This is it? I think I made a big mistake.

About a year ago I decided to go for a career change. The money was decent at my job, but I wanted to design my own stuff. Well, I did that. I spent a ton of money, invested a lot of time and I finished my project. And I am proud of what I made. I enjoy it, it is challenging and it is nothing like most games out there.

This Friday Apple approved it for the app store. I wasn't expecting much, but what I got is basically nothing in my opinion. I have 150 downloads as it stands now. One reply on my showcase in the Unity forums and no replies from the review sites I approached. What went wrong?

I spent a lot of time and effort in making the sure my game at least looks and sound decent. I tested the hell out of it and it runs smoothly on all the IOS devices. Am I wrong? Is my game bad? Or is the market just so saturated that the only way to get downloads is to spend a ton of money on advertising? Should I have made a clone of other games? I bet another Flappy bird clone get's more downloads than my work. Am I too hasty and should I wait longer before judging? I can't even find my own game in the app store under the new games section. The only way to find it is by exactly knowing what to look for.

Does anyone have some inspiring words for me? I love doing this and I want to keep doing it, but I need to change something if I want to make any money out here.

 

Realistic expectations are the most important thing. You are averaging 50 downloads per day during the initial release period. What did you expect to happen? And did you intentionally release the game during a time when many folks have Christmas on their minds?

 

I had and have no idea what to expect to be honest. I released the game when it was done on a day the data said it was a good day to do so. What is normal for a small game? I would expect the winter period to be the best period to release a game.

 

Unless you have a load of cash to spend on marketing to convince people they need your game, you need to make a game that people actually want. You can't just make the game you want and expect the world to buy it, unfortunately it doesn't work that way.

Edit: Also, just releasing for iPad? Not a good idea, you're cutting off a hell of a lot of players.

 

The one thing I didn't see you say was marketing. If you didn't talk about this early on, and nobody knows what your doing ahead of time, and what to expect.... Then you won't get a lot of traffic. Doesn't mean it's the end, but that's a lesson everybody had to learn at some point.

You should have posted stuff on Twitter , Facebook, forums ect. And a lot! Not spam, but dev stuff, screenshots, videos, animated gifs. I'm not the greatest with that myself, but I now make a large effort with this. If no one's listening there, they surely won't on the store. It doesn't take money to market, that just makes it a little easier. I on the other hand, would rather download from a real intractable human, who's listening.

 

Also, did you try and get reviews on any websites? Without those, how is anyone going to find your app? Also, what in your mind makes your app unique? Perhaps include some more enticing information in the description. In addition, maybe vary the scenery a bit? It seems like all the levels are variations of the same colors, not sure how exciting that is for the user.

 

.

 

Everything everyone said, plus here's a quick article that might help you out even now: http://www.indiegamegirl.com/game-press/

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I wish you the best.

 

Where is the android/windows phone version's? RELEASE those. iOS is saturated... iOS is very exciting on day-1 release. I got 127 downloads first day, im like weee! but that dropped to zero after about 2 weeks... pretty standard for iOS.

Android has been much more consistent. 5-10 downloads/day at least. Recently paid for a guy to do a PR push for my game ($100 - he submitted it to near 200 sites) and saw a boost in downloads, currently getting around 25-50 downloads/day (this might have been because the game got reviewed on App Apes - http://app-apes.com/2014/12/hardkour/)

Windows phone has been slow, possibly because I released it as paid (with trial - trial never expires, but users dont know that).

 

Thanks for the advice everyone. I am gonna try all of it.

@JamesLeeNZ I figured that getting the app ready for windows phone would be a ton of work and barely worth it. I'll have to look into it. Android I am really sceptical about, seeing there are like a million different devices.

 

I would expect Nov - Dec to be a one of the worst times to release small mobile/indie games. That's when all the AAA games are hitting hard - I only search the app store when i'm relatively bored and looking for something to pass the time. Between the abundance of AAA games hitting the shelves right now and the holiday season, that just isn't the case for me. I'm much more likely to buy mobile stuff during January-Feb or June-July, when solid AAA games in a lull.

