Yeah i enjoyed seeing the updates from the guy who created Mission Europa I must admit. But i've then seen others where they use a 'sad story' to sell a game. Remember the controversy over the game for Japan ? Huge disaster and now theres a game about saving people from the flooding ? Still think that was a ridiculous idea. Suddenly it then seemed cool to say 'this game was created by a 12 year old' - i dont care if its made by a 12 or 82 year old, if the games good i'll get it regardless of the age of the programmer.
That, and "please go easy on me, this is my first game". The warning lights start flashing when I read that one.
Cannot resist any sale of good reviewed games, especially when the developers has no track record of making their apps free. If the developers tend to make their apps free then I usually wait. I always fall into >$1.99 games that will never be free but currently on sale like EA's, Aralon, and Infinity Blade. I usually end up deleting the game immediately one after another because they have big sizes. I even bought Tiger Woods PGA Tour (not my kind of game at all) and never played it not even once.
Forums Hype/Reviews mostly, also the look of the game. I have found lots of great games that I would normally not even bother with. [For example I hate endless runners, but cause of the love that JJ & Tiny Wings got I decided to try it, and now those two are amongst my favourite games] edit: to be fair, I have ended up with more games that I have hated and just could not get into regardless of how many other people like the game like this.
If a dev posts here and is responsive to issues, I will pick up the game. If it is a genre that I think iOS could be great at, I will generally pick up anything in that genre, in the hopes that more games of that type will get made. Anything with async mp or just about any board or card game. If the developers name rhymes with shmescent shmoon or shmalfbrick, or shmot shmead, I will pick it up.
I think the biggest factor, for me, is if a friend recommends me a game. These are people I have trusted for a long time and I trust their taste. Frequent updates of a title are something I'm really starting to dig as well. Minecraft (not widely available on mobile devices yet, but a good example) keeps updating the game with some awesome stuff.
That's because mine craft was only an alpha for a long time, and even now it's only a beta. See how much it gets updated after it's actually a final product.
Minecraft actually started updating less after Notch got rich and famous. It still updates crazy fast for what it is, but it used to be more frequent.
