Cheap Effective Marketing ideas?

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by BrandonLassiter, Jun 21, 2013.

  1. BrandonLassiter

    BrandonLassiter Well-Known Member

    Does anyone have any good ideas to market a game? Other than the obvious ones always put out there i.e. facebook/twitter, contacting review sites, youtube etc...

    My game Word Warfare has been out for about a week now and to say the least the amount of downloads I have had are ridiculously low for what I was hoping.

    So far the downloads have been like so:

    Day 1: 43
    Day 2: 47
    Day 3: 36
    Day 4: 21
    Day 5: 20
    Day 6: 19
    Day 7: 17
    Day 8: 7

    The game is free and I have gotten positive feedback from the players I have talked to on it. I really don't have much of a marketing budget so paid ad campaigns really aren't going to happen. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
     
  2. Phil128

    Phil128 Well-Known Member

    Jan 21, 2013
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    Germany
    Hey,

    first of all, I would put Screenshot 4 in first place. To me it looks the most interesting. Other than that, did you do any research on your keywords?
    If not that really helped my downloads.

    Any gameplay videos?
     
  3. Rubicon

    Rubicon Well-Known Member

    Feb 22, 2011
    1,535
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    Lead Programmer, Chief Bottlewasher
    Isle of Wight, UK
    You need to fix your game graphics. I think there are 97,502 different fonts in view on those screenies, but I'll admit that's a slight exaggeration.

    Looking at it, it won't cost much at all to give it a makeover. The icon is great, as is the victory screen, but the game itself looks tame. Well, the icon is great in that it's nicely drawn. But it doesn't say "word game" at all. This stuff is important.
     
  4. ThreeCubes

    ThreeCubes Well-Known Member

    Oct 13, 2012
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    Your downloads do seem low, I did notice that the game is only iOS 6. I know a lot of iPod touch users have stayed with iOS 5 as they say it seems quicker. There is a small chance that may effect things. I don't know if this will be easy to change for you if your using iOS 6 features for multiplayer but if it's an easy change it might be worth it. The second thing is that the download size is 59 mb if you could squease it down to under 50 you may get a slight boost from impulse downloads on 3G networks as it would be below the limit. Some people have said this is a big factor although when we updated with a below 50mb version it was not a great diffence but I think it helped.

    Is there a YouTube trailer for this game, I could not see one on your website
     
  5. neilw711

    neilw711 Well-Known Member

    Nov 19, 2012
    63
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    App Developer
    Virginia, USA
    Hey Brandon,

    I'm pretty much in the same boat as you with my app. It took me over a year to finish the app and I spent alot of time on it. Although its only been out for 4 days, I see a huge decrease in downloads. Yesterday, I made only $1 :eek:

    I do plan on spending money on marketing soon and I have a couple of websites that will review my game next week so I'm hoping all goes well. The problem with my game is that its 375MB which is pretty large but these days, alot of games are larger than 50MB.

    Your type of game should definitely be lower than 50MB. That way, smartphone users can download the app anywhere without connecting to wifi.
     
  6. IPhonecaptain

    IPhonecaptain New Member

    Oct 6, 2012
    2
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    Blogging
    Ky

    I'm happy to help promote your games at very reasonable rates too. I have a great site and high traffic on Youtube come visit me
     
  7. R3v

    R3v Well-Known Member

    Sep 17, 2012
    139
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    CMO @ PIXEL FEDERATION
    What's your budget? Do you want to buy players? Have you tried any of cross promotion methods? Maybe check this, however you need be more specific with your options, especially how much you can spent.
     
  8. Maryna

    Maryna Well-Known Member

    Sep 18, 2012
    89
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    PR&Marketing
    San Francisco
    Brandon, check out PRninja - it's a free-to-download PR and Marketing guide for game developers. I hope you will find some useful ideas there.
     
  9. ryansumo

    ryansumo Well-Known Member

    Feb 1, 2012
    104
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    16
    Freelance artist
    Manila
    It's impossible to say why your downloads have been so low, but that icon is definitely not helping. It looks like an icon for a shootemup or thrid person action game or something. So you're basically turning off anyone who is actually looking for a word game and anyone who is looking for an action game. No one is going to be pleasantly surprised that it's a hybrid.

