next »

[Makani]

I have a game ('Red Card Rampage') for iPhone, iPad and Android which has excellent all 5-star reviews (e.g., App Store has 41 all 5-star reviews and none below), however we haven't been able to achieve visibility in the App Store or the Market and our sales are now pretty poor barely a week after release.

Can someone with experience in this please advise on what I can do? I have a great game, yet I'm unable to get the exposure. What can I do?

Makani

[Evan Balster]

Mobile games are a harsh and unforgiving market where some combination of marketing and dumb luck make the difference between poverty and riches, handing the former to all but a very small proportion of developers, and largely (but not fully) independent of actual quality.  There are those who make hundreds of thousands in a matter of days, and their stories are spread more than the much more common tales of failure.

See for reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush

I've never released a mobile game with the intent to make money from it, nor do I plan to, lest I find myself in the strange and difficult place you stand.


On a more helpful note, take advantage of zero-cost marketing.  Give free copies to friends or even acquaintances--especially those who involve themselves heavily with technology and social networks.  (Among a community like ours, that's intensified to mean someone who *lives* for those things.)  It's much, much, much easier to give something away for free than it is to sell it, and you should take advantage of that at every opportunity.

[bateleur]

Possibly the reviews are misleading you. This game (as "Soccer Balls") didn't reach 4/5 on Newgrounds, so isn't exceptional enough that I would expect it to be a mobile hit. It's nicely implemented and quite fun, but nothing going on there is really new so I wouldn't expect much word-of-mouth buzz.

Also, Cellulose Man is right that it's a tough market. The big hits are very big, but the average sales for an app seem to be quite poor.

[Ooghijmiqtxxa]

1. Get it reviewed by big players. When I download an app (usually a game) I always check Youtube for video reviews. TouchArcade, AppVee and AppCraver to name a few. Give them promo codes so they don't have to pay for it. 

2. Screenshots sell your game. I just checked your page on the App Store and honestly the pictures are boring. If it's not fun for me to look at, I'm probably not going to buy it. Which leads into our next point...

3. The game isn't very pretty. I'm not saying the graphics are terrible, but look at the top Apps. While they aren't all Epic Citadel level of quality, they all have something in common; Their screenshots make you want to at least look them up. Fruit Ninja is colorful and has fun effects, Angry Birds has a fun style and Tetris has a great level of polish.  I'm not saying grahpics are everything (Doodle Jump is pretty ugly, but I doubt the people who bought that game just saw it; It was recommended or played on someone elses phone) but if your game isn't a brand new concept, it should at least be fun to look at.

4. Bateleur mentioned word of both buzz. This is what will sell a game. Period. No matter how many artist you have on your project or how much money you threw into marketing, if the customer doesn't want to tell their friends about this cool new game they're playing, then it just isn't going to happen. I don't think this game lends itself to being talked about. Which is to say, it's not meant to be a hit.

5. It's a soccer themed game. It might make sense to buy ad space on soccer forums or websites. Maybe release an update around important dates of the sport?

Give away promo codes, have a contest on your Facebook, update the graphics, mingle with local indies/game dev studios, and get out there more.   

I think you should be happy you released a product. That's something not a lot of people can do. Be confident that what you learned from Red Card Rampage will help your next game become a bigger success.  I hope I didn't come off super negative. Keep at it, learn from everything and try again!

[Makani]

Possibly the reviews are misleading you. This game (as "Soccer Balls") didn't reach 4/5 on Newgrounds, so isn't exceptional enough that I would expect it to be a mobile hit.

Well, in the Flash world the game, sponsored by Kongregate, got 10 million views in 3 months (http://playtomic.com/stats/490-soccerballs). That is a MAJOR hit from a Flash view-point. This actually happens to be one of the most successful flash games, by one of the most successful flash developers out there, LongAnimals.

Here is the all-time-best records at playtomic (EDIT: I noticed in your blog that you know of playtomic):

http://playtomic.com/games/?mode=alltime&rank=&sponsor=&developer=

It ranks 13, higher than many well known games like 'SteamBirds' and 'HOMERUN IN BERZERK LAND'.

On top of that, it has 41 reviews on iPhone, all 5 stars, none below. Plus, out of the 15 reviews on Android, 14 are 5, one is 4.

The issue I'm facing is not with the game, but rather getting exposure.

[bateleur]

This actually happens to be one of the most successful flash games, by one of the most successful flash developers out there, LongAnimals.

Flash hits are a different matter, though. Flash users are not paying for the privilege, so 10M hits there just means your game is very widely accessible and got frontpaged at some point. (I don't mean that as a criticism, it just doesn't tell you very much is all.)

