Developer's view about viability on the app store.

Micah, your site, apps, and itunes pages are a terrific example of simple, effective, well thought out presentation. Within seconds of opening your page I was intrigued and excited about what I saw. It took about 10 seconds to fully understand your game, which speaks volumes about both the app's straightforward play and your description. I really appreciated the video that you had up, it was clear, well lit, and properly proportioned. But most of all it showed the gameplay, outcomes, restarts, etc. and really gave me a good feel of what I would be buying.

I see that you are preparing a lite version, which I think is one of the best marketing tools you can have. When we market new clients, we don't ask them to buy our product so that they can see it, we provide them with samples of our work for other clients. I know that most devs may look at it and say "the game is only 99 cents, it's worth the risk", but if you look at it as a consumer, you're asking me to take a risk. There should be no risk taking on the part of the buyer. Because there are no returns, a lite version removes that risk. If I bought every $0.99 app that looked like I might like it, I'd be out hundreds of dollars and have a bunch of games I don't like or play. But I have no problem taking the time to download a lite or free version of an app to give it a try and then purchase the full version if it's something I enjoy.

My only suggestions would be similar to the ones I made above. Simply state that there are 3 difficulties, what they're named doesn't matter.

Also, I'd think about changing the icon for Alphabet Blocks. The full size image looks good, but when it shows up in an itunes search it isn't legible. Maybe just have the blocks spell out "blocks".

Finally, I'd add a screenshot or two showing the outcome of winning a puzzle or getting stuck to the itunes page. I think it really helps to show what the gameplay does. Adding a link to the video would also help.

 

I'm reminded for some strange reason of a Monty Python skit... With everyone actually looking to have their apps, websites, and egos abused while the rest of us watch in fascination.

With that said, and out of morbid curiosity, feel free to critique me too (website and iTunes link in my sig)!

Rogue Touch is a lot older than the other games being discussed here in several ways - Its been in the store since February, and the design is based on the original ASCII (text characters for the non-programmers here) game from almost 30 years ago. Not everyone's cup of tea to be sure, but it's had a pretty successful run so far (and continues to sell every day despite the continuous onslaught of new game releases) so I must be doing something right... But I'm sure there are many things I could do even better

Believe it or not, some people have told me that I made my graphics and interface "too fancy" compared to the original, and these people would like to see the old ASCII character interface!

Perhaps there should be a whole thread or sub-forum where people can post and get multiple critiques of their game, website, and iTunes page from app store consumers and fellow developers. It could really help the Indie developers that hang out here improve themselves and their products! Who wants to start the thread?

 

joezero,thanks so much,I have changed those info based on your advise in itunes, and will do the same of website when I go home.

thanks thanks thanks

 

Agreed.

 

I think your assumption is correct. I believe most indie devs are finding the App Store ridiculously overcrowded and that in turn makes it difficult to be seen and make any reasonable amount of money. Couple that with the race to the bottom 99 cent pricing and you have a recipe for disaster.

When everyone's games are 99 cents, which ones will get purchased? The indie game with a poor website and graphics lacking polish, or the big boys with their well oiled sexy screenshots? Even if the indie game is much more fun, it'll be lost in the sea of apps. If they have a small, modest success where they are visible in a game subcategory, they probably won't make enough at 70 cents per copy to cover development costs and living expenses if they are creating iPhone games as a sole source of income.

We all have seen and heard of the few public success stories of smaller developers: Trism making $250,000 in two months, iShoot making about $600,000, Flight Control making $750,000 or more... The other side of the coin are some of the people here in these forums, a few in this very thread. They put out a game (I won't bother pointing at individuals or the quality of their game) and then see it go from 30 sales a day to 0-1 sales a day within a week. These people make up the *vast majority* of the app store developers.

There are very few people in between the extremes. I'm one of them, certainly not getting rich though. The initial week's sales and the week I was featured by Apple account for probably half of the money I have made. The rest of the time it's a slow but steady trickle of sales.

The app store with its top 100 list creates a small group of successful people, and leaves everyone else to fight over the scraps, or worse yet, with nothing at all.

 

Well, apparently it's pretty viable for some devs...CommanderData, I think you've seen this hehe:

http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/forum/business-legal-app-store/26233-one-year-ago-i-quit-my-day-job.html

I guess it depends on how you define success...if making money is the only object, then this illustrates that there is still plenty of money to be made. I guess.

 

On the subject of piracy, my gut feeling based on some numbers is that there is a crowd of roughly 10 000 - 25 000 people who are actively following the iPhone gaming scene, downloading every release from Cydia as soon as it's out and then forgetting about it as soon as the next interesting thing pops up.

It's certainly disheartening for a developer to see a game that isn't selling get pirated in overwhelming numbers compared to the revenue, but in a market where the popular games sell copies in the six-digit volumes piracy doesn't appear to be a huge factor.

So, ironically... piracy on the iPhone is hurting the little guys the most. On the flip side, thinking each pirated copy is a lost sale is definitely the wrong mindset. Not that I condone iPhone piracy - I can't really think of an insult that would be adequate to describe a person who would steal a $0.99 game.

 

I'm not so worried about piracy like you say the top games are still selling very well.

on the topic of viability, I think it's very much still viable for indies if you've got a great game on your hands I dont think grass roots word of mouth is dead yet.
Spider is a good example where I didn't see much marketing and the game spread like wildfire.

 

from my perspective. thats great sales i dream of 30 units being sold a day.. then dropping off...
wise or not i spent about 1700 bucks on code for my game. never mind the 6 weeks i spent working on it.
after a week ive made about 12 bucks. so at this rate in 3 years ... i should make back the code money i spent. so its not looking too viable atm.
i fully intend to support the game ive made.. as im obviously in a better position with a game out than not... and i did enjoy making it even though it was hard work.

my problem may have been mentioning sacrificing virgins in my preview putting some users on the defensive. and maybe calling it Krakatoa Jr.. where again.. i think the majority of users under 20 dont know what a krakatoa is...

looking about at whats on offer for a buck.. i dont think my apps all that bad. what feedback i have has been mostly very honest and good.
I really tried to make something that wasnt like anything else out there..
but maybe if there is a next time i need to rip off some existing popular title like flight control or minigore.
either that or get a publisher on board.

 

*cough* Dreamcast *Cough*