Keeping tabs on the game forums

If you subscribe to the RSS feeds for the game forums you can keep on top of new posts pretty well without wading through stuff manually (that's how I spotted this thread). Then subscribe/reply to any threads you want to follow and let the forum email you updates - you barely gotta come here at all

 

As a consumer I love when a dev interacts with the community. Definetly influenced me to buy their game.

 

AS a customer, I can say talking to devs is awesome. Getting ur comment replied to and implemented rocks! I know Kepa of RocketCatGames reads the HookChamp thread daily and responds and posts. Other games like minigore try to do this, but it's a smaller team so they can't always just be talking to someone...

 

i spend more time in the developer section - mainly to help other developers.

i have posted the occasionally reply/thread in the "customer section" - but since the threads are constantly being updated, i think it is also hard for even the general public to follow what is going on there.. maybe it needs better structure - who knows. i think any post is simply lost in a sea of other posts - does it make a sale? who knows. i let anyone contact me tho.

 

+1 to both of these - one of the reasons I love the iPhone and iPod Touch gaming community is because the developers are active and respond to criticism and suggestions.

 

I can't believe that any developer would choose to ignore the main games section of the forums! Get out there and read and post! Do you develop your games in underground bunkers while wearing tinfoil hats, cut off from the rest of the world?

Buy other devs games for "research", read threads of popular games to get an idea what makes people appreciate them, see how other developers interact with the gamers. Respond to a game thread OTHER THAN your own game occasionally, make a new friend! That developer may just return the favor and help promote your game someday. Be very active in your own game's thread, try to respond decently to critics as well as well-wishers.

If you do these things, it does help. I have seen noticeable differences in sales between times that I have been here, and the times where I've had to be away for a few weeks or a month due to "day job crunch time" (or recently losing my power for almost a week)... I won't give specific numbers, but will say if you're a dev making only a handful of sales per day this may not help you much. But if you're serious about having a go at the app store, you need to participate!

Final note- while posting in various game forums... if you are a developer and don't have your game's iTunes link listed in your sig, you fail at social media advertising!

 

oh - i do read and post on occasion i spend more time in the developer area however! but if there is some competitive product being discussed - of course i want to read and comment; those users could also be interested in my stuff!

definitely!

 

I'm a dev lurker and I've been visiting TA every day to keep tabs on the main game and dev forums for a little over a year (after I decided i should take a shot at developing an app in my spare time). I suspect I'm not the only one. I am still working on my first app so I'm afraid I cannot provide firsthand evidence but I am convinced that it is well worth a dev's effort to spend at least some time in these forums. I like to see what my competition is doing right, what they are doing wrong, and get a sense of what kind of features the consumer is looking for in a game. There are also some really good discussions here on the dev process itself and it's always good to learn from other people's experiences. I've definitely tweaked my game design after reading these forums. I've even had to change the original name of my game since someone else published a game with the exact same name (doh!)

 

I thought the winky face would've implied that last bit was tounge-in-cheek, but emoticon fail yet again!

Seriously though, you can and must come here to interact with your users (and other devs ) but the RSS feeds + thread subscription let you focus on whats interesting and/or relevant to your games without having to hit the "new posts" button and skim through 10 pages of MMO invites and whatever's going on in the lounge. As important as it is to stay in touch with the game-playing community it also helps if you have some time to actually work on your games And since I get all my forum updates in Mail.app I'm basically getting new posts and responses pushed to me all day long and can respond much quicker. It's win-win!

 

I've been here a pretty long time and I think it must help increase sales, though I've never bothered to check the numbers or anything. I don't think that Trace would have picked up as well as it did without the publicity we got here, and we owe pretty much all of our success so far on that game getting us known (Which was our plan in the first place ).

I'm a consumer in this field as well of course, so that's another reason to spend lots of time here. Sniping all the free games I find here has almost become a hobby in itself

 

Hey dansu, same here! I've been "lurking" around these forums for a little while but I usually don't post much, at least not outside the (public) dev forum. Not to say I don't read the other sections just as much--I'm an avid iPhone gamer too!--but still... reading about other people's success/failures is really an eye-opener, and it does a lot to get you thinking about your own projects. Reading about other upcoming and released games can do just about the same thing, too.

 

I found that staying active in the TA threads for the game was one of the keys to success for Battle for Wesnoth. Not only could I gather and grow a solid fanbase, but I could quickly respond to critisisms and get suggestion and feedback for new features. Many users here on TA base their purchase decision on the game's forum thread, so it is extremely helpful if the dev is there to make sure things are always positive. Plus devs are great at bumping their own threads to gain visibility

The only thing I am hesitant about is posting in other game threads. It may seem a bit too self-serving if I post critisisms of another dev's game...

 

I agree fully. I think that both customers and dev's have a lot to gain from the forums. There is nothing better (most of the times), than getting and giving feedback on what's going on, and keeping everyone as involved as possible.

And don't be afraid of giving constructive criticism. Although some might take it the wrong way, it will most likely benefit the person in the end (and hopefully some day they will thank you)

Speaking of forums and RSS, what other forums do you follow? I'd like to add some more to my list, but so far, I'm finding TA to be superior.

Cheers!