Haha, yeah. How many software packages are out there that produce games quickly? I am looking at a package now but it looks like it can be fairly powerful.
Well, of course I am bias, but I think all of our games are high quality, however all are definitely not successful. At a quick glance, the trend for us so far has been that the games that are perceived more as gamer games, are doing better, regardless of content, innovation, or whatever. Bug Heroes, Bug Heroes Quest and NYZombies for us have done really pretty well... everything else, not so much. The difference is SIGNIFICANT. One of the things to remember is that with more "hardcore" games, you can actually communicate with your target audience! This is key... casual gamers generally don't go looking for games, and they just get whatever a friend recommends or appears on Apple's feature list. They mostly ignore game related news because they don't consider themselves gamers. With gamer-oriented games, you can target your audience with sites like TA, whether its through a preview, review, or the forums. People actively come here looking for cool new games, but if it appears (whether it is or isn't) that your game is "just another whatever", its going to be a difficult road upward. We're done for now experimenting with more casual games (we're very proud of Sky Gnomes regardless... tons of innovation, interesting theme, turn based multiplayer, daily tournament system... lots of awesome concepts in there), and hope that getting back to making a bit more "serious" games will have a better outcome.
I'd second that. You give me great hope with that statement that sticking to my guns and creating a quality game targeted at gamers is the right way to go.
But you see here we are actually talking about the Catch 22 here. You need to make games and put them on app store and do the whole process to become better in _every aspect_ of making games. Now you can say - but wait making a good looking, crisp smooth game has nothing to do with publishing one! Well when you are one man team (or two) and you have so much things you have to do and understand during the game publishing process, you tend to ignore, don't understand or simply prioritize on different aspect of getting your game out there then crisp graphics. Of course - market is going to punish you by not even noticing your game - but those few shitty games that you will publish will be priceless for developer or team in sense of experience. Then you start paying attention to details, to better game play and crisp smooth graphics. I did my game all on my own and now I am much much more confident about my next title because I do not need to focus my time and energy on some basic things I know how to handle now. And I DEFINITELY need a 3D/Artist team member
Nightmare came true.. http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/going-broke-with-success-how-an-app-with-200000-downloads-led-to-devel
The biggest thing they got wrong was thinking that 200,000 downloads of a free game was a lot. When we put GLWG free for a day via FAAD, we got half a million downloads in a single day. If you want to earn proper money from free games, you need to get a buttload of people trying it out. This is at least a marketing fail.
Not sure if I can post in a developer thread but just wanted to say that I'm a mature (40+) iPad gamer who no longer uses or plans on buying another consul. The iPad (and iPhone) fit my lifestyle perfectly as I can be on the couch or in bed playing a game beside my wife as she watches Big Brother or Survivor I enjoy my war games and there was precious little to choose from until two games came out approximately the same time: Battle Academy (slitherine) and Combat Mission Touch (battlefront). Slitherines strategy was to market the game to its core audience wargamers and grognards and keep it close to the same price as the PC version. People were screaming bloody hell over the $20 but I decided to risk it a purchase and I'm so glad I did! They put in the COMPLETE game and I haven't even gotten around to purchasing the expansions yet. Battlefront on the other hand did not let anyone know that they were releasing the game until it was released, no premarketing whatsoever. As a fan of the original CM I immediately paid the $5 for it. It's....OK its pretty much a watered down version of the PC game with only a dozen or so units instead of the hundreds you get in the "real" version. Was very disappointed because I was actually hoping to have that style of game on the iPad and it was neutered. Moral of the Story: if you have a hardcore niche audience they are willing to shell out the money for a premium game if the content justifies the premium price. I have no idea how much money Slitherine made on the iPad BA or if they made a profit but the fact that they are working on two more war games for iPad tells me that their strategy paid off. P.S. looking thru the thread I have bought some of the games that you developers created (Bug Heroes, GBWG, ect) and I have been pleased with them.
Wow, I must admit I was truly oblivious to this. Really appreciate the information here. When I read the articles relating to Gasketball, a lot of people I've talked to really pointed out that it was cause they created a 'barrier' to the IAP without knowing it. It also shows a huge reflection to how amazing reviews did not equate to purchases. I definitely put in my support but it's a shame it turned out the way it did. Hopefully it picks back up for them.
My old game Ground Effect had a million downloads over a couple of five day periods on FAAD in 2010. I really should have made sure I had some sort of IAP available shortly after but never found the time.
I feel bad for them but if you give out too much content and hide your IAP, how do you expect to earn money? Hopefully after this update their sales will pick up. They still have a chance if those 200,000 people update and see the IAP. That brings me to another topic. How much content should you give away for free in your lite version? I had thought about stopping the game at the first boss, aka Castle Crashers and asking people to get the full version.
I would say that you want enough to get them excited and wanting to play more. I havent played your game so I cant speak for yours alone but I have played free versions of games in the past and had a small snippet of the actual game that didnt really interest me a whole lot so I deleted it and never bought the whole thing. I have later found out that the game was way more interesting the further you got into it. Its a fine balance between giving too much away/not enough.
It's inevitable that the good times for medicore apps comes to an end due to amount of them on the appstore heap. The tools are better, so apps quality goes higher and higher. And it varies in time - some of great apps of yesterday appear as below average in todays worlds standards.
