Jetrats Defense - Hit 100k Downloads

General (non-technical) New Apps / Works in Progress
#21

@LeivaGames thank you very much! i appreciate you played the game and had fun in it. we hope more people could take a look at it also, since we really have invested lots of energy and time in it. :slight_smile:

@chengshuwan thank you very much! as you know we have released it for about 2 weeks, but downloads are quite a few, we set it FREE at 20th, then got lots of downloads, so we decide to keep it FREE until the end of Dec, hope more players will pay attention to it, there have no better way than thisā€¦ [import]uid: 74676 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 75302[/import]

#22

@dingo iTunes connect will be shut down from 22th to 29th Dec for holiday, during this period you can not log into iTunes connect, can not change the price either. [import]uid: 74676 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 75304[/import]

#23

thanks, now i get it. i thought that he ment the users to switch back, and that made no sense!

good luck with the game! (and I think it should get 50ā€™000 paid downloads, it deserves it!!!) [import]uid: 90610 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 75306[/import]

#24

Love the art! [import]uid: 16734 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 75399[/import]

#25

I am surprised that this game is not featured on iTunes home page when it launches. Hope the increase of downloads gets appleā€™s attention and put it on new&worthy section.
Good luck&Merry Christmas! [import]uid: 49513 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 75598[/import]

#26

@KenRogoway Thank you very much! hope you had lots of fun in it.
@chengshuwan wowā€¦thank you very much! also hope that. but i think that should be very very hardā€¦

Merry Christmas everyone! [import]uid: 74676 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 75686[/import]

#27

Looks really good :slight_smile: Hope you guys do well. This is one of the most well made game i have seen done on Corona by far. I like the theme as well. Maybe you can try to post it to some game review sites and ask them to review it. Might help. :wink: Good luck!!! [import]uid: 39846 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 75938[/import]

#28

Hi ldb.steven,

Thank you very much! appreciate you think thisā€™s a good game.

We have sent about 20 email to several review sites weeks ago, but almost get no reply, some of them replied me but they want me to buy Ad on their site, even have site told me they decline to review this game.

The rate about the game even not enough to be shown. Really weird situation, not sure if we did anything wrong.

(@dingo Thanks for your nice review :slight_smile: )

Maybe because Dec is a big holiday for most countries. we will try to send to another sites after this holiday.
[import]uid: 74676 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 75953[/import]

#29

was interested to download the free version, as you did say ā€¦ free till end of dec.
Look you already did set up back to 1.99$

As I have several apps in the market, I just can advice, you do a paid AND a free version.
I had paid apps, that where low in sales, made an extra free app. The free app with Ads made overall in longterm even more incomeā€¦ and through the free app, the paid app also got more sales.

You could also do a press release and sent it through one of that press services to a ton of press portals (helped me even once a lot)

Its really try and errorā€¦ just DO NEVER GIVE UP :slight_smile:

You GFX is very nice and I am quiet sure with some more talk about it, you will have your success

greets
chris
[import]uid: 4795 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 76615[/import]

#30

@guruk,

For level based games, what do you recommend is the best approach for adding in ads to make a free version. Is an add between each level too much? How about an ad after every 5 levels?

Iā€™d love to hear your real world experience with Ad revenue. [import]uid: 16734 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 76625[/import]

#31

@guruk
well sorry about that, we intend to do that, but we decided to set the price back to see if we could get any hit in the holiday, however did not have the luck.

Thank you very much for your advice! yeah i agree with you a free version could be help, i have get started to do it :slight_smile:

And thank you for your encouraging words! iā€™m also working on the iPhone version, hope the situation could be better after we finished it, since i think the user amount of iPhone are quite larger than iPad.

about the ā€˜press releaseā€™ i do not quite know about that, whatā€™s the difference with a review request?

Thanks
[import]uid: 74676 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 76652[/import]

#32

@Sun.Jiajie

for one of my apps ā€œTalk with Chippyā€ I also did sent several infos to Review Sites, there was only one, and they also charged.
http://www.theiphoneappreview.com/2010/04/talk-with-chippy/

than I also did a press release and promoted it through
http://www.flashnewsrelease.com/
they do charge not so much and it was on lots of pages, as you even see here:
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q="talk+with+chippy"&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Also my experience was that my apps came downloaded lots more on iOS Devices.
Only one from 10 did better on Android.

And yes, iPhone Apps are also lots more downloaded than iPad apps.
Did you made the GFX yourself or in Order? I ask, because I am not as good in gfx and could need a Designer, also I donā€™t know how much one would charge to do some graphics.

