How do people go about doing this? Do you email a site first asking them for their UDID or what? A REVIEW is a lot different because you just send them a promo code and a link and pray. But a PREVIEW on the other hand... I know the hard part is just getting a more reputable site to read an email in the first place, much less email you back their UDID and then wait for all the files to come back in a SECOND email. For example, how would you go about trying to get a preview up here on TA's front page? There isn't even a contact link or anything. Thanks for any help.
Ha, I must be an idiot... or just blind, thanks! What about other sites like IGN for example... has anyone actually had them preview a game based on press release info, or simply "got lucky"?
We have a hard time replying to everyone's email in a timely fashion. For that we apologize. We like previews, but there is usually an unpredictable lag time between getting a preview and writing it up. These days with app store approvals happening so quickly, offering to send a preview at the same time as submitting it to Apple is not going to work. The App may be approved even before we see the email. Ideally, we'd love to see a preview offer weeks before the game is going to be on sale -- as posting a preview, and it coming out later in the same day seems silly. Previews are also tricky as previews are only interesting if they show something people will get excited about. A preview for "just another match 3" is not going to be of interest, for example. So, for that reason, we tend to pursue previews for 1) major games or 2) games that are interesting/impressive in some other way, and you can tell that from screenshots or video. As much as I love Flight Control, we probably wouldn't have previewed it (if we had been offered), while we did preview Unify even though it was a matching game. So, here's how it's probably best done. Email asking if we'd like a preview (exclusive doesn't hurt) of your game XYZ. Include screenshots or video. Give a brief description. That's pretty much it. We aren't the best at replying always, though we really are trying to be better. The other benefit (though I shouldn't really mention this ) is that if I've seen a preview that looks interesting but maybe not front-page interesting, I usually do notice and check it out when it's launched, even if we didn't want to preview it. arn
Thanks for the reply! We're actually a few weeks from our first release and this kind of information I think is invaluable for new devs.
Imagine, we do that and you like video, screenshots, description... What's next? Do you contact us directly asking for a preview build?
