Here's what DID work for you -- summing up all those failures into a well written, entertaining and light-hearted article that is genuinely helpful to anyone else in the iOS game.
Oh yea, and the front page of HN this time around.
It sounded like you got your hands wet in a lot of different things. That doesn't necessarily mean you are going to retire on this game, but think how many people are aware of you now and when you do Bullet Factory X (where you skeet-shoot puppies and elderly people) you'll have that much more information on how to promote the game or where to spend your time. It also sounds like you had a successful working relationship with your sister (as an artist) which is half the battle for any game title. So that's a big win right there for your next game too.
I'm not that surprised as the lack of feedback from bloggers though. I think I get 10 emails a day following the format:
OMG, Super Games Factory, LLC has just released the
most amazing game on the planet: Dish Washer!
Wash dishes in amazing stick-figure 3D! Contact us for
a free evaluation code!
It just wears you down after a while so ignoring something like Bullet Factory isn't an insult, it just falls into the 'spam' category of garbage announcements I'm sure most bloggers get every day.
Bullet Factory is a fun/simple concept, but it seems better as an ad-supported title (it's too simple) than a 99 cents title when you compare it along side other 99 cent titles I've seen in the app store. The bar is getting higher and higher and unless I see something amazing in screenshots or a trailer, it's not even worth the purchase barrier to entry for me to try it. Unrealized value (purchasing a game for 99 cents only to realize I hate the gameplay mechanics) is so frustrating to me, I'd rather just not buy something I'm on the fence about.
I would take the low-sales-since-december-even-though-you-are-marketing as an indicator that it isn't a high-demand game. Release a free ad-supported version of it "Bullet Factory FREE" and move on to your next title. Keep track of the download differences to learn a bit more about what worked, what didn't and where the bar is.
That's not to say your next game or the game after that won't hit -- keep pushing, you'll have a success and it will catch you by surprise.
Addtionally, if/when you make your app free, you'll hopefully get more people to download it. These people may leave you reviews on the app store about what they did like and what the game was lacking... information that you could then use to make it better and maybe learn some ideas for features that you could add to the "premium" version for pay. Additionally, having this 2nd free version of the app could then serve as a marketing tool to promote the "premium" version.
This is definitely true. I made my game free and it jumped to the top 100 lists in a few countries overnight due to bunch of those automated sites that list app "sales" picking it up.
The purpose here was to take a quote-unquote negative experience and spin it into something hopefully helpful for other devs, and myself (hello, hn front page).
The plan has definitely been in the back of my head for a while to release a free ad-supported version. I just wanted to get this postmortem-type thing out the door first, and it's been difficult to force myself to sit down and take a hard look at how things went.
- When you do put together the ad-supported version, include a mechanism for it to pull text from a web address and display it in a popup -- that way when you release Bullet Factory: Super-Bullet Edition, you can update that text file and all free versions will tell the players (pirated or otherwise) that the new release is out.
I'm always surprised more devs don't do this.
- I didn't want to sound critical or insulting about "not worth 99 cents" comment above, let me further qualify it.
I am not saying your app or your effort isn't worth 99 cents in a vacuum, I am saying given everything else I have to consider along side it, I may want to spend that 99 cents on a different app.
It is the same reason I won't buy $5.99 new releases on VUDU to stream them -- it's a hell of a lot cheaper than a theater, but along-side "free" on Netflix, it seems insanely expensive.
So when I compare Bullet Factory along side some of those top-10 or top-20 games that are 99 cents, I'm hesitant to spend to even get my foot in the door to check your app out, which doesn't help you at all.
A free version with an announcement feature (that maybe checks every 10 launches) would give you nice marketing for whatever game.next() is.
I would be very interested in some sort of summary how this HN post increased your sales.
Seriously: we (Blade Polska s.c.) have been through this also. We did everything according to common marketing wisdom about Tap4Two (even the landing page! [1] and real-life video [2]) -- it concluded in 10-20 sales each day. Mostly on the German Store.
We're planning runnig a facebook campaign targeted for Germans, spending all the revenue game has made so far. We will share the outcome for sure.
Your game looks like a lots lots of work with 3d engine, very impressive. What framework did you use?
Yeah, I definitely plan on follow-up posts with any changes that occur.