Of course I have done zero research to back this up - I'm just going off of my own buying patterns.

 

Android/Windows are easy to release on, but start with Android. Keep in mind, success on one platform can drive success on another platform, not always, but it happens. Getting downloads will give you drive to continue development.

Im getting close to 1000 total downloads across all platforms, the breakdown goes like this:
iOS: 320
Android: 606
WP8: 53

While those arnt life changing numbers, they are still keeping me enthusiastic about pushing my game.

Having a million devices isn't really a big deal, but you will need some hardware to test on, however the good thing about windows/android, is there are some cheap options out there.

My main phone is an S4, but I brought a 2nd device ($100) and it played the game fine as well.

 

+1 for this. Generally speaking just seek out the minimum bar on each of the platforms you intend to release for and then go out and get a device of that specs for cheap on ebay. Generally speaking you can probably get a low end device on each platform for under $50 each.

 

This. It sounds like you've made the classic mistake of putting all of your time into the bit you're good at - the technical, creative side of things - and little or none into the side you know nothing about - the bit where you sell your game.

The best game in the world is worthless if nobody knows about it.

Consider: when you buy a game, what leads up to the purchase decision?

Do you see something in a (virtual) store front and immediately buy it on the spot? Probably not. Few people do. And those who do are picking between your and every other game on the list. So that strategy (or lack thereof) will get you something like one percent of an already minority purchasing group. Bummer.

Alternatively, do you hear about it elsewhere? See adverts? Posters? Trailers? Reviews? Hear people talk about it? Think "hey, that sounds/looks cool"? Then later on you're in a store front, recognize the thing you previously heard about and thought was cool, and only then even bother to click on it? Yeah, that's most people.

Clicking on it is only step 2, as well. The funnel is something like see -> click -> read -> buy -> install -> open -> play. "See" will only lead to "click" if you've somehow managed to win the attention competition. Then you need honed material at the "read" stage - great text and engaging images - to lead to "buy". The steps after that are also important, because if people don't play it they're not going to add to the buzz. And every step along that funnel has its own unique challenges.

Think about how you as a consumer go through that funnel. Then think about others (it's a classic sales mistake to think others think like you!). Then based on that try to optimize each step to maximize the number of people who get through it.

 

"Requires in app purchase", mmm, do you have any numbers on the bounce rate, say people who download but did not play(pay). How does android compare to IOS in terms of conversions.

 

I've had one purchase so far (the IAP version has been out for about a week). The IAP isnt available on iOS as of yet (since my downloads have gone to zero on iOS, diminishing my desire to put more work into it).

Granted an update may see me generate new downloads on iOS.. What you get for IAP perhaps isnt appealing enough (removes ads, lets you customise color), however from ad's Ive seen more revenue (granted its tiny amount) come from iOS - I use adbuddiz which pays out on click through installations of ad's.

Ive considered adding a new mode that is more like 25 pt challenges - the free version could have half a dozen with a bunch more for purchased versions.

 

Your first app and you made it to 150 downloads without any extensive marketing and the stuff companies do when they release an app - Well done, I would say! Pretty impressive for a first attempt. Don't lose hope, keep at it. As they say: If you can't figure out your purpose, figure out your passion. For your passion will lead you right into your purpose.

All the best!

 

In my limited experience the amount of interested users can vary a lot on the type of game you are making. I also think the two marketplaces still have a bit of "culture differences" between them. I haven't experienced it myself but I have had enough feedback from others suggest that IOS is much more lucrative than android especially for purchases. For what it's worth basic data on my game still under the radar for the most part (I won't advertise until my next update makes the game better). It's been out for 3-4 months depending on the platform.

downloads- total ~1500
IOS ~400 (27%)
Google Play ~100 (7%)
WP8 ~125 (9%)
Amazon ~850 (mostly fire tv) (57%)

ad impressions total ~3000 (probably best indicator of not one and done players I only show 1 ad every other game and not one to start which means they have to start a second game in order to see an ad)
IOS- (21%)
Google Play (8%)
WP8 (6%)
Amazon (65%)

My experience with android if you compare userbase% and ad impression% android is a bit higher than normal for it's userbase size. However, for people that bought the IAP (remove ads) IOS is largest. In general the IOS market seems more likely to buy and the android market better for ad revenue (in addition to impressions it had more clicks). Obviously my sample size is way too small to be that useful but take it for what it's worth.

