doodle jump had the luck to be in the right time in the right place (ranking) and then it just was hyped (luck), so don't expect any similar game to achieve this aswell, because honestly, this game sucks together with the whole Doodle Series. Need to be blacklisted. Anyway, as customer i can only say - guess some of you allready heard of it....it's the AIDA-Principle Attention Interest Desire Action ....and most Games fail in the 3rd Point, Attention and Interest (Nice Icons, Marketing etc.) are easy to achieve, but the Desire and finally the Action to purchase a Game with todays Big Competition in the Appstore, is the most challenging and i don't know how to achieve this, but with so many games in the appstore, you need something good to have success.
I think the best way to make games is not worry on what the masses may want to play and make a game you would like to play. That way you will put all the effort into making a good game. A lot of makers from the early years of video game history swear by the above.
"You can't please everyone, so at least please Yourself." With "Tides of War", the title reminds me of an add-on for WarCraft 2 And I would at least show some ship, shore or tides in the screenshots
My two cents My buying habits seem to be similar to most people: If it's been mentioned on a decent review site (like TouchArcade) it's worth a look. It has to have a well designed icon. The screenshots (yes, that's a plural) have to show something interesting, not just a title screen. It has to be priced for what it's probably worth. For example I know the Final Fantasy series so I'd pay the AU$12 for the game but if I saw an unknown developer with an unknown game I'd hesitate paying more than AU$4. I do look at the star ratings sometimes but they don't mean much; everyone has different tastes and a few little stars don't really reflect that.