As for engines, I used cocos2d for all of the 2d (imagine that) stuff like menus and the HUD. The 3d objects I made using blender, modified some code I found online[1] to load them into the project, then pretty much just cobbled together a physics and rendering engine by hand. Good times.
You should definitely go the freemium route. There are so many games out there and the variation in quality is so wide that I can't justify to myself spending a cent. I have so many games on my phone (most are free) that I formatted it and started over.
Unfortunately, you aren't EA or Activision, you are relatively unknown and people have a hard time giving something a chance when there are so many options around. Ad-supported may not be optimal but atleast you get it into people's hands (and earning a few pennies is still better than nothing). Use that to leverage people into buying your future games.
Here's my experience with a Hangover 2 app I released 1 month before the movie came out. (it was taken down after Warner Bros sent Apple a C&D.)
1) Reviews are the most important things when you sell an app. I made the app free for the first week or so until I had about 10 5 star reviews. DO NOT use scammy tactics for fake reviews. Make sure your app is well polished for what it does. If it's not, don't put it in the App Store.
2) Review reminders. Basically the user uses the app a few times and they get a notice asking if they would like to review it. Include something like the appirater class. Google that.
3) Built-in sharing options for Facebook and Twitter. These should link back to the iTunes page for the app or to a custom site.
4) Setup bitly links for each sharing option. This helps in keeping stats about where your app is being talked about.
In the first week or so I was getting 3000 downloads a day. When I hit my 10 review goal, I switched to $.99. It's disheartening to see that 3k number drop to 20 the next day, but that's money in your pocket now. For the rest of the month, I averaged 20-30 paid downloads a day.
Things not to do:
There are lots of stupid people out there. They will leave 1 star reviews because they hear no sound. Their mute is on. Don't get upset about these people.
Twitter is great for campaigning. Don't write bots that listen to the stream for people talking about the movie that then follows them and does @Soandso check out my Hangover2 app! Surprisingly, it actually works very well. It ran for about 45 minutes and followed 400+ people. About 50 of them clicked through (bitly again) and I think a few people bought it. However, Twitter banned the account after 45 minutes. So, don't do what I did.
Don't write well polished apps that use sound clips from a big upcoming movie. You might argue that it's fair use, but that doesn't mean crap when WB decides to stomp on you.
> Here's my experience with a Hangover 2 app I released 1 month before the movie came out. (it was taken down after Warner Bros sent Apple a C&D.)
Ouch. You're lucky they weren't total dicks and didn't sue you for damages. You have to be very careful with copyright / trademark infringement, especially if it's a clear case like this and you're clearly making a profit on it.
Yeah I was worried for a minute. When I wrote the app I was taking a calculated risk because there have been a number of Hangover apps in the store for a long time. I figured the chances were good that no one would complain. 1 week before the movie release, there were several Hangover 2 apps in addition to mine. They all disappeared at the same time, yet apps for the first movie still are around now.
I'm an independent iOS developer. My paid apps have sold over 100,000 copies at 99¢ or higher. In total, my iOS apps (including free apps) have been downloaded over 7 million times.
I took a look at your app in the App Store.
Here's your problem: your icon.
The icon is the most prominent thing the user sees when first looking at your app in the App Store.
Change your icon, and you'll get more downloads. Trust me :-)
Feel free to contact me if you'd like to discuss good icon design, or other under-appreciated aspects of selling an app.
So could you post here a summary of what makes the icon good? I got professionally designed icon for one of my projects, but still got bunch of quite different opinions about it from various people.
The Icon is bad, the copy is bad, and the name is bad. A factory? I have trouble associating factory with anything fun. Call is something like Ball Crusher, sounds more fun.
This is my stupid opinion, and I could be wrong, but try to make the copy more fun, leave the technical explanation to later. Most people only read the first few lines anyway. Get a simple icon, don't try to convey too much info. Just have a colorful ball on a nice background.
Oh, and thanks for putting yourself out there for criticism, is help you and us all. There are some great ideas in the thread, and the game looks like fun.
Yeah, it's looking like a lot of people agree with you that the icon needs work. You've been contacted.
I'm definitely not in love with it, but it's better than the other ideas I had. The problem I was having was trying to depict the in-game action in such a small space. 3D stuff just seems to get cluttered or lost.
