I agree. "Shareware" comes in may flavors, and time-limited is not one I'd want to see. Feature-limited or fewer levels (equivalent to a "lite" version) sounds OK. I know that when I buy desktop shareware games, I won't even TRY a time-limited game unless I already have a lot of interest in it. But I will download a non-timed game on the spur of the moment with much less hesitation. It's not entirely logical, but in the back of my mind I perceive time-limited demos as "useless" on some level, while a short level set or feature-disabled version seems like something I might keep around and enjoy even if I choose not to buy more of the game. If other users feel that same psychological perception, then timed demos might not be good for users OR developers. (And certainly not for Apple or the platform, if that adds annoyance.) (Now, timed trials of productivity apps--especially if they last for weeks--is something I understand the need for on the desktop. But I'm not downloading big productivity apps on the spur of the moment--my behavior there doesn't apply to iPhone games.)
Actually, depending on how it ended up being implemented, a "shareware" app would be far less annoying to me than a "lite" app. Personally, I hate the fact that I have to download one app, try it out, and then if I like it, delete it and download the full version of that app. Personally, I'd much rather download the app, if I like it click a "buy now" button in the app and have it updated to the full version, and if I don't like it then just delete it. That would be a lot more user friendly to me. As for timed-trials, I really despise this method of crippling software, especially since so many developers abuse it with something stupid like a 5 minute time limit. How much can you try out in 5 minutes? I really think people need to go back to the days of Apogee to see how to achieve a decent shareware model. Anyway, that's an aside since Apple doesn't support shareware
It would be awesome if you could click "Buy Now" right in the app and have it automatically REPLACE the original compact app with a fresh, full-size download. Your trial version would be small, and it would be even easier on users than the current system. Best of all would be if it could maintain your high scores and settings when performing the swap (if the dev felt that it made sense to keep them).
The other big advantage to my proposed method is that fixes could easily be made to both the shareware and full version, since they are in effect the same application. Plus it gets rid of the clutter in the App Store. Apple may not care about the flood of applications, but as someone else in this thread pointed out, end users certainly do.
Graphics! Assuming you have a good core game play, if graphics aren't good, it will be passed over. I would recommend getting pro graphics! Check this guy out, he made the graphics for Jabeh which are pretty awesome! http://graphicpeel.com/
On a related note: a good icon is key I feel. Especially if someone's interested but hasn't taken the plunge--yet. An icon they notice and remember is like the cover of a book or the poster of a movie. I'd also want the icon to LOOK like the game itself, but I won't pretend to know whether that helps sales. Looking good, at least, has to help though.
I kind of believe this too. After doing the 30 and Dirty 1.1 update, sales are slightly higher than when I first released it despite raising the price, but then again, I changed quite a bit of stuff for 1.1 and don't know exactly what gave me the boost in sales. Despite the boost in sales though, I only make enough to pay for lunch and maybe dinner with what I make. I honestly believe that, in order to get really really really good sales, my game needs to show up somewhere in a top 10 list or something in the app store, or at least be praised at a respected website. This is what I changed for v1.1: - new icon - made a shorter youtube clip, highlighting gameplay moments, instead of recording a full playthrough - changed the release date so that my app would actually show up in the first page if the user sorted action games by release date (when I first released 30 and Dirty, it showed up at the 6th page) One thing I did when I first launched, which I sort of regret doing, was setting the price at 99 cents for a whole month. Looking back, that was a really dumb decision, and I should have only did it for maybe a week at most. Sales dropped to 1 copy/day within 2 weeks. The good news for early adopters of 30 and Dirty is that I don't like screwing over early adopters. Being an HD DVD supporter in the past, I know exactly what it feels like to be screwed over by fire sales. Rest assured, you will not be punished for buying and supporting my game early. Also looking back, I submitted 30 and Dirty to several iPhone review sites, and I don't think any one of them has done a real review of 30 and Dirty. I wouldn't know the reason why it wouldn't be reviewed, but I'm leaning towards either: - too many other review requests are being considered - presentation of 30 and Dirty was lacking so they didn't want to bother wasting their time with it - the game sucked so much that they didn't want to give the game a 0/10 rating and face my wrath afterwards. I think presentation is a huge factor. Don't slack off in that area. Make sure your game doesn't look like another crappy knock off game made by a 12 year old.
Probably FAQs and old news, but... Just wondering--how quickly can you update your app's... a.) Price b.) Description text Can you change those instantly or is there an approval process? And can enter new description text for EITHER the current app version OR the next version (if any) awaiting approval? Sometimes I'd want to update the current text with new info about what's coming. At other times I want to enter text that will only apply to the new version, and will appear once that's approved. Can you do it both ways? And what about your App Store icon? Can you change that without releasing a new version of the app? (I know your app's real icon wouldn't change then--but can you change the one that shows up in the iTunes store? Like when I see a "sale" banner but the game is the same old version?)
For both Price and Description text, you change make changes without it being approved by Apple. It takes 2-4 hours before we actually see the changes on the App Store. When we submitted an update, we used to change the description but we noticed that the description gets updated to the App Store even before the update gets approved. It seems that the current version and the new version share the same description text. We now wait until the update gets approved before changing the description. It's been a couple of months since we have tested this so someone correct me if things have improved. For the App Store icon, when you submit an app to Apple the App Store icon needs to match the App icon. After your app gets approved, feel free to update the App Store icon to say SALE or NEW or whatever you want. It takes a few hours to show up on the App Store.
Cool--thanks. Sounds like it all makes good sense, except that you have to carefully time your "new in this version" text by hand. (Unless, as you say, that has improved.) I assume you get an email when your app goes live, so that you know to go enter the new version's text?
One thing I noticed about price is that in the time it's being updated, you apparently can't buy the product (I got a message saying as much one time).
You mean you can't buy it just for a moment, or for the 2-4 hours between when the new price is submitted and when it appears?
I don't know. All I can say is that the message was worded something along the lines of "this product can't be purchased because the price is being updated". Or at least that was the general idea (the exact wording truly escapes me right now).
When a new app or an update gets approved, you get an email. If this is a new app, you will not see it on the App Store yet but the direct URL for the app will work. As soon as we get this email, we update the description and App Store icon. We have also heard that buyers have issues with changing prices until some time has passed. We have only had 1 price change and we made the switch in the middle of the night to minimize issues.
Good thinking. I suppose you probably even have hourly stats you can view to decide when is the slowest time of day? What would be great (speaking from total NON-experience ) would be if Apple approved your app, sent you an email, and then didn't post until YOU pulled the trigger. Which you could opt to do in advance--complete with new text that would accompany the release. Or you could wait and pull the trigger it manually--to coordinate a 48-hour intro sale, or whatever.
You do not get hourly stats. You get daily stats. Since 99% of our sales are from United States, it was not hard to determine a good time to change the price.
make a lite version make a demo video give away ad hoc versions or promo codes Give promo codes to review sites (I write reviews BTW) (thats all I can think of)
Sorry to go off topic here a bit, but @yourofl10: do you have to be registered to see the entirety of a post on your site? It looked like most of your reviews were only 5-6 lines of text.
