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I just want to say Shalinor I think you've made a mistake going paid for your app. Our first few games here (when paid was all there was) didn't do amazingly well, but their purpose is to be an advertising base for our new games, plus it shows we have some good stuff out and people search for our name now. I think changing your mind after 5 days is really jumping the gun. Lots of F2P models won't show any usable data for weeks because it takes time for people to hit the wall and spend money. A lot of people will look at $1.99 and thing it's way too much and never buy it; plus all the people who did download it now can't even spend money if they want to. You've effectively cut off your existing userbase in the hope of getting a few more people. After 5 days. The vast, vast majority of games don't make any money on the appstore, especially first releases. I think you should look at what will generate money in the future better, with new releases and don't make such hasty decisions!
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Mar 12, 2013 13:39
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As a side-note to the F2P conversation, I figured I'd throw this out there... After my previous company (Zynga-- ick!) shuttered our studio after acquiring us years previous, a few friends and I were sitting around drinking our severance checks away and decided to make our own company a few months ago. Last week, we released our first "real" game (after a hilariously cute experiment in hugging sloths). The game's called Letter Rush and it's a frenetic word-find game mashed up with Guitar Hero. It's free and you should play! There's Facebook integration and multiplayer so you can play with/against friends (all of the shares are explicit and we don't pull any spammy stuff)! There's IAP so we can (maybe) continue to drink! I'm happy to answer any game questions here or over in the game dev thread if it's more development (it's in Haxe)/metrics (until your ears bleed)/whatever related. (More parentheticals!) Overly busy screenshot of exciting word-finding in progress:  There's also a trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baBUfMrGcjQ devilmouse fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Mar 12, 2013 |
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Mar 12, 2013 14:24
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I don't think her average revenue per user is the problem, it's that she doesn't have enough users. My personal opinion is that it might be a little late to make changes, the first week's sales are gone, and that's where the magic happens for paid games a lot of the time. To salvage this, I think she'd need advertising, put it all in for one or two days and hope it brings you into the top 100 list. My personal experience with paid apps has been that you can get eyes on it on the cheap by reducing the price and/or making it free for a day, but you certainly don't make much money from doing so, and it's only really worth while to drop it to free for a day (especially if you got a lot of press) if you also have in app purchases. (seriously I've been able to land roughly 10k users when sales completely died on a paid app by dropping it to free for a day a few times, it resulted in maybe a dozen paid purchases after the sales ended) too late to get a publisher? Maybe talk to a marketing firm to see if you can make a second version of it reskinned as a branded app and make some money that way. OR maybe clean it up and sell it as a endless runner starter in the unity store for 100 bucks a pop or whatnot. just my two cents.
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Mar 12, 2013 14:27
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devilmouse posted:Overly busy screenshot of exciting word-finding in progress: Been playing this for a week or so since all my ex-Zynga Facebook friends started spamming it, fun little game. Definitely check it out, it's free!
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Mar 12, 2013 14:47
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RhysD posted:While we're on the topic, I wrote a post-mortem about Take My Machete, since it's sitting nice and dead now Well it's a shame Machete wasn't more of a success, I like it quite a lot! 
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Mar 12, 2013 14:48
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hahaha!
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Man this thread has made me depressed for iOS gaming. I was really into it for a period but based on devs in this thread and elsewhere it looks like it has basically gone to poo poo and good games just don't make money anymore.
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Mar 12, 2013 14:51
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Kaboobi posted:Been playing this for a week or so since all my ex-Zynga Facebook friends started spamming it, fun little game. Definitely check it out, it's free! And by spamming, he means "helpfully spreading the word for their ex-coworkers", not actually automated FB posts.
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Mar 12, 2013 14:56
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devilmouse posted:And by spamming, he means "helpfully spreading the word for their ex-coworkers", not actually automated FB posts. Yeah, I guess spamming is the wrong word, but yes, I mean I had 10 friends post about the game in one day. I haven't seen any automated facebook posts about it, maybe you should look into that 
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Mar 12, 2013 15:02
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THE AWESOME GHOST posted:Man this thread has made me depressed for iOS gaming. I was really into it for a period but based on devs in this thread and elsewhere it looks like it has basically gone to poo poo and good games just don't make money anymore. A friend of mine who's been in the game industry for most of my life was telling me over drinks one day something that made a fair bit of sense to me. The mobile industry is a lot like the PC industry from 20 years ago, and what we'll be seeing is the importance of publishers. Sales are going to be based on how many eyes you can get on your game, and the average studio won't have the money to compete there, so they'll need to go to publishers, and then things will likely progress in a manner we've already seen before. It's certainly not the death of the mobile industry, it's just changing, and as shown by the PC realm, there's still room for niche studios and markets, you just shouldn't expect to get rich from it, and you'll need to keep costs super low.