 

What the others have said.
Plus this:

Market research is really important. Ideally you should have a good idea what to expect going in, and set goals. And of course look at competitors in at least genre to see what is going on, where they are marketing and what size of market to expect. The more info you have going in, the better you can do.

 

Well, about the marketing side of things you all have valid points, but I think I got a bit demotivated to get started with that by the Unity forums. This thread I have had some great replies from people. However, when it comes to the core of Unity, I think these forums need some work.

I posted other work in the work in progress forums, but there are hardly any replies to what people make, even the good works by great designers and programmers get completely ignored. Same with the showcase forums. There are some really good games on the showcase that get zero replies. This community, due to it's size, should have enough power to at least get each others games enough ratings to get noticed by the app store. All people seem to care about are assets and survival games. To be honest, I do not understand that such an important part of this process gets neglected so badly.

My plan now is as follows: the IPhone version is in review in the Apple Store for the next few weeks. I am going to use that time to try and get more reviews for the game on the various sites and hope someone will notice. I am also going to get the Android and Windows phone version up and running. Should not be too bad to do that. I'll keep you all posted on the results.

 

This is very true. While the times for small developers are really good to create games in small teams again and bring them to the masses by self publishing this also means that everybody is doing it. So marketing - in whatever form - is necessary now more than ever. What is not in people's minds isn't there. Just look at the news: There are tons of important things but the ones being discussed are mostly the ones that are in the news. Most of the rest will be forgotten sooner or later.

@Fluzing But on a positive note:
1. You can still start it now. Better late than never.
2. You actually not only finished but released a complete product! That is something to be proud of.

Now go and do something about it

 

I found a lot of posts in this thread useful, but we should also consider that marketing soon and giving a preview of an idea also runs the risk of someone else attempting to steal an idea as their own. In games that take an estimated 1-3 years to develop this isn't as big of a deal since a lot of companies will want to dedicate their time on what they've planned/discussed among themselves and feel is the next big thing not necessarily someone else's ideas. Small indie groups may be discouraged from taking a risk on stealing an idea that will take a long time with the potential of flopping instead of succeeding. For small games (games that only take 1-3 months for a small but experienced team to complete), the risk is smaller and there may be groups willing to take a risk to "bandwagon" on the idea giving you competitors for something you've advertised and potentially raising the expectation from your product before it can land on the market.

On the other hand, it might be more useful to get feedback as soon as possible so you can develop the controls and game mechanics players of your target genre are looking for and expect.

I'm not trying to spread FUD when it comes to marketing sooner than later, it's just something to consider. Maybe there's a good balance between starting to market an idea within the project, depending on the guesstimated time it will take for the project to be completed?

 

You named your app wrong. Rename it to "Lawn Mowing Simulator 2014"

 

Sure, competition is a thing. I don't think that hiding from it to the detriment of your own product is a productive way to handle it, though. In all practicality, if you decide against marketing a product for fear of letting competitors know what you're doing, you're essentially just choosing not to compete yourself.

Consider this: If you market your game then there's the possibility that someone will knock it off and crowd your space. Best practical case it makes no difference 'cause nobody cares for the knockoff. Worst practical case you lose some market share. Either way you have some market share.

Then consider this: You don't market your game. Nobody knows about it. Best and worst practical case are both that few people buy your game 'cause you're relying on word of mouth. Either way you have practically no market share.

I know where I'd rather be...

Also, having some competition can be mutually beneficial, especially if the rivalry is known. Do you prefer Coke or Pepsi?

 

Ok, but then what is the best way to market your game? I spent all my money on Unity Licences and graphics. What other options other than the indie review sites do I have?

 

Aside from marketing, theres a problem. I would never quit my job until my game is already selling well, no matter how big the project is

 

I'm not in a position to answer that yet.

