App of the Week / Guest Posts

Games
#1

I couldn’t decide where to put this. It has to do with the way games are made, and how they are represented… But also how they’re chosen by Corona Labs to be “App of the Week”… Sorry if this is in the wrong place.

Dear Corona Labs: I have a request. In the future, please try and find more games that are original, fun / useful, and creative - not just backed by popularity and fluff.

Often times, your selections for app of the week or guest blog posts seem to be centralized around how many downloads an app has, and not creativity, quality, or integrity. And I know I’m not the only one that feels this way.

I realize that “number of downloads” is a useful analytical tool, but there ARE apps in your showcase that are fun and unique, and they will probably never see the light of day. Those are the apps that need your support the most, NOT the popular ones.

That’s all. Thanks. [import]uid: 60144 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 330576[/import]

#2

I such agree with you.

But I also know that a good marketing for the use of the SDK is to show what is the “successful” out there (live) and the successful in this scenario is not exactly and only what is creative, with quality, beautiful, etc…instead it is what the mass of people are downloading and in this case does not matter what kind of app it is or the “subject” of it. BTW I kind of agree with Corona approach if it was my business as well. :\

PS: Nothing is perfect we know.

PS2: Regarding CoronaLabs`s helping promoting our apps, well, so now I totally agree as the “poor” (just expression) ones are those that really need to be “advertised”, rss, etc…
Cheers,
Rodrigo. [import]uid: 89165 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122492[/import]

#3

Ah, that is very true. From a marketing perspective, it’s great to have a portfolio full of Disney and Doritos, and blog posts about a poor kid making it big. Maybe I’m being idealistic.

One of my points is that Corona Labs could have an influence in MAKING something popular. Just because an app lacks marketing doesn’t mean it isn’t good enough to market. There could easily be a better balance, though, don’t you think? [import]uid: 60144 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122496[/import]

#4

@illustrationism ,

I totally agree on CoronaLabs making it happen (or helping at least).

Like so I`ve included that PS2 on my first reply to you above:

PS2: Regarding CoronaLabs`s helping promoting our apps, well, so now I totally agree as the “poor” (just expression) ones are those that really need to be “advertised”, rss, etc…
Cheers,
Rodrigo. [import]uid: 89165 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122497[/import]

#5

Oh I see. I misread your “PS2” sentence when I first read it, but I understand now. =) [import]uid: 60144 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122501[/import]

#6

You`re welcome!
:slight_smile: [import]uid: 89165 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122502[/import]

#7

Why do you want to be in the App of the Week? that’s just for us. It’s like you make a thread and you have some visits. This isn’t a blog of game reviews… haha

The people that read that, it’s the same as in the forums :frowning: [import]uid: 116842 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122605[/import]

#8

I think you’re misunderstanding, correogracioso. We are not asking to be in App of the Week, we are saying that App of the Week and Guest Posts often seem chosen based on popularity, and not worthiness.

How do you know that their blog only gets the same amount of traffic as the forums? Do you have access to their web traffic analytics? =)

Our point was that their blog would help propel an app forward, especially if it’s an unknown. Their blog is public, has an RSS feed, gets re-posted, and is semantically optimized for search engines. In contrast, many of the forums (like this one) are member-only; and the ones that are not member-only are not search engine optimized, do not get re-posted, and are not in a feed.

But then again, perhaps no one else cares… lol [import]uid: 60144 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122633[/import]

#9

I understand why Corona Labs needs to promote popular successful apps since it makes their product look better to prospective clients. However, there is plenty of places to showcase these apps, like their front page and I don’t have a problem with guest bloggers being for the successful apps either. Even we need to hear their stories to keep our hopes up.

But the App of the Week and App of the Month absolutely should be based quality, creativity, originality, etc. Its a great opportunity for Corona Labs to help the people who make their business, the indie’s who are struggling for a little recognition. Since they can promote popular apps at other points in the site, why not give those who deserve a chance to get noticed some recognition.

I’d also like to see them add an App of the Day, at least tweet an app of the day out and face book it. They don’t need to blog it as that might be too much work. [import]uid: 19626 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122643[/import]

#10

That’s a cool idea, tweeting or FBing apps that are worth mentioning. Right now, their tweets and FB posts usually just reflect what’s on the site.

