So my game The Fish Dies in the End has been approved by Apple this week. After some pertinent reading I was able to resist the strong urge to release the game immediately and decided to release it on April 13th. I understand the importance of trying to build some hype for the game pre-release and all that but as an indie developer with little to no marketing budget, what exactly do you guys suggest to maximize the buzz for the launch of the game? For those of you who released apps in the past, are there any tips you can share on that? I've been trying the obvious stuff, like Twitter and Facebook. I'm also trying to talk with some websites and reviewers (at least with the ones that reply to their e-mails!) but I'm always under the impression that I should be doing more and I really don't want to screw this up. Thanks in advance!
As I'm releasing Squid Drop on the very same day, which also happens to be my birthday, I suggest you do absolutely nothing.
Haha, good one. Let's hope that we'll both be successful on release . @Razoric: Hey, thanks a lot. I hope you'll like it!
I tried lots of review sites, and was featured on a lot of them. Impact on downloads/sales? about zero :/ crazymikesapps - you'll get some views on his youtube channel, but the twitter broadcasts are useless. If you view his tweets you'll see a tweet twice a day about every game thats had a review. About 30 tweets a day like 'cool puzzle game..' I noticed a small increase (maybe 5%) in downloads dailyappshow - looks like a nice polished site, and gives the impression their videos get a view from a big subscriber base. I noticed zero impact on downloads. Other review sites had zero effects too. The only tip I have for you is that apple rankings are based on sales averaged out over the time its been out. So if you can get all your hype going in the first week, you'll shoot up the rankings and then hopefully people will see your app. Currently I have 1 in 4 conversions from free to paid - which is amazing, but the visibility is so poor the total downloads each day is low
One thing to consider with reviews is that they stick around. Sure, if you don't get off to a great start you may never be able to reach that high, but your game is being carved into the history of the internet. People have plenty of time to find that page and send you some money. The more sites you can get coverage on, the easier it'll be for people to find your game when they scan Google months or even years into the future. It'll probably be pocket change but it's better than letting it fall into oblivion.
Yeah definitely. It doesn't cost anything to contact review sites to get a review. But anything that charges for 'expedited reviews' as they like to put it, isn't worth it. This is my first game, so is a bit of an experiment. I tried out a lot of different things several days apart to test their impact. So far nothing has had much if any impact. Still, you should make up a nice email and send it to every review site you can find. Also a similar email to youtube reviewers.
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience, kam187. It's a shame that things haven't been that great for you so far, but your game seems really nice and I'll give it a try! Since my game hasn't been released yet, I can't say if the reviews will have any impact on sales, but I still think that reviews are extremely important (for the reasons that MidianGTX pointed) and I'm trying to get as many reviews for my game as possible. Unfortunately, most of the sites don't even reply to the e-mails regarding a possible review for a game...
try: familyfriendlygaming.com (its not big, but a nice one to point out in promotional material that your game is family friendly - they replied quickly) Go to youtube and search 'walkabout' or 'walkabout review' and message those guys. They all replied to me. MarkTheTechGuy or something doesnt have ALOT of subscribers but seems to generate alot of comments by giving away promo codes. Promo codes are good to get the word out. Also search forums, and post there - Dont SPAM! there's sections where you can legitimately post Even if you were that way inclined spamming really doesn't help you and puts a lot of users against you! If you decide to do any 'paid' reviews, search for the games they reviewed first and see if it helped them first! EDIT: Try to co-ordinate the forum posts for the same day, because u'll get a few thousand downloads and that will help your ranking and get normal people who search the app store to download too. Spread the reviews out a little to keep your downloads up. ^^ just my experiences. If something works for you please let me know!
More great tips, man. That's really good . Posting on the forums has been the best part of the PR effort for me. There are some forums with lots of active users that really talk about the game (including TouchArcade) and it's awesome to have so much high-quality discussion, with praises and constructive criticism and all that. Just great .
