I will be posting a new thread for ideas on what the calendar should be called what section does it belong in?
Star ratings are really not indicative of app quality. There are so many people that will rate an excellent game as 1 star just because it is not their style of game or because it crashed when they started it (which can easily happen because some OTHER game is still running in the background hogging memory due to the fact that it did something wrong), or because they are not good at it, and for other silly reasons that have nothing to do with the game's quality. I had considered doing a site like this myself as well, but I it may be better for a non-developer to do it to avoid the "appearance of impropriety". If I did do a site like this, I would be sure to keep it honest and fair.
Ha, ha! No, I did not mean that it was their right to have advertising, but that it would be a good act.
I really encourage you to do it!!! There is 120K apps out there and growing! There is more than enough room for another FAAD site!!! And if it makes more sense for people to go to your site and if it can generate more income for indie devs It' all good!!! And No I am not pissed or mad, I think you should do it! And if you need some tips about anything please let me know!
It's not about having a system that gives you paradise, it's about a system that offers sufficient reward for sufficient effort. Everybody knows thats.... -_-
I like the idea of a free-app blog/website, we might be interested to join with Ringo. I liked the whole idea of "One App a Day" because than that app gets all the focus, sounds more rewarding than offering more apps/day. Otherwise a good idea, if you need help please PM me. @Flickitty Soft Freak Fiesta is a Multiplayergame, so it makes total sense to offer it for free at first to generate the user-base for the game.
I think that as long as developers understand that there is a risk of losing ranks in the paid charts by going free for a day, then let them make the decision. I'm going to try it for several reasons. Maybe it will work and maybe it won't.
I agree that it makes sense, and in theory it should have worked. Unfortunately, the App Store does not actually work that way. It would be interesting to know what the developer thinks, and whether or not they would do things differently. I personally love the game, and I think it deserves to be a permanent fixture in the Top 100. For the most part, I think any game that is going to go free should wait until they have completely bottomed out and they are no longer in the top 200. If you are getting less than 10 sales a day, it might be a good time to try free. You really don't have much to lose.
I'm in. And if there's anything I can do to help with the web stuff--design, lay-out, etc. let me know.
First of all, good to know that the project has begun and hopefully pushes through! Some small suggestions to the spearheaders (is that even a word?): 1. I vote for a blog-type website or a design that can have a facility where players/customers can post feedbacks or comments. As a developer, feedbacks or comments about my work is valuable as I can use it to further improve my products. 2. Not to discriminate but maybe setting a star-rating standard or an evaluation process for each app would be great because it will ensure quality--think end-users! After all, the more happy customers we get, the more they keep coming back and the better for us all. 3. Give developers who joined a free slot on a rotating banner ad that will last for as long as his "date" is still visible in the sliding calendar. In addition, please have all the demographics (downloads, stats, page views, etc.) available to all developers who join. 4. Create a Twitter account (or maybe even a Facebook page) around this for maximum exposure! This FB or Twitter account can then be used by the developers who joined for future product promotions--let's think ahead! There should be admins though. Hope these ideas help! I only have 2 games to date, one of which uses the "freemium" model but I would like to include my other game in your promotions. I also have a new game coming out. Oh, and I'm willing to make full blast promotions about this when it launches! Thanks guys!
Again I am all for you guys pushing out this site and all because I think that there is space for multiple similar site especially since the App Store is expected to reach 300k apps in late 2011.. We have already locked our spots with devs valuing the service at $600, but I realized that something might not be fair with our pricing structure....because we have the big boys, the mid size devs, the first time devs but how about the small devs who made multiple apps and really improved their skills in the process? it's like getting a chance to improve your app with an update! So I am thinking about maybe reserving 3 spots a month for this segement and the pricing point will most likely be $300 What do you think? fair enough or do you think that the value of the service is "Free" and "Free" only?
1. It won't be in a blog format, but you will be able to comment. 2. I know what you mean, but some apps get horrible ratings even though they are very good- take the Cell Phone Tracker app for example. Stalkers people buy it without reading the description which clearly states that it is a prank app. Thus, many people rate it 1 star because they didn't read the description. I'm not saying we would have other apps than games (that was only an example app), but I am saying that we can't accept games based on the number of stars the game has received. Though we will be testing the games out beforehand to make sure they are appropriate. 3. We can't really do that because, since this service will be free, we will need some source of revenue, ad or otherwise. Sorry 4. That sounds like a good idea! We'll probably end up doing that! Thank you for your suggestions We will have a thread out soon where you will be able to 'register' your app.
Concerned about what happens with the ratings after the app goes free for 24 hours. As far as I know App store ratings are based of a three day average or something... Would switching an app to a free status change the context in which it would be rated by Apple, like would it show up in a free category for one day, where two previous days will be counted as zero and wouldn't the same happen when it goes back to paid? This seems like a great opportunity to get a spike in traffic, what you do with it is another question.... How about having number of free apps a day from different categories? I think this would allow for more opportunity and less competition across apps.
