Hi, I recently published my first game in the app store, Aero World (I have seen there is already a post of the game on this site, thanks, the comments helped me to improve the game in version 2.0), I would like to know that is necessary for Touch Arcade publish a review of my game at home. Like many on this site, I am an independent developer and I don´t have many ways to publicize my game . Thanks
I'm right there with you. I've emailed over 20 different review sites and have only heard back from a few. I think it really comes down to money. If you were to advertise with the site I'm sure they'd review your app right quick.
it's really tough man, TA is pretty much about the top-tier site you could get a review on. Knowing this, they are rather particular about what goes up there. Even if your app is pretty slick it's going to have a tough time - hell many games which Apple have featured themselves, haven't made the cut. Look at the quality of the stuff they show on the front vs the quality of your own app. What's it's gimmick, how original is it, has it had any kind of buzz prior, and ultimately does it aesthetically look like something worth a lot more than what you are charging for it (like, if someone saw these pics, could they mistake it for a professionally-produced game running on a PSP or DS or something) If you fail to meet this criteria, then it's not worth sweating over. Still, your game looks cool and it deserves some attention. You'll learn the hard way, as many of us have, that you really need to put a very dedicated effort into marketing your product. If you have a bunch of money then that's your first line of defense, otherwise you need to get extremely aggressive and doing whatever you can to get people talking about and playing your game. - make a lite version - put full version free for awhile - cultivate an engaging thread on TA with some kind of promotion(s) - twitter, facebook, youtube, all of them have accessible communities (but they all require work to maintain and grow) - media blitz - dig thru and find contacts at all the secondary and tertiary websites who might be interested in your game, contact them and send them respectfully-assembled material (promo codes, PR kit with screenshots & description, press release, etc) Looking at your game, it does look fun and well-thought-out, but the visuals seem a bit lacking. If you could take a game like that and polish it up so that it shines in screenshots, you could make a lot of people say "wow I wanna try that," maybe even some TouchArcade editors. As has been said many times on these forums, the days of developers just putting out a game and having a chance for success are long gone. There's a whole marketing campaign which must be done, because the reality is that there is such an overwhelming amount of competition to contend with now (and much of it is very top-level). If you are gonna try to make a business out of this, then think of it in those terms. If you are just psyched to release something as a hobbyist "and see what happens," then fire away I hope that helps!
I've released somewhere around 30 games on the store and in the last 2 years TA mentioned one of them over a year and a half ago. I've advertised with them for a full month and still didn't help getting our new games reviewed. It really seems to be whatever they feel like at the time, and has nothing to do with how successful the game is, or how much you spent on advertising.
Ok, I understand, no money, no review XD, headcaseGames, thank you very much for your tips are really useful. I've really always been very clear that it is very difficult to make money in the app store, but I love making video games XD, that was one of the main reasons, which I started developing for iPhone, but of course, I would get a reward for the effort, so the game costs 0.99. Anyway, try putting into practice the sage advice headcaseGames at the moment the lite version will soon be available, this week I hope. Thanks for the tips
20 is a pretty good start. When coming up with potential reviewers and places to mention Go Native! (Review sites, forums, indexes that you upload your game to manually etc) I ended up with a list of 150 places to tell. Some did better than others of course but you can't limit yourself to just the big sites. You never know who's lurking on the 4 views in the forum of imasmalliphonereviewsite.com or whatever site you might discover. As far as advice on getting reviewed on Touch Arcade, I contacted them before they reviewed Go Native! with screenshots and links to videos and the works. I'm not sure they even noticed the email, because they came up with their own game description and screenshots. They didn't even mention the thread that existed in their forums. The advice I offer is to ensure your game is unique, interesting and beautiful. If not, they probably won't review it.