An angled disc-bullseye exploding into pieces? The actual depiction won't be as important as the graphical touches. Right now, your non-3D graphics are a little amateur.
Also, can you make the balls a little more spherical? They're the main focus of the game and the background kind of overshadows them.
Actually, why are they spheres and not discs? Discs would look better (more traditional) and add difficulty when they rotate.
Or even better, use spheres on some levels and discs on others (where it makes sense.) definitely crank up the poly count on the spheres and anything else.
Here's a free idea. Let the user use any photo as the texture for the targets. User just got dumped? Let him select a photo of his ex from his photo library and blow her visage to smithereens!
This was my first thought too -- when I saw the icon at the top of your page, I was bracing myself for an awful-looking game and saying to myself "well there's the problem right there". But then the game looks great, compelling even. Talk to this guy about your icon!
As you're not looking for any sugar coating, after watching the video showing the gameplay you would need to pay me to want to play it. The reason is that there is no "why" to it. Shooting low-resolution textured balls wasn't fun in the late 80's, and I'm not seeing anything in the video that tells me it won't just be a chore to play.
Is there some back-story to this game that is interesting? Are these spheres of mutant gel being produced by the evil Dr. Klaus Scheitzenburger to turn children into mindless drones so that he can take over the planet and only I can stop it using my Mutant-b-Gone sphere blaster?
Oh, none of that? It's just a sphere popping game? There's no marketing that can save that.
I'm not sure 'purpose' is the right word here. Truly what is the purpose of a game? I don't think there's a trivial answer to the question, and I think 'story' is more fair. People care about stories. Stories generate meaning.
I can't speak for anyone else but for me purpose, if I distill the meaning, means that I walk away from the game richer.
Eg
I have experienced an interesting emotion due to a story and the characters. Or I have realized a principle thanks to an interesting strategy (happened to me lately with Defense Grid - I realized I shouldn't build the longest path possible but maximize the times an enemy walks around a defense tower; this translates directly into books I'm reading now about featuritis and user experience - minimize the number of features, maximize their usefulness).
I'm not a native speaker so maybe there's a better word for it that eludes me.
Edit: Story is definitely one (maybe the most important) cornerstone of purpose!
The game lacks the fit and polish that sells iOS games. Yeah, much easier said than done (this coming from an aspiring iOS game developer). The advice to change the icon is spot on. I'd also advise changing your screenshots (which would probably also involve changes to the game graphics): all that grayscale is very depressing, and the monospaced serif font for "Gyroscope Controlled" is very bland and ugly. You want something more fun, possibly at a jaunty angle, definitely using layer styles.
Your game screenshots scream "tech demo", which is no way to sell a game.
The iPhone graphic is swiped from a Kotaku article about iPhone motion controls, and the arrows are kind of terrible, but this is the basic idea. Frankly, the "Gryroscope Controls" is probably too techy for a screenshot ad like this, the text "Motion Controls" would probably sell better with mention of the gyroscope in the app description for those who realize what that is and why it's better than what was available pre-gyroscope:
Aw, please don't do that. I hate it when developers put flashy ad images in the screenshots section; I look at that section to see screenshots, and those types of images are distracting and annoying. There is plenty of room for features in the description.
I sympathise with you, but it's the only place a developer has to really get a potential buyer's attention beyond the icon, so the real estate is too valuable to give up! I think there needs to be a couple "raw" screenshots, but many successful devs recommend using that space to it's fullest potential.
There's a really good article out there about this that I can't track down at the moment, but here are a couple more that also drive the point home:
> Let’s take a look at an app that has done this well. Here we have Read it Later:
Look at Read it Later's page on a real phone and it's fairly terrible: the text is way too small and you can't zoom in, and again, it makes it more difficult to see what the app actually looks like, which is an important part of my buying decision. (There are screenshots within the "screenshots", but they are also rather small.)
For an easy comparison, Read It Later Free's page has only real screenshots, and I find it nicer.
It's definitely not just you. As a customer, I get quite annoyed when a screenshot tries to explain how the game works, as it becomes confusing which parts of the graphic are the game itself and which are not.
I will agree that this is the best advice on this thread:
- Icon looks really bad, needs to look hot.
- The gray graphics make it look unfinished.
