Can anyone tell me how to promote our games? We made 2 games, one is "Starry Sky" which has both iPhone and iPad version. The other is "Turtle Rescue - The Best Brick Breaker Game For All Ages". When they were "ready for sale", we made them free for 3 days, during that 3 days, they hit most of the countries' top rankings. And according to feedback, people said that they are wonderful games. however, when their price back to normal, the download rate drop rapidly. Here I listed what we did and what we didn't do: What we do: 1) sent emails with promote codes to review sites 2) give out promo codes in TA forums 3) built facebook pages for both games What we didn't do: 1) Ads [It's said that Ads will cost alot money and the result won't be that good] 2) upload video to youtube [We're base in CHINA...] 3) Activities So is there anything else we can do to promote our game? If you have any suggestion and advice, please share with me. Thank you! Starry Sky iPhone version http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/starry-sky./id468882834?mt=8 Starry Sky iPad version http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/starry-sky-hd/id468627572?mt=8 The facebook page for Starry Sky: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Starry-Sky/229742973787549 Turtle Rescue http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/turtle-rescue-best-brick-breaker/id528480115?mt=8 Here is the facebook page for "TURTLE RESCUE": http://www.facebook.com/pages/Turtle-Rescue/437754249574639
Have you made a official site for those games? I think the best way to promote your games is to keep on adding great awesome updates!
YouTube videos can be a fairly good promotional tool. I'm not really familiar with how these things are regulated, but would it be possible to encourage some fans in the US or another country post some clips of gameplay on YouTube?
Yes I think addict updates are very useful too. The starry sky you see at the moment is the update version of the v1.0. And I think we have to keep updating frequently. We do have a official website, but there are two problems, 1st, the server is in China, so people from other countries visit our site will be very slow. Secondly, the game page is in English, but the home page is Chinese. I think I'll fix these problems
About Youtube, For some reason, our Gov block this great site. A year ago, with a proxy we can visit youtube and upload videos, but since early this year, although we still can visit youtube via a proxy, we can't post any video to it . (Facebook has the same situation) I ask some friend on the facebook whether they could upload an video for us, no one answer yet I'm agree with RevolvingDoor that youtube is a good promotional tool.
How about not cloning existing games? Starry Sky is a clone of Blueprint 3D. Even though you added features, it's not the original. BTW: Be warned, we're the publisher of the original game and we're taking action against code theft. The Tutorial Design is already clearly copied (just because there are multiple spacial puzzles, e.g. Pictorial that copied the original design of the Blueprint creator - it doesn't make them legitimate). We keep an eye on those products and will react if necessary
To Future777 Did you see the version one of Starry Sky? This version is an update for the first version. We didn't copy your idea, do you know that the moment you have an idea, there are more than 2000 people in the world has the same. So you can't say we we copied things from you because we have something similar to yours! The other thing is the code, we wrote the code ourselves, we steal nothing from you! Do we steal image from you? Do we steal music from you? Do we steel level design from you? The problem is that, your game came our earlier than ours, please, be reasonable.
I'm not going deeper on the subject here. I felt it'd be appropriate to post a warning first before taking action. If you think all is fine..perfect.
I know as a big name publisher, you might got great relationship with Apple, review sites and maybe public medias. But we really didn't copy from you, we didn't steal you code, if Apple need a code check, we'll happy to hand in our code, design files, music, and very thing about Starry Sky to Apple Staff. I know a lot of company do very thing to against potential competitors, I understand.
1) This is not about us. We're here to defend the rights of other small developers who decide to go through a publisher. We are responsible to maximize their chances in this tough market. Small Developers are needed for creativity and new ideas/impulses. 2) It seems there is a misunderstanding: I didn't say we're taking actions now, it was just a warning and if you're 100% certainl all is ok you don't have to fear us. 3) I think you are a talented bunch of developers and I always find it sad when they don't make use of the talent to invent new things.