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Mar 12, 2013 15:09
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Juc66 posted:A friend of mine who's been in the game industry for most of my life was telling me over drinks one day something that made a fair bit of sense to me. Marketing is a lot more important than a lot of devs realize. If you can't rely on an Apple Feature you need to make as many friends as you can in the press and with other developers who will cross promote your game.
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Mar 12, 2013 15:24
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So how the hell do I get the last 5 clones in Pixel People? At first I thought I just had to have all the 'normal' 150 different clones beforehand but I can't still make the last 5. Any ideas? (The game is updated and all that jazz)
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Mar 12, 2013 15:25
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eeenmachine posted:Marketing is a lot more important than a lot of devs realize. If you can't rely on an Apple Feature you need to make as many friends as you can in the press and with other developers who will cross promote your game. Didn't Shalinor's game get an Apple Feature though? (I think she mentioned it did). And still is struggling . . . Funso Banjo fucked around with this message at 15:39 on Mar 12, 2013 |
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Mar 12, 2013 15:37
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Funkz posted:So how the hell do I get the last 5 clones in Pixel People? At first I thought I just had to have all the 'normal' 150 different clones beforehand but I can't still make the last 5. Any ideas? I'm guessing you're missing the romantic job. It's a bug that the next update should address.
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Mar 12, 2013 15:42
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Funso Banjo posted:Didn't Shalinor's game get an Apple Feature though? (I think she mentioned it did). And still is struggling . . . Ah. Well if you do get a feature and the game still doesn't do well at all there are other issues.
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Mar 12, 2013 15:43
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Happy Noodle Boy posted:I'm guessing you're missing the romantic job. It's a bug that the next update should address. Bummer. Guess I'll just have to grind out the surprises for those 'rare' pets in the mean time then. 
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Mar 12, 2013 15:47
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iOS is just settling into it's own situation now. It had a huge boom and everyone flocked to it so the success stories and randomly awesome games were always showing up. It's not fresh or unbelievably exciting like it was around the iPad 2/3 launch and that's not a "bad" thing, it's just the way things go. I definitely think the next consoles will pull away a few iOS focused development but the mobile gaming core will still around unless something really goes wrong. Even in this low period there are always two or three fun games being released each week.
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Mar 12, 2013 15:54
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Kilometers Davis posted:iOS is just settling into it's own situation now. It had a huge boom and everyone flocked to it so the success stories and randomly awesome games were always showing up. It's not fresh or unbelievably exciting like it was around the iPad 2/3 launch and that's not a "bad" thing, it's just the way things go. I definitely think the next consoles will pull away a few iOS focused development but the mobile gaming core will still around unless something really goes wrong. Even in this low period there are always two or three fun games being released each week. Like the PC 90% of games on iOS are shite. Most are thinly veiled cash grabs, the PC is catching up nicely in that regard. Mobile platforms are mostly hampered by the lovely processors though, people wanting more than "touch a cat, a cat touching simulator; pocket" usually stick with consoles.
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Mar 12, 2013 16:35
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eeenmachine posted:Ah. Well if you do get a feature and the game still doesn't do well at all there are other issues. I downloaded it because I download everything, but there were a lot of things about the game that made me go, "Huh?!" and might have kept me from ever looking it up on the store. The title makes it sound like a licensed game for a property/character I've never heard of called "Jones". And all of the review quotes used in the trailer are terrible. quote:"Upcoming 'Jones on Fire' is basically 'Jared Nelson: The Video Game" - TouchArcade Huh? I already thought it was "Jones: The Video Game". What's this about Jared Nelson now? Who's Jared Nelson? (Turns out he writes for TouchArcade and loves cats. That was clear in the original article because there was enough context provided, but outside that specific post, only one percent of people will even understand it. And for a long time, this screen was the video's thumbnail on YouTube.) quote:"Give me one good reason to save hundreds of cats from a raging inferno. [...] Fair enough." - Kotaku It says something that this is the best blurb in the trailer. quote:"...but the graphics alone make it worth a second look, and there are kitties!" - GameZebo Oh drat, no. Don't put in a pull-quote that starts with "But" and follows it with "the graphics". That makes it sound like the gameplay is poo poo, which it's totally not! You would have been better served by putting your own text into the trailer: tell people your selling points, like the (really cool) level/lives system. People are sick of endless runners? Let them know what's different about yours! If they're watching the video, you have their eyeballs -- but you still have to bring them to the app. I'm pulling for you, Shalinor. Hope your platformer-Metroidvania-thing is just as good and sets iTunes on fire.
