My App Release: What am I doing wrong?

[TheFootballPlaybook]

Hi All,

I am very close to releasing my app and wanted try and get it right. With that in mind I am asking veterans and noobs alike to tell me.. what I am doing wrong?

My release plan is...
- be free(ish) and get picked up by free app aggregators ( massive install numbers )
- nice look and feel ( encourages people to talk about the game, write about it, keep playing it and eventually play through the free content and then maybe spend money? )
- appannie ( respond to trends in usage in different countries? )
- nice video trailer ( creates a nice feel, people think to themselves i want to have this game )
- add more visual candy( particle effects etcs , attracts peoples eyes? people will want to write about? )
- release on a Wednesday that there is football(soccer) on the TV ( football will be on peoples minds and they will be more receptive or the game will be more news worthy? )

The game is a football(soccer) puzzle game. You get small snippets of matches and you move players around until you create a route to the goal.
The game uses an in game currency to unlock level packs and to allow you to skip levels. One level pack( 48 levels ) is free with another 15 level packs are available to buy. If you buy one level pack at a time it will cost you the equivalent of .69p for each. If you buy a couple level packs or all of them, you get a big discount.



Here is my game so far...


Youtube link | Pop Up


this is the actual game screen...

[MHille]

So there is a chance you're doing nothing wrong?

Matthew

[ThreeCubes]

looks good, I would say there is a slight risk that people in the usa may assume its american football and not "soccer". maybe worth stating that in the app description.

[LinQsta]

Congratulations on developing this and getting it ready for release. I played a game called football manager on the spectrum which was very simple but found it more addictive than more graphically advanced games - this looks similar!

I'd be interested to see the shop front as this is the thing you may do wrong. As you'll seen from my other post - the icon and screenshots are going to be the first thing your prospective buyers will see. If they are not hooked, they may not buy and you don't want them to miss out on your game because of a poor shop front.

Can you share these with us?

[TheFootballPlaybook]

@MHille Nothing wrong...yet

@ThreeCubes I will put the word "soccer" in my app description. my target markets are England, Italy, Portugal plus South America. I have chosen a name that they will be familiar with. I am not sure how many potential sales there would be in the US. Soccer is like the 5th or 6th most popular sport.

@LinQsta hey thanks, I also played football manager by Kevin thoms. It's a classic!!
Shop front? I think I have found something I am NOT doing as oppose to doing wrong!!

Here is my icon http://tfpb.tumblr.com/image/45116774761

I was going to just take 5 screenshots of the game and use those but I am not so sure now. Might be a good idea to hire an artist. I was planning to spend my money on a really nice video instead.

Here is my closest competitor. They have actually employed an artist and the screenshots do look really good.
I don't like their icon though it is very noisy.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/fluid-football/id524972269?mt=8

[Philipp_S]

To be honest, I think the gameplay screenshot looks a bit unpolished.
One thing that should be relatively easy to fix are the black fringes at the edge of your alpha blended sprites (the font, buttons, and yellow players).

Other things you could try, without spending money on an artist:

• I'm not a big fan of the lines you're drawing. They remind me of 90s CAD apps. If you can get something antialiased going, maybe with varying width or a separate fill/outline color, that might look a lot nicer.
• I'd consider adding faint shadows to players, and possibly give the field a hint of an overlayed texture (could be grass, but could also be other stuff, like felt or paper)... Both of these might make the image look a bit more exciting, without necessarily taking away from the minimalist style you seem to be going for.

I'm not saying, these are your best options, just some ideas you could experiment with.

[psj3809]

I wouldnt worry so much about the soccer/football issue. The game is aimed at people who like football (european) so they would want it called football, its mostly the US who call 'our' football soccer.

Again you surely cant be mistaken thinking its american football as you would simply look at the screenshots.

[LinQsta]

I kind of agree with the CAD apps comment but I think you should release and, as Kevin Systrom from Instagram did, monitor buying behaviours and listen to feedback from your users. Only then you can determine what to improve.

As for the icon, as original as it look, I would recommend something really colourful and attention grabbing!! Mike Kirby of www.imakeicons.com did my icon for LinkPal Pro and he's very reasonable. Either way, get a graphic designer to run with it, they will do all the work and produce 6-7 designs for you and leave you to select the best one.

Again check out the screenshots on the Linkpal app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/linkpal-pro-qr-code-networking/id575162992?mt=8
As you can see, the background colour and captions will bring life to the screenshots and inspire sales. The screenshots cost me only £30 and it gives a lovely shop front.

[TheFootballPlaybook]

@Philipp_S. I was using Cairo but had to switch to OpenGl for the iOS version. That's why the lines don't look great. i plan to leave it for a future update. Instead i focused on gameplay elements. I am not keen on adding shadows and a texture overlay as I think the clean look is better. But I do get your point on it being too plain. I plan on adding animated procedurally generated shapes to signify things like space between players is shrinking, possible passes, players that are in good positions. Although these things will suffer from the anti-aliasing problem the lines and circles have, so might be worth investing some time into solving this.

@LinQsta I think appannie will tell me about who, where and how many? You used appannie? I have twitter/email so that should be enough.
I am beginning to understand this idea of a shop front. if the icon was the only thing people saw of my game, they would not know what to make of it. Will look into icon design as well.

[cretpetpet]

I feel a resemblance in your game, also the fluid football too. Its kinda like the inazuma 11 football in my DS.
I wonder is your idea original? Also the fluid one...