First, We are small developer too, we have no one to rely on, no big name publisher, no review sites, no relationship with public media. Secondly, we steal nothing. You call us code thief, that's no right. We are small developer, you are big name. We are 100% sure we didn't copy from you, our idea was original as well, just because these 2 games has something similar, and blueprint came out in the first place. But we carried out the Starry Sky idea independently, this is the truth. We made this version use 8 months, why it cost us so much time? I don't know how many functions Starry Sky has more than blueprint, but as you said we got more functions, If we copy your game, why we waste time to add functions? Thirdly, I'm not a talented person. I think invent things is the nature of a human, why not invent?
May be but what about Blueprint 3D cloning that game mechanism: http://www.miniclip.com/games/coign-of-vantage/en/ If you clone a cloner, your not worst than the original cloner in my book Anyway, are they really cloning or just using the same game mechanism... JC
A bit off topic, but I'd like to point out that there's a world of difference between being inspired by something and IP theft. An idea has 0 value until there's work applied to it -- in our industry's case, that takes the form of art, design, or code. If someone used "your" idea AND the work you've put into it, that's IP theft. If someone used "your" idea and did their own thing with it, that's inspiration. For example, you could technically call Lep's World a "Super Mario clone," but it's just a game that's inspired by Mario. The graphics, level design, and plot are all different. The fact that the game tries to capitalize on that good old Super Mario nostalgia is *not* grounds for a lawsuit. They took the very basic idea behind Mario, and did their own work. That's fair. Here's another example: There's a company called IceFish. They periodically put out games that try to mislead the player into thinking it's an iPhone version of Contra or Metal Slug or some other great arcade title. The graphics are traced or in some cases ripped from old games... And you probably don't have to be a lawyer to prove that when a company names a game "Contr2Brothers," it's trying to cash in on work that was already done by someone else. Very important distinction there that more people should be aware of.
I've ask some review sites, the price of making ads on their sites are too high for me. At the moment, some sites don't sale ad place individually, the pack ad place, push notification, reviews and other things together. It's like several grands a day, can't afford that. a long time ago, some review sites offer "no win no fee" packages. But it seems like all of them stop running this kind of thing.
Thank you for your advice, I update Starry Sky's facebook frequently, but the result isn't that good. I know a lot of developer build facebook page for their apps and games, but some people tell me, unless I have tons of friends in facebook, otherwise, only few people will pay attention to the page. Thank you for your advice, I'll try hubpages and Squidoo tonight!
I was trying to do that, but there are one thing I'm worry about: I've started server threads to talk about or promote my games, if I start new ones, will the admin ban me?
Im not sure if its too late but I have thought of some useful way to promote your app. One is to promote your own app o your blog. You talk about the qualitie about your about and what is used for. People might also recommend stuff to ba added in your apps and when you do add them, theres a chance they might get it. Second, submit your apps for a review. Just by submitting to an app review website you are making sure that more eyes are seeing it. If your app is good, which it surely would be if you are willing to promote it, it will get a good review and in turn your downloads will increase. This also helps you to establish relationships with websites and individuals for future app marketing. Thirdly, how bout a pricing strategy? Im not sure how to explain that. Fourth, in apps, they should have some kind of social features. People will post and recommend your apps in Facebook or friends. Word of mouth is good for advertising. I think thats all, i hope they help you!
That's very helpful, thank you! We did some of the things that you point out, such as social function, discounts and send email to review sites. I'm gonna try the rest of the methods you mention. About the review sites, only one or two review the games, the rest of them reply me and told me they wish we go for the paid reviews which I think are expensive. I track the usage of the promo code (i.e. I sent 20 codes and then I track 4 weeks about how many promo codes had been used), only half of them have been redeemed. So I guess maybe my email had been ignored by them, or they might not interested in these kind of game. Anyway, I'll keep on trying, and I'll share my experience with everyone!
I gave the redeem code to my brother and he LOVED the game. I didnt think it was good game, no offense. But when I played it, I was so wrong. Its so simplistic yet addicting. Thanks, i totally recommend it! Im serious!
