AppStore business is such a lottery

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by jackgreen, Aug 11, 2010.

  1. jackgreen

    jackgreen Active Member

    Jul 26, 2010
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    We struggled a lot with our newest iPhone / iPad game, called Wristbreaker. Tried to get reviews, spammed every app blog - no success. Was listed as New And Noteworthy by Apple, still moderate sales only.

    Lately one of the Skype executives enjoyed our game and mentioned it in interview. And sales took off.. Too early to say, but I hope it will accelerate

    Jack
     
  2. MrGando

    MrGando Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2010
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    Santiago, Chile
    Wow, good job on getting featured by one of the Skype executives! :) (or great luck ). I'm pretty sure you have a great product there though!
     
  3. Toco Games

    Toco Games Well-Known Member

    Well, you should be happy that your app is visible on the appstore with being in news and noteworthy! Otherwise it could get lost on the appstore very fast.
     
  4. jackgreen

    jackgreen Active Member

    Jul 26, 2010
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    You know, it's on the page 3 in N&N list. Like in Google, no-one is really seeing it if not in top-fold. Didn't works too well for us.

    Jack
     
  5. Well firstly, this game really comes across as a Tetris Clone (because it is, with a twist). That means that you have a HUGE amount of competitors on the AppStore and potential customers have already bought many of these other Tetris Clones so they are unlikely to bother looking for more.

    So have you focused your marketing strategy towards what makes you game unique? What makes it stand out from the competition? My fast and dirty guess is that the turning of the device is what sets you apart? Have you marketed the hell out of this feature?

    I also get the feeling from your post that you are somewhat bitter of the less than stellar sales. This is not a good thing for your app. This is the time to continue to support your product with updates and more marketing! If you had you mind set to sell like this game was the next big thing on Appstore, I can see that you would be disappointed. But if you're letting go of the App this soon, it is doomed to fail.

    My advice, draw up a continued plan to support your app. Listen to the community, work on updates and launch a solid marketing plan.
     
  6. Toco Games

    Toco Games Well-Known Member

    Really!? Are iPhone users even that lazy that they dont scroll?
    Even though is not at the front its still much better then any website coverage you can get IMO. No idea why its not selling good though, looks very interesting to me. Maybe it looks too confuseing from the screenshots. Might be better to have a image first that shows the tilting feature and only the basics of the gameplay. Like you already did with the start of your video.
     
  7. Airball

    Airball Member

    May 25, 2010
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  8. Foursaken_Media

    Foursaken_Media Well-Known Member
    Patreon Indie

    From our experience getting featured on one of the sub pages of iTunes has very little impact in sales. Heck, we're featured in the "Zombies!" section on the front page of iTunes and have seen no real impact in sales either (and that's just one click). If you're on the front page New and Noteworthy though, it obviously can be a huge boost.

    But I think luck is only part of the equation. The other part is getting through the saturation, which I think requires a complete, comprehensive plan. I personally think its done mostly with character and personality, not necessarily cool game play mechanics (sad, I know, but the fact is people won't really experience those cool mechanics until after they've already bought the game, so you've got to find some way to get them to buy in the first place). Angry Birds is the perfect example. What allowed this game to take off were the characters, the weird name, and the interesting premise (crazy birds killing pigs??). The actual game play has been done to death... its just your typical castle crashers clone. But the polish and personality make people go "What the heck is this??? Hmmm I should try it!" And then they find out the game play is polished and solid and it takes off from there.

    Also puzzle games, imo, are probably the hardest genre to bust into, because most of the time its just hard to quickly verbalize what makes your puzzle game new or unique, and people won't really understand or "get it" until they play it. Problem is, they have to buy it first to play it, which is where the necessity for a larger then life personality comes into play.

    Of course all that personality etc stuff depends on the genre. If you're going casual, I think its almost a must to grab peoples attention with that kind of thing. If you're targeting more hardcore gamers, they already know what they want and are actually more interested in game play, so you should probably be selling them more on the features of your actual game play.

    Anyway, that's my 2 cents, and is of course just my own personal theory ;)
     
  9. Gravity Jim

    Gravity Jim Well-Known Member

    Nov 19, 2009
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    Commercial music producer
    Santa Rosa, CA
    You could remove the word "AppStore" from the title of this thread and be equally correct.
     
  10. Jack Shiels

    Jack Shiels Well-Known Member

    Oct 25, 2009
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    We are doing quite well... made almost 1000 sales of our snakes and ladders hd app in 9 days :O

    I think the idea is to just find an empty "there should be an app for that" slot and fill it. The iPad has quite a few of them ATM.
     
  11. mobile1up

    mobile1up Well-Known Member

    Nov 6, 2008
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    Munich, Germany
    did you get the license rights for the name "snakes and ladders" - i am pretty sure hasbro owns those rights. your success has only to do with the branding association. people know the "snakes and ladders" game and thats why your game is being found. when you are forced to remove it and rename it; you will find your sales go south :) been there, done that.
     
