My Suggestion: 1) Go to "Upcoming Games Forum" 2) Post a few, well designed art promotions (not game play video) 3) Release information slowly over a period of weeks. 4) Build up anticipation. 5) Throw in a random contest here or there, maybe even a scavenger hunt for screen shots (NOTE: only attempt this if the following is pretty sizeable). 6) Show actual screen shots. 7) Set up release date, then postpone the day before. Repeat this process once or twice. 8) When the fans are practically BEGGING for the game, release. 9) Rake in the money, get attention, thank Brazilian Rider.
The first thing I thought when I saw this Gaston character was "French/Belgian, 50s/60s... the TA audience won't have a clue what this is". I love the artwork on these old European comic strips, but I think the sad fact is that it just shows its age too much for these modern audiences to pay attention.
I've worked for a few years in the game press writing for fairly popular site (300k+ uniques, 1 mil + pageviews) and it's hard for us to cover everything that's sent to us. We tend to favor names/brands we know people will want to hear about, now I understand that it's a bit different in the AAA industry where there is a whole lot of establishment. Bottom line is, unknowns get dropped a lot faster in favor of something bigger, after all when it comes down to running a site it's about what the reader wants to read. My point I think is that the point that has been made stands true. This is the premiere iPhone game website, they get a lot of volume from devs. Just like when you're applying for a job, you need to stand out somehow. You could have the greatest game that ever was, but if they never read your email it matters not.
Gaston is like Tintin, they never get old For the record, "Tintin" is created by Hergé a Belgian like Franquin (Speaking of Tintin, the trailer of the movie by Steven Spielberg as been release few hours ago)
they can never get old can be seen from different perspective.. all the belgian comics who where popular in europe are unknown to the us.. you compete with spiderman, batman, thor and mickey mouse.. its like asterix and obelix thats popular over here.. but not overseas.. and since the biggest iOS market is the us and TA is us too.. i assume you need to cater a bit more into their kind of taste to get their attention.. and you can't compare that to hollywood either.. which is what like 95% funded by europe anyway..
Mostly true. Gaston probably even more than Tintin because you can imagine it happens in a buro next to yours (the lack of computers is a bit strange, but could you imagine Gaston using a computer? He would rather build one himself). Some Tintin books (early ones - Sowjet, Congo, America , 714, Moon 2, Temple 2, Lotus) (even more the original black/white you should have as well) age in their adventure feeling, they partly are silly, but great fun. And the lack of new technolgy definitly is disturbing. But then there are: Unicorn 1, Moon 1 with great plots building up tension. Picarros - action packed to the end and the two books I would take, if I had to choose two: Tibet (best literature about friendship ever created) and Emerald (awesome dialogues and great story in little scope). I would not consider comparing Asterix and Obelix with Tintin or Gaston. Asterix with René Goscinny had some really string moments:Cauldron & Chieftain & But that has a reason, both books are not about silly deus ex machina potions. The rest has some funny moments but the story is spoiled with the magic potion ( these comics probably could have a foot in usa if marketing is well done, silly super hero stories).
the problem here is you step in with your personal taste & preferences.. i never read a gaston and i did not like tintin (tim & struppi in germany) but at least in germany both are alot more popular than thoose others.. but still are way behind of what you call "silly" super heroes. its about your target audience.. and if a developer does not understand that personal or local appeal does not transfer directly to an international market. so combine an unknown comir character with a basic game and you won't catch the interest of us reviewers.. possibly because a doodle jump clone and a can knockdown is a bit too "light" to even catch one.. if gastons strenght is story and character and the dev end up with can knockdown and doodle jump.. then something is wrong with the offerings.. maybe an action adventure/ point and click adventure or something along that line would fit it better. one should understand that if somebody does not know gaston (which is the bigger share of people) you just have doodle jump and can knockdown, nothing more..
