Lost in the mass of Apps....

General (non-technical) Marketing and Monetization
#1

Since some weeks our first game is available in the App Store and we tried a lot as all of you, to make it
known in the market. As I can see the downloads of our game are really sobering.
So the question I have is: Is it still possible to make money with the development of a game?
I will not discuss the quality of a game here because I think it is not only a question of this.
There are games in the store which have a high rate of downloads with good and bad reviews.
I get the feeling it’s like a win in lottery to be prompted in the top 20 of the game charts, even the
top 100 is a goal. So, are we lost in the mass of Apps which are coming every day??
Corona is really a nice development SDK to make good Apps and fast, but for an indie developer
with low budget, is it more than a nice experience in his hobby ?
I hope you understand my thoughts…

Michael [import]uid: 12632 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 311018[/import]

#2

It’s very difficult but it is always going to be possible.

At moments like this (of full pessimism) I usually open the top200 paid/free list of appshopper.com and I ask myself: “Is there anything here that I could have build on my own?”.

If you have a hard time with finding something inside that list, look at the free (IAP) game “7 little words” and ask yourself the question above!

:slight_smile: [import]uid: 7356 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 40094[/import]

#3

Hi MichaelS,

It’s easy to feel that way sometimes but the trick is persistence.

Keep creating apps; the more you make the more you can sell plus the less time it will take to create future apps as you will learn more AND have code you can reuse.

I don’t make a killing, I also don’t make fantastically, amazing, ground breaking apps - so I assure you it is entirely possible.

Peach :slight_smile: [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 40106[/import]

#4

MichaelS,

Don’t give up after your first attempt! It should be just that, only your first, not your last. As with anything, dedication, persistance, passion and maybe a little bit of insanity will help you achieve your goals. I would recommend watching “Carlos’ Ten Commandments for Entrepreneurs” video.
http://www.carlosicaza.com/?p=28
It’s a good motivator. [import]uid: 27965 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 40130[/import]

#5

First thanks for your comments, yes I will try to be persistence but it’s not easy.
You see every day this well running App’s and when I’m looking to the downloads of my App
which has about 1 or 2 every third day, my eyes get wet. Maybe it’s a good place here to help
each other to stay and to continue making App’s. Let’s hope for some better days…

Michael :slight_smile: [import]uid: 12632 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 40133[/import]

#6

@calebr2048 Nice video, didn’t know before, thanks… [import]uid: 12632 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 40135[/import]

#7

Crawlspace games just posted a spreadsheet with apps review sites. You need to contact them and ask them to review your app, PR, facebook, twitter. ETC.

Just by putting an app on the appstore doesn’t guarantee overnight success -

Lots of work has to be done from your end to keep the ‘momentum’ and awareness.

Carlos [import]uid: 24 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 40154[/import]

#8

@ carlos m. icaza Sorry Carlos what do you think we where doing, just put the App into the store
and waiting whats happen?? Believe me, we where looking to do as much as we can, review sites,
promo codes in all the interesting forums ect. Not that easy as you think…
But still trying hard to get more downloads then one every third day… [import]uid: 12632 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 40178[/import]

#9

Michael,

What is the name of your App?

At the very least, if you write about it on a forum or ANYWHERE at all. Put a name and a link. Search engines might grab it. People like me will buy it to support you. At least you’re getting a name out there.

Do you have a website for it? [import]uid: 22392 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 40184[/import]

#10

@noahm26. Hehe, nice that you will support us, the site is www.twinbits.de , if you like I can give you a
Promocode no reason to buy our game…

Greatings from Berlin Germany [import]uid: 12632 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 40186[/import]

#11

MichaelS, Carlos (and everyone else) has no way of knowing what you are doing unless you specifically state as much. Many people do no marketing; that might no be smart but it is what it is. Others do a lot.

Just continue to be persistent - it isn’t easy, no - but if it was then we’d have 100x more apps to compete with.

Peach [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 40232[/import]

#12

I’ll go the other way from “be persistent” – quit.

If you can quit making games and be happy, then do that and have less stress in your life. Not everyone will make it to the top and if the journey isn’t reward enough, I say stop gambling on hitting it big.

If you *CAN’T* quit, then congratulations, welcome to the club. :slight_smile:

I think your course of action should depend in part on whether you’d rather be creating games or marketing games. It also depends on whether you *really* believe your game should have hit it big (or even medium). If so, then maybe you spend more time beating the bushes trying to help it gain some momentum before giving up on it.

But if it was just a good game, with nothing extra special compared to similar games out there, then maybe it’s time to move on to the next game and see if you catch a break with that one.

Honestly, my game Match Game Magic (http://MatchGameMagic.com) fits into the “nothing extra special” category, which is why I don’t do a lot of promotion now. It had just under 3,000 downloads and was a “learning experience” for me so I feel like it was a success.