Though my immediate question is, did you look at a publisher? I don't know about your part of the world, but in mine there's at least one game agency who'll publish and market your game (to what extent I'm not sure) for a cut of the proceeds. Many indies scoff at the idea of sharing their income, but as long as they increase sales by more than their cut it's a win-win situation. And from what I've seen, it won't take much to achieve that from most indie releases.

The catch is that your game has to be good enough to meet their standards. From the video I don't expect you'd have any trouble on that front, though.

 

Actually, I was approached by a publisher for a different project I was working on. I had a very good talk with them, and I still want to proceed with that particular project, but it is just too big for me to finish alone right now. I switched to finishing this to see how well I could do without a publisher. I still have a very good joint project I am working on and I think I will contact the publisher about that as well.

Also, thank for the video comment

 

marketing is 50% of the development. For our app we have spent a lot of time for it. (website, sending hundreds of emails, social media, presskit, trailer, marketing images, press text!! -> very important because most websites just do copy paste.....) It is hard and we've also made mistakes, especially for a small indie studio with one or two developers. There are just so many stuff to think about it besides the development of the game.
On release we had many downloads thanks to good press, androidpolice wrote a custom article about our app which was really great.
as soon as one website writes about your app/game many other websites will do the same. That's a big step! What's really difficult is to keep your app/game alive. You can have a great start but then downloads can fall pretty quick.

Options: you can take a bucket full of money and spend it on advertising, buy faked reviews/ratings which i personally won't suggest, you can hope to win the apple lottery, or you can spend a lot of time in forums posting dev stuff. I think communication is very important but also time consuming. You can also add new features to your game and do another new press release (now even better with even more features! YAY!)
There's not really a "the right way to do it" but you can push it a little to the right way

 

Do you specifically aim your game at other unity developers? If so, then you did the correct thing on posting it on these forums. But if it is not(which is most likely the case) then trying to attract players and hype through the unity forums is useless. You need to go to other places to find the actual players. Twitter is a good way to do that in general. Make a daily tweet about progress. Add a few pictures, common hashtags and you will build up a group of people that might be interested in it. Other ways to promote it are using game portals like kongregate. Make a (limited) webplayer demo with a link to the app store product.

 

I'm currently in my second year as an indie game developer, released only one game so far: Night Riders http://neko.works/nightriders

In my personal experience, mobile markets are saturated (tested Android only). Even though there are hundred of millions of mobile users, I actually got 10x more sales for this game on OUYA, a console supposed to be a total failure, and 100x more on the PlayStation Vita, also not the most selling console nowadays.

My suggestion for a beginner game developer, is to target those consoles that are accessible, for instance, for developing on Vita, all you need is a retail console with the free Unity for PlayStation Mobile program.

Then again, it will depend on the type of games you're making.

 

Wow. A lot of replies came in since I asked my questions. That's great though!

And I agree with them all. What makes this a business is that none of us can just work on a game and then release it expecting to get tons of downloads or sales. It just doesn't work that way.

From mid 2002 through mid 2011 I studied and practiced marketing focusing on Internet marketing. Why? Because way back in the final 6 weeks of 2001 I made a game and released it via the shareware model around the second week of January 2002. Over the course of 6 months I made 6 sales.

That completely blew expectations out of the water. At the time I had thought "if I can do little game projects, spending 4 to 6 weeks on each one and then end up making $2500 from each over the next 10 to 12 months I could make a living from this pretty easily. Because I'd also be getting a small trickle of sales from all of the games thus growing my income." Obviously, the $54 I made was a far fall from $2500. lol

But that was awesome feedback. I could see there was a real issue here and I needed to do something about. So, I changed my focus to marketing. Understanding the sales funnel. A/B testing. Good copy writing. Video promotion. And so forth. I got so wrapped up in it making websites just to try different things and see what worked and what didn't that I spent 9 years focusing on it. lol

Anyway, this is how I view things and maybe this will help or maybe it won't: There is no success or failure. Not the meanings people tend to give to those words anyway. I have a different view of these two words. I view everything I do as a test. Just an experiment. "If I do this what will happen?" So.... I do something. Something happens (even if the something appears to be nothing). People love to label everything. If something happens that we perceive to be as good or better than what we desired we call that a success. However, if something happens that we perceive to be less than we desire we call it a failure. And my view is that is wrong. In my view, there is always "a success" because all I am looking for is a result. We do something. Something happens. We get feedback. It works every time.

