Best things to do when featured

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by micah, Dec 2, 2009.

  1. micah

    micah Well-Known Member

    Aug 24, 2009
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    San Francisco
    teh internets just got featured in Hot New Games! Very exciting. So this begs the question, what can I do to make the most out of it?

    My understanding of iPhone marketing is it's best to stack as much hype together as possible to try to get as many sales as possible to try to push up as high as you can on the top charts before the hype fades, and hope that you stay there. So now that my game is getting featured, is there anything that you suggest I do that might milk it for all it's worth?

    I don't want to go on sale (I'm trying to stick it out at $2). It might be overkill to write a press release about getting featured. Any suggestions, or should I just enjoy it?
     
  2. Flickitty

    Flickitty Well-Known Member

    Oct 14, 2009
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    If you think it's overkill then it is probably just what you need to do.

    People need to be clubbed over the head with press releases- if they didn't pay attention to your first press release, maybe they will after you are FEATURED.

    Unfortunately, we didn't send press releases while we were featured, and I wish I had. I had just sent a bunch out just 3 days before, though.
     
  3. lazypeon

    lazypeon Well-Known Member
    Patreon Bronze

    Great question. I hit the position recently (congrats!) and was kind of stuck since my game was already 99 cents. I hit some review sites, but it's hard to have them review a small game. Yours has a little bit of 'zomg crazy' appeal, so it might be easier to get featured.

    I don't know how sales are at $1.99 or where you're at in the charts, but my guess is that it's worth it to break into the top charts at any cost. Not so true for the Gamelofts and EAs, but if you don't have any advertising budget, I think it might be worth it.

    I have no personal experience however, and the above is speculation. I'd love to hear from someone who's actually been in the same position.
     
  4. tukun

    tukun Well-Known Member

    Oct 7, 2009
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    congratz on getting featured.
    abit off topic but anyone has examples of a press release?
     
  5. NickFalk

    NickFalk Well-Known Member

    Here is my latest.
     
  6. Charmed also got featured in Hot New Games.

    Where does one normally send a press release to? Do you just handpick people to email it to or is there a more general sort of newswire or something?
     
  7. micah

    micah Well-Known Member

    Aug 24, 2009
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    San Francisco
    Here's an example of our latest press release:
    http://media.insurgentgames.com/2009-11-24_teh_internets_Released.pdf

    Honestly, we just looked at how other people were writing press releases (you can search through them at places like gamespress.com or verticalwire.com).

    I'm still trying to figure that out. I've been building up a media list spreadsheet for some time now, and almost everyone on there is an iPhone app review site, and there are a couple that are just blogs about Macs or video games and sometimes do iPhone reviews. Also, its free to get your stuff up on gamespress.com, and I think a lot of the video game press looks there for news. And also verticalwire.com seems like it would be useful, but after repeated attempts to try to get them to let us publish our own press releases, we haven't been approved and they've been ignoring our emails.

    The nice thing about a press release is it's less work for bloggers and news site to cover your game, because they can either take stuff from it or even just publish your press release.

    Ok ... so now it's time to try to figure out how to make a one-page press release sound exciting when all it really says is "teh internets is featured in Hot New Game"... :)
     
  8. Flickitty

    Flickitty Well-Known Member

    Oct 14, 2009
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    Just don't be shy when it comes to your game.

    I know a lot of developers have felt ignored and snubbed, and talking about your game seems pointless sometimes. But getting featured is a really big deal and justification for your efforts.

    From what I was told by Apple, Featured Games are chosen based on Apples own criteria and those chosen apps stay on the list for a week or two. That in itself makes it a big deal- nobody else can put you on a featured list.

    I make the effort to check out as many games as possible, but sometimes I need to be beat over the head with a stick before I try a game. I'm not any better than the average consumer or news outlet- how do I know what is good and what is worth my time?

    In recent days, I've tried these games from fellow TAers:

    Charmed Lite- MindJuice
    Tap-Fu Lite- Knight

    Charmed is a cool little puzzle game, and then I discovered you could flip the device around and IT CHANGES THE GRAVITY. That blew my mind and totally changes the way the puzzles work. It is now a Featured game.

    Tap-Fu is done in the way I think all Platformers should follow. The lack of clunky onscreen buttons make this game really interactive and pleasurable. The artwork, storyline and effort are simply stunning.

    I almost overlooked both these games, because they seem like your average game with beautiful artwork. BOTH of them surprised me.
     
  9. Knight

    Knight Well-Known Member

    Oct 2, 2008
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    Thanks. I think I'm going to quote you on our app description, as that captures exactly what we were aiming for. We put a lot of effort behind marketing Tap-Fu and pretty much burned out from it, without much success. What's interesting is that other similar game did (or are doing) much better.

    As for being featured, you should see if the current price is helping to rise in sales. If not, then try lowering the price. But what I found personally (and this data is about 11 months old) is that the higher the price the better the revenue. 99 cents really really sucks unless you are up there in the top paid apps lists.
     
  10. enuhski

    enuhski Well-Known Member

    Oct 25, 2009
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    i hope i'm not intruding, but i'd like to make a suggestion. it's also hard for us to keep track of previously featured apps unless we pay attention to the App Store's featured games everyday - or several times during the day, but for those who got promo codes and previously reviewed the game, a simple heads up via PM, email or twitter will do. i personally plug these updates on twitter - i always feel good when devs get a nice break and i feel proud for having reviewed a game before it became famous :)

    i don't know about the effect on sales or marketing, but i suppose giving away a few promo codes to select people to promote the game while it's featured on the app store helps create some buzz, especially on twitter. at least that's what i learned from experience.

    there is even one dev who didn't know her game has been on the new and noteworthy list for some time now and i was the one who gave her the heads up and even had to email her a screenshot, too. hehehe :)
     
  11. micah

    micah Well-Known Member

    Aug 24, 2009
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    game developer
    San Francisco
  12. Flickitty

    Flickitty Well-Known Member

    Oct 14, 2009
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    Micah, I'm really happy about your feature, and imma let you finish but...