I'm quite irritated when a read this, Gaston 1 is not a clone of doodle jump. yes, they look the same, they used the same bases but they have a differents gameplay. It's like you never give a try to Mortal Kombat because it's a Street Fighter 2 "clone". It's irritating because we spend times to make something better with a new gameplay. Same as Gaston 2 Knock'em Down, the gameplay is completly different, they both have cans but, it's more than that. Agree That's where you wrong. This is not a competition. We never pretend to compete with superheroes or comics or whatever. Here, the gameplay is our main asset.
off course its a competition.. you want to sell your products and you want to appeal to the broadest audience possible.. but you asking for a review/ mention on TA and actualy you already got your answere and maybe hodapps writing is more eloquent than min.. "doodle jump style game" .. which for the majority of ta users means "clone" maybe you have the superior gameplay (assuming you are mortal kombat, thats my personal preference) its still "just" something like doodle jump.. if the chief editor of this joint tells you he is underwhelmed and the community here is too thats your point.. no matter how good you think your product is.. the problem with doing just "another" one of "thoose" games is that you walk in footsteps of them and are walking in their shadows.. to overcome that you really need to have something mindblowing to offer.. or realise that your product is just "another" one.. and try your "luck" with the next one.
Getting a site like Touch Arcade to preview and review is pretty simple. Here are a set number of rules to follow. 1. Before you even decide to make a game research the market. Find out what games are missing then put your own slant on that genre of game. And also go for a popular type of game. 2. Do not clone or copy current trends on the App Store. 3. Make sure that the game you decide to do is of the highest quality that the App Store is offering at the present time. Better still aim higher in quality. Those three golden rules will get you press. Even though I'm not involved with True Axis now - Jet Car Stunts is a prime example of those three rules. **** Jet Car Stunts is basically Track Mania Nation with a jet on the back of a car. **** That one sentence alone brings excitement to people who work for sites like Touch Arcade. But... **** Plinky Plonk is a match 3 game with doodle graphics. **** That sentence sounds crap and boring. It's sad to say but before you even design one tiny bit of a game you need to think about the marketing slant and what will get you press, and how to feed the press interesting news. Because Apple do keep there eyes and ears open and usually promote games that have some viral marketing success. Anyway, my 2c worth.
I'm not even sure where this discussion is heading anymore, but if Gaston is as good as the likes of Tintin and Asterix (and has been translated to English) I'd better go and find some books!
I think it was quite obvious that the full post was personal preference and talking about a hobby and not about the best way to sell things. If you want to sell you probably should take super heroes (or use the new tintin movie). I never liked "Tim&Struppi" as name, too childish and in the later comics (after Crab) struppi is not that important. What book(s) have you read? The FAZ had a great comic series with collections, one book for Gaston: http://www.amazon.de/Gaston-F-Z-Comic-Klassiker-Band/dp/3899810953 I would totally recommend it. Gaston was never translated in English. But a little understanding of German or French will be enough to get the essence of the gags - you will miss some strange dialogues, but Franquin has a great picture language.
After a search on the app store on my iPhone, I see that the description as well as the entire game is in French. Correct me if I'm looking at the wrong game but how would you expect a french game with a character that no one can relate to, do well in North America (other than maybe Quebec)?
Thanks for reporting your issue. That's mainly a "bug" from Apple. When you set the language for the first time, you can't change it. Our publisher set the language of is own country, in French without knowing that it would be used for the other countries. We set the description in English for several countries but not for all (more than 80 countries! ) It's impossible to change the default language into English. Apple doesn't give any possibility to change that. We will manually put the english description to the other countries in our next update.
It's noted ! I forgot to tell that the game is fully in English. There's no problem for the North America Agree with you. But for the first time, a full page was translated into english only for the game ( the page shown here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgdQCX1Y5uk )
just in case, Gaston #2 was reviews 4.5 / 5 few hours ago http://n4g.com/news/768495/nine-over-ten-gaston-2-knockem-down-iphone-game-review "Like Angry Birds, this is a physics based challenge, but targeting system in Gaston #2 is much simpler in this game as players roughly have to just aim in a straight line. Easy accessibility aside, another part of the game that I really like is the comic-book art that reminded me of comic strips such as “Bringing Up Father” and “Blondie“. it's funny because the reviewer doesn't have a clue about Gaston comics. He likes the game and that's what we're looking.
