No sells, any advice?

Recently my asset RateBox was approved. Still there is no a single purchase. I really don't understand what stops people from buying it. Do you have any clue to help me figure out what is wrong with it.
Maybe nobody needs it / there are no reviews / no youtube tutorial ?
What would stop you from buying this asset?

 

@dustylock, You linked to the wrong asset.

 

@schmosef, thank you, fix the url

 

Well It's not useful to me. Plus it has a lot of competition, seems like a non-urgent purchase that nobody really thinks about much.

In short, this isn't the sort of asset people choose to look for. Quality has nothing to do with this particular asset. There is just no demand for it.

 

Its only been 2 days.
One of those was a holiday in the US.

 

Maybe it's not something people go looking for specifically. And for someone just browsing, it's difficult to know what it does at a first glance.

Best shot might be cross advertising with other tools that also help mobile development.

 

@hippocoder maybe you're right, however don't you agree that particularly every mobile game needs to implement some kind of rate prompt? In addition a developer need to write code that will limit the number of impressions not to bother the players, and support opt-out. This asset makes this task a little easier, is not it?

 

@dogzerx2 thank for your advice. I know nothing about cross advertising, any ideas where to start?

 

Is that really hard to do without an asset? I would have expected to be able to write the code for a rate box in about 5 minutes.

I might be wrong about the ease of doing it. But ultimately I'm with @hippocoder. It's just not something people are searching for.

 

@BoredMormon, thank you for the feedback. I wonder have you bought assets in store yet, and if so can you name them? Just want to understand the complexity of assets that worth to buy in your opinion.

 

Make a video on how your asset works. Is there an API documentation or an online article people can take a look at before buying RateBox?

 

The asset functionality looks good, not too fond of the look of it imo. But I don't understand why people would buy this asset, it literally is just a review option button somewhere in your game, and a flag in your save file to see if you want to display a review window every once in a while.

 

If you want to sell this asset, keep making scripts of same type, as some sort of toolkit to help with developer multiple needs. Sell separately or as bundle.

Otherwise try to find a different route and look for what developers need most. Ask different people what they'd want.

 

There are some fairly complex plugins in the store. Just looking at the Unity Birthday Bonanza sale that's on at the moment, you can see the following top selling plugins (in no particular order):

Playmaker, Final IK, Gaia, Text Mesh Pro, Particle Playground, A* by Granberg, UBER, Rewired, Motion Controller, and ProBuilder.

The Unity asset store has a lot of assets and a lot of possibilities for buyers and sellers. While some small plugins could have surprising success, usually it's the well-planned plugin representing months of work by a seasoned pro - who has identified a common need in the market - that makes it to the top.

 

I think the answer is simple. a) It's only something that you'd need if you ever finished a game, which rules out most of us and b) it's not something that seems particularly necessary, and it won't occur to a lot of people to search for it.

Also, I have to say that, if I imagine myself as a non-coder, I would be a bit put off by the apparent complexity of how it works - tracking all this information and determining when to put up the window (i.e., how does all that work?). I would be wondering how much of all that I would have to understand in order to use it reliably, and if it was worth the bother.

 

Mostly I buy complete frameworks. It's either because I want to pull them apart and see how it's done. Or because I just don't care how to do a thing, and just want it done. Your asset might fall into the second category.

I also buy random art pieces on impulse. One of these days I'll actually put together a game with them.

 

Impulse you say?
I'd like to interest you in a fine snow shovel, just in time for winter.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/8298

I've sold 5 in 3 years, should I make a thread wondering what went wrong?

 

Lol. I don't think I'll ever make a game that calls for a blood covered shovel.

 

It's just a snow shovel. It's not blood covered. The blood covered shovels sell pretty well, I think.

 

Only one way to know! Ask the owner of this asset pack. The things you never knew were on the store...

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/72114

 

cheaper and vastly more content!

 

wow it even comes with a crowbar, that's got hl3 killer game potential written all over it.

 

@Billy4184 extremely useful feedback. I never think that the potential audience narrowed down to those who had completed their games.

Now I positive about making a tutorial video to show how the asset works.

 

Thanks for the advice guys.
Steps to success!

1. make moar items in one pack
2. "sell" for free
3. covered in moar blood
4. profit!

I think these steps are true for everything.
So RateBox should be covered in blood, as an option of course. See, we are back on topic.

