Yes, it's true that there are a lot of games that have done very well without having to release any kind of lite version at all. However, what we are trying to determine in this thread is whether those games would have achieved *even more* success if they had pre-released a lite version as part of a strategy to add even more momentum to their full game's initial launch. We are trying to depend less on dumb luck and more on our own marketing efforts in order to maximize our chances of achieving success on the app store. To borrow an overused term from Sun's Scott McNealy, we need to put all of our wood behind one arrow
You can do whatever you want, but trust me, going at this without some sort of coherent plan will only limit your possibilities. I think many take marketing too lightly or treat it as an afterthought. Games don't sell themselves and the iShoots of the world tend to be far and few between. iTunes has changed a lot since iShoot first came out, and rising above the noise is only more difficult.
My reasoning for looking at the successful games marketed by large publishers is that they've been in this industry for many years and will have already gone through this exact process and conducted various marketing experiments with demos. But if you're in the position to take a risk and experiment a bit more, I'd love to see your results! It's true in marketing that there is never a single formula, plus you can never what works until you've tried it.
The app store is still relatively young and its dynamics can change quickly so, although I'm sure tried and true marketing principles still apply, I can't help but wonder if there is still an opportunity to do something different in this space. I'm still far from releasing anything but I'll be sure to let everyone on TA know if any of my wacky ideas actually work
Likewise We're planning on releasing the demo later, so hopefully we'll be able to compare both strategies.
I know this is going to sound self serving but here it is. Albie has it right. I work at an advertising agency full time as well as a freelancer for video/marketing work. It's not just developers that don't take marketing seriously, it's most small business owners. I can't stress how many times I've seen a good business fail because they don't do any marketing. If you really don't have a budget, use the free resources out there. Do everything you can, just don't ignore it. As far as pre-release marketing goes, I think it's critical. But don't kid yourself, if your app doesn't look like it's fun, you won't be generating any hype. The app store has shown us all bad marketing and good marketing, model those that do it well without falling into the gold rush mentality. Lite or no lite? I'm on the fence as well. I like demos, but I hate playing the same section of a game twice. I've always liked the idea of an in app-purchase for the rest of the game, but I have no basis for how well it would work.
Also it depends on your game of course. If your game looks good and it is PAINFULLY obvious exactly how it plays from the screen shots (or hugely successful previews prior to release, which is why i think bigger games don't always have a lite), then you might be able to get by without a lite. In my opinion if there is any notion that players may not "get it" just from looking at the game's screenshots, a lite is a no brainer, ESPECIALLY from an indie dev. We are nearing release and have decided to release a lite and full both at the same. I'll be sure to come back and post our results. Also tylertv, I tend to think if a game is at all fun or has any replay value, then the whole replaying thing in the full version shouldn't even be an issue, especially if the lite is the appropriate length and just a tease.
I helped out with a lot of pre-release marketing for Ground Effect and I very much agree with this analysis. It's a game that people really 'don't get' until they play it and its appeal is hard to convey with screenshots. Some even thought the video was a fake! Just releasing a lite version seemed to help but, still not enough to drive serious sales. Maybe it was a timing issue, ie we should have started out with a lite version too. I think if I could turn back time, maybe that's what I would've wanted to do.
Yeah at this point we figure the most hype will be right at launch with reviews, etc, so that's when people will be most likely to try it out or buy the game. If there is no lite and they're on the fence, they'll just forget about it and probably not buy it ever, even if a lite is released later (they've already forgotten about it). In the end the hype you can generate for a lite version by itself, after release (assuming you're pretty much a no name game) is basically 0. At least you have a chance to generate hype with reviews and features and that kind of thing right on release...
