Sunny Tam's superb Danmaku Unlimited 2 was released to lukewarm sales but positive reviews. I have eyed the original ever since I discovered it, so when I found out that the sequel was not doing well and the app was on sale, I snapped it up in a heartbeat. Realistically, what can a player do to help a developer with an awesome game? Some obvious things I can think of would be talking about the game, posting about the game everywhere, offering feedback and rating and reviewing on iTunes.
Personally, I think that playing their game is already a great way to support them, and the best would be playing and enjoying their game everywhere so your friend can see it, it's the best way to make a small promotion for them the developer. You know, telling your friend that the game is great won't be that effective than showing how exciting you're while playing that game. I believe that the best a player could do if they want to support a developer. Antony
You've already mentioned some of the best ways. Recommend the game to your friends via social media (so that the recommendation is publicly visible). Post about it on forums you frequent, with a link to the developer's website (which improves their rank in search engines). Leave an informative, positive review on the app store, rather than just writing "great game" (although that's nice too ). Follow the developer on Facebook and Twitter and retweet/like their stuff once in a while. If you have a blog, perhaps you can add a little "currently playing" block to the sidebar. If you're even prepared to spend additional money, think about who you know who might like the game enough to do all these things as well, and consider gifting them the game.
Along with what was already said, you can also ask the developers if they need help with something you can do. Obviously not all of them will be interested, but some might be
Positive reviews and spreading the word about a great game are always great! One of the things I appreciate the most as a developer is every once and while I'll get a really nice email from someone who enjoys my games, just letting me know they like it. As cheesy as it sounds it always makes my day.
Some interesting insights. Thanks for the input, guys. I think useful feedback is really valuable because when testers are limited, players basically become the testers. Another thing I thought of is that if the game has capability for player-created content, creating that content would probably another way to help. I will keep these in mind. Of course, the developer has to do himself a favour by making a great game in the first place.
- Leave a good, thoughtful, and helpful review in iTunes. This will help others looking for info about the game, and will be more likely to be taken seriously, and not just seen as a "plant" review. -Talk about the game on forums and tell your friends -There might be YouTube videos, or a Facebook page, or whatever, for that game. Leaving comments and recommendations on social sites like those can encourage others to check out the game. Other than those things, there's not much. But, especially for indie developers, this kind of stuff can really help to get the word out. If the game is good, then hopefully those people you tell about it will tell others, and so on.
This is probably the most direct way you can help. Telling your friend(s) "Hey, play the game, it's so good I'll even buy it again!" Reviews help a little, social media/forums helps some too. Really, whatever you can help with to make the game "go viral" is what we as developers need from fans.
Although this does give the developer $0.70 (for a $0.99 game), it doesn't help much beyond that. The reason is that a gift purchase does not contribute to pushing the game higher in the rankings. This is to avoid people gaming the system by gifting their own game thousands of times to climb the charts. The best way to help out a developer is to purchase a week or two of national TV ads during several of the most popular shows, and also pay the top 100 Twitter celebrities to to tweet about the game. Feel free to contact me directly if this is an option you are considering, as I may be able to help with the selection of game to be featured.
In addition to the already great suggestions above, you can support developers by helping to combat trolls The Great Troll will often be found lurking in it's natural habitat, which is usually under game forum posts. From there, he will lash out at unsuspecting devs which dare cross his bridge, tripping them up and causing their sales to plummet and fall. But a heroic fan can grab a pen (which is mightier than the sword) and fight this vile beast back, allowing the dev safe passage.
I'm creating a fps scifi rpg called c.0.ntact and I must say all the positive feed back is amaizing...it's one of the few things that keeps my team going... I think input of any type is awesome just so long as it is respectful sense we are putting so much time into it I don't want to here it sucks I want to here why you didn't like it it sucks doesn't help me fix it at all...
I suppose it depends on the nature of your game. If it's a social game, or a multiplayer game, bringing more bodies in is always more useful than anything else. Sure, it doesn't contribute to the rankings, but neither does a forum post after a certain threshold has been reached