- The balls should be nice and round. You have some pretty powerful hardware to work with now, I don't see why they look like they have only 20 faces...
- Fonts don't seem right.
I would also like to add:
- Most iPhone 4 owners didn't buy their device for a "gyroscope" and I'd go as far to say they don't know what it is.
- Are there any other tilt-controls you can add to open the doors for 3GS owners?
- The screenshots don't really paint a picture of what the objective of the game is. Why is it fun? Just a bunch of balls in a gray world does not look fun.
Anyway, I hope you get a lot of good advice and can start selling some copies.
SlideToPlay's shot [1] at the very top of their review is probably the point where everyone stopped reading the review and left. In the AppStore you are up against "Cut the rope" kind of polish, and that's a plank set very high. First impression really matters and the game fails to make it, hence all the problems.
It's horrible to think back and remember that I went out of my way to go for a "gritty" look, way back before I was even considering thinking about the marketing angle. There's one lesson well learned. I'm definitely going to take this advice to heart. Thanks!
I don't think the gritty/old timey look is bad, but I think you could push it further to sell it as such. I think you could go a long way by adding SOME saturation back into the world, and tinting things a bit sepia for an aged look. I'd still leave the bullseyes full saturation, though, as they really do pop right now. If you want to keep things feeling deliberately old timey and worn, adding a little bit of aged film overlay would go a long way (some decent examples of this type of aging, though fully black and white instead of just partially desaturated, can be seen in the games PB Winterbottom or Limbo).
Out of curiosity, what led to the bullseyes being spherical instead of cylindrical?
You could make people "feel" the gyroscopic movement even more by having the UI's movement be slightly delayed from the player movement, like it's following behind on a rubber band (see: first person games which have helmet art, like Metroid Prime on the gamecube). You wouldn't want to make it too crazy since it has to be usable, but adding a little feeling of sway to the surrounding chrome, tied to gyroscope moves, would probably go a long way towards making it feel less mechanical and more fluid.
Sorry for the armchair art direction by the way. If I am accidentally coming across as an asshole, please know that it is not intentional! I like the concept for the game AND for the visual direction and it made me interested enough to crack open Photoshop and start playing around. I don't know if my ideas are particularly noteworthy or if they actually manage to improve anything, but it's what came to mind when looking at the game. Hopefully no offense is taken!
You're definitely not coming across as an asshole. I know a lot of assholes and I hardly ever see them mock-up screenshots for strangers. Very much appreciated. The screenshot is definitely food for thought.
Btw, I feel like I should have a good answer for why the bullseyes are spherical and not flat... but I don't. More to think about there...
I guess if they're spherical they're consistantly difficult to hit, even if you play spinning animations on them. However, if they're discs, and they rotate on X or Y, their size as a target will fluctuate. I made that mockup with just aesthetics in mind, but changing the shape from spheres would definitely have gameplay implications.
The PS mockup is really beautiful. That's a game I would buy on sight for 99 cents, and get for $1.99 if there were significant good reviews to back up the visuals. The look of the bullseyes in particular are fantastic.
A gritty look that is purposeful and well done would enhance a game that is already good. However, if the basic game mechanics aren't fun then you're just "polishing a turd" (see page 2 of that Gamasutra article I linked to elsewhere).
Just played it. Fun game. Here's what it's missing...
First time I loaded it the menu seemed sluggish. When I pressed buttons, the button gave no feedback and I wasn't sure if the click had registered. I understand there's loading time involved, but some feedback would be nice.
During game play when I "Shoot" there is nothing that displays a shooting event. Balls just explode if my cross-hares are on it. That seems odd. Again, a feedback issue.
Also the menu buttons seem smaller than needed and there are too many options. If you could make it simpler that might be better.
Overall the game play is smooth and the gyro controls are cool. I think this would make a really engaging first person shooter. Maybe shooting something other than balls for points would be more fun.
The menu buttons do have an invert effect when you tap them, but it might be too subtle. There's also audio feedback when you tap a button, but that doesn't help if you have your sound off.
Right. Most buttons I did notice feedback. It was mostly when I first entered the app. Didn't see feedback on the button in the splash screen or the screen immediately after (if I recall correctly). And yes, I had sound off.
