#INDIEpendenceDay give-aways

[DemonJim]

By the way Try This, I tried adding one of those [ appinfo ] bbtags for my game like you have to my previous post, but it seems to only be able to have one per thread (or maybe just one per page).

Strangely though, it first showed info about Desktop Army *within my post*, then on page-reload it correctly showed Lead Wars there but showed nothing in your post!

So rather than steal yours (which would be a bit sneaky) I'll just post a link to my game TA thread with it on:
http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=73684

(I notice it still doesn't show free on there but worry not, it is in iTunes!)

[Try This]

Oops, had no idea it did that. I changed my appinfo to a simple link. Looks cleaner anyway.

[ReignDesign]

Happy #INDIEpendenceDay y'all



http://www.reigndesign.com/blog/happy-indiependenceday/

[bobd]

Well, I just threw one more app on the promo. EdgeMates - North American Capitals is free today as well!

[DemonJim]

In case anyone is interested, according to the Game Center leaderboard Lead Wars has had about 13,000 downloads over the last ~24 hours.

Am not really sure if that's a good number for the first day going free or a bit bobbins. I have downloaded quite a few free apps myself and not even ever run them, so at least I know they've run the game [as they've posted initial score to the leaderboard].

Another interesting stat is around 15-20% of these people appear to be deleting fairly soon after trying it (as they go 'anonymous' on the leaderboard).

So although not on target to match Ovogame's numbers I'm hoping it can sustain 10k+ for a few days given that's already nearly doubled the number of names on the Leaderboard

[DemonJim]

Quick stats update: official downloads according to iTunes Connect for Lead Wars on the 4th July was exactly 53,888!

Looking at AppAnnie it is now the #1 iPhone Strategy Game in 9 countries (7 for iPad). And in the top 10 Overall iPad apps in 3 countries.

14,841 out of the 53,888 downloads were in USA, and it's at #10 in Strategy games for the US. Still not even broken the top 100 overall free apps for the US - it's at 289 just below Pocket Planes. So to get anywhere near the top 10 overall you clearly have to have astronomical download numbers!

So I am extremely pleased with this free promotion so far - wish I'd done it sooner!

[Ovogame]

Originally Posted by DemonJim

So although not on target to match Ovogame's numbers...

From looking at your next post, it looks like you are going to exceed my numbers (at least I wish it to you).

You can have a look at my downloads during my latest sales...

[DemonJim]

Looking at that graph (thanks so much for posting - I wish more devs were as open about their sales+downloads) - it looks to me like you went back to paid a little too soon.

It had hit an asymptote of just over 150k/day, but I suspect [read: guess] that the graph would have dropped off like a normal distribution had it stayed free (pretty much mirroring the first 4 days). Meaning it would easily have been over 300k extra downloads.

So my theory is, with these extra people playing it, when it went back to paid (say on the Wed or Thur) the paid sales would have been higher and dropped off more slowly thanks to the extra word-of-mouth / social sharing etc.

Of course I could be talking rubbish, and you probably did the right thing, but this does make me think 5 days could be a bit too early. What do you think?

[Ovogame]

Originally Posted by DemonJim

5 days could be a bit too early. What do you think?

What a change!!! Remember, just few days ago you wanted to leave it just 1 day

Yes, I guess I could have left it for longer. If you really want to have the most free download, then it is easy: make the promotion free for 10 days for example, and check every day your own curve. If you notice the drop, simply change to paid version immediately (it is easy in itunes connect to do that).

JC

[DemonJim]

Originally Posted by Ovogame

What a change!!! Remember, just few days ago you wanted to leave it just 1 day
JC

No no I don't think I ever said I intended to make it free for a day, I must have worded it ambiguously. I have always planned on leaving it free for around a week as I've been mulling over having this free promotion for over a year now (the game came out at the end of 2010!), and have read a few threads such as yours before showing how 1 day just isn't enough to make any effect on the charts.

So I'll probably just leave it free as long as it's rising up the free charts (which I would imagine due to the chart-algorithm it could do for a few days even after actual downloads start falling).