The game was all developed in my spare time. Mostly through staying up really late after work.
This was the first time I've gone out and tried marketing one of my games, and I've learned a ton.
The number one thing I would recommend is to get eyes on the project as early as possible. I'd hit up TIGSource and start posting a dev log as soon as you can. Be sure to take it out to local events, and definitely start showing other game developers.
The game took a lot longer to make than I was originally planning for, and a lot of that was due to some design decisions that I struggled with. However when I took it out and started showing some local developers they had tons of ideas to help contribute, and actually helped me through the problems that I had been stuck on.
As for the pay model, The whole reason I made this game is because I love to make games. I don't think there was really any strategy behind the monetization. I just put it out there for a couple of bucks. Honestly I expected this to come out and maybe a few people play it, and then I'd be onto my next one; to me that was totally cool.
Actually this morning I had posted a thread on touch arcade and I got 1 response about how a mom had played the game with her daughter and they both had fun. Really if all the game amounts to is that, I'd be happy.
So far though I've been pretty humbled by the response, and all I can say is thanks!
If your only goal is to have people play it and have fun, you should make it free but have In-App Purchases.
Many more people will end up downloading your game, and it may spread better that way (since it's multiplayer).
Now the question is how do you make money with IAP? Maybe keep some awesome game modes locked? Unlock them by getting enough coins (e.g., 100K). You can do this by playing enough, by sharing the app with friends on FB/Twitter, or by purchasing coins through IAP.
You play an alien life form that pollinates itself by shooting out spore that live for only 10 seconds. Some of your pods give the spore special powers!
As a smaller game developer I have to say that the whole free model of games worries me frankly.
At minimum it has made me more cautious with my decision to bring a title to iOS due to the overwhelming expectation now that the game be free. If you want an example of this check out the youtube comments of the official tiny thief trailer. A game that debuted at $2.99. When I last looked there were an overwhelming amount complaining about how "the game needs to be free"...
As a larger issue I'm a little more worried about how this might end in a deterioration of the quality of experience on the iOS platform? Looking at that image of top paid vs top grossing, one might ask the question in 5-10 years will we be talking about candy crush? hay day? conversely how about Minecraft? Plants vs. Zombies?
Ask Ouya what happens when no one is developing for your hardware...