The Playtomic ranks there are by engagement rating. In real terms that just means that when people start playing they typically carry on doing so. Again, all that really tells you is that the game is very widely accessible. Of course, that's really important in the ad-driven world of Flash games, but it's not as helpful once you want players to part with actual money. There, a game which 10% of players love and 50% dislike is much better than one which 90% of players quite like.

(That said, I'm no iPhone expert so I could be totally wrong.)

[Makani]

bateleur: Reading your blog I see that, as suspected, you're still quite new to the flash scene, and you yourself are saying you're no iPhone expert. I understand your point, but what you're saying is still pointless, because at the end of the day, on iPhone, the main problem is getting the exposure. I'm not asking you whether the game is good or not or whether the game lends its way to sales or not. There is already a similar flash-game-turned-iphone-game that is pretty similar, called 'fragger', that has done very very well. See the review of my game on slidetoplay.com at http://www.slidetoplay.com/story/new-app-a-day-red-card-ramapage. "If you like Fragger and want to play something similar, give Red Card Rampage a shot." I'm really not asking about whether the game is good or not; I'm asking people to share their experience of what strategies  or marketing companies have worked for them on the App Store, or the Android Market.

[Makani]

3. The game isn't very pretty. I'm not saying the graphics are terrible, but look at the top Apps. While they aren't all Epic Citadel level of quality, they all have something in common; Their screenshots make you want to at least look them up. Fruit Ninja is colorful and has fun effects, Angry Birds has a fun style and Tetris has a great level of polish.  I'm not saying grahpics are everything (Doodle Jump is pretty ugly, but I doubt the people who bought that game just saw it; It was recommended or played on someone elses phone) but if your game isn't a brand new concept, it should at least be fun to look at.

Actually the game is gorgeous if you try on  your phone. See the review by CrazyMikesApps which praises the graphics quality.

. Also, the customer reviews also so far praise the graphics quality and effects.

On your advice though, I've updated the screenshots, so thanks for that! Messaging on soccer forums is a great idea, thanks, I'll try that!

[Kepa]

I have a game ('Red Card Rampage') for iPhone, iPad and Android which has excellent all 5-star reviews (e.g., App Store has 41 all 5-star reviews and none below), however we haven't been able to achieve visibility in the App Store or the Market and our sales are now pretty poor barely a week after release.

Can someone with experience in this please advise on what I can do? I have a great game, yet I'm unable to get the exposure. What can I do?

Makani

Oh hey I'm an iPhone developer.

App store stars/reviews basically don't matter at all.  I don't think anyone actually looks at them to inform their purchases, unless the reviews say your game doesn't even run.

Things that matter:

1. Coverage on the big sites:  Toucharcade, SlidetoPlay, TUAW, etc.  Developing a relationship with the bigger sites might not be possible with your first game, but each good game that you make will get you more noticed.  Eventually, getting coverage becomes much easier.

2. Existing fan base.  Have people that play your previous games know about your newest game.  The whole "word of mouth" thing is talked about like it's a magical concept.  The sad fact is that word of mouth isn't really effective unless your game is already popular.  That's why it's important to develop a small following that is eager to get your next game, so your next game can have a running start.

3. The above two are the most effective on the first day that your app is released.  Both become less and less effective the longer your app is out.  The most useful thing you can do is try to have both converge on release day.

Due to the above, your game probably won't make any money.  My first foray didn't make any money, either.  My second and third did. 

You hear about two paths on the App Store, that you'll either make millions instantly or, more likely, make no money at all.  No one really talks about a third option, but we find that it's possible to make a steady wage on the App Store. 

Send me a message if you want some more advice on what to do with your trajectory-shooting game.

[Makani]

Wow thanks Kepa! You made it all sound encouraging lol.


Yea; of the onces you mentioned, we were positively featured by slidetoplay.com (http://www.slidetoplay.com/story/new-app-a-day-red-card-ramapage), and have a couple other big reviews like crazymikeapps.com (

) and today appletell.com (http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/iphone-appidemic-red-card-rampage/).

Anyhow, I've been posting on many forums, including soccer forums, so hopefully we'll slowly get a fan-base. At least they like it!

Thanks a lot!

Makani

[dongle]

App store stars/reviews basically don't matter at all.  I don't think anyone actually looks at them to inform their purchases, unless the reviews say your game doesn't even run.

Respectfully disagree! App reviews don't matter until they drop below 3.5 stars. At that point, your game will immediately slide off the charts and into obscurity forever.

Any updates a couple months on?

[knorik]

2. Screenshots sell your game. I just checked your page on the App Store and honestly the pictures are boring. If it's not fun for me to look at, I'm probably not going to buy it. Which leads into our next point...

Wow, I've never thought about it. But it actually looks very helpful! Thank you!