Now that is what I call an informative reply. Need more people like you throwing their hat into the ring. When you had the 100,000 downloads did you capitalize on that by pushing inhouse ads for you new games? If you keep get those numbers in downloads you will make it soon. Keep on trucking.
i think thats a bit too general especially in this community. If hammonds games is a f2p iap driven match 3 game with colorfull graphics and targeted at general public i highly doubt he will get much attention from this community, except maybe some iap hatred. @Xammond hiding your game will not benefit you. Yes if people react negative this might be not very tempting but one needs to be realistic about the product you make. As for not showing because someone would copy your idea. This will never happen except you are well known already. People copy popular games, usualy not just ideas alone. Chances are slim this will happen and getting feedback as early as possible is important. Last game we worked on with a big publisher extensive playtesting has been done and focus group testing and whatnot and it was pretty helpfull negative as positive feedback. Of course this is an expensive luxury but something every developer can do indies as well is a family & friends sessions, invited beta tests, and of course a soft launch in selected territories across different platforms if possible. Its already hard for indies to get any attention so hiding your product won't help much.
Yes I cross promote, but really I don't have the userbase necessary to generate a huge volume of downloads. You have to consider retention. Most users who download don't keep the app. My retention rate for my paid apps is much higher than my free apps. That's the game though. Most everyone experiences this. I don't mind sharing a few numbers... it's not like I'm giving away secrets to success... and even if I was the game changes all the time. so what once worked may not work now so it's always important to keep up with business reports and trends.
Its been a long while since doing the above put me off, so indeed I have cut my losses on a fair few projects before they were completed or even announced. My latest is coming up 6 months in development and I've only had good feedback from a select few, though I showed a version to a couple of publishers but they did not write back until I questioned one of their bs tweets. The game will be paid so guess I went to the wrong guys.
@mr.Ugly you are very wise, I would want to announce today after considering your post. The game is far enough done I just need a couple of things to settle irl.
It was advice for the OP. More like, if they are just starting out or so then teaming up with a bunch of old mates would be better than going at it alone. When I started out nobody even liked computers and I was considered different at the time. Then when Facebook appeared those same people all opened eyes, now they take it for granted, so it must be easy to find like minded people today compared with the late 80s.
To be fair, in 2015 if he's releasing a F2P IAP driven match 3 the only way he's going to get attention is by dropping 6+ figures on user acquisition so either way the point is moot.
Just to mention I'm _not_ releasing a match game, though I did port one over to Windows Phone as a rehearsal for the upcoming game. I did rename it and figured the new name would better suit the iOS version too, but I am as yet unsure whether to send it to iTC as a new app or as an update.
