You could always take it upon yourself to promote the game by releasing screenshots rather than waiting for reviewers to solicit you. Come on... give us consumers something to wet our appetite and put your money where your mouth is.
If this game does really well, I'm considering creating a sequel with Unity. 1 - Generally, reviewers like to review a game if it has exclusive information. 2 - Regardless if Touch Arcade previews the game or not, I'm planning to start marketing the game after it has been send to Apple. I'm planning to be busy with marketing like releasing screenshots and a promo video while the app is in review.
I'm considering creating a sequel with Unity. If this game does really well, I might do it. 1 - Generally, reviewers like to review a game if it has exclusive information. 2 - Regardless if Touch Arcade previews the game or not, I'm planning to start aggressively marketing the game after it has been send to Apple. I'm planning to be busy with marketing like releasing screenshots and a promo video while the app is in review.
Unless it falls way short of expectations... The followers of Fast Striker were SORELY disappointed when it was released, and was pretty much half of what the DRVS said it would be, as well as overpriced... To add insult to injury, a couple days after the release, after all the followers and supporters bought it, they dropped the price $4 lower... From $5 down to a buck! Then after seeing all the 1 star reviews, gave us a half assed update, and raised the price to $3... Needless to say, they lost quite a few fans... Building a fanbase before a game usually only means there's more people saying "WHY HASN'T THIS CONE OUT YET?!?!" and then getting upset after the game isn't everything they thought it would be... Games like Danmaku Unlimited, which has just put out a lite version a couple weeks before the full version release, totally hit everyone by surprise... But seeing how everyone reacted to it... It's A LOT more than we expected to see in a bullet hell game on the iOS! I think letting the game go to approval then promoting is a good idea... Especially if you're in it for the long haul... The game will sell alright the first couple weeks... Having us that know about it buy it... And not having predetermined ideas of what the game will be, it has a good potential of being more than we expect... Which means better ratings, and good reviews, instead of disappointment and bad reviews, hindering future sales... This way, with good reviews, more people should buy it... Word of mouth will spread quickly if the game is as good as he's hoping it'll be... And then the fanbase will build... And build.. Also giving more funds and promotion for the second game (to be made in Unity!!!) I think he's going about it the right way... Just my 8 cents... =oP
Hehe, yeah, right now, he's pretty much creating hype by not sharing too much... And having us babble...
I don't know, I think the conversation here has been really good. I'm still hard at work on the game. Here's the revised schedule... Title Screen — 1-2 days Option Screen and finalize shops — 1 day More Enemies — 7 days 11 explorable areas — 7 days Quests and quest characters — 3-5 days Comic story (maybe) — 2 days Game Center and project optimization — 1-2 days The problem with a creative project like this is that the productivity is not always consistent. Some days I just sit at my computer, struggling on what to add next. But yesterday, I was incredibly productive... adding five new areas. I'm really happy how that section turned out. I can understand if there's frustration about the lack of screenshots and a promotional video. It's hard to stay focused. I can see places where I can cut corners, but I'm not doing it. Example - I could launch the game earlier if I simply cut out the top levels. I could add these areas later, with an update to the game. But the problem is that if an app doesn't get featured, if it doesn't rise in rank, it falls into a sea of forgotten apps. Any changes I make afterwards could be irrelevant. The initial launch has to be great. Otherwise, I would have wasted lots of time and money. The game has to feel big, fun and professional. So, the development is going longer than expected. I think this extra effort is important, as many aspects of this game are better than I expected.
Sweet!! Yeah, take ur time... Rather have a well thought out game than one that feels like it was rushed just to get it into the AppStore!
I'm at my desk... I'm still working on BOT! I've been working very hard on this project. There were many chances for me to get lazy and cut corners. I didn't. I kept fighting. I kept developing. This thread is one of the reasons why. I wrote 146,800,640 pixels of exploration (on retina displays) as the headline for this thread, so I'm not about to fall short of that goal. I don't know if this game will live up to expectations, but it won't be from lack of trying. I'm working incredibly hard on this game. I'm surprised that Touch Arcade hasn't contacted me for an exclusive preview / interview. I think this game is awesome. There are lots of people waiting for this game too. The goal is to send the game to Apple by the end of the month.
Well, nobody can fault your enthusiasm! I do think you've got a bit fixated on the 146,800,640 pixels thing though. In my experience the number of pixels doesn't make a good or bad game! I'm sure your game will be 'awesome' as long as you remember to include some good gameplay and graphics along with your copious abundance of pixels... I love your unbridled enthusiasm for your own game though. Don't usually get developers saying how awesome their own game is - not even Peter Molyneux says stuff like that!! Lol...
Heh... the most I remember about Peter is his explanation about growing trees and why they didn't make it into Fable. I don't want to be that guy. I wrote 146,800,640... which is 35 areas... and I plan to deliver that amount. It's not so much that I'm obsessed with just that one thing. I feel that I'm obsessed about everything in this game. Here are some other things I've been concerned about... Will it work on legacy devices? Are the weapons balanced? Are the enemies challenging? Does it look good? Does it sound good? Is the game fun? So far, I'm thinking that the answer to all of those questions is yes. I've learned from my previous apps on the iTunes App Store. One of the biggest issues from my past apps was that my games weren't big enough. It didn't have enough content. I'm working to resolve that problem here. True, I do have to focus more on quests and enemies. I have spent a lot of time building the game world. Making that world feel alive is now important. That's what the second-half of May is about. Now that the 35 areas are almost complete, the goal is to make each of those areas feel significant... a puzzle, a tough battle, a challenging area... it's not just 35 areas of filler. I designed the levels with the thought of player progression and exploring. There are five upgrades to find. Over the next few weeks, the project goal is to make finding those upgrades satisfying... not too easy, but not too difficult either. Fun and challenging — that's the design goal.
That's a good point. Even the most talented developers/designers will sometimes think their work is mediocre, when it is truly groundbreaking... Question: when you say your testing is "in house" how many people are we talking? If it's just you and a few others, I guarantee there will be bugs you don't find. You should at least find some more people here on the forum (or somewhere else) to beta test. You need people with fresh eyes to play around with it.
I commend you for not taking the easy route! The very best avoid that route! Your game sounds very intriguing. I always loved the concept of RPGs, but never found myself to have the will to finish them due to how tedious they would get. However, this seems like it provides all of those upgrade items while not being tedious and providing a world for me to explore without having to "Kill 20 Enemy A to Progress". So, good luck on you game, I look forward to screenshots/footage.
It should run on all iOS devices 3.0 or higher, but iOS 4.1 or higher is recommended. That's because BOT will have Game Center support. The game looks nice and crisp on the iPhone 4, but it's quite playable on an iPod Touch (Second Generation).