Also, when posting to HN. It would probably be best to organize an up vote campaign. I'm not saying game HN to get on the front page, but getting some initial up votes and comments will help you to get others interested in a headline they might otherwise ignore in the "new" section.
I know how you feel. I invested a lot of time in a game that just isn't selling. Nor is the free version. I mean what is wrong with free games? :)
I think sometimes we just fail to see that our games are really crap. I totally fell in love with the idea of a real-time multiplayer quiz for the iPhone. But nobody else did.
[EDIT]I am not saying your game is no good. I haven't really played it. More of a general comment on how we may not fairly judge our own work[/EDIT]
I'm trying to buy it but the app store isn't working right now. At any rate, here are some ideas from an iOS developer with nothing shipped yet, for what it's worth:
Be way more explicit with your branding and marketing about exactly what the game is, right down to the name, if you're willing to change it. Looking at the top charts right now, there are games that show you exactly how to play just with the title and the icon: Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope, Flick Golf, Feed Me Oil. You want to be the gyro shooting gallery app. So, something like Gyro Shot or Gyro Shooting. It's sounds lame but it seems to work. It may also give Apple a reason to feature you, since you are demoing a hardware feature.
I think you also need a more fun look. The game looks really drab right now. A grey factory is not a terribly exciting backdrop and the balls are pointy. Choose a look that you can execute at grade A level. This is where the "glowing neon" look came from -- programmers who can't do art. Use shaders to make the balls perfectly round and give them some sort of cool effect. The screenshots should be attractive on their own.
Ok, I finally managed to buy it and it's FUN! Really fun. You've got a really fundamental and addictive game here. If you are really the only one in the app store doing it then you should be able to clean up. You just have to pollish the look and let shoppers know what it is.
A couple of details - icon (as someone else mentioned). Another thing is - you're a textbook example of promoting "features", and not "benefits". Instead of writing "Using Oscilloscope", which nobody cares about, you should've written "The smoothest shooting experience there is (thanks to oscilloscope)".
Also: get a graphic designer. Your graphics are not that bad, but a good painter could really make this app work much better. People buy good looking games.
As for your trailers - they aren't that bad. As a tech person I'll say: wow. It really looks smooth, I'm impressed. BUT most people aren't technical - aside from the screen they should see a happy person playing, and they should see someone really TILTING the device - now it's barely visible (perhaps even exaggerate the moves so they can be seen on the camera). Look at one of the Kinect trailers. You can't do as good, but you can get close. Oh - and remember that there should be a link close to the end of the movie, directing to the app store.
Anyway - these are just a couple of things for a good product / landing page. Doing this alone won't increase sales though...
Ok, I didn't actually buy the game, instead I had a look at what all your potential customers see. Your screenshots are too gray and muddled, the game doesn't look exciting on these shots. Have a look at top selling games (i.e. Angry Birds), and how colorful their screenshots are.
Your icon is not good. It doesn't tell a story, it doesn't look fancy, it is not colorful.
I'm selling a couple of apps, and one think I'm sure of is that customers never, ever, read the text description. They just have a look at the screenshots. And they decide which apps / screenshots to check by your icon. I've, accidentally, had a non working app (there was a huge bug in there for the first 2 weeks which made it basically dysfunctional) reach huge sales (150+ sales a day) just because the icon was really, really beautiful.
The problem with the screenshots, of course, is that the in game content looks to dull. I can't really say how you can improve it, but have a look at top selling games.
Even switching to free is not enough to gain serious worldwide exposure. It helps, but there's also an element of chance and just getting it in front of the right people.
My current app hit #1 in a fairly major category (music) quite easily when we switched to free, but in the rest of the world it barely cracked into the top 50 before immediately sinking again, mostly because no one knows it exists. Still trying.
I did release a 'lite' version with fewer levels, but I do have plans to put together an ad-supported 'free' version. I'll follow up with results when that all goes down.
Yeah, I agree with @rkalla that this marketing anti-pattern summary will likely prove to be your best marketing piece so far.
Also, I would recommend finding a good graphic designer to help you out. The icon for Bullseye Factory doesn't promise $1.99 worth of fun. Plus, I'm sure you can think of something more creative than stripped balls in a perfectly preserved yet empty factory. How about going along with the Jester theme and making it some sort of a factory taken over by zombie clowns?
