With so many iPhone apps and games out in the app store, how do you market your app or game to get noticed? That is something every app developer is interested in, and also me Ofcause how well an app sells is also down to how great it is, but here i would like just to hear what you do and how well it goes. With my newest game iPirate Battle i'm trying alot of things. I do all the normal stuff, write to websites hoping for a review, forums, blogs, twitter, facebook, youtube, link index sites and we have payed for facebook ads. But as of right now it's not working out to great. iPirate Battle sells very little even though the game is only 0.99$, and it's in my opinion a very fun game. So what am i doing wrong? Is the text describing the game bad, or are the pictures bad. What about the video of iPirate Battle or the website to iPirate Battle Hopefully i learn alot the following weeks, and as i find out what works i will also be writing about it here.
Hello. Well a trailer would be nice...and you're video is kind of boring...why don't you show a video showing the different plus of your game...do you have high scores system? Openfeint? +Plus? Do you have upgrades, differents backgrounds, differents gameplay dynamics, different ennemies?? When I check a video to buy a game this is what I'm looking for. There's alot of defend tower, defend zombies, defend things lol on the iphone, why I should buy yours? I don't mean to be rude but this is what I think. Good luck with your projects. Dom
Ok thanks for your feedback. I'll try and make a better video, and try to show of the different parts of the game better.
Hey there, You could also try running giveaways, preferably a large stake in terms of item worth. Of course, not all developers can afford that. You can also send your game to many iPhone gaming/non-gaming sites, as there are 100s out there (I noticed you said you have sent it to websites... send to more ). Also, you could try keeping the forum thread on these forums alive with news on updates, etc. Just don't promise anything that's not going to happen Hope this helped! -Daniel
Ok thanks for your feedback, i'm always trying to find new websites to send to, but never thought of sending it to non gaming websites. I'll try that. I try to keep my forums alive with updates, but as all of you know, it takes a lot of time, and right now i'm also working on version 1.2 and version 1.1 is on it's way out, but that's how it is being a small developer
seriously.. it's pretty rough out there man. A few months ago I posted a fairly comprehensive guide of many of the things we've done to promote our game. Even with all of that I have still spent way, way more on promoting the game than actually profiting from it. The bottom line is, you need to really become a pretty savvy salesman if you want to get any attention. You also need to pay some pretty close attention to all else that is going on in iPhoneLand besides your own little project, so that nothing will catch you completely off-guard. A couple of years ago, if you had a decent game running on the iPhone, it was worth some merit. Nowadays, there's just such a ridiculous amount of competition (from very good software developers) that you really don't have much chance unless you can find an in somehow. Bottom line, for the business-minded: You don't need a quality app, so much as a good way to sell it.
You have really been working for it sad to hear it didn't sell in great numbers. I'll read it all tonight to see what you have done.
I tell ya the pictures need to be more impressive. They look good now but for some reason the actual screenshot looks almost grainy. That's a big turnoff. I think your game is really close and looks good in motion just needs one more round of polish on the artworks. look at the banner ads at top.. I think you need to have that level quality in the artwork. I think it's the art that sells simple games otherwise you need to add a ton of depth and people will be interested.
I don't want to come off as harsh, but anyway: 1. You need to hire a new graphics artist. Sex sells, in other words, looks. And this isn't good looking enough, sorry. 2. Icon is fine, I'd remove the shine though. 3. If a game starts with a lower case 'i', I will not bother to look at it.
Hey Thanks for your feedback, Unfortunately i can't do alot about the graphics at this point. Hopefully you can look past the name and try out the game. It wasn't the plan with an i, but when i where ready to publish the game, someone else had used Pireate Battle Tonight i'll try and make a better video to show off the game, and Maybe that will help with showing off the game.
Better trailer -- good. But how are people going to be aware of the new improved trailer? Regarding graphics, this is what you are competing against: So you should aim for at least that, or preferably even better.
Hi Ofcause i can try to make the water look better and make a UI. I'll try and see what can be done with that. When the hopefully better trailer is done i'll put it on the website, write about it in forums and generally do the same thing i've done now all over again. All i can hope for is that sometime i get lucky and someone picks up the game and tells other people about it. But for that to happen i have to improve on the game until it presents itself better then today, and i just hope these improvements can help make that happen.
You have described the app in too basic a way. Say what other features it has, like upgrades if any, etc.
Me! But then again, I also spend an average of $.33 on apps every month, so I think I'm in the minority.
I mean even in the screenshots. To a normal purchaser, I think they'd just think "put finger on screen, flick toward enemy" and that was the whole game.
Thanks for all your feedback, i'm now working on version 1.2 with improved graphics. Hopefully it will help show of the game.
It is hard. I grant you that. I think as a small developer like you, we must try and focus on new and innovative ideas rather than fancy graphics. Gameplay is soooo much more important than graphics. Good luck with your new update...
