best way to market

First off, I would suggest you make a proper video. Even at 99c, you're competing with some very polished titles.

 

Yes, I saw the video - hence my comment. Unfortunately, your video is almost unwatchable because it's so out of focus. It's the first thing people check if they're undecided about whether or not to buy so it's worth taking the time to make it as good as you can. You don't need to pay anyone, just use a decent camera & take your time. Software like iMovie makes editing pretty easy too.

There are numerous threads about marketing on here and all of them are worth reading.

 

You can hold contests, deliver promo codes and update your game.

 

Hey, have you heard of the Indie Developers Re-Tweet Group?

It's the most effective marketing technique on Twitter for indie developers.

You can get a lot of retweets, which lead to more impressions and downloads.

Check it out: IDRTG - The Most Effective Marketing Technique on Twitter for Indie Developers

 

I vouch for this. Love it.

 

Cheers

 

yeah your video is better off not being shown at all, sadly
there's lots you can do to promote your game, and much of that will either cost you a good deal of money or require that your are quite a bit savvy and resourceful. A game such as the one you show is not the sort that will generate much interest these days all by itself.

If you have a huge amount of money you can team up with a proper PR firm and they can help you get your game visible. Otherwise, you need to spend a lot of time figuring out other things you can do to get visibility on your own. As others have said, this very forum breaks down a lot of the usual things in pretty minute detail, so there is a good start. Here's a short list:

- social networking (facebook, twitter, blogging, etc). Not just setting them up, but packing them full of engaging content ("what that means" is up to you: discussion development, reviewing other apps, etc)

- spend time on TouchArcade and other forums being part of the culture, get your name (as a poster) and game seen around here and get your voice heard. Not merely pimping your own game, but bringing your personality to the community in discussions of other things as well. It takes time to build up, but it can help a bit. Also if you intend to do some kind of contest/promotion that's a decent way to fast-track this, but only if you do it in a smart way.

- more apps = more chances for success, and they can potentially upsell to one another. If you've made something that's just not hitting it, then perhaps you aren't aware of what is considered trendy and can be interesting to the community or reviewers these days. Do some research (look at what's been featured on the front page lately. and also keep a keen eye on he charts) to get a better scope of this.

- you did a bunch of work for an app but it's landed with a thud. Maybe you can change something and re-submit? New icon, name, graphical theme? Can you still put all you hard work into a newly-wrapped package and get a boost from that? Again, you need to spend a lot of time examining "what's working/what doesn't" to get a sense of what might fly in the app store these days.

- have you tested your game "in the wild?" Have you tried to build any pre-release hype? Did you carefully craft a press release, app description, keywords, etc?

- does your app have any kind of unique marketable gimmick, interesting story, unusual connection that helps it to stand apart from everything else out there?

It sounds like a lot of work and to be honest, most developers leave much of this stuff for the last minute, and it's one of the more obvious reasons why they don't stand a chance in this market. There's simply too many developers releasing too much product at too frequent of a pace. Even an above-average game (gameplay and presentation) will get lost in the noise nowadays. If you really want to try to find your way through this market, respect the fact that a lot more behind-the-scenes work must be done to figure out a gameplan, rather than just "releasing something and crossing your fingers." As they say in Las Vegas - Good luck!

 

for contest, for example, you can ask people to retweet your game or write review to win gift card.

 

I think you should quote other one's words, so we could know what you are talking to

 

Don't go about spamming reviewers with your email pitch - it won't work, they won't open it. Those guys have to deal with 100s of emails every day! Can you blame them?!

Instead, make friends. Get to know ppl on the forums, on Twitter, etc. This takes time and won't happen over night but truly caring about users and those that have the resources to promote you will pay off every time!

 

I bought it and omg I don't know what happened!

- I couldn't control the shark at all, no idea seriously. I read the 'instruction' and still had no idea.

- The game saves a highscore to openfeint every second. So there's a popup on screen all the time. A little off putting...

- The art is very unique to say the least. It is like looking at a fish tank on a bad acid trip


I'm confused and a little scared

 

Isn't that unethical? The point of a review is that it should be a review... not an advertisement for a friend.

 

Upon reading the quote you quoted, I don't see where he says you should make friends for the purpose of having them review the game. But, in case I'm wrong...

Unethical? Well that depends on how you are approaching game development...and how you define "unethical".

If you (by "you" I mean whoever) consider it a business, well what is unethical in business?

Does Toyota "feel bad" because they pay actors to say things like "I love my Toyota, it's the best!"

Corporations pay billions of dollars to lie to you every day...or at least lie as much as they can legally get away with. I worked in advertising for a few years...if they can say a total lie and not get in trouble for it, they will.

How does big business approach ethics (or do they at all)? Let's look at Apple real quick.

I read that they are going to help defend a developer who is fighting Lodsys. Even if that is not true, my point can still be made. I'll use the example anyways.

I read a lot of comments online saying, "Yay for Apple! They're sticking up for the devs!"

Ya, right. They aren't doing it because it is ethical, or the right thing, or because they care about us devs. They are doing it for the exact same reason any corporation does anything. Ever.

Money.

Of course Apple cares about its image and does not want to be seen as the bad company that throws its devs under the bus. Why? Because a bad image will cost them money in lost revenue. That's it.

Every decision Apple makes revolves around money. Every charitable donation (public image and tax breaks), every new feature they develop, every battle they fight. And that's fine. That's how it is.

This is true with virtually any business. Decisions revolve around money.

So what is unethical about having your friend review your game? Hey, maybe he actually likes it anyways! If Toyota can spend untold millions/billions on telling you how great THEY think their trucks are, I think you should have no problems sleeping at night knowing that your friend reviewed your game. You are competing against companies with virtually bottomless pockets when it comes to advertising.

I don't mean to say that you should do these things, everyone is different. You should do things the way you feel comfortable. As a one man dev team (more or less) I actually do make such decisions and there are certain lines I won't cross. But is it because I would feel bad, or because if people found out it could hurt my business? Hmmmm.......

Anyways, at the end of the day, you have to live with yourself. If you are a small dev team then you have a heart. Apple, as a corporation, is too big to have one so the term "unethical" probably doesn't exist to them (unless their lawyers say it does).

*I'm no expert, just my two cents.