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Mar 12, 2013 17:02
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concerned mom posted:The vast, vast majority of games don't make any money on the appstore, especially first releases. I think you should look at what will generate money in the future better, with new releases and don't make such hasty decisions!  The download numbers were insufficient to support even a modest F2P success in any kind of useful horizon, and their trajectory was even more alarming when you considered that that was with a featuring. No amount of press drive could have saved it - I would have needed the money to advertise up into the top grossing list, to fix it. (though as een pointed out, if it was having issues like that, something was wrong with the game / presentation / etc for this market - so even ads might not have saved it)The other cool advantage of no IAP is that hitting other stores is fast, now, which might let me eke out a success, especially if I can drive a bit more press with a free content update. Either way, all struggling with the DOA freemium game for months would have done is guaranteed my studio's collapse... I need to react and move fast, and make more bets, rather than getting hung up for months poking a single release. Especially one that's done this well critically. Heck, I'm pleased as punch with that part. Shalinor fucked around with this message at 17:09 on Mar 12, 2013 |
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Mar 12, 2013 17:06
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I just beat The Quest base game. I must have made my character more intelligently this time because I stomped everything in the final dungeon.
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Mar 12, 2013 17:19
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thedouche posted:I just beat The Quest base game. I must have made my character more intelligently this time because I stomped everything in the final dungeon. About how long did it take you to finish it?
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Mar 12, 2013 17:25
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To weigh in on the Jones on Fire thing; I assume your metrics are at least telling you SOMETHING about what went wrong. Whether you've just got low downloads, people only play it once, play it loads but never buy anything... metrics won't fix a game, but they can at least point you to where it is going wrong. Might be something fundamental and you just roll onto the next project; might be that it's actually something you can address now. More than anything it's about being able to do a good post-mortem, so you don't end up in the position again where you release something and don't get the response you expected.
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Mar 12, 2013 17:34
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psylent posted:Oh please do gently caress off. Did I miss when we all started hating on Crickler?  I thought general opinion was that it was pretty okay?
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Mar 12, 2013 17:59
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I want to point out that Dungeon Plunder http://www.appshopper.com/games/dungeon-plunder is one of the best games I have ever played and thanks to the goon that recommended it. It really is only 2 bucks. The IAP is just extra costumes that are vanity only. It's a tough roguelike/rpg with awesome addictive gambler combat. Seriously. It's good. I am currently addicted to that and Hearoes O & C because they actually made a great dota-like on ipad. Get Dungeon Plunder.
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Mar 12, 2013 18:10
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Waldorf Sixpence posted:Did I miss when we all started hating on Crickler? I think the issue is that the guy is basically just a spam bot for promoting his own games.
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Mar 12, 2013 18:20
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Waldorf Sixpence posted:Did I miss when we all started hating on Crickler? We hate VideoCEOVet, not his games. We also hate this games.
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Mar 12, 2013 18:29
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loudog999 posted:About how long did it take you to finish it? I'm honestly not sure. I played at it fairly regularly for a couple weeks. Things got faster toward the end as my character/gear became beefier.
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Mar 12, 2013 19:06
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I'm afraid my recommendation of I, Gladiator got lost in the f2p discussion but I am interested in what other people think of this game. Appshopper has it free for a limited time but I think it may have dropped free for good. I am to the point now that I am starting to grind a little for better equipment, but the grind isn't to the point that I feel its a chore yet.
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Mar 12, 2013 19:35
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I picked up I, Gladiator on your recommendation and I am digging it so far. It sort of scratches that Infinity Blade itch. Haven't tried multiplayer yet.
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Mar 12, 2013 19:46
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eeenmachine posted:Ah. Well if you do get a feature and the game still doesn't do well at all there are other issues. It was a games-section back page New and Noteworthy, which hasn't been worth much for awhile. If you get editor's choice and it doesn't do well, then there's something terribly wrong. You can try to analyze why it didn't get a ton of downloads if you want, but the thing is that most people's first games tank simply because they're their first games. Building up a fan base is very important, and usually pretty gradual. And starting out on iOS definitely gets more and more difficult and capricious as time goes on. I'm not even sure what my advice would be for new developers to the platform, at this point. Get a publisher seems kind of iffy because a lot of published games tank, too. The difference is that a lot of traditional publisher tricks are much less effective on iOS. Make a game that will be championed by Toucharcade, make it $3, and also make sure casuals can easily play it on the toilet? Clone a really popular flash game but put all your effort in giving a nice UI? That worked for the last two newcomer big hits, but pretty sure you could do the same thing and still have it fail purely by chance. I guess my advice is the same as ever: ENDURE as you build up a fan base and relationship with the press and other developers. It just gets less likely over time. Ok that's it for advice I wish I could play Brogue tiles on my iPad. It's such a good roguelike. I think there's an open source android version... If I was super rich I'd commission this to be made just for my own pooping fun.