Your game is technically very impressive, but needs a good theme to sell it. Looks at Nuts for instance. It's probably slightly less complicated technically, but it has a funny, slightly juvenile name, cute squirrels, and various alternative objectives.
It doesn't look like you've ever offered the full app for free. Have you considered playing the "free for a day" game to drive some interest?
http://appshopper.com/games/bullseye-factory
Have you considered updating the app icon? It looks quite dark and flat rather than fun and cartoony like many game icons.
I was a little surprised to see how non-spherical the balls look in your screenshots. If it can still perform well with a more detailed ball model, I would think that would help the look of the screenshots.
Having successfully finished many bad games, while gradually making better ones, here is my advice:
You can know from very early user feedback whether the game is going to interest anyone as a product, but you have to stop believing in your game for a moment, or you'll ignore the warning signs. The in-person pitch or demo lets you pick up some details, but product releases give you broader feedback. Do lots of both.
If, after pressing people in-person for thoughts, the feedback is "hmm...well...i don't know...that sounds interesting..." the concept is wrong and you need to start over. You should have something that gives people a foothold to really discuss it and take ownership, or the subsequent marketing efforts won't have much impact on anyone. Online, this is reflected in dead silence. People look and then go away, or if there's interest, it's in something not really related to the product's selling points, like the technology stack it uses.
If there is a product there the volume of commentary will be much higher and drastically more opinionated. From there it's a matter of managing the conversation and picking the path that is likely to open the doors further for the product - pivoting it if necessary. The feedback here is from other developers, which means a heavy bias towards polish. Try to find deeper user concerns instead.
Most of the time, it takes stops and starts, failure, heartache, and most importantly years of work and some luck to make an overnight success.
Your Ask HN not making it to the front page? Probably just bad luck (there are lots of good stories that don't make it to the front page). Game blogs not writing about it? Probably just bad luck that they heard about other games at the same time that they wanted to write about more.
I think there's a common feeling that there's just that one magic bullet that's going to make you a success (that TechCrunch article, or that Touch Arcade article, or if you can JUST get into YC or get that first investor). I think all that stuff definitely helps, but from what I've seen the best way to do it is to get a good amount of sleep, hustle your ass off 5-6 days a week, and have a partner in crime (even if it's just a drinking buddy who works on their own, separate projects).
I think you just have to pick up and start on the next project. The App Store is extremely competitive, but if you just keep making better and better games every time, something will stick. Just be sure to do some client work or keep your day job in the meantime to stay financially solvent. :)
I wonder if this is the common theme among many of us who try to put apps in the app store: figuring out what does not work. For our app: iEBT (which is an interface to a server allowing you to track your euro notes: eurobilltracker.com), we not only took a very tiny niche, but didn't think about marketing either.
What we did was this:
- picked a somewhat hight price point ($2)
This seemed to use like the sweetspot, with what we could live and what we would expect an
honest buyer to pay. (who knows?!)
- we wrote to the canonical forum, where we expected most of the potential users.
That resulted in an initial rush (two days after writing to the forum), but it wasn't
much at all.
- the domain iebtapp.com was registered prior to publishing, but contained nothing more
then a simple "Something's coming this december" string. Watching the server logs, there
seemed to be some who were trying to figure out where the link from the app pointed.
- after some time, we wrote the current, very limited text on iebtapp.com. Not even with images.
That seems to have resulted in a minor increase in sales.
- with some text on the website, we thought it was time to do some advertisement, and went with Google Ads.
This too seems to have resulted in a minor increase in sales.
And here's what we plan to do:
- add Appirater to the App. We have only a very few reviews, and they are not enough to get any star rating
on the AppStore. Maybe this helps, who knows. I will closely watch this.
Personal conclusion:
iOS development is really /a lot/ of fun. But I think we need to change two things:
- More marketing. But not all at once; results should be measurable.
- Niche markets, that are this tiny, can be a very high risk game. (Especially if someone
else, writes to the forum that he's going to release another iPhone app and lets people
sign up for the beta :-))
You mentioned posting to Hacker News before, and hey, I was the one guy who left a comment! heh.
I also have an iPhone game in the store, but I've done a little bit better than you have. I made about $8,000.00 in my first year.
