Has anybody here cooperated with a publisher(such as Chillingo)?

Your graphics look good but your video isn't clear what you are doing. It actually looks like a match 3 game to me. It is also a pretty ordinary start to your video. To be honest I would of thought it might do better than it has however the gameplay while unique doesn't look at all fun.

 

I don't have any advice, but just wanted to give you a shout out for spending the time and effort in seeing a game to completion. I know enough about making mobile games to recognize all the little places you've put effort into polishing your game. It's truly crazy how much time is spent on details that the end user doesn't notice or fully appreciate. And I see them in what you've produced.

I agree with @Destined that the trailer only hints at what separates zBean! from the multitude of other similar games. It's like you're 90% of the way toward making zBean! warrant attention versus being treated as shovelware.

I hope we're not already in the era where a publisher is mandatory.

Nice work and good luck!

 

The issue with a publisher is that your app is available through their appstore account.
There are advantages but you must not forget about protecting your IP if it's really that good and worth a few more spin offs.

 

Well often you have to give up things because they have to see it as being profitable because they will be spending money on advertising and so on.

There are obvious benefits for having a publisher but in the end of the day there it doesn't make you that much more likely succeed without a good track record or killer product (just like a record label they put the least effort into the new untested products).

A lot of people go to them in search of an advance which rarely happens. Most games which get funding get them from investors rather than publishers. Pretty much if you can make the game by yourself then it probably isn't going to get funding because you are just essentially asking to be paid, in which case they might as well just employ you and own the game.

 

You shouldn't have started PR after releasing a game you'd been working on for 1.5 years. That's something you need to start from the first week of development.

 

I see people say this often, but where's the PR on famous movies so early? We hear they start working on a sequel, then a year later we see the old one on tv through some deal, then some go to the cinema that weekend.

I don't see lots of reveals for new Star Wars or James Plod, just know they're happening. Then again I don't go out looking for news.

 

The early PR is largely unnecessary. Unless you're dealing with frothing fans who can't wait for your next sequel or spinoff, it's better to start the engines when you're well into the beta and you start to have presentable material that's on the level of eye candy. You can even double your PR campaign with beta testing. At this point, you still have the initiative and can divulge a bit of your game and rules, and perhaps even make a trailer of some sort (although that requires money).

 

There's tons of Star Wars news gossip or photos about the new film. There'll also be a teaser trailer soonish as well. The companies like to keep things under wraps but in the days of the Internet that's impossible

 

Yeah they are always "leaking images". There is tons of PR going on around star wars. That wasn't the best example.

But yeah I think the point is if you are serious it should start before release not at point of release.

 

Not sure what you mean by a publisher but if it means a company that has a number of winners (games that hit high numbers) and they take your game as an OEM and brand it with their name then promote it using their existing games to push a intro ad to players then I have some experience to share with you.

The person who working with me programming games under my brand 1stSPIN helped develop and program Do Not Crash. This game was given to a friend who had a successful ap and he promoted it using the method I mentioned above. I saw this game rise from a 100 downloads to 500,000 downloads within 2 weeks on Google Play while we were working on new games and today it has about 2,000,000 ++ downloads and makes about $1,500.00USD a day. The original 3 who built the game do not get credit for the game but share in the revenue and of course the great well deserved feeling that they made a winner.

If your people (publisher) can do the same and that is a solution you are willing to accept then go for it. The payoff can be good. You must have a good relationship with them because your game will get revenue based on the amount of ads it shows and the ad code inserted into your game is controlled by the publisher. From what I understand the average is about $0.16 for every 10 people playing your game that day.

Let us know how it all works out.

By the way this is a great forum to share experience and get answers to questions / problems etc. Nice to be here. Next week I will try the paid ad method by advertising one of my new games here. I will let you know how it works out. Years ago I started a Apple iPod case business in China and it grew from $0.00 to a few million by using the paid ad method. That was years ago and there were only a few good sites to advertise on so it might have been easier. I love this game app business and want to learn as much as possible and feel that can happen here from all the shared info.