For a decent chance you need either of the following:
- $250,000 advertising budget
or
- Luck
Don’t be so cynical… :) I know it is hard and discouraging, but not impossible or purely luck / $$$.
Your game or app must be very fun/useful and aesthetically pleasing as a starting point. (Or it has to be controversial and/or very different/unique in some way.)
I game with poor game play or low production value has little chance of getting featured or noticed.
Also, taking a hand in your own game advertising and making:
- a web site for it
- face book account for it
- google play account for it
- twitter account for it
- and more modern social media options.
Find other communities (not necessarily this one) where people play the kind of game you’re making and show it off there.
Ja, ja, ja… . thanks for answering. I’ve always wondered applications that are not directly when you enter the Apple Store, or by applications that are beyond “see all”. At one point thought rotated applications. Even I have asked Apple. The answers range from, read the agreement, to, make good use of keywords, advertising different ways, etc, etc, etc. A stupidity. Even a child knows that it is not enough. There are thousands of hidden applications. This is the truth. I would say millions. Nor do we know the world. A pile of programmers who will never sell nor a copy. Not because the application is good or bad. Simply because it is hidden.
There are plenty of free or very cheap apps that are great, and they are hoping to improve sell any copy or make a big upgrade. A shame, a real shame.
I like to see this like going out on a Friday night. Five guys go out, and chances are one or two will get a phone number from a girl 
That does not mean that other four guys are boring or ugly. That is just law of universe. If you have 250,000 $ you are Bernie Ecclestone, and no problems for you :D
My experience is that you should never ever fall in love to your project. Otherwise you will be disappointed more than not.
Good luck!
Thanks for the humor and compared.
I would just settle for Apple applications rotated so that you can see. So that all can see. The opportunities that have a hidden application is almost nil.
I am afraid, life is not fair, and will probably never be.
I like your idea, that would be very, very nice (fair).
I have also fails 
Check one here:
https://itunes.apple.com/ky/app/lightning-creatures/id1050641492?mt=8
I just saw your application: kill animals with lightning?
You do not kill them, you electricize them
It is fun (no blood)
I would add to your app store description: “No animals were harmed in the making of this game”
I think you do not want a lot of animals, ja, ja, ja.
I understand you
Thanks JonPM.
Good idea.
Is it possible to add App Store Description(s) or screenshots without submitting new binary for review?
Just my opinion with my limited experience. If you don’t advertise it, nobody will see it or download it. I can’t afford a ton of advertisement so I try to pick and choose very limited geographical regions to advertise (read 1 or 2 countries at most). I usually use TapJoy since I can get a ton of downloads in a specific country for very cheap (About 10 US cents a download). Although most of these people end up uninstalling my app, it does get me a not so temporary bump in the iOS store rankings for that country. Which in turn displays the app to more people on the store. Which has resulted in my case with more downloads of people that are more likely to keep the app for a certain time.
I also have a Google, Facebook and Twitter account for my apps. That also helps I guess but not as much as what I explained above. I know that Apple is thinking of changing the ranking so burst downloads do not impact it that much. But as of now it still works. And it is how the big guys get a game like unlock the lock to be so popular. I don’t have the thousands of dollars that is required to get an app on the charts in the US, but it is still possible to do the same in smaller countries that still have high eCPM. Especially if you localize the app to that particular market.
For Apple. No, I am pretty sure you can’t even access the description anymore without submitting a new binary. (This is after the first submission and approval)
For Android (Google Play), last I checked you can update the description any time.
Thanks roaminggamer.
May I ask one question if it is not a secret.
You are an experienced programmer ( roaminggamer ).
How many games of yours have reached over 100,000 downloads (on iOS lets say)?
If you do not want to tell (it it OK :) )
What do you think is the number of downloads (for a free game with IAP), when you start making money (lets say over 1000$ a month)?
Thanks.
Ivan
I make my own games and apps, AND I make games and apps for clients.
My Games and Apps (My Work (not up to date); Most Recent Game)
Of my own games, NONE has reached that status. This is mostly because while I’m a good programmer, I’m not great at:
- art & polish
- sound & music
- marketing, marketing, … marketing
However, my successes on client apps/games have taught me that “big or small” you can still make a splash. Read more below.
Games and Apps for Clients
Of the games I work on for clients, I am generally not privy to downloads, but as far as I know only two games ever reached that kind of status:
-
Free Birds Movie - Baby Turkey Trouble (iOS, Android) - I made this game for Reel FX. It was a promo game for their upcoming move “Free Birds”. It reached well over 100K downloads in the first month (I don’t have exact numbers, but it probably reached around 500K total downloads)
- This was my most polished game ever.
- I did all of the programming, but…
- Trivia: This game started from my freely available example: http://github.com/coronalabs/CoronaCrush
- All the art, sound, etc. was done by a full movie studio.
- Voice overs were extracted from the movie and were originally done by the well known actors: Owen Wilson, Woody Harrelson, and Amy Poehler.
- Finally, this app was market blitzed by a professional team of marketers with an inside track to Apple contacts. It got featured immediately upon release.
- In short, this game had everything going for it and was bound to succeed.
-
Cecil’s Revenge - Last year, there was a big hubbub about a lion being poached by an American dentist(?) with a shady track record of similar behavior.
- I wrote this game in its entirety and derived it from a game of my own called ‘Infiniroids’.
- This game used free art and sounds hacked together from various sources on the web.
- It was put together in hours and on a shoestring budget.
- The clients were just a couple of guys, but they knew how to market and make waves.
- The game was initially rejected (more like banned) by Apple. However, a news article by TMZ got that turned around in a day or two.
- Now, this app may not have made 100K downloads but over its life I think it was pretty close.
- The most interesting fact to me is that it was MOST POPULAR, not in the US but in Zimbabwe (talk about emerging markets…)
- The lesson here is, "Even a small game can make big waves."
It is worth saying, that as ‘loud as I am here’ in the forums, my apps are much less successful than several quiet lurkers we have here.
I’d love to hear numbers and strategies from them, but my thoughts are:
- They are too busy making their successes happen.
- They may not want to share their secret sauce.
@Ed (roaminggamer),
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
You are very kind.
No matter marketing, good idea, nice graphics, sounds, I think a little bit of luck is necessary to get over 50,000 downloads (if you are playing in indie league).
If you are a big boy, than $$$ substitute required luck.
I will download and rate your games (at least what I can do :) )
@adrianjgomez : I think for using TapJoy you have to be Corona Enterprise (not basic user). Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
I’m in the process of promoting my game that is in the Google Play Store, it’s a lot of work but has to be done because I have no money.
Here’s a few things I have done so far to get traffic flowing for my game.
I have a press page here Press Page where businesses that might want to review my game in future can download a folder containing many screen shots, my 2 logos, a header for the article, various banners and a 2 page summary of the game with links to the game, the website, my email, the blogs I wrote for the game and so on.
I’m now in the process of emailing all the game review sites I can find with a link to my press page.
I’ve started following hundreds of people who like game shows, games and trivia on Twitter, I’m about to do the same on Facebook.
I’ve submitted my website to DMOZ
I will start submitting my website to a few select web directories soon.
I’ve already approached Pocket Gamer and got a reply.
It’s a lot of work but I’m not going to stop until my game is a success, if I have to promote my game for a year I will do it because I believe in my game and I put 2 years of blood, sweat and tears into it and I won’t let it wallow in obscurity.
Well, keep up the good fight and best of luck to you. Its really gotten to be competitive in the mobile game’s space, but there are new successes every day.