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Mar 12, 2013 19:54
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Juc66 posted:A friend of mine who's been in the game industry for most of my life was telling me over drinks one day something that made a fair bit of sense to me. I have to, reluctantly, agree. The key is that the large publishers have 'channel'. Apps with enough users to promote new games to. The App store changes have also played to this, it used to be that you could push into the top 25 of a category and that would matter. No so with the latest UI. The alternative is to go non-traditional and find new ... off the app store way of getting the word out. A 4.5* or even 5* rating isn't enough.
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Mar 12, 2013 21:46
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I think one thing that could help new developers is to build your audience before you launch your game. If your first attempt at market outreach is the day your app is premiering, you've lost. I think engaging communities during the process will build a following, and hopefully you can leverage that following into media coverage ("Hey check out this 800 post thread on TA for my game that is about to debut").
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Mar 12, 2013 21:57
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Are there any decent iOS roguelikes? I'm not talking about ports, they just don't play very well. I've tried 100Rogues but I'm kind of turned off of it now given all the bugs, which is unfortunate, as it's really close to what I'm craving.
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Mar 12, 2013 21:59
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I'll second the recommendation for Dungeon Plunder a little up the page for a Roguelike recommendation. It's got a nice twist in that the better you do with a character, the more powerful your next character gets.
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Mar 12, 2013 22:31
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Harvey Mantaco posted:Are there any decent iOS roguelikes? I'm not talking about ports, they just don't play very well. I've tried 100Rogues but I'm kind of turned off of it now given all the bugs, which is unfortunate, as it's really close to what I'm craving. Echoing Dungeon Plunder. It's the roguelike iOS has needed for a really long time. It's really well made in terms of not feeling like a roughly controlled pc port.
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Mar 12, 2013 22:40
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ZerodotJander posted:I'll second the recommendation for Dungeon Plunder a little up the page for a Roguelike recommendation. It's got a nice twist in that the better you do with a character, the more powerful your next character gets. Amazing. I started working on a roguelike using Kobold2d and Cocos2D like 3 and a half months ago and some free art from opengameart. This guy is using the same engine and literally, out of the thousands of free art sources on the web, is using exactly the exact same art as me. And he made the same game. I'm having a loving brain implosion right now, it's eating itself. Good on him though, looks fun from the youtube video he released. Edit: (Actually looks like he was smart enough to just modify the free starter project from Kobold2d instead of writing his own engine, scroll down half way the page on http://www.kobold2d.com/display/KKDOC/The+Kobold2D+Template+Projects and you can see it's pretty much identical), I'm really surprised this is the first game I've run into with a similar look and feel since this has been out for quite a while now. Hopefully this inspires more people to make roguelikes, there aren't enough of them. Harvey Mantaco fucked around with this message at 22:58 on Mar 12, 2013 |
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Mar 12, 2013 22:52
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Harvey Mantaco posted:Are there any decent iOS roguelikes? I'm not talking about ports, they just don't play very well. I've tried 100Rogues but I'm kind of turned off of it now given all the bugs, which is unfortunate, as it's really close to what I'm craving. Zaga 33 is my go to roguelike right now, but its so streamlined that it misses a lot of the usual D+D tropes. So whether you like it can vary. There's Sword of Fargoal, though it does some things differently too, like the auto combat. The closest thing to a non-ported traditional roguelike is 100 Rogues, and, well, you know already.
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Mar 13, 2013 01:32
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Kepa posted:The closest thing to a non-ported traditional roguelike is 100 Rogues, and, well, you know already.  ... but I say that as someone who didn't have crashing issues with it.
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Mar 13, 2013 01:52
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Holy Cheese posted:Like the PC 90% of games on iOS are shite. Most are thinly veiled cash grabs, the PC is catching up nicely in that regard. Mobile platforms are mostly hampered by the lovely processors though, people wanting more than "touch a cat, a cat touching simulator; pocket" usually stick with consoles. Yeah, I am at the point where I will not buy a game unless there is a lite version to try first. There are so many lovely titles to slog through and the App Store is so bad that I have kinda given up. Puzzle Craft is the only game I have really compulsively played and Crimson Steam Pirates, while more a tech demo then a game, is one of the only ones I have spent any money on. I so want to like iPad gaming but there is just too much crap out there to deal with.
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Mar 13, 2013 01:55
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Shalinor posted:It really isn't bad. Ignore the thread hate for a moment and try it, if you're looking for a roguelike. I mean, it's just, you know, fun I didn't word that right. I've actually put about 2-3 hours into it. I've had multiple game-ending glitches, like walking off the path into nowhereland, getting trapped on the same tile as an NPC that kept hurting me and I couldn't target it. Things like that. Strange targeting things. Then all the little things like text spill-over and whatnot. I'm actually not a "everything is a glitch!!!" alarmist, this is the only time I've ever quit a game for glitches I think, I didn't even see the thread hate. I really wanted to love that game
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Mar 13, 2013 01:58
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