Just echoing everybody else's comments: People are very reluctant to spend any amount of money on a game without being able to try it first. You must have a free option to get them interested. In my case, I have a crippled free version and a paid version. I started before in-app purchasing was available. Today I'd probably go with "free but pay to remove ads" instead.
The mistake I have made is that I program too slowly (heh). Eight grand a year for an app is not bad, if I could crank out a new one every three months or so. The app store audience favors having a bunch of shallow apps, rather than one big app you pour your heart and soul into.
the testimonial paragraph is awkwardly worded ("... a portal into a virtual shooting gallery overflowing with beach ball-shaped targets just waiting to be popped") and i can't tell how to play (or what makes it fun) from the screenshots. it's gyroscope controlled, but what the hell does that mean?
i'm going to give the lite version a try, but the app store page totally didn't grab me.
i thought "the heist" had a pretty good write-up and screenshot section, for what it's worth. i usually just read the first paragraph and scroll to the screenshots.
EDIT: i tried it, it's like an FPS where you shoot beach balls and twist the phone around to aim. looks pretty well done, but not my bag (i hate aiming anything by moving the phone)
Wow that was a very interesting article. Thank you so much for the advice. I am working on an app of my own now and my marketing plan was essentially the same as what you did. I would have never guessed it would be so hard to get people to look at an app.
I appreciated your article too, but I have a different opinion on the value of luck.
The "big players" don't trust to luck when the release an app, especially if they've poured in thousands in dev costs. They use paid installs to push onto the charts, and then them momentum of the app takes over from there.
It's only the small fry that are scrambling around for a mention on RandomAppBloggger.com.
Thank you for writing up your experiences. I hope that things improve. I've experienced much if not all of the things you have gone through with Infostripe http://infostripe.com. Was to be an iOS app but lives as a HTML5 one. iOS to return eventually.
I guess what I am saying is that you have to keep going, market, iterate, try things and as said not give up. At some point hopefully your product will begin to sell itself enough for you to improve or version 2 it.
Chin up man, I've been studying behavioral decision making as it relates to marketing "nudging" for years and am still learning everyday. The only thing I've found that consistently works with any meaningful probability is being different. Just like this post. Yet another iOS game doesn't though I do feel the gyroscope is the most underutilized piece of hardware with the most potential for ios devs...
I looked on the App Store at the screenshots and as much as I wanted to like it after reading your great article, it just didn't look like the sort of game I would download (even if it were free).
The graphics are dreary and the screenshots don't make it look fun (or even give me a sense of the gameplay)...
Actually, I don't think this kind of standard iPhone app promotion advice is worthless at all. But like any business problem, not every technique works for every situation.
I wish I had some better advice to suggest, but in my experience, games are a particularly hard category to market and I've never been able to figure out what works well there.
It's not unlike the decision of doing a startup or working for someone else. You can either settle for a typical paycheque, or you can take a gamble, which might see you create a huge hit, or might flop and bring no returns.
I'd argue that you're playing longer odds in the app store. At most startups you'll be pulling down some kind of salary at least. Keep in mind that the median revenue for iOS apps is < $1000 and that at this point you're going to have to invest quite a bit of time to produce something good enough to attract users.
I think a better way to put this is if you want to make GUARANTEED money writing apps... I still think on the whole, its better to release a product yourself than do consulting for someone else.
It's certainly a lot more fun, but if your goal is revenue, particularly as a solo developer, you're going to have to do very well on your own to match what you can easily make as a consultant/employee.
I don't think it has to be either/or. I took about a month off to write my iOS app. While it never made me rich, it still provides a nice income stream that continues today. Now I have my regular job revenue and app sales revenue.
I suppose a lesson that you might have learned is that doing things the expected or accepted way is not always the right answer.
As you alluded to, releasing pre-Christmas and pitching bloggers with free promo codes is so common as to render it useless unless you're remarkable about it.
If your great game gets lost down the charts before it's seen, then your success relies on people finding it using App Store search and your keywords. From my experience nobody does this, except for Utilities.
Having a really good app helps it stay on the top, but not necessarily get to the top at all. We've seen pretty poor games get to the top (and usually falling down quickly) and great apps never making the top (due to ie. poor shots or description).