I suppose my ideals come from listening to NPR and reading magazines like Good and Smart Company - were the stories aren’t always about success, but about creativity, ingenuity, and people doing something useful or good. I think a lot of people like that type of thing. [import]uid: 60144 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122644[/import]

#11

I misunderstood, because i was thinking that you’ve got a better game done than the last game ( i’m sure, because that trivia game… ) and you were frustrated why they selected it and not yours.

Of course the blog it has more visit than the forum. But it hasn’t the traffic we are wishing. They aren’t potential buyers, just developer like us.

The idea of tweeting some apps, or just one per day would be great. Tweets are not so “official”.

They could do a “App Radar” ( insert desired name here ), that shows games that haven’t thousands of downloads but still good ( design, creativity… ) or they are just starting. [import]uid: 116842 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122652[/import]

#12

App Radar, that’s a good name…

You know, back when RPGM was just a host for peoples’ RPG Maker games, my system would allow total social interaction between developers of a game, other game developers, and players. Ratings, discussions, news/updates, etc. On the other hand… it’s hard to get a unified site like that unless you’re a web developer. Haha… but still, that might be cool to try with Corona games. [import]uid: 60144 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122658[/import]

#13

Well, you have corona showcase :wink: [import]uid: 116842 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122659[/import]

#14

But Showcase is about 10% of what it could be, from a social perspective. [import]uid: 60144 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122661[/import]

#15

The showcase isn’t very useful. It’s hard to find things and be honest, how many of you go looking through there to find apps to buy? Heck, you’re probably not even in the market to buy games since you are in the market to make games. How many potential customers are going to use the showcase?

I fill it out so my icon shows in the dashboard. It really doesn’t offer much in the way of promotion for your app. Now if you’re getting tweeted/facebooked about and the showcase is used as a landing page for your apps, then it might be of more value.

Even if Corona Lab’s tweeted/fb’d more of our apps, who’s going to see it? More Corona developers who probably are not going to buy the app. I’m kind of countering my point above.

I got a micro bump from getting listed on Crazy Mike’s in that the 5 promo codes I gave them turned into 5 sales.

Anyway, noticed a bug in 1.1 of OmniTrivia on the Nook. Gotta go figure that out and release 1.2.
[import]uid: 19626 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122663[/import]

#16

“The showcase isn’t very useful. It’s hard to find things and be honest, how many of you go looking through there to find apps to buy? Heck, you’re probably not even in the market to buy games since you are in the market to make games. How many potential customers are going to use the showcase?”
That’s what i’m saying before. To be promoted to App of the Week, it doesn’t matter in download numbers… [import]uid: 116842 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122668[/import]

#17

The Showcase is not a useful marketing tool. The blog and app of the week, on the other hand, could be. Any exposure is good exposure, even if it’s only to other developers. Plus, as someone already mentioned, I’m sure it feels like a pat on the back when Corona selects your app to feature, which is sure to keep us indie developers going. =) [import]uid: 60144 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122669[/import]

#18

Hi guys - We do our very best to pick the ‘App of the Week’ based on uniqueness, quality, graphics and all the other good stuff that makes for impressive content. Not surprisingly, it’s not uncommon that the apps we love are the same apps that are successful in rankings, downloads and user ratings. We don’t pick these apps *because* they are successful, rather we use the same criteria as most users, reviewers etc. when making a decision to download.

Many of the recent App of the Week winners have been made by small indie devs (you can look through them here: http://www.coronalabs.com/blog/topics/app-of-the-week/). We want to help out all Corona developers as much as possible, and we’re always open to your ideas on how to improve in this area.

Regarding the showcase - I’m in full agreement that it is in need of a serious makeover. We plan to revamp the showcase soon, to make it better organized and more user-friendly.

That being said, we’re always open to feedback and suggestions. If you have concerns, compliments, suggestions, etc. please shoot me an email and I’d love to discuss: innaATcoronalabs.com.

Thanks!
Inna
[import]uid: 140864 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122938[/import]

#19

Feedback #1, Inna needs a smaller avatar picture. [import]uid: 147305 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122942[/import]

#20

We all need smaller avatar pictures. [import]uid: 14218 topic_id: 30576 reply_id: 122946[/import]