In the Moment you will have a free app (even just with one level) I would download immediately and give it a change. Right now

you did say, less downloads, can you give any numbers per day, paid/free, just to get an idea?

chris

[import]uid: 4795 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 76663[/import]

#33

@guruk

The Chippy looks cute!
Now i get some idea about the press release thanks.

We worked with freelancer on this project, we listed the artwork and how it should looks like, then paid the works after they finished.

The charges are quite different, on average the artist work at around $30 per hour.

For the downloads, maybe you will be surprised
While Free: 4000 downloads per day on average
While Paid: 5 downloads per day on average [import]uid: 74676 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 76759[/import]

#34

frankly im shocked about low sales number, i was expected something close to 1000 paid at least(or 10 000 ) )
maybe people dont like rats? [import]uid: 16142 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 76762[/import]

#35

wow, thats a big list of missing features
i guess next time you will do better) [import]uid: 16142 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 76771[/import]

#36

No free version is not a missing feature.
Im not sure that ā€˜big titleā€™ counts for much either: who heard of Rovio before Angry Birds took off?

Its a comment on the prices people want to pay for an app on a phone. i.e. nothing.

Only Appleā€™s restrictive licensing means that anyone gets paid upfront for an app : if all phones were jailbroken or open , no-one would buy anything.

If you have an app that lends itself to adverts, yes, you can make money that way.
But my goodness, some people overdo it.
I downloaded the free version of an app mentioned in these forums yesterday (see: Im no better!) and while its a good game, I gave up after a short while because I couldnā€™t take any more ads.
Some of the obscure the gameplay, and then theres near-full page stuff that pops up over everything. If you donā€™t have a good internet connection, the whole thing crawls while the ads download.
No doubt the no-ad version doesnā€™t suffer from this, but my experience has already been spoiled. [import]uid: 108660 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 76773[/import]

#37

Happy new year everyone! I just post 20 promo codes in the 1st post. Have Fun! :slight_smile: [import]uid: 74676 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 76967[/import]

#38

Yeah we also felt disappointed. We think the reasons caused the current low sales situation are:

ā€“ no review from review sites
ā€“ no app rate
ā€“ we are indie not big title (EDIT: yeah, i agree this should not be the issue)
ā€“ ipad only (iphone version is in dev)
ā€“ no free version (EDIT: we are woking on this now also. a free version will be always useful)
ā€“ no marketing
[import]uid: 74676 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 76768[/import]

#39

@Sun,

Thereā€™s a good reason that Apple wonā€™t let people release sales figures.

The sad reality is that very few games sell great numbers. Apple doesnā€™t want developers to know typical sales figures because they would lose a lot of developers. Even 500 sales over a few months times 300,000 developers means some decent revenue from them. Then add in the few games that sell really well and they make a lot more from that.

In order to get reasonable sales you have to at least have a few reviews. And having a great game helps a lot too :slight_smile:

I would suspect your game would get a huge jump in sales if you got a couple of reviews and some press. You definitely have really good art and good game play so with some marketing you should do okay. But 10,000 units seems a bit high.

I know of 3 development houses (actual teams of mobile developers that range from 8 to 20 people) and they have all struggled to make it financially in the mobile market. They have all had to supplement their income by doing contracts. For one development group this paid of nicely because it kept them alive long enough to get a project out that was a BIG hit. I cannot say what the game is, but it is getting 500,000 daily views and is a Freemium style game so they make money off the in-app purchases.

Donā€™t let ANY of the above deter you from finding every possible way to promote and push your game. You CAN make money at it, just donā€™t expect to get rich off one game. Use what you learn from this project and apply it to your next game. And definitely make sure you address as many of the ā€œmissingā€ items that you yourself called out.
[import]uid: 16734 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 76970[/import]

#40

Ive taken one of your codes and downloaded the game.
I like it a lot.
Yes, I agree: the money you spent on the graphics has made the game look and feel much better than it would have done with spinning globes or simple boxes.

The area you have on an iPad makes the game easier to see too.
I donā€™t think I can review after using a promo code, though.

The music is pretty good too, and if I had downloaded it without a code I would consider it good value.

It will do better as an iPhone app.
If you want some balanced feedback, the instructions are clearly written by someone whose first language is not English.
They are understandable, but ā€˜strangeā€™, if you see what I mean.

(If you would like them checked over , I would be happy to do that for you) [import]uid: 108660 topic_id: 18277 reply_id: 76975[/import]