You know what I'm saying because I said it over and over. Don't make your app free. Make paid apps. Actually, scratch that. Do whatever you want. Honestly, I'd like to try my hand at the free app thing, just so I can compare and contrast my personal experience. I'm still learning.
Yes but the exposure you get and the marketing you do bump you up in a centralized system that offers lots of exposure on its own and can make or kill an app. It's also considerably easier for a user not to have to go to an isolated system and instead just stick to the same platform and use the same login, keep the same habits. So then again fleeing the problem and letting a good market die instead of facing the issue it is not going to help at all.
Top 10? Try aiming for the top 200, that's already a very nice spot to begin with. One app can run on its own at this height. Below, you'll need more apps but they'll still return enough money to live well and work calmly on small scale products. My main problem with that is the combination of: - scammy methods that become popular and increasingly tempting, incredibly easier and more efficient than white marketing, and also easy to reach for anyone. - clones that spam the charts, that for of them also use those methods, and which overall take so much place just by being there that they automatically create a higher wall to pass over, not to say anything of the loss of ad revenue due to the sheer quantity of clones in comparison to the limited amount of aps. I think this is really a kind of new environment that's considerably challenging and making the indie's life harder than before.
how is it easier to gamble the charts than before? its nothing new and if you hire a botfarm todo it for you thats pretty expensive and a high risk for any developer , at least one who relies to be in the appstore and to be paid by apple. as for clones. really? who are the major producers of clones? do you see EA or Supercell make flappy clones? Its the "me too" mentality of alof of "indies" who are responsible for most of the "noise" *cough* http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=224904 *cough*
so he claims he did not cheat nor spent money in advertising so? how is this your double lotterywin? if a game gets picked up it gets picked up. why would have the white tile app be successfull in the japanes android store before it swapped over to the usa? Apparently everything you don't understand,which is apparently alot means they must be cheating. If you can't comprehend it its must be evil magic. and because there is manipulation going on, they must do it. Of course. Mind boggling, lol! apparently everyone cheats.. now even 2048. how old are you 12? living in a naive world of black and white? At least your psychological and rocket science skills are top notch! ??? so making a thread on a random forum is the way to go? So instead to go to apple you rather do your whining here? Because here is the better place to rally the indie folks behind you? And now i'm a cheater too... lol because i'm not in your kindergarden rally to push lies about fellow developers. Lol you really must be very young and green behind your ears. i don't have blonde hair and blues eyes.. please don't put me in the gas chamber! i don't have a signature LOL, OMG! You caught me. How could have i missed to no have a signature?! The sign of every professional developer. The message board signature... .... .... .... seriously? We are drifting into comedy here.. i guess i lost my signature somewhere.. maybe a cheater stole it. Must have been an asian guy or a robot.. hmm maybe asian robot. At least i still got my icon. And i lived longer hehe that can be young one. Like i said i'm in the "game" for a long time and apparently you seek some proof in form of a signature. I usualy don't write such stuff in public because its pointless but i throw you a bone. First game i worked on was released in 2001 and the international releasename was Diggles : Myth of Fenris. We made bets how long to took for the first cracked copies to reach the internet. I lost they cracked it alot faster than i estimated so keep up the good fight against the evil cheaters.. don't forget terrorists and communists! cheers
If there is more choice and if there are more ways to reach those services, obviously it does become easier. It is not necessarily very expensive when you weigh in the gains and in general someone doing that would be cycling accounts. Did I say they did? Who do the clones isn't the problem. The problem is that there's more of them. Even when runners were becoming ever more popular, you still had only a couple of them and even the dullest copy of the core mechanics appeared original enough in the vast majority of cases. Thing is, Flappy Bird set a new tone and since the stores don't regulate much, the message is now clear. Don't you think this is a change? I do. If we disagree, so be it. Nice catch. You were less lazy than I was for checking out more about BL. That's a crappy, shameful clone. So to sum up, I believe the thread to be legit, but the author has lost all credibility with this shit app. Good job. Hell, even the 3D stuff looks crap. /thread
Mr ugly. Please stop trolling the thread. You make 0 sense and have offered completely nothing. You quote some game oh worked on 13 years ago as experience. You mock my purpose and anything I say. You are a troll. You have completely nothing to add to this conversation. But thank you for linking to my post. Notice I didn't post about that here as I was staying on topic. But being that you're a troll. You did. Either way thanks. Your last post was completely useless to myself and the world. You seem to have so respect or regard for other indies. Begs the question....why are you here? You say on one hand...yes of course there is cheating....and in the same sentence say....none of these guys are cheating. So it exists...but it never happens. Troll much? That said there's no point in feeding trolls because they just continue to spew nonsense. So I'm done feeding this particular troll. This is my last post addressing you. Have a nice day. Now we can continue the conversation at hand between us human folk minus the troll.