  12. Toco Games

    Toco Games Well-Known Member

    Not to mention that hasbro could sue you and then you could pay more money then you ever make with the app. I suggest that you better rename it first. Also if your game is a exact copy of that hasbro game hasbro will still not be amused even when its renamed.
     
  13. jackgreen

    jackgreen Active Member

    Jul 26, 2010
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    Hi, FoolishSteve

    I personally believe, that marketing is the most important component in iphone app sales success. Totally agree with You!

    What are Your marketing activities usually, when You launch new game. How many months do You run the campaign and what is the average budget per game?

    Jack
     
  14. Jack Shiels

    Jack Shiels Well-Known Member

    Oct 25, 2009
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    #14 Jack Shiels, Aug 13, 2010
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2010
    Talk about harsh. "Chutes and Ladders" is the actual copyright (the Snakes and Ladders name comes from England and was not copyrighted). Should all board games be removed because of a similarity to something else?

    How do you explain the long life of other snakes and ladders games? I know one that has been live for over a year. Not to mention the myriad of other businesses using that name... just google it.

    I was just happy with finally finding success and was trying to help out here :(
     
  15. Don't let any haters get you down. Keep on truckin'!
     
  16. #16 FoolishSteve, Aug 13, 2010
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2010
    Well first, I have not launched a AppStore game yet, but I have however worked on a very popular application for the Windows platform. The company I am involved with has worked with UbiSoft and EA, so we got a lot of experience there working with big brands and high stakes. And I believe, what we learned there is very applicable on the AppStore market.

    I am currently building a marketing plan for our game, and research has shown that a lot of developers (not only indie) fail in their marketing strategies. This is not something exclusive to the game development business of course, it happens everywhere in other areas of commerce. And all who fails doesn't do that because the didn't try either, it is really hard work to get a solid, successful marketing plan flowing as intended.

    Regarding length of campaign, it all depends on how you can structure your time (I'm guessing that you are a small developer?). All marketing efforts take time away from building games (which is probably what you are really good at and should focus the most time on) so you really have to be smart how to allocate your time and effort. Lets just for arguments sake say that you are the only developer in this project. Then I would say that you will need help if you want your game to achieve maximum sales. Marketing is a full time job, when done right. Mailing a PR to a list of 30 popular app review sites will not get you very far.

    Now ... I'm not the most veteran dude out there, but I throw my advice and experience out there for anyone to consider.

    Btw how are the sales going now? Still got a boost from the Skype quote?

    PS Hmmm upon reading my own post I kinda come across as selling myself don't I? Not my intention. :)
     
  17. TrueAxis

    TrueAxis Well-Known Member

    Sep 7, 2009
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    Points on how to get noticed:

    Make sure you have a unique product and not a clone.

    Marketing needs to be started 1 or 2 months before release - all review sites are really not interested after release.

    If the product is received well update and expand it.

    Release a Lite version before or around the time of a major update. Or if you were not received well release a Lite version if sales are not too hot, which may help to get noticed. Make the Lite version different from the paid version to get more awareness. With Jet Car Stunts the Lite version came out a few months after the paid version and people were after new tracks. We put new tracks in the Lite version to get people who bought the game to download the Lite version to get it into the free charts. This help generate sales for the paid version.

    Any new enhancements Apple do to the SDK, implement them because you may get featured - we got featured by Apple by implementing the Retina display.

    Even doing those things you may not get noticed but not doing them is just a waste of good marketing.

    But the biggest thing is to be featured by Apple - and that is a lottery on the whims of peoples preferences. All I can say is be original and make the product the best of it's kind and market early before release - that way the odds are stacked good to begin with. These rules can be classed as common sense things to do before you commit to developing.

    The above is based on what we learnt with releasing Jet Car Stunts but I suspect every game will have it's own slant on what happens.
     
  18. Endloop

    Endloop Well-Known Member

    Great discussion, lots of good points here by TrueAxis, Foursaken_Media and others.

    If I may add a few more random bits:

    - If you can afford it, get yourself to a conference like 360iDev, GDC, WWDC..etc.. Lots of great people and valuable info to be had. You will also get an opportunity to meet bloggers and press which will let you demo your stuff. Some will be very busy so try to make meeting arrangements before you get there.

    - Every little bit helps: website, youtube videos, blog, Twitter, Facebook, forum posts, press releases. By blanketing the web, you're improving your SEO as well so when people google your game, at least they will find good information on it, information that you've put out there, not just a random review or mention.

    - Really STUDY the best sellers. What makes them so addictive and special?

    - Like TrueAxis said, look for opportunities to make use of new features and align yourself with what Apple is promoting.
     
  19. Jack Shiels

    Jack Shiels Well-Known Member

    Oct 25, 2009
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    thanks :cool:
     
  20. lazrhog

    lazrhog Well-Known Member

    Oct 1, 2008
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    Err, it kind of helped that "Jet Car Stunts" was absolutely fricking awesome, and is easily one of the best iphone games I have ever seen (and continually recommended to others)
     

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