next »

[RobertKessel]

Note: this article was posted on Gamasutra http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RobertKessel/20140712/220905/Waiting_for_review_or_quotok_it_was_fun_now_whatquot.php - you can read the original there.

As a indie, who loves to work inside my own world with my own rules (no deadlines, no budget), this is like "... ok, ok, I need to get a life and move on, and well, let's also try to make this thing something real at last, something that people can touch and provide some reactions… let’s go and see what happens!".

This is the kind of attitude which will always make you fail when trying to make a dent into the App Store. Your game will probably hit the deepest rank in App Store in 2-3 days and will never recover from there.

None will care about you, your "firm" nor your game, because the real thing is that you never existed, your shadow is too short.

Exactly.

The real problem about app marketing is not just about game quality or marketing budget. If it was so simple, then the solution would be just to throw in more bucks. But it’s not. It's been always about reach, or properly named "social reach" today.

When I worked on the first game, TapTapGo (see it at AppStore here - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tap-tap-go!/id693143941?l=es&ls=1&mt=8), I did it for the sake of getting the experience of both creating something on the magnificient Apple platform but also publishing and trying to make impact. I learnt a lot about marketing then. And I also felt depressed.

I tested almost any tool and tactic to try to get attention from potential gamers: preview videos, social and forums engagement (and joining #IDRTG), PR kits (almost none reply to my pledges), paid reviews with Gnome Escape (which gave my first game a mix of good and bad reviews), ASO (Sensor Tower and others) and many more.

It was exhausting (and expensive). And I could not see any benefit from those actions. I watched every day (and every hour sometimes) Apple charts. I was looking at iTunes Connect app and other statistical apps in my phone during my walks.

After 2-3 months releasing a few updates and working hard trying to get my game up in the ladder of App Store I threw the towel and decided to move on, to take a break and bring in space for new ideas.

My reflections on that experience are that, even I pushed very hard to market my game, my reach was very low. I had few contacts to share my game with and even my game got a few thousand downloads during the first weeks, I could not see any network effect. Every action, every penny, I expended trying to expand my reach was unsuccessfully brief, because the real problem is that I didn’t have any social attractor linked to my game.

I didn’t care about creating a fan base which could provide enough reach so any update could bring in more fans. Instead, I got only superficial downloads, forced by discrete investment.

So, next time, don’t rush to release your game. Make sure you have a good reason to do that. Why will you be going to release the game? What are your expectations? Do you have taken the steps to build a proper reach through a fan base when launch day comes? Because if you don’t, you will be disappointed. And you won’t be able to explain why do you feel so.

In next posts I will describe my efforts to create some noise before Noir Run (http://epocu.com/campaigns/noir-2/), our second game, get released. Stay tunned!

- Rob.
@KronnectGames

[Green Gospod]

It helps if the game is good.

The market is flooded with horrible so called "games" and clones. You can even see that on Greenlight and Kickstarter where you'd think there would be a higher standard.
Lots of good games losing to bad games with good marketers.

[Quarry]

Greenlight is as low as the Mariana Trench, so many "Something Simulators" popping up and it's not even funny

[Chris Koźmik]

"The instructions were not clear at all. It made it confusing to learn how to play. After playing, it was too simple." - it seems the problem is not with marketing but with the game itself. I understand people getting confused when playing strategies but for a casual game if they give you that feedback it sounds very bad.

Not that the social reach is not another problem on top of it

[RobertKessel]

Thanks for your comments.

You're right. Reviews are also very important as they can influence others to stay away from the game or convince them to go ahead and try it.
Although if you take a look at the ladders in Game Center there're lots of players who have advanced through the game.

One lesson I learnt about the first version is that not everybody will understand your proposition(game). If they don't get connected quickly to the purpose of the game, they will desist and remove the game. Tutorials and introductory gameplay are a good thing.

[Cobralad]

No offence, but your game doesnt look really appealing.
Graphic is really basic and unatractive. It looks like some random free puzzle game from pc. I would not even notice your game ever.
That said, appstore seems to be purgatory for greedy people. There are legit traffic selling companies openly offering get your game into the top with bots.
Flappy bird is prominent example, because it success seems to be based on appstore loopholes.

[RobertKessel]

Cobralad, the original idea behind that game was to create a retro game, PC-age game. But that's ok.

Now, what do you think about my new game, Noir Run?
http://epocu.com/campaigns/noir-2/

[Cobralad]

It looks certainly better as a game, but visuals still arent that appealing.
Whole Limbo b&w style was beaten to death and smiley looks like its takes from some random emoticon set.

[Vallar]

It is an interesting read indeed. I am also interested in your next article, I'd like to know what you did for Noir Run.

However, I have to say. Jumping into the App Store without a fan base (or any game selling outlet), wasn't the best move as you mentioned. A move like that would have been OK and worked back in 2008 or perhaps early 2010, it was still fresh and not a lot of content there.

Now anyone with the ability to pay the fee to get the Developer's account can just publish a game. Same for Steam and all of these places. The very first time I registered in IndieDB the game I added had to compete with 17K other games, that is ONE single site. Imagine how it is for Steam with Greenlight now open?

I highly recommend this and this. Still... no guarantee it will work, but it will definitely enhance your chances.

I also agree with Cobralad on some points. The 3D looking smilie doesn't really match well with the art -- I understand you are trying to make a contrast, perhaps... but the arty style is different and makes it look weird.

