The best way for indie developers?

50 in a week isnt that bad comparatively, unless your counting your promo codes.

being as your games enviromentalish.
how about approaching green energy companies for a promotional app.
or the government, get them to pay for the dev, then you wont need to worry about units sold in such a competative market.

 

I doubt going down to a buck will see a huge bump in sales because of the amount of dollar apps released each week and the fact that up until now I hadn't heard of your game.

There's no video of it on youtube, for one. Vids are usually a must when trying to drum up interest for a game that has been released. At this point in time no vids usually equate to "the dev isn't 'proud' of it or is hiding something" on the parts of consumers on this site.

There are some pretty good write ups on the game in that topic, which may help word of mouth. Never underestimate the power of word of mouth as a marketing tool.

However, as far as marketing here on toucharcade, simply creating a topic about the game's release might not be enough. A lot of devs do that, with mixed results. Perhaps what you could do is send a heads up to arn or any of the other contributors on this site for them to review the game (supply a code, I guess?) and maybe they'll post a nice little write up about the game on the front page. That could help visibility, although I can't say whether or not they'll actually do such a thing. But it doesn't hurt to ask.

There's some valid opinions in that topic to which you linked. Use those opinions to help better the game itself. If you are responsive to alleviating issues with the game, the community will support you.

As for the future:

If you wish to further develop on the platform with another game, head over to the "upcoming games" section and announce the game, describe it, and see if anyone wants to join a "beta testing" team. Also, try to group up with other developers and leverage marketing strength by cross promoting each others games. Create a website for the game. Release a preview vid. Even something like a flash game on the website that serves as a sort of "lite" version of the app can create interest in the "full" game. Later on after the apps release you can leverage that "lite" flash online version with a lite version released on the App Store itself.

I see that the more successful devs work to build interest in an app before release to really maximize the potential of a launch, and they keep at it after the game is released. Employing a similar strategy next time around might prove beneficial.

 

Those two in bold aren't bad ideas at all, actually.

Game as art is taking off, and your game does speak to environmental issues. It may be too late to get a grant to help pay for dev costs, or it may not. Research these things online or at a library to see what corporations, not-for-profits, and government agencies have grants on offer for such artistic works focusing on real life issues such as environmental protection.

Again...might not work...but it couldn't hurt to try. You never know until you try.

 

Increase the price of your application since it does not have a mass audience connection. It' more specialized, so fewer will download.