the sales number is too bad,need some advices

Well, its certainly not all about getting featured. With N.Y.Zombies we actually achieved our highest ranking in the US the 3rd day after release, before getting featured. We were then featured a week later (only on iTunes though, not the app store on the devices themselves), and maxed out about 20 ranks below what we achieved on our own during launch -- though we had raised the price a day before we were featured and so overall saw higher profit.

2 months later after dropping off quite a bit, despite being featured in the Japanese iTunes for a few weeks early on, we actually "magically" jumped up to the #4 spot simply by dropping the price to $0.99. At that spot we managed to get 500-600 sales per day from Japan alone for a solid 2 weeks before we starting to dip back down.

Now, we are amidst the 2nd week after a FAAD campaign, having reached the #2 spot in the free charts for a few days and getting 500k downloads. We're seeing, on average, about 5-6x the profit we saw before the campaign, though that has started to drop off now, as it seems spikes in the app store tend to last for a week before dropping off (from release, to being featured, to dropping the price, etc).

Anyway, this is the 3rd time our sales have been "resurrected"... its just a matter of continually trying new things. But in the end, I think if people aren't interested in your game, then nothing you do will really matter.

 

I thought ninja chicken will be featured by apple when it's out, but till now, nothing happened,maybe apple don't think it's good enough?

maybe you just not lucky

maybe you should focus on your next game

 

CatSpin was featured by Apple, 3 weeks after it's release and we only had around 150 sales per day during that week...

As soon as that week of being featured by Apple was over, CatSpin disappeared into the sea of apps again...

We sent out press releases, got featured, have high ratings in independent website reviews, get good feedback and compliments, are dropping the price right now to $0.99 for a while, but it just keeps disappearing...

It SEEMS that our problem is that even though our game is pretty deep, at first sight it doesn't seem so... people LIKE the game as soon as they play, but when you just see the screenshots only, it apparently doesn't persuade. We need people to actually try it and from there you see them having a smile, thinking it's tough, but fun and never expected the game to be as deep as it is...

I'm actually going to try out something this week as a way of marketing it better on the App Store; just by changing the literal in-game screenshots to shots much like what Angry Birds is doing for example: where you exlain what is happening and what your innovation is, but still showing enough of the game itself!

I will let you know how that works out!

 

@ Foursaken_Media
AND
@ MindJuice


Thanks for your insight and advice btw! It's great to hear what works for you and it's somehow inspiring.

 

I picked this up on day 1 and it's a fun game

It reminds me of CatchCows.

 

You have little to lose by using a service like www.freeappcalendar.com
This will help you get a lot of publicity/visibility for the game.

 

Each time someone complains about low sales, inevitably the "go FAAD" suggestion follows. I think it's a really bad move. Unless you have a way to capitalize on the giveaway (ads, in-app purchase, ...), you will just hurt your game by going free.

Going free for a day (more so with one of the popular sites like FAAD), will get your app high in the charts. Ok, you're up there, now what? You've got to have a plan. I you don't, the next day your app will sink and you will have just given away your hard work for free. Even worse, your app will also have lost a couple of stars in its rating.

 

Yup - trust me, I know from experience But, when you hit that zero-download mark you literally got nothing to loose, and retrofitting a game with in-app purchases can just dig you into a deeper hole. You kinda gotta plan for that sort of thing from day one.

 

Please feel free to ignore any or all of this. Posting as may help, and because of length, I know many people will disagree with parts of it. These are just my views, take them as so.

There have been many good replies to this topic already. Hopefully have not repeated any of their sage advice. If so, I am sorry.

Thought I would throw my opinions in. Please view all as constructive criticism and ideas.

Will start off in general terms, and move to specifics about your game after, as hope this message helps others.

Try to view it from the customers side. Do not ask what is wrong with your game, but as the market is flooded with games, ask what is right, what stands out and makes somebody want to buy it.

First we have price. Are there any other games like yours for cheaper prices levels. If so, does your game appear to offer double, quadruple what the cheaper games offer. Prices are rather an abstract concept. Think about a car, if all other cars cost 20k, and you then see one costing 15k, if there appears nothing wrong with it, then you think it is good value. If then all other cars cost 12k, then the 15k one appears expensive. In each case the physical value of the components of the car have not changed, but it's perceived value has.

The more similar other games are to yours (conceptual wise, do not think of the graphics), the more the game will be compared to those, and it's relative value calculated.

It is all about perceived enjoyment. When the persons finger hovers over the buy button, they will need to feel they will enjoy it more than the others. That is unless it is the first game of that type they have.

Also back to price. there is something magical about the 59p price band, as it is the lowest to we view it as small. It is still in pence, not yet a pound. Many people would not think twice about purchasing ten 59p games they may only ever look at for a few minutes, but will be reluctant to purchase a 299 game that could entertain them for weeks. Because of so many good 59p games, the perceived enjoyment factor for games at 179 or higher has to be much greater.

This is turning into an essay, could spend the rest of today typing up the psychology of sales, design and motivation, but alas need to work.