I did make an electric power transformer, I was going to add to the pack, but never got around to the adding part.
[edit] oh wait, transformer covered in blood!

 

Looks decent, I agree needs a tutorial and preferrably documentation you can preview ahead of time to see how it integrates and what all the features are. There is no reason to keep docs behind a paywall, let users read them beforehand.

 

Yes!
I like reading instructions before buying a coding item.

 

This. Documentation factors into my purchasing decisions.

 

I hadn't noticed this. I pretty much always read the docs on a scripting asset before I purchase. If the docs match up, it might meet my use case. If the docs don't match, it definitely won't.

 

@tiggus @Tzan @Ryiah @BoredMormon
Thx, I've learned from you that a documentation must be in public access. Moreover I'm going to make a tutorial video. The problem is that in order to add the link to the description, the asset needs to go throw whole review process again; last time it took 20 days till asset was reviewed and accepted.

Want to share some statistics (page views of RateBox) with those who are interested
http://www.screencast.com/t/53ejgQNY5kAN

Does someone know why views on 23 and 24 Nov are different; does Asset Store give a small traffic boost on the release day or it's just a regular fluctuation?
btw... still no sales -(

 

There are already existing solutions, there is even a free solution. Try lowering to like 2.5 and see if it sells at that price point. Better to get something then nothing

 

The review process for an already published asset is only 1-3 business days. Only the initial submission takes up to 2+ weeks.

 

OK, so to summarize: something like a message-box that prompts people to rate their game on Steam, or not?

Overly simple.

Remember MineCraft was priced as much as your asset, even if we agree MineCraft is sh*t - it's a whole game after all not messagebox. Even if your box is super sophisticated, it's still message box.

Design something like a realistic interrior of Versailles, like the one in Unity Assasins Creed and you'd get sales. But it's too much work for little $. Skip the AS at all unless you're a learning teenager.

 

@Aiursrage2k What are these solutions, can you give some names?

Rate App for iOS - iOS only
GS Rate Dialogue - not working according to reviews and has less functionality
iRater - iOS only
Ratings and Reviews - not working according to reviews and has less functionality
RateThis - iOS only
UniRate - alike mine asset in terms of functionality. However, read reviews; would you buy it?
AskToRate - more likely it's a skin, but not a solution

 

You might add a "implement in x minutes!" line in the description.

Obviously, you'd rather sell on value rather than price. Look at your lower priced competition, and identify what you do that they don't. focus your marketing on that.

Maybe start marketing threads in other game dev sites and try to increase exposure.

It will almost certainly take time. give it 30 days and see how it goes.

 

I think the asset is price too high for what it does, you want to go cheap and sell more, especially for an asset that does not seemingly solve alot of deep and technical issues that most devs wouldn't just be able to handle themselves even if it took them more time to do it, they'd at least be implementing it how they wanted.

"Does someone know why views on 23 and 24 Nov are different;"

I'm probably not the only one who checks the asset store and only views them sorted by last updated.. maybe your asset fell onto the 2nd page by the 24th and less people checked it.

 

1) Lower the price this will get more people to buy it, more people buy it more people rate it. Maybe raise the price later after you got some ratings
2) Better Icons - You need to be better advertise that then because I didnt know it worked for steam, into your icons somehow
3) Compare your solution to your competition
Maybe you need a chart to compare against your competition as a screenshot. something like that
4) Add more functionality - ie steam support etc

 

Hey dusty - I agree with Billy. For me as a non-coding artist I don't ever go into the scripting section of the asset store. I'm on the look out for 'tools' that can help me overcome my non-coding shortcoming by helping me to do something I couldn't normally do unless I knew how to code.

Could you make this tool to be useful for non-coders?
If so - I think your sales might increase by providing a tool to people like me who would struggle to accomplish what your asset does. Also by designing the asset to be usable by non-coders you will be broadening your prospective customer base and advertising to additional developers who rely on helpful assets to complete projects.

Is that screen grab in post #29 from google analytics?

 

@theANMATOR2b Thank you for your feedback. This week I'm going to finish work on video tutorial and code improvements to make this plugin works without coding.

Yes, that was screenshot from Google Analytics.

