I don't tust review stars anyway because some people think 2 stars is 4 stars and vice versa. It's probably because the stars are red.
yeah, i know what you mean. but it still has a negative impact on the game. like when i go and buy a game, I would rather the game have 4 stars than 2 stars. I read all the reviews, but I know that not everyone does that, because some of my friends just buy from the star ratings. if it's 5 stars and in the top 25, they just buy it without reading anything
Promoting Indie games has always been an uneasy task, just look at PC and some console games. Theres a lot of games that goes unoticed, but this is mostly because there has been no hype or lack of proper advertisment. With pages like Touch Arcade you can spread the word about your game through the forums, making youtube vids and giving out free games to reviewers. It requires some extra work, but thats needed if you want to have your game reach players. You need to speak out loud for us to notice, else it will just be another fish in the sea. Indie games for computers changed as Steam started promoting indie and giving people easy access to view vidoes, screenshots, and just a lot of flashy advertisment. Maybe this is an idea for the smaller Indie developers for appstore as well, make a free app that lists new and old games, promoting them with flashy videos, screens, link for reviews and links for free demos/buy. If the app is made well enough it might just hit new and noteworthy and through one app you can promote everything else. Just an idea. FAAD is one way to get your game known, but in all honestly, a lot of the inde games are of quite low quality or targeting spesific gamers. And given the amount of game developers for idevices and the ever expanding appstore your not gonna have your game sell itself, unless its exceptional and mind blowing. And if its not selling itself or through your promoting then FAAD is a lesser evil to get it out there and known. I love that FAAD sometimes give me free gems, but in most cases its been games that are of little value and most likely would be a free addictive/puzzle flash game for computers. FAAD is the easy way of advertising your game, and a decent one in some cases. Another is lowering the price of your game or you can try create alternative ways to promote it. Development is a harsh world, and if your program/game doesn't sell it normally means its not good enough, too many games like it, not worth buying or not enough advertisment/creating hype pre-release. Though good games always sell in the end. Just sharing my thoughts, I don't like it when people complain about the promoting they pick, if you don't approve of the outcome you should start looking at different angles to approch your problem. It gonna cost you more work, but is it gonna lose you more money than going FAAD? Not everyone can create something that will make you a profit, which seems to be the way a lot of programmers of idevices think.
Gun Builder Currently #47 in the app store rating: 2.5 stars! .....They are making ~$1500/day ...note of course not all apps will make it to the top 100 my point is: There are more than ratings at play here and Thank God iOS4 is here, it will definitely give an additional boost to our devs!
Really interesting demographic analysis Vovin. I agree with the trend and the only solution I have as part of an indie project is to aim for a catalogue that combines different revenue streams on the platform that today has 1) Fully integrated one click purchase (we come from the J2ME "business" and let me tell you it was a nightmare to get a game there, at least here in South America) 2) Fully integrated submission, report, marketing and payment platform (again, for those who come from the J2ME arena, we are used to the worst ecosystem ever). 3) FULLY INTEGRATED AD SUPPORT! (Now I have one single platform for every revenue stream. Yes some would say it goes against the diversify-the-eggs-in-different-baskets policy, but the other baskets have a lot to improve before we could even start to spend money developing/porting for them). It's true that Android has a lot of potential, but you still have 1) An unevangelized user base regarding App purchases 2) A poor platform for admin/sales (They don't even pay from Android Store, you have to rely on PayPal or something like that). 3) A TRUE standard (for resolutions, processing capacities, controls, etc.). So, considering that Android is an option once you hit gold in the AppStore, and that the other portable consoles have very high entry barriers, we still need to figure a way out through this App Store trend. Despite the different profiles that conform this "Angry Mob", the iUniverse is worth 100 million souls. I don't know how many users does Touch Arcade have, but take the hottest thread: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=31342 We're speaking of a million people at the most? They are our core, true. We owe them a lot, true. Many of them get promo codes and leave nice reviews, true. But they still do not download every indie game. They don't make the difference in terms of volume. The difference, in my humble opinion, is made by the silent majority that picks a game based on Apple's recommendation (yes, there's also a loud minority that likes to spoil, but there's also people willing to balance the odds... take a look at this message and see my point http://appcomments.com/reviews/309703771). So, back to the point of the free stuff. The Free day promotion gives you a boost of, say 200.000? 500.000? 1 MM? With good volume you get the buzz, leveraged by handy tools like twitter for achievements, Facebook fanpage, youtube videos, etc. You still have the chance of hitting a big chunk of the 100 MM if you get the buzz. They won't get used to free stuff because most people are off the GET AS MUCH GAMES AND APPS frenzy. I believe they buy stuff that's really popular. But still, if that does not happen and people get used to get stuff for free, we still have the chance to rely on the iAds network. I think once the FreeApp sites start promoting ad supported games instead of paid games and find a revenue model to get a cut of the game's ad revenue, it will be a win-win situation. Why? 1) The ones that want staff for free will get it, but will have to understand that it has some ads. If they like the app and do not want the ads, they just need to purchase the paid version 2) The ones that want good staff, won't even bother looking it for free. Or maybe they will just to check it is good and then purchase it. 3) In any case, volume will drive attention either for ad-supported or paid version. Of course, if the game is good. 4) iOS4 will remove the star issue. Forgive me if I sound too optimistic, but it's the only way to survive sometimes PS: We owe you the code??? I'll fire the PR guy!!! Hold on... we don't have PR guy... that should be me! Ok, I'll fire myself... but first I'll send you the code via PM
Wow! That was a interesting post - I am impressed. I can tell that you've put a bug chunck of your heart into this business, 'cause every suggestion seems to be well-thought and valid. I have to give your text a few thoughts before I answer you. Btw., thanks for the compliment - but this was no demographic analysis. I'm only good in observing people. P.S.: no need for the code! Got my Fly, Kiwii, Fly code today. And I already bought Freakin Inkies to support you!
