Help My First Game, Lite version?

I think a lite version will help. Just throw in some limitations. Like a 60 second max game or something like that. Even casual gamers generally want to play longer than that, but it is enough for people to feel the game out.

 

Giving away too much is risky, but if the lite version is annoying or too short, you increase the chance that users will simply delete it in disgust and not keep it around. When a lite game is compelling and users keep it on their idecide, it offers two advantages: 1) increases chance of interest spreading by word of mouth, i.e. if someone else is shown that game. 2) gives you 2nd and 3rd chances to upsell, via updates to the lite version.

You can get a good sense of how many people are keeping the lite version around by paying attention to the upgrade metrics shown when you view your daily/monthly stats.

While a lite version is rarely a magic bullet anymore, you don't have much to lose by making a lite version if the full version is doing poorly. And you can easily pull it from the app store if you change your mind.

 

How many sales have you gotten so far?

 

im not a dev, but as a buyer id say yes, it would. i saw the app on TA but wasnt sure about it, so a lite may give you another sale . You might want to put if you are going to update the game in the app description.As someone else mentioned, dont make the lite too short, just long enough.

 

Find someone to review your game, that could boost sales as well if the review is favorable.

 

Stick Escape lite is 51st Top Free Action game in the US right now, it has boosted the full version's sales. I would go for it, it doesn't take much time to make a lite, so why not?

 

I'm waiting for my lite version to be approved. It was a balance of giving enough content, but not too much. I'm trying to go for a "leave them wanting more" approach. If/when it gets released, I'll share my data.

 

I hate to be the harbinger of doom, but even if youve got a half decent game youll wont neccasarily get half decent sales. especially after 3 days.
its only going to get more crowded as time goes on, because the world and his mum has started making iphone games.

most devs im sure think.. wow.. the ishoot bloke made half a million.
and wow.. pocket gods popular and its not even a game..
their advantage was that when they started.. users were crying out for apps..
gone are the days when you can release 1 app and live off that for a year.
unless you have a game that gets reviewed everywhere and starts a word of mouth.

i seriously thought itunes connect was broken a few days after my app came out.. because i couldnt get sales figures for some days... little did i know that if you have no sales, you get no summary for that day.

ive been in the games industry for 12 years and my 2nd, 3rd 4th and 5th game.. that i worked on for a total of 6 years were canned.. i got jaded and bitter years ago..but at least i got paid for those 6 years.. the fact ive only sold 25 units in a month with my game has only made me realise that my day job.. animating is what i should really be focussing on. im visually creative not so good at marketing / PR.. and you really need that these days if you want a succesful iphone game.

hope ive not bummed you out.. put out a lite version.. it cant hurt sales if your not selling any right?

 

i totally sympathise.
if you promised your designer a cut of any profit and managed to keep the dev costs to 0 then all youve lost is your time. but you have gained valuable experience.

i bought your game.. as its only 59p.. which is like buying you a cheap cup of coffee..
if i could .. id delete it and buy it again.. a few times.. and we can imagine id bought you a beer... thats just to cheer you up after laying down a reality check.
your games worth 59p / 99c unfortunately no more than that.
purely looking at the market. im not trying to devalue your efforts.. its just how it is compared to what else you can get for a buck.

good luck with it.

oh by the way.. where does my last games score get stored.. i cant see it.. otherwise
theres not much point in having points, i dont even want open fient.. just to see my last score..
even my games managed that.

 

hehe, same here. sitting in front of the computer and reload the itunesconnect side, because they didn`t update the sales.
and again.
and again.
till i reconize, that you didn`t get a report if you didn`t sell anything. ^^

meanwhile, i think, that 250 sales aren`t so bad for our game, when i read how often respectively how less other apps were sold.

i think, your app looks interesting, so if i have time for games, i will try it.

canned? did that means, that they never have been published?

if so, i know this situation very well.

made three big flashgames (as a artist).
very big flashgames!
none of them were released.

ok, i got my money (working as a freelancer), but i`m really sad, that the whole work was for nothing (expect the money).

so i`m happy, that i also made illustrations for boardgames: they will produce for sure and they won`t disappear after a few month.

making games for the iphone is some kind of hobby.
of course i would like ti, if i earned money with that, but it`s really hard.

as you told, you need to make a lot of marketing and need a lot of luck to get noticed.

most devs would be happy, if they sold 1000–3000 copies.
and now calculate the money you get per working hour…

just doing like me: having fun with your app, don`t think, that you will get rich with it.

if you wanna get, play lottery or something like that.
or work as a freelancer for iphone app companies. ^^

 

Like the other guys up there, I've been in the game industry for a while too and most of the games I worked on never get released. It's so disheartening, but at least I (we) got paid...and I still have a job. hehe.

As for a Lite version... We released one w/ our comic and sales were bad. Ironically, when we pulled the Lite, sales went up just slightly.