The game looks to be fun and might have an ultimate message (at least from the description at Epocu) but the way I see it, this is just another puzzle game with random graphics.

I am guessing you are a programmer... have you tried to collaborate with an artist? Hire one, instead of hiring PR related services?

[c023-DeV]

... trying to make impact. I learnt a lot about marketing then. And I also felt depressed.
...

I feel you. But maybe managing you expectations in the first place helps. Try to stay realistic with your expectations. Test them occasionally! Building your social reach is a process I guess.

I'm not into all that marketing blah, blah that I read online. Strategies to maximize income blah. Because I don't want to pressure myself. I care about what I provide first. And if I feel like you described. I try to find out what it is that I can give that others thank me for. And I give it freely as possible. What happens further is part of my learning. But my focus is not on financial or statistical return values... Sure I too would love to not to have to prostitute myself as street musician all my life, but that also thought me not to blame anything for the rain but to do my best and to find shelter, food and good company.

I may be misplaced but I can go anywhere.

Wish you all the best! Hope you rise again soon! Look closely at your early/initial ambitions. Ask yourself why you started this. Take great care of those feelings! They are important!  Throw away financial aspects for now. In my world I am a rich man, yet I have no money dear friend!  Heads UP!

[RobertKessel]

Thanks for all your comments and inputs. I will seriously look after an artist (any one?).

I won't rush to publish the game until I think it's well polished and certain aspects of the game still needs some work. But the mechanics, concepts and structure is finished which is something good.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i read all these comments about the game/graphics not being very good and that's the reason it failed, and thought at first that they were all wrong, because generally people overestimate the value of how good the game is and underestimate the value of how good the dev is at marketing. 90% of the time if a game succeeds, it's because of the marketing more than the gameplay or graphics. this is true both of AAA games and indie games

but then i looked at the screenshots and, yeah, i can't see a game that looks like this succeeding very easily. it's *possible*, that through marketing alone, a game like this could be top of the charts, but it'd be a whole lot easier if it looked even average, rather than far below average

still, never forget that this game sold 10 million copies:



snood is a really really ugly game. yet it sold more copies than almost any other indie game.

[Vallar]

While I agree with you regarding Snood... it is really a different ball game. Snood looked ugly in an era where games were ugly. As far as I know it was released around 1996, games didn't look all that pretty at that time (I can recall GTA 1 with people sprites that looked like chicken).

Selling that many wasn't easy per se, but it still back in the days when games weren't judged by looks and by gameplay. Today if the game doesn't look appealing, it is hard to get people to play it.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

true to some extent, but snood was still a direct clone of the much prettier looking puzzle bobble, which came out first:

[Vallar]

That I didn't know... actually that game looks much better than Snood. I can't deny marketing's role... in fact as you mentioned it is huge.

Graphics makes it a bit easier in this age... but again, you are right, sir!

[Zaphos]

I always assumed that people who bought snood did not know about puzzle bobble -- i.e. snood managed to reach an audience that wanted more 'casual' games and wouldn't have looked at the offerings of more traditional games companies / stores.  I don't know if that's true though!

Generally I'm pretty skeptical of claims that some specific thing is the reason a certain game succeeded or failed ...

So, next time, don’t rush to release your game.

I've seen companies that seem to have the opposite strategy and do ok -- they release a ton of games, generally only spending maybe a month of development time on each, and just hope that some of them take off.  In a fairly random, hit-based market, it can make sense to just keep trying until you randomly stumble on the hit ...
(Of course, these companies do have artists and probably some fan base built up, and their games do look better ...)

[RobertKessel]

Well, game should be fun to play and that should work alone. The problem is that there's only 20-30 slots in such so little screen so it's just not enough that the game should be good looking. Something else must be done before game launch. I'm sure that if I invest lot of money in just graphic work, I will be wasting the money.

What, in your opinion, would be the most important attributes for any succeeding game for iOS platform today?

1. Personality/Story
2. Visuals/sounds
3. Gameplay
4. Simplicity
5. Social functions
6. Cost
7. Other?

[Vallar]

Perhaps this could help shed some insight over the matter:
http://gamesauce.org/news/2014/04/24/glint-vs-the-app-store-getting-your-game-out-there/

And for a more comprehensive collection of postmortems you can visit:
http://gamesauce.org/news/category/online/post-mortem-online/

Hope that helps

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Well, game should be fun to play and that should work alone. The problem is that there's only 20-30 slots in such so little screen so it's just not enough that the game should be good looking. Something else must be done before game launch. I'm sure that if I invest lot of money in just graphic work, I will be wasting the money.

What, in your opinion, would be the most important attributes for any succeeding game for iOS platform today?

1. Personality/Story
2. Visuals/sounds
3. Gameplay
4. Simplicity
5. Social functions
6. Cost
7. Other?

none of those. here's the real list

1. experience, fan base, and track record of the developer
2. press connections of the developer
3. budget
4. whether the game fulfills an in-demand market need or niche
5. whether it is marketed correctly to that audience
6. luck
7. timing (the specific day or month it's released)
8. quality of the trailer / website / promotional materials

[RobertKessel]

I read that 67% of downloads came from search from within AppStore itself (so it should be good looking and have good reviews) and then a high percentage of downloads from personal recommendations. Nothing related to press.

Do you think common people pay attention to gaming magazines? And what about youtubers and/or social?

Maybe for a casual game it's more important to have a great gameplay, possibly getting reviewed by youtubers or get recommended by friends... But again, not sure.. I guess it depends on the category of game.