kind of difference. Zuki's Quest is a beautiful game, and I hope you keep on making more games like it!
very interesting read. Btw I don't meant to be a grammar nazi cause mine is terrible but it is paid not payed. I wonder how ads would of worked out for you. I also wonder how the PR release helped/didn't help.
I would also like to add a thanks for sharing. Its really interesting numbers you have and slightly shocked with the difference between your download numbers (which I think is good) and your sales numbers. Good luck! Cheers,
Also appreciate the numbers and write up, as this confirms my worst fear about the initial monetization model I had came up with for my game. I am also making a game with finite puzzle levels and testing shows most people tend to stop anywhere from level 12-20 so your conclusion that most people will have no reason to pay for additional content past the first level pack is spot on I think. It seems for puzzle games either the difficulty must be really low for the beginning of the game or you need to instead hook people in with that initial $0.99 or $1.99 via something awesome looking that makes them think the value is justified. Nice game you have there by the way, and good luck with the price change and redesign. Your write up gives me a lot to think about.
I wonder if giving the first 5 levels of each world away free and then pay to unlock the rest is a better idea. You gave away approx. the same number of levels but ensure the user completes them.
thanks guys. it's always multiple things, but i think balancing is one of the more important ones. i think of balancing in terms of breaking bad. every single episode they leave me with a gigantic cliffhanger, which i easily would pay for to see the next episode instantly. that can work in a puzzle style game very well. besides that: prmac is a cheap way of spreading wide but not really getting a lot of replies from it. we had way more reviews with contacting sides directly and doing the usual "personal" email. this time we could sell the hook of our game "turn based puzzle platformer" very well. i think this is why we were picked up by a lot of sites.
I was looking on appannie and it appears you are doing okay. I am assuming the switch has worked out well for you.
Very interesting read. Those numbers are pretty shocking. It's very hard to believe that with that amount of volume all you've made is $162. We recently launched our game as well. We had no love from apple or the press. So we have had less than 2000 downloads, but have made around $300. I assume you'll do well as it being paid now since you have an established user base at this point. Anyways best of luck to you guys.