    Okay, I'm done.

    If that press release doesn't get some attention, I don't know what will. It is so over the top and captures the game so perfectly that it got me excited about Teh Internets.
     
  13. Flickitty

    Flickitty Well-Known Member

    Oct 14, 2009
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    No, you aren't intruding, you are part of the media and a reviewer, so your input is pretty important. I think you pointed out a couple good things: Unless develpers contact the media, they have no way of knowing about you.

    Giving out promo codes is a good idea. There are many reviewers on this site. Many developers appreciate codes, although be careful because many developers will just use the code to give you a bad review (yeah, it happens unfortunately).

    I really like enuhski's blog. I've tried to keep up with it ever since Flickitty was reviewed there. I've tweeted about that blog a couple times, even though I have only 100 followers.
     
  14. enuhski

    enuhski Well-Known Member

    Oct 25, 2009
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    thank you for the email, it's already up! :)

    oh in this regard, personally, i give away codes on twitter and consistently get people to visit my review. for devs who plan to do the same, i suggest you let the codes sit out for 2-3 days to build up the hype. :)

    thank you so much! it really warms the heart. :) i tried improving the layout yesterday - hope it looks much better now than the last time! hehehe :D
     
  15. Flickitty

    Flickitty Well-Known Member

    Oct 14, 2009
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    The press release for Teh Internets certainly made your job easy- copy/paste. That's pretty much the way it is supposed to work.

    I like the new layout of your blog- the second page of posts has some really cool looking stuff that I need to check out.
     
  16. EssentialParadox

    EssentialParadox Well-Known Member

    Sep 21, 2009
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    #16 EssentialParadox, Dec 3, 2009
    Last edited: Dec 3, 2009
    If you've already sent out the press release then maybe it's too late, but I would've written something more along the lines of:

    "Insurgent Games is very pleased to announce immediate success from sales of Teh Internets just a few days after launching on the App Store, thanks in part due to immediate support from Apple in their 'What's Hot' featured section. The fun and quirky meme-based action game sees you piloting a ROFLcopter and comprises some of the biggest…
    Woah woah, Mr PR guy, I'm really happy about your feature, and imma let you finish but the promo codes are still valid for reviewers to grab a copy for review: [promo code details]

    …and hilarious lolcats! LOL!
    Teh Internets is currently available on the App Store for $1.99 link.

    Regards,
    Insurgent Games

    [contact details]"​


    (yeah I did copy and paste that idea from flickitty :) )
     
  17. Eli

    Eli ᕕ┌◕ᗜ◕┐ᕗ
    Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold

    Sending multiple press releases is the quickest way for your emails to end up getting automatically filtered directly to the black hole that is most people's spam mail folders. Please do not do this. For any reason.
     
  18. Flickitty

    Flickitty Well-Known Member

    Oct 14, 2009
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    I'm pretty sure most emails go directly into the black hole anyway. TA never responded to my email, but I sure did get a quick reply when I queried about ads.

    I'm not sure what you mean by 'multiple'.. do you mean CC? I wouldn't CC a press release. However the fact that the status of any single app can change very quickly shouldn't deny the developer the ability to send prompt news.

    The news sites sure aren't looking this stuff up themselves and keeping an eye on the industry.
     
  19. Eli

    Eli ᕕ┌◕ᗜ◕┐ᕗ
    Staff Member Patreon Silver Patreon Gold

    You sent us your press kit, we checked out your game, and discussed it on our podcast. We get hundreds of emails a day, and I personally check out every game that gets emailed to us that looks interesting. In fact, I just spent the past four hours going through the last few days of email we received and have a whole list of games I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon downloading and testing out.

    Writing personalized responses would exponentially increase the amount of time I spend dealing with email, significantly decreasing the amount of time I can spend each day looking at and writing about games.

    If by "clubbing us over the head" with email you mean constantly sending us something until we respond. Don't do that. If you actually have something of interest to email us, feel free.

    I'm not sure what makes you think we're not researching the App Store on our own, I can't speak for other sites, but I spend the majority of my day doing glued to the forums, my RSS reader, Twitter, and my email actively searching for things to post about.
     
  20. Flickitty

    Flickitty Well-Known Member

    Oct 14, 2009
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    I'm not questioning your abilities- I know you are an extremely busy person which is why I stated that the news sites aren't keeping up with the industry themselves. You can't.

    We are developers, we aren't retarded- we can see the new submissions every day in the App Store and we realize how quickly things fall off. It isn't difficult to imagine that you get hundreds of submissions a day and somehow you have to figure out what is worthwhile and what is not. I personally couldn't do that job. I can't even keep up with the developers on this site myself- there is a lot of good stuff out there, and I am not even talking about EA, Gameloft, Ngmoco or Chillingo.

    Now ultimately, I am on your side. A press release makes your job easier, however I am not suggesting that a developer sends a press release every time he gets 1 new download. We can look at the news on TouchArcade and determine that getting featured isn't newsworthy within itself, however there are many other sites that do.

    I'm actually glad you wrote that reply, even if it does sound a little ticked off. I think developers need to see what the news/review side looks like.
     

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