Thanks for the compliment pixelosis. You can read more about why we did the "shameful" clone here. http://balloon-loons.com/?p=411. If you're interested.
Seems don't tap white tile has been able to generate another 60 reviews in the last day. Reading through the top 30 you can easily see a pattern. What do you think are the chances that the people reviewing would all give 5 stars and say addictive for all of them. Or compare it to flappy bird?
I don't think attacking the OP for testing out their new 3D skills with a flappy bird clone has anything to do with the thread. Quite clearly states in the thread you linked to that was their intention. Fair enough if you disagree with the post but don't make it personal or be rude Back on topic, if there are ways of mass producing fake reviews then I do hope Apple tighten it up. However, my advice is just try and produce the best app or game that you can. If it's special then it should get noticed and you can share the charts with the more dubious games.
Thank you so much. And thank you for actually taking the time to actually read what I wrote in that post or website. I won't say anything further about it because I'm not the point of this thread. Sure I will keep trying. We will continue working on the full 3d world which was our first intention anyway but figured hey we have some assets we might as well make them work. Well by assets it's really just the characters which are animated already and everything. Obviously the "world" for the flappy clone was just slapped together like the original. I'm hoping to post progress posts on the new game in a separate thread when we have something really nice to show off. As of now the worlds are still being assembled and in gray box form. I appreciate your kindness.
I think the chances are very high. "Addictive" is one if the most common descriptive terms used in App Store reviews. Actually, ever since the Flappy Bird craze, "flappy bird" is also one of the most common descriptive phrases for an app. Not just in app reviews either. I've heard both very often in person, coming right out of people's mouths. (And most people who review a game give it five stars, because why bother take the time to review a game you don't like?)
So it's highly likely that out of 10 reviews 6 contain the word "addicting" in the title? While the others contain flappy bird? In other words people no longer have any other words to use in their titles anymore? Must be that magic powder being spread that brain washes people so they all start to think exactly the same. Come on man. I feel like at this point if a developer told you flat out they're cheating you would still find some reasoning for why they aren't. The chance that 10 out of 10 people would post the same exact title in slight word variation and in sequence is mathematically nearly impossible.
Is it? It might be mathematically impossible if they were being written randomly. If they were written by real people they might just be copying each other.
So you're saying all these people hit the review button without their own ideas? I'm pretty sure people post reviews when they have their own impression or ideas. To have ten people consecutively post copies of eachother's posts is also mathematically impossible. Are you just getting a kick out of making illogical statements?
I really don't get why so consistently take such an aggressive and mocking tone with me. It's very rude. I'm done.
I apologize for coming across that way it's not my intention. I'm just trying to understand the logic behind saying people are copying eachother's reviews. That's the first time I ever heard that. It genuinely seems like your just playing naysayer. No matter what I say you will always say contrary.
Hence the "in general" I put before the only words you read in my post. It largely applies to nonames, small guys. Bigger companies would be less tempted to take such risks, for obvious reasons, and even if some of them were, they could not be cycling accounts because they're managing a brand. I beg you pardon? All there is to read about your app on TA gives no indication that it was a test for the ranking at all, and considering the "quality" of the product, who the hell would ever want to click on the link to the page where you can try or download the game (?). A page which might have been written much later anyway? Yes, I think it looks repulsive (at least 2048 looks like a real game), and secondly, no, you didn't have to release this non-finished thing to prove a point (retroactively?), since any look at some random Flappy Bird clone that hasn't gone up the charts would have been enough to know that. However, you might be happy, it seems there's been a new batch of Asian FB clones during the last couple weeks. Clearly, Apple and Google have no intention to prevent clone apps with Flappy in their title from being allowed. And yes, you can ignore Mr. Ugly, his contributions have been absolutely useless and offensive from the beginning.
I have to side with Glorkbot in this, I think it is almost impossible to tell if reviews are fake just from reading them. People write some really random stuff, and it is real. I asked my friend to review one of my games and they wrote "I really love the music", the game has no music. But it was a real person who I know writing the review. Besides if you were to make a fake reviewing bot, wouldn't you just make a database of real reviews from other games, and then get the bot to choose from that. Unless it was a kind of sweat shop style review place, in which case real people are doing the writing of the reviews. When you compare app store reviews to other sites, say the new game section on this forum, or newgrounds. The app store probably ranks the lowest in terms of the quality of reviews. But is that because fake reviews are gaming the system, or is it because there is no culture of reviewing on the app store. I mean the person who does the review gets nothing for doing it. In all the other places there is at least some level of reward for taking part in the community. And I have no doubt that there are people gaming the system with fake reviews, but I get that from looking at review numbers and the date the review was given, rather than the review content. If an app has 1000 reviews in 1 day, then 2 reviews the next day. Something is going on there that does not fit a normal pattern.
