Where did i go wrong with my puzzle game?

[djskinner]

@jokerseven unfortunately I think that's the way things are going now. Unless you spend a load of money or are extremely lucky, you're going to struggle. You need to think of it as a long game and constantly keep pushing, releasing updates and focus on driving up organic traffic (e.g. App Store Ratings and Optimisation)

For example, we wrote to nearly 200 people (app review sites, bloggers, etc) and have had not one review. Despite that, literally everyone who plays the game absolutely loves it, and our App Store ratings show that too. I caught two people playing it in the local gym earlier this week, that's how addictive it is!

I'd also say what little money we spent on marketing hasn't really made any difference, so I agree with the others here - if you're going to spend, you'll need to spend a lot.

[Ovogame]

Originally Posted by djskinner

if you're going to spend, you'll need to spend a lot.

Well, first spend some money on the art. You can find many cheap artist that will make your game looks like a million time better for few hundred bucks.

JC

[Nijo]

Originally Posted by Ovogame

Well, first spend some money on the art. You can find many cheap artist that will make your game looks like a million time better for few hundred bucks.

JC

Agreed. Spending money on advertising would be completely the wrong thing to do right now. As I see it you have two options:
- find and pay somebody with artistic skills to overhaul the looks
- put it all down to experience and start on a new project

There's a saying in start-up circles: fail fast & fail cheap. It's not always good advice, but it's quite applicable to the Appstore.

[pat3ck]

Originally Posted by jokerseven

Problem 2)
I tried getting into contact with about 10-15 reviewers however only one (Applicious) has replied and offered a deal for $750 which i didnt do.

Oh my, that's a lot of $.

Maniacdev has compiled a list of 170+ app review sites. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't cost that much to pitch to those sites.

Hope it helps!

[ThreeCubes]

If I wanted to be really cruel I would say that you should spend huge amounts of money on upgrading the graphics and marketing.

If I wanted to be kind I would tell you its really not worth it, the gameplay is ok but a bit slow and not innovative enough to get noticed. Visually its poor lets face it. You could email every site in the world and they will take one look at the screen shots and won't email you back (unless you pay). Even a major graphics overhaul probably would not help.



I think you really need to, as said by Nijo "put it all down to experience and start on a new project"

Almost all developers first app is a flop (me included with Recoil SE) i heard once that the andy birds guys had loads of flops too.

[Quazonk]

Originally Posted by ThreeCubes

I think you really need to, as said by Nijo "put it all down to experience and start on a new project"

It boils down to this. Take this as a learning experience and use that to make a better product the next time around. Don't be discouraged, you'd be hard pressed to find a dev that knocked it out of the park on their first try. Get up, dust off, and come back stronger.

[MindJuice]

So I played the game last night. I have some random comments below. Many of these are not reasons for your lack of downloads though, because you'd need to download to discover a lot of them, but perhaps some are.

• Your iAds popup doesn't fit on the screen and cuts off part of the ad. Not good for advertisers or players.
• The iAd popup covers some of your help messages.
• The font in your help messages is too small.
• You only have 6 levels. You said you wanted to be like Trainyard Express, but that game had dozens of levels that were all different from the normal version of Trainyard.
• The difficulty progression is too quick. I don't know if this is the same as in your full version, but the levels go from trivial to easy to pretty damn tricky on level 6. I still haven't solved it.
• The graphics are a bit small, and as has been mentioned, the quality could be improved a lot.
• The icon is a dull blue color that doesn't really grab your attention.
• The App Store description and screenshots give me no idea what the game is about or how I play it.
• Instead of "X"s, why not put a picture of a trap at those locations?
• No music. You can get music for really cheap these days and there are some decent options. Check out luckylionstudios.com for example (tracks for $5).
• Wasted space at the bottom of the game. Consider making it a landscape game so you can increase the size of the graphics.
• When you fail, show a message to the user to explain that they failed. The first time it happened I didn't understand what I did wrong.
• There are many situations where the game is obviously not winnable (e.g., blue monster left, but no blue "X"). Don't let the user keep playing in an unwinnable situation.
• Add an undo option. Sometimes you accidentally click the wrong spot and have to start over again.
• The Trainyard-style color mixing is not mentioned in the game. Needs to be explained.
• You also should mention the fact that monsters can be combined into one or better yet, have a level where that is the only solution.
• Monsters walk too slowly.

[Connector]

Originally Posted by jokerseven

Hi everyone reading this!

Let me begin with a bit of information about myself. I started IOS developing last year November. I wanted to make a game like trainyard express and I came up with Monster Catch. I need alot of direction as im quite lost

Full Version
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/monster-catch-lite/id588972559?ls=1&mt=8

Lite Version
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/monster-catch/id588737562?ls=1&mt=8

Problem 1)
Now i am pretty sure this isn't a terrible game but after about 4 days of selling i had 100 sales for lite and 4 paid..Yes thats right.4 sales. I have had no sales since and i am a bit lost about what went wrong

Problem 2)
I tried getting into contact with about 10-15 reviewers however only one (Applicious) has replied and offered a deal for $750 which i didnt do.

TLR-
Is my game terrible?
Why have my game sales gone dead flat? Why is my app so invisible?
Does my icon suck?
Why does no app reviewer respond to me when i try get in touch with them? Is there a secret to it?

Thank you all for reading!

Your links are wrong here in this post. Things like this would turn me off really bad.

Don't like the ads either. They would make me never to buy this game.

[MHille]

Hi,

Had a quick look at your puzzle. Not my sort of puzzle.

Not too surprised by what happened or what's been said here.

One of the best pieces of advice I read was if you can't get reviews on game sites look for bloggers interested in your sort of game.

I found http://gottasolveit.blogspot.com.au/ it's run by a nice guy called Tom Cutrofello and he plays a huge number of puzzle apps on the iPhone and iPad.

Getting a mention anywhere can increase interest, and start the snowball effect that will lead to sales. (Sales being defined here as more than 10).

Don't expect miracles but keep trying.

Matthew

[jokerseven]

Hahah thank you all for the brilliant responses!.. I see the general error of my games= and i will just take it as experience and move on with a new one. again thanks a heap