App Reviews

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Calvini, Aug 17, 2012.

  1. Calvini

    Calvini Active Member

    Jul 14, 2012
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    Developer
    Hello, I'm a new member to this community and I'm a developer myself. I apologize but I'm wondering how you developers would approach different app review sites for the game you've made. An example would be how would I be able to have Touch Arcade review my apps. Or how would I be able to promote my app.

    I'm sure this topic has probably been brought up before, but I haven't been able to find any while searching. Therefore, I would just like to ask anyone who's willing to offer me their 2 cents of advice. Thank you.
     
  2. Synaptic Wave

    Synaptic Wave Well-Known Member

    Mar 14, 2012
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    PR manager at Synaptic Wave
    Odessa, Ukraine
    Hey Calvini,

    Have you already developed anything? If you have, join the private developer forum. If you haven't, I'll share a few tidbits about review sites =D
     
  3. PodCubed

    PodCubed Active Member

    Apr 2, 2012
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    Australia
    I personally would love to hear your tidbits =O Although we applied for the private developer forum, we haven't had any response ourselves for a few weeks, but they are pretty busy with so many things happening I imagine :) plus since it's out first game they probably won't consider us just yet.

    @Calvini

    I tried to take a look through the forums for you, I found this:

    http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=92249

    Which talks about when to submit and some developers mention about what to do prior to asking them. Good tips there too!
     
  4. Synaptic Wave

    Synaptic Wave Well-Known Member

    Mar 14, 2012
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    PR manager at Synaptic Wave
    Odessa, Ukraine
    First, you can find a ton of lists like 1500 sites to review your iPhone app. Just google it. Don't forget to check if the sites are still relevant.

    Second, read Hodapp's post here. Then read (or listen to) this interview with Erica Sadun from TUAW. Don't miss the link there. This is a must if you want to write a letter someone will actually read.

    Third, don't send unsolicited promocodes. You may want to use Yay!Codes! or something like that.

    Fourth, you may want to set up a mail merge for smaller sites you'll get from the list. It's not a bad idea.

    Finally, if the app review site wants you to send $25 first, run. TA, AppAdvice and Slide to Play don't take your money. If you send $25 to an unknown site, it'll buy thousands of fake Twitter followers and ask for $30 or $50 instead. And these followers won't pay any attention to your game because they're fake. So please, don't support these guys.

    And the last one: if the reviewer didn't respond, you may try to pitch him on Twitter. For example, we've tried to contact 148apps three weeks before our app release. We've got an automated response like 'Everything's fine, someone will write you if he's interested' and that's all. We wrote another letter a week before the relese. Nothing. But then I tweeted our screenshot to one of 148apps authors, he liked it and we've got our coverage.

    Phew. That's all, I suppose. Any questions?
     
  5. Blackharon

    Blackharon Well-Known Member

    Mar 15, 2010
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    16
    Game Designer for Ludia
    Canada
  6. Synaptic Wave

    Synaptic Wave Well-Known Member

    Mar 14, 2012
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    PR manager at Synaptic Wave
    Odessa, Ukraine
    Oh, missed that point :p I thought that Erica told something about it in the interview. Great link you've shared :)
     
  7. Blackharon

    Blackharon Well-Known Member

    Mar 15, 2010
    978
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    16
    Game Designer for Ludia
    Canada
    She may have, I'll admit, I'm only halfway through it!
     
  8. Synaptic Wave

    Synaptic Wave Well-Known Member

    Mar 14, 2012
    87
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    PR manager at Synaptic Wave
    Odessa, Ukraine
    She hasn't, but it's a good read anyway. Thanks for covering this point and appreciating my post :)
     
  9. PodCubed

    PodCubed Active Member

    Apr 2, 2012
    26
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    Australia
    Second that, great stuff Synaptic on the links.
     
  10. AgnesDev

    AgnesDev Active Member

    BTW - Instead of reading the interview you can buy her book - like I did today - "Pitch Perfect": http://t.co/429zuORi or http://t.co/TrdMy6NR
    (I'll have whole weekend to read it ;) )

    -=Agnes=-
     
  11. Synaptic Wave

    Synaptic Wave Well-Known Member

    Mar 14, 2012
    87
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    PR manager at Synaptic Wave
    Odessa, Ukraine
    I second that. The book is great.
     
  12. Calvini

    Calvini Active Member

    Jul 14, 2012
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    Developer
    Hello, thank you for your reply. Sorry I wasn't able to get back to you sooner, I had no internet for awhile. I haven't finished developing my game yet. I see another month or two before it'll be finished. I'll join the private developer forum. Thank you again for your help. I'll be updating you guys when I'm near finished.
     
  13. Synaptic Wave

    Synaptic Wave Well-Known Member

    Mar 14, 2012
    87
    0
    0
    PR manager at Synaptic Wave
    Odessa, Ukraine
    Good luck with your upcoming game :) Hope our advice will help you.
     
  14. Calvini

    Calvini Active Member

    Jul 14, 2012
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    Developer
    Your advice (along with everyone else) is very much appreciated, I've read through all of them and found it all to be extremely valuable. Thank you again. :)
     
  15. Calvini

    Calvini Active Member

    Jul 14, 2012
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    Developer
    I actually have another question, if someone is willing to answer. I've seen some games such as MegaJump, where they give you Free MP (the game's currency) for clicking or downloading some other APP. I'm curious but would there be an AD company that does this as a third party? or are these actions done by the app developers themselves.
     
  16. Hercule

    Hercule Well-Known Member

    Dec 16, 2010
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    This is now forbidden by apple for every new app.
    But apple close their eyes for old app already present in the store.
    Tapjoy and flurry probably use this kind of ad.
     
  17. Calvini

    Calvini Active Member

    Jul 14, 2012
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    Developer
    ah thanks for your reply :)
     
  18. Balloon Loons

    Balloon Loons Well-Known Member

    Jun 20, 2012
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    The whole promo thing is still a mystery to me. See we did everything by the book and no one ever replied. No reviews were done except for one small one so today no one knows about our game. We had some downloads the first week and 55 five star reviews from users. Then we went down the list and it was over. No more downloads. To this day I try to contact sites to review us and no one looks our way. Just take a look at my threads on this forum. Only a small number of views and replies when I post. And we have a really fun game!

    You can read all the books you want and listen to all the stuff out there. Bottom line seems to be know someone, get lucky, or hire a pr company. It seems impossible to do yourself for the most part.

    Unless someone knows something I don't know.
     
  19. Calvini

    Calvini Active Member

    Jul 14, 2012
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    Developer
    #19 Calvini, Sep 2, 2012
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2012
    Have you tried playing around with the price of your game APP? I've heard that it has worked wonders for several indie developer companies.

    So you're telling me not many review sites ended up reviewing your game?
     
  20. Balloon Loons

    Balloon Loons Well-Known Member

    Jun 20, 2012
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    Hey Calvin. Good morning (new York time). We dropped from 1.99 to 99 and nothing. We are going to release a free version in a few weeks at the same time as we update a huge improvement in graphics and 3 choices of controller styles as well as some tweaks in gameplay. I'll see how that goes.

    Nope not one single review!
     

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