How to publish a mobile game?

Hello,

I have a simple question because my knowledge is really low, I have a team and we decided to publish our game in english, so I need some real information about how we can do it in App store and then google-play. do we need a publisher or we can do it just like hundered games which are out there?

Thanks

 

You don't need a publisher and can submit it yourself. Without a publishers help you however have to advertise it a lot more yourself and it will most likely still disappear there along with the hundreds of other games released every day.

 

Are there any recommended publishers? I've heard some publishers wont do much, just upload your game for you and take a % of the income if there's any.

@JamesLeeNZ kindly gave us a very nice tip, used this service http://www.androidb.com/110-app-review-requests/ it's only $100 and the guy will request a review for your game to over a 100 review sites.

He also just gives you a list of the review sites for a lower fee, if you want to do it yourself.

 

Thanks a lot, so basically we need lots of wip and stuff to introduce the game before publishing, which is fine, but at least I need someone to get % from me and help me during the process,

 

But what about apple game sites ?

 

Honestly you can self publish on google play, ios appstore, windows phone store and more without a publisher. You only need to pay for an account with them, and upload an apk, make a description and so on. But, if you want help marketing, advertising and so forth, you have to know a guy who knows lots of guys, or pay somebody to do that kind of stuff.

 

Md reptile, yes I am looking for that person.

 

Sorry can't offer any help in that department really. I would start googling for popular app marketing companies, and get some quotes for what it'll cost, and what they do to help spread the word. Good luck!

Just some random google results that might help:

http://amadeusdigital.com/mobile-app-marketing/

www.liftoff.io/get-started

 

In today's world lacking discovery, I would highly recommend getting a publishing deal with a 'good publisher' if you can. The problem is publishers review 1000s of games, and the really good publishers only publish 3-6 titles a year.

There are other publishers that don't really offer much, but they will gladly upload your game for a cut of the revenue. They may have a contact or two at Google or Apple but don't expect them to spend much on marketing/QA/UA etc.

To gauge the kind of focus a publisher will give your game is to look at how many titles they have released in the last 2 years. On Google Play also take a look at the number of installs across their portfolio.

So you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Your game would really need to stand out to get the interest of a 'good publisher', but it would also need to be decent to get the interest of a lesser or high volume publisher, but they won't do much for you but you might be better off going with them than trying to market the game yourself.

I would suggest if you feel your game is a high quality production, has innovative gameplay and offers something new, then submit to as many publishers as possible. If your game is just a clone of something else out there and has medium to low production values, don't even waste your time, self publish and hope for the best.

 

This is a silly question.

What's stopping devs from doing a self publish run, then turn around and find a publisher if they can't do it on their own?

 

Those exist?

And for ios!?

 

Because most publishers won't touch a game that has been globally launched already. Although many will consider a game still in soft launch.

There are rare exceptions though, if your game is amazingly successful, some would still be interested in re-publishing it, but hey, you don't need a publisher anymore at this point.

 

If your game is any good at all (and by that I mean really good) you don't need a publisher, it will be discovered via word of mouth, and if it ain't then they aren't going to spend much, if anything, to get your game downloads.

So try one of those Kickstarters - people don't use it to really raise funds to create games they use it to create publicity for their game and presales. Although I've seen enough Kickstarters not even hit $500. Try advertising on Facebook or with Google - small amounts please, and see what it gets you.

You best and most effective advertising will be your thorough preparation of advertising media and your respectful correspondence with review sites although they probably honestly don't take requests any more and you'll have a hard time getting through.

If you want a good laugh google 'Mac Mini Skylake' as I've done probably three dozen times in the past year and what comes up near the top of that search is various types of 'Mac Rumour' web sites. Having encountered these the first time I read a couple of them and by now I've realized they are fake. That's right, apparently creating a web site and creating few cookie cutter articles which you endlessly publish again and again (after using an editor to globally change product names and dates and version numbers) in a loop of speculation of what are the next changes in store for Apple products are is a viable business.

 

I got series of articles dedicated to making and publishing games (using Unity) on Google Play.

Getting started developing for Android: http://appgoodies.net/unity/getting-started-developing-for-android/

Implementing Google Play Services into your game: http://appgoodies.net/unity/implementing-google-play-services-into-your-game/

Publishing to Google Play: http://appgoodies.net/general/publishing-to-google-play-store/

Last but not least, my little postmortem on Google Play Store: http://appgoodies.net/postmortem/google-play-publishing-disaster/

Hope these will come in handy for you!

 

Great stuff, thanks