Hmm, I don't agree. The game I made for myself is great, I love it. Likewise for a few people here, one guy likes multiplayer trivia games, etc.
So, while it may not be a charts buster, I enjoy my game, and it's one of three that I play (the other two: Arkanoid-style game, and a free card game).
Great comments this time around. I'd buy the game if I had an iOS device. Looks truly fun. I agree with others though that the icon can be improved. I found the trailer very good.
on a tangential note - "This was not the easiest thing in the world for me to sign myself up for, seeing as how I usually tend to avoid going places where there are likely to be people (not a big fan). However, somewhat bizarrely, I do enjoy public speaking, so I decided to give it a whirl."
I thought I was the only one that behaves like that!
This article/blog post is wrong. None of the reasons listed had anything to do with his app store success.
Word of mouth was there: and it was 'don't bother'. If it's an app or game that people have to have, most of these techniques would have yielded different results.
Except for a few: like submitting to websites for review... most of them are looking for cash for reviews, so you get what you pay for.
I haven't seen any games that topped the list that were not worthy of chart-toppers... If games or apps like this were chart-toppers, then the chart wouldn't be worth much.
'Most of the major iOS gaming message boards have a section where developers are “allowed” to announce the arrival of their games. This is convenient for gamers as they can just avoid this one section altogether.'
Stoic Jester indeed!
Nice overview of app marketing wasteland. I went thru much the same and the needle never moved, or not very much at least. My new approach is to give away a free version that is slightly hobbled but still useful and use that base of users to launch other ventures.
Newsflash: "if you build it they will come" is bullshit. It's dawned on your that you're not getting your message out.
Now what?
1. Buy ads. It costs about $0.00001 to show an ad banner on mobile. $0.01 to buy on a click basis. $10k to get into the app store top 25. Do the math. Minimums apply.
2. PR: meet/call or otherwise contact the people who can get your message out and convince them how cool your game is. Or pay someone who can do this for you.
I would add to the above comment that it helps to use the KISS principle for marketing - (No not Keep It Simple Stupid).
I'm talking about KISS the band!
You basically need to tell yourself that you made the Best F--ing Game in the World and use that to fuel you past all the disappointments in the marketing - cuz it IS hard work and there is no magic bullet.
Also, you should be using this game to build up an "installed base" for your next game. Get fans on facebook. Build up a mailing list. Have a way to message existing users. etc.
One last thing, since I'm on my soapbox, is that I think this whole $0.99/unit business model is somewhat unsustainable and really works to the advantage of the big publishers and against indies. It really is in the best interests of the publishers to keep the accepted price point at $0.99 because only they have the economies of scale and connections to move enough units to make a hit - or if it isn't a hit to just move on to the next title.
Oh yea, and the front page of HN this time around.
It sounded like you got your hands wet in a lot of different things. That doesn't necessarily mean you are going to retire on this game, but think how many people are aware of you now and when you do Bullet Factory X (where you skeet-shoot puppies and elderly people) you'll have that much more information on how to promote the game or where to spend your time. It also sounds like you had a successful working relationship with your sister (as an artist) which is half the battle for any game title. So that's a big win right there for your next game too.
I'm not that surprised as the lack of feedback from bloggers though. I think I get 10 emails a day following the format:
It just wears you down after a while so ignoring something like Bullet Factory isn't an insult, it just falls into the 'spam' category of garbage announcements I'm sure most bloggers get every day.Bullet Factory is a fun/simple concept, but it seems better as an ad-supported title (it's too simple) than a 99 cents title when you compare it along side other 99 cent titles I've seen in the app store. The bar is getting higher and higher and unless I see something amazing in screenshots or a trailer, it's not even worth the purchase barrier to entry for me to try it. Unrealized value (purchasing a game for 99 cents only to realize I hate the gameplay mechanics) is so frustrating to me, I'd rather just not buy something I'm on the fence about.
I would take the low-sales-since-december-even-though-you-are-marketing as an indicator that it isn't a high-demand game. Release a free ad-supported version of it "Bullet Factory FREE" and move on to your next title. Keep track of the download differences to learn a bit more about what worked, what didn't and where the bar is.
That's not to say your next game or the game after that won't hit -- keep pushing, you'll have a success and it will catch you by surprise.
They always do.