My next game, Roly-Polies, is one where I’ll be pushing it as hard as I can – I’ll probably be actively promoting it for at least 2-3 months. Maybe longer. I’d rather be making games, but I believe in RP enough that I’ll happily switch to my marketing hat for a while to try and make it happen.

I don’t think promoting games in the App Store is down to a science yet – a big dollop of luck is often needed to make a difference.

Jay
[import]uid: 9440 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 40245[/import]

#13

I’m in a similar boat with Omniblaster (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/omniblaster/id434030469?mt=8&ls=1)

I’m getting 1-2 sales a day after the initial rush. I have 7 - 5 star ratings and 5 reviews. I’ve sent promo codes to a couple of dozen sites to no avail.

What irritates me more than anything is that I have nearly 650 twitter followers and requests to retweet my game game end up with maybe 1-2 people. Of the 650, a good 100 of them are people I know personally and would call friends, but I cant get them to just “Click” a button. Worse yet is Facebook were I have over 700 friends and I can’t even get any help theree

Everyone tells me they love my game (but being friends, I know they are blowing sunshine my way). A couple of people gave me honest feedback and now 1.1 (waiting on a review) is a much better game for it.

When 1.1 is released, I’m going to spend a lot more effort sending out press releases and run some retweet contests for free promo codes. And I’m hoping the lite version will drive sales too.
[import]uid: 19626 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 42218[/import]

#14

you just have to do what you possible can,my game isn’t even out yet but I’ve contacted over 20 pr companies,I’ve got over 30 review sites lined up for when my game goes live,i have free tshirts and promo codes for local radio stations,i have 5000 flyers printed ready and 6 people ready to give them out outside apple stores,I’m giving away an iPad 2 and a couple of tshirts to corona users,speculate to accumulate,even if i don’t make my money back on this game for people to have a chance of winning the iPad they have to register on my website,now with all those registered users from my first release,i have a platform for my next game which is one click away,self promotion.i even contacted the director of the biggest game only pr company in the us,because nothing will stop me from my goal.
[import]uid: 65492 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 49075[/import]

#15

Thats all find and dandy, but it takes money, something I don’t have.

I cant afford to pay these review sites and that seems to be the only way to get a review. If I spend $50, I have to get 80 units sold. I don’t see the return on investment from that.

I don’t even have an iPad for me to test on so how can I give one away.

I like the idea about flyers to hand out though…

[import]uid: 19626 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 49076[/import]

#16

Google top 20 free review sites ,google top 20 free pr sites,5000 flyers gona cost you like £80 and in the right place could make you a good amount of cash,even if some sites charge, nothing wrong with still asking you never know. [import]uid: 65492 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 49077[/import]

#17

Hi all. we’ve developed ChickensQuest and this just for give my opinion and tell about our experience about that.
We’ve made a big effort to develop this app and when we finally sold in the app store he was like a big goal, yes but then? Our app goes pretty well first 2 weeks, then nothing, lost in the dark, we cannot also do big promotion and we’ve decided to apply to Free Game of the day (Openfeint) and what? Nothing, or better yes a lot of people dowloaded it (I don’t know if is a big number 20K in three days) but once we put it on sale back we’ve made again a big jump into the void (rank from 44 to unranked in a few hours!!!), so what we got to think? Well we’re also selling 1 or 2 copy a day and piracy too is going down (with us :-))
We’ve also promoted our games on Fb and Twitter(no comment), someone found our games worthy of a spontaneous free review, we’ve contacted a lot of free games review site, but almost nobody answered us…

We keep going to develop, but of course is not easy to win!

Cheers

Marco
[import]uid: 7518 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 49287[/import]

#18

For my apps, I get solid download numbers when they’re free (always-free-so-far Siege Towers for the iPad had over 150,000 downloads, for which I was very very happy)… but when I make the app paid, the downloads drop drastically. I’ve now tried a free game with in-app payments, but from the first looks that doesn’t seem to be a silver bullet either.

I have to say though I love doing these games and I want to continue nevertheless. But I’m also looking for good strategies to get the word out and have people actually pay a buck for your game.

Yesterday, I made all of my apps free again, because the download numbers were so low. [import]uid: 10284 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 49333[/import]

#19

@robmiracle
This is funny, same thing here. Lots of friends but a couple of donwloads. I’ve spent at least 10 days trying to grab followers on tweeter but the truth is there’s so many marketers and indies trying to promote that almost no one reads the tweets anymore!
I guees tweeter it’s just another tool, not the best and not a good one either, but just another one…
… or perhaps one need more time??
[import]uid: 12407 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 49355[/import]

#20

@marcob71
Maybe we should ask Carlos to create a FreeCoronaAppADay for us without any cost to us? I know they are working on some kind of promotion like the game of the week, but what about the rest of us who can’t make it to the game of the week? I’m just thinking out loud, I’m not complaining. I love Corona.
cheers
[import]uid: 12407 topic_id: 11018 reply_id: 49357[/import]