 

When it comes to simple things we as programmers are pretty arrogant and say to ourselves, "I don't need to buy that, I can write that in 5 minutes... or less, startTimer();" I'm way more inclined to drop cash for an asset if it's very clear this is something that would save me considerable time and is something I need... or want.

 

I recently added a similar product (not yours although I would have added yours had I seen it 1st) & a suite of similar things to my wishlist. As far as I'm concerned Assets that integrate all this piddling differences between platforms into one easy to use API is what Unity, the Asset Store, and programming is all about really.

 

I started reading this thread and instantly thought... this thread was made for free advertising outside of the actual Asset Store thread which, in order to stay front-page, you need to post every 12 seconds or keep bumping your own thread about "how fast your code asset can place an object and make it rotate" every 2 seconds until Hippcoder bans you (true story, loved that guy). 12/14 of your lifetime posts are in this thread. You waited like 2 days before deeming your product 'not selling' and then posting here.

Reading the thread more, even to the point that the sales are posted regarding "look at how much more I've sold now" just seems like more of the same. It feels like every month or so I see a thread like this... why isn't my asset selling, so let's post in the general forum asking why, and oh hey... I'm selling now!

My thoughts: It's 10 bucks for functionality that I presume is not that complicated to write. Make it $2. Make other functionalities for $2. Bundle them all for $10. Make updates. Post in asset thread. Give away free copies. Don't expect to be a millionaire.

 

I share your point of view to some extend. Many people tend to save their money and do all the work alone forgetting that their time cost some money too; often more than they saved. However, I don't think that bringing them round would be an easy task. For that reason I think that Assets in script category must be designed for non-coders and I will polish RateBox in this direction.

Cool, it makes me think that RateBox is somehow demanded =) Congrats with release btw. Can you give a link to your asset or maybe share some statistics?

 

Actually, I didn't intend to promote, and I suppose moderators think this way too, otherwise the thread has been moved already. I believe people can learn general staff here not related to this particular asset.

 

I agree with OP. This thread is really helpful for other Asset Store publishers. Knowing what your customer expectations is very important to us

 

#1, #2, #3, #6.

I simply don't buy scripts because I can write them. If an asset in a scripting category, it would need to be one hell of a product to make me purchase it - it would need to be something that would take months to write, and I'd need to be interested in it. To the date, there's not a single package that satisfied the criteria, although NGui kinda sorta look interesting.

 

Telling people you have zero sales is a poor way to promote anyway. People have a natural herd tendency. Just check out your local shopping centre food court.

 

I get that it's not complicated to write, but for a professional programmer $10 is well under half an hour's worth of their time. Assuming it's a quality asset, if this thing works across multiple platforms then I think it's likely to save far more time than that.

We constantly have threads about how long it takes to make games, and people unable to finish projects because things just take so darn long. Think not of the "easy code" you're buying, and instead of the amount of your own time it frees up. (Again, this assumes a quality asset. Poor assets run the risk of costing more time than if you'd just done it yourself, and I feel that is where this issue stems from. A good programmer only has to get burned a couple of times before they shy away from trying again...)

Also, I really dislike the tendency for people to tell Asset Store vendors to drop their prices. Sure, we all love a bargain, but I love quality assets more. I'd rather that Asset Store vendors could afford to spend time making quality assets and then support their stuff well than that we have a race to the bottom and everything is $2 rushed junk with no support.

 

I also agree that just because a professional programmer could write it in half an hour, doesn't mean it's not worth $10. I'm sure a top concept artist could produce a fantastic work in half an hour, but that doesn't mean that I could do it myself, or that it's worth any less to me. The thing is that the half an hour is merely sitting on top of thousands of hours of training and practice.

Come to think of it, sports people get paid a lot more than $10 for half an hour of their time (sometimes for only just over 9 seconds in fact).

So you need to ask yourself - who am I selling this to? Experienced programmers? Or people with little or no coding skill?

And if it's the latter, you need to ask yourself how can you design and package it better to make it more easy to use and attractive to someone who has little or no knowledge of how it works.

 

And the rest. Just about every professional in the developed world makes more then that in wages. Contractors, freelancers and entrepreneurs can expect much more.

 

No, I have nothing in the Asset Store. I bought a product from the Asset Store that does what yours does. To rid myself of one more piece of coding. Honestly I have to save my coding for the original bits of stuff, can't be wasting it on doing what every game out there needs done.