    Why not mix up the genres in the icon in the same way you're doing it in the game? for example the bombs seem to be very prominent in your game so maybe a ticking time bomb with letter tiles on it that spell "WORD WARFARE" would work? Or something along those lines.

    Good luck!
     
  10. Destined

    Destined Well-Known Member

    Aug 11, 2013
    1,063
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    I agree with this a lot.

    Your game icon but looking awesome does not at all match the product. This could result in a lot of looks with no downloads. I really wish we could find out page views v downloads for something like this (so you know if people are looking and just not downloading, or if people not looking at all).
     
  11. appdownme

    appdownme Member

    Nov 3, 2013
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    Hi all!
    Appstore is a very competitive place indeed! One of the way how to get new users cheap is to use App Discovery Service focusing on a single day boost. Such a burst catapults your game high enough in charts to receive organic traffic. And that's exactly why we created such a service called AppDown. Please check https://appdown.me/front/developers We currently offer the service completely free of charge (but hurry up - only limited amount of spots!) So don't hesitate to contact me!
     
  12. Broxxar

    Broxxar Member

    Jun 7, 2013
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    Kingston, ON
    Just posted this in another thread but it seems relevant to you as well. Check out the Big List of Youtubers.

    I know you mentioned Youtube as one of your existing marketing channels, but hopefully this supplements your marketing efforts a bit!
     
  13. plungeint

    plungeint Active Member

    Feb 13, 2013
    37
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    ceo at plunge interactive
    Europe
    Screenshots 1,2,3 look the same for me, and the worst, I don't know what's the game about
     
  14. OnlyJoe

    OnlyJoe Well-Known Member

    Sep 29, 2013
    114
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    Auckland
    I have found that explaining how to play the game in the screen shots helps a lot. I think people follow a very simple process when choosing games.
    1. Icon looks good, click
    2. Screen shots look good, can see what it is. Download.

    So really the communication with the users is 200% icon, 80% screen shots, 1% description. So all my future games I try to make the icon and screens shots communicate what the game is and how to play it.

    For example, my latest game: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trim-the-fat/id719287254?ls=1&mt=8
     
  15. zachstronaut

    zachstronaut Member

    Jul 8, 2011
    12
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    Creative Developer
    MPLS, MN
    That "Big List of Youtubers" is cool, thanks!
     
  16. BlindAlbino

    BlindAlbino Well-Known Member

    Dec 19, 2012
    58
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    I am Co-Founder and Art Director for Blind Albino,
    La Habra Hights, California
    Hi Brandon!
    Would it be within reason for you to revisit the way your game is skinned? It's a tough call sometimes on whether or not to recommend someone rethink their game's look once it's already so far along, but in this case it might be worthwhile to reach out to an experienced graphic artist for a revamp. The details of the user interface are just as important as the flashy event graphics, if not more so in a game like this.
    Good hunting my friend!
     
  17. Bleau

    Bleau Well-Known Member

    Sep 27, 2013
    274
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    One half of MoWOW Studios, an mobile indie game st
    Koblenz, Germany
    Since you do have a following and the game is free, why not try to get your existing players to help you spread the word.

    To be more precise, instead of asking for money for certain powerups, ask for shares, reviews, invites.

    Having a larger player base, even if not a paying one can also lead to the possibility of doing cross promotion.

    Hope it helps :)
     
  18. ryansumo

    ryansumo Well-Known Member

    Feb 1, 2012
    104
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    16
    Freelance artist
    Manila
    Hmm, never thought about that bit, explaining the game via screenshots. Worth trying!

     
  19. abbas_basil

    abbas_basil Active Member

    Nov 24, 2013
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    Technical Co-Founder
    I just ran this by my designer and he thinks there is no UI/UX that would really please a user. (SORRY for being honest). Think of draw something and this might help. But this is my suggestion.
     
  20. Games TV

    Games TV Member

    Nov 26, 2013
    11
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    0

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