Did you develop either of these titles? No? I thought not. While your concern is really touching, I think you should leave the devs to weigh up the pros & cons & make the decisions for themselves. Most of us got over unfavourable iTunes ratings a while back & pay more attention to customers who actually have something constructive to say & have maybe played for a few minutes. Believe me just one enthusiastic 4 or 5-star rating makes up for 10 1-stars to me. It's more about getting your game out there & it's incredibly heart-warming when people say positive things. But you can't please everyone, & feedback isn't always going to be positive, particularly when you invite 500,000 people to speak their minds, with no comeback & no right to reply. Oh, and I think you'll find that the fee-structure for FAAD isn't quite that rigid; it's based on a revenue share these days, just as OF's free promotion is.
Yes, but you have to scroll through 100 1 star review before you find one good review from someone who isn't from China. And the rest of it is good.
I don't understand how when an app is free for a day, all the developers say "due to popular demand, our app will stay free!" how do you make money!?!
Try searching through 'most recent' or 'most favourable'. (or whatever the specific options are). And what's wrong with Chinese reviewers, provided they write in English or you can read their language? The Chinese make up a significant percentage of the world's population And the theory is that we make money the same way as other businesses - offering free free products or buy-one-get-one-free promotions. We increase market awareness and tempt you to try our other games. Or some include DLC. Mostly though, we just do a bit better than we did before.
Huh? I never got my bread for free in the bakery and I always have to pay at my favourite pizza restaurant. Even the cinema's won't let me see a movie for free. And as I asked at the gas station, if I could get 1 litre gasoline free if I buy 10 litres, they looked at me as if I am nuts.
What about BOGO at Payless? Stimulus Tuesdays at the theatre(dollar small drinks & popcorn)? Buy two get one for a penny. 2 for 20 at Chili's. You use the most useless examples.
The funny thing about this is that I actually DID get free English Muffins at the supermarket the other day - BUT for spending 25 dollars. For each 25 dollars you spent you got some random free item. And like the apps some were useful and you liked and the others were like what the heck? Bottom line though I could not walk into the market and walk away with free English Muffins. I had to spend 25 dollars. I understand that because the app store is set up differently you can't do a similar thing and your only hope is to set one of your apps to free so people remember you the next time for another app. Will that work? Long term statistics are not available yet. The trend at this point though is to give the consumer cold feet and stall tactics to wait for the freebies. And with multiple programs there are several choices per day. That might be enough for some consumers. Not only enough but give new iPhone users the false impressions that you can fill your new toy with a ton of free quality apps because they don't know any better. There are some consumers that will go the extra length and say - that dev put one of their apps for free I bet they will put this one for free one day. If that consumer can exercise self control and wait for a sale or free day, then THEY win. If that consumer remembers the free game they got from that dev and are anxious enough to buy it at any price then the DEV wins. Well I contributed nothing to this I suppose other to say that free bread IS possible under certain circumstances.
As the analogies are flying i'm going to repost mine from one of the dev threads: Imagine you'd written a book and you were to print and distribute millions of copies to be displayed displayed prominently with a 'please take one' in every book store in the world, wouldn't that get your book noticed? Now imagine that the printing and distribution are free and these are magic books where the untaken copies evaporate after a few days and people can't pass on the copy they picked up to a friend. As an author, the real question would be "why wouldn't you do it?" Sure, you could feel bitter about the fact that 90%+ of the people who read your book never paid but you'd be ignoring the fact that the free publicity from some of them caused far more people to actually pay up for a copy than otherwise would have. And remember, these are magic books. Sure, most of them may well have evaporated when those freeloaders threw them in the trash unread but a hundred thousand of them are sitting on bookshelves and a few months later they remind people they exist when the words 'update available' start glowing on the spine...
Not useless. Examples always depend on the country you live in. I never heard of this BOGO and the other things you were talking about. Ever gave a thought to the fact that economics could be a little different in different countries?
I had interest in FAAD when it started but then once these bizarre rules started. Why the hell would they want to know what the weather is like? On top of that the owner of the website makes himself look like a complete and utter asshole to those who don't follow these "rules". It's completely FUBAR. -- Aside from that it's a nice little website which i try to avoid..
Ya. But, you never hears of Buy One Get One Free? What's the equivelent chain of the 6-12 dollar meals in England.