If I had to offer some tips for your specific game.

Video, it looks good. the comic idea stands out. Take out the mouse curser. People need to imagine themselves playing the game, the mouse curser breaks that bond.

Graphics. The graphics quality is good, but from the video and price point you have they need to believe they will have more fun in the game relative to other games. The video shows no extra factor. What you could do easily is change the backdrop and noise every so often. Have a zombie area, have a pirate area. all you would need to do with these is to just slightly alter the backdrop, and have appropriate sound effects.

It is all about adding in that perceived extraness to the game.

There are many ways you could do this.
E.G.
Have matching the items have to be done in time to the music. with points for great, or close. You could use the points to allow access to the next theme, or gives you a powerup (e.g. slows the belt down, or clears all on the belt).

Or forget the music idea, and have other items (butterflies or whatever) appear, and if you get those, then also a reward.

You could have a ghost of your former high scores show up, so you can see when you have beaten it. Or even better a ghost of your friends high scores. A perceived enjoyment would be them believing that they can beat their friends and their friends will see how good they are in their game.

Rewards in games do not have to b e big, but they need to be there. At the moment when people look at your video all they will see if the same actions. They think that you want them to pay x amount for one dimension. All they will be doing is repeatedly dragging.

It does not take much, but by adding achievements they then believe that there is much more to do, and hence believe they could get much more enjoyment out of the game.

Simple things, like finish a section with x score, and give them a message telling them how good they are, and say put a small decoration up on the screen. You could show them where the decorations will go. So they can see that they need to get a lot of them, and again make them believe that the game will take them a while to play, and worth the money.

Make your game description more funky. More 'Save the ninja chickens from the jaws of doom and pultrification. With your godly finger attempt to swoop them to the safety of their correct ninja den where they can hatch their next plan.' rather than 'This is a colour matching game'.

Beginning to turn into an essay again. Would love to put another few pages of ideas, but you can see where they are going, so will stop now.

ok, one last part. Why doodle jump? Why did doodle jump do so well. Here are some of the reasons.

Price point. Perfect. As it is the cheapest price, then starts off as being perceived as good value.

As so cheap, friends may also get, so you are then playing against them (massive perceived fun value).

At the time good art style. If the art style was similar to other successful games like this, it would have been compared and judged. As it stood out as its own style, then no internal comparison, so does not get marked down before the buy button is pressed.

Scores on the screen showing others scores. Quick easy to add feel good factor.

You could see that development was ongoing. With each new part added, created more buzz on line which helped it sell. Also for people who had not purchased yet. If you were close to getting it one time, you then see there is more there, then it almost a definite sale.

There are parts you cannot emulate, as it has been so high in the charts for so long, many people would just buy out of curiosity. Have it mentioned on Big Bang theory. etc.etc.

If your team had hired me in a professional capacity, I would say to you now that your team had a lot of potential. Cut your losses, you have learnt a lot through producing the first game. If you can reuse any of the assets then do so, but focus mainly on game design.

Make it appear different from what else is out there. Of if it is similar, then make it much better, or at least add a new dimension to it.

Make it appear fun and exciting. If possible introduce a 'what if?'. Try to get people curious to know what happens.

Spend some time hunting for that gap in the market.

Going to stop now. Probably should have stopped a long while back.

 

I'm not really disagreeing with any of your points and I love Doodle Jump so much I actually mention the game on my own company's site. But: I don't believe for a second that the game would have seen anywhere near the same level of success if it was released today...

 

Interesting story, thanks for sharing!

 

I wouldn't be so sure to discount Doodle Jump's success as something it wouldn't have been able to reproduce today. The latest update to the game has well over 30,000 reviews, with a 5 star average - no easy feat. And it maintains great chart position to this day, despite imitators and competition from every side.

That being said, there's no doubt that it's continued success is in large part due to inertia.

One thing people tend to forget about Doodle Jump is how heavily advertised it was when first released. The developers didn't take any chances - for a while, you couldn't go anywhere without seeing a web banner steering folk to Doodle Jump.

 

I'm not trying to belittle (did I use that word right?) Doodle Jump's success. As previously stated I love the game and it sets the golden standard for pick-up-and-play games. That being said I stand by what I said. It would probably have had a good chance of becoming A hit just not the mother of all hits like it is today. The market is simply too swamped I believe.

 

I agree with you. I think the success of a lot of games was due to their early adaptation to the market. This doesn't mean the game isn't worthy of its position, it means that the game would be forced to compete *differently* if launched today.

Could Doodle Jump rise to the top if it launched today? Maybe. The game is solid and well done, but that has never been the makings of a guaranteed success of today's market.

So I guess the lesson to be learned here is that timing is a huge factor. We can all sit around and bitch about the iTunes store and how it isn't working for us, or we can look toward newer, different and emerging technologies and opportunities. Be the next Doodle Jump by getting into the market earlier.

 

I would review it but that can't happen until I finish all 4 games that I need to review.