So, then all we need to do is take the feedback, adjust our strategy and run another test. Take that feedback and compare it to the last experiment. This is how we know we are moving in the right direction. We learn what works and what does not work. Then you just spend more time doing what is working and less time doing what is not working. And this is a very empowering very realistic way of looking at life in general.

That was a lot... I just wanted to let you know "I get" where you are at. I had the same thing happen with my game. So, you've done your experiment. You've built the game. You launched. You got feedback. You haven't failed. It is an iterative process. Take the advice from the posts above. Apply some of it here. Some of it there. Run tests: If I write to 100 review sites how many will say "sure send it over"? If I find similar but not directly competing games and I contact 100 of those developers how many will say "sure we will add a link from our game to yours if you will do the same to ours"?

Okay, and now I am done with my rambling.

 

@angrypenguin You make a very good point. It is better to have some visibility even at the risk of having competitors as you're developing a game.

Spoiler: A bit off-topic, so hiding in a spoiler!

I do want to talk about "knockoffs" for a moment though, since you brought it up.

What decides whether something is a knockoff or not is the consumers, unfortunately. If people "feel" that something is a knockoff of something else, despite the time of development and deployment between your idea and a competitor using your idea, that is what will be considered true in regards to the opinion of the majority.

Take Titanfall and CoD:AW for example. Many gamers assumed CoD:AW was a knockoff of Titanfall (before CoD:AW was released) due to the plans for futuristic movement mechanics to be implemented into the game which weren't really "public knowledge" until a trailer was leaked about CoD:AW on May 2014 which was 2 months after Titanfalls release in March. The video implied that CoD:AW would have similar mechanics to that of Titanfall's parkour mechanics, but apparently CoD:AW was in development for much longer than Titanfall. Technically, Titanfall is the official knockoff from a development perspective, but because Titanfall was released sooner and because CoD:AW seemed a bit more 'quiet' in terms of their development (and nobody really had any idea of what Exosuits could do aside from guesses from the released footage of the CoD:AW cinematics which was shown after Titanfall's release), consumers made the assumption that CoD:AW was the knockoff.

[I used this Analogy because its possible that the developers who started Respawn still had connections with other developers of Infinity Ward and may have gotten inspiration to make Titanfall due to the futuristic direction that Infinity Ward was going towards with the CoD franchise. But this is nothing more than a guess. I am using it strictly for the analogy presented and am in no way attempting to defame the Respawn developers.]

So if a competitor(s) sees your idea and makes a release of it sooner than you, you may be the one considered knocking off of their idea from the perspective of the majority, even though that isn't actually true from a development standpoint.

 

But isn't that only for iOS and Android?

 

Don't only release it on ios.. Release it on Windows and Android

 

From a more distant type of overview approach, I am kind of mystified by your take on the whole thing. For creators/artists/inventors it usually takes many, many more darts thrown to hit the target. It isn't a binary world. You need to market, pitch, cajole, and hope things turn out for the best. You need connections and luck, brother! You have keep trying as long as you can and it still probably won't work but you still try. Those are the ones that are successful.

You don't just make one iteration and think, that's it, I have made it to the top! Kind of reminds me of people fresh out of university expecting to be CEO's.

 

At a minimum I'd throw a site up for the game, the landing page should have a video, links to the app stores, and information (with keywords) and basic SEO.

Then refer everyone to that lander from your social networking accounts and in your youtube descriptions. Register it with search engines, do some research for relevant search terms, considering traffic and competition for those terms to target.

Maybe throw some money into an ad campaign once you have it set up. It takes time to grow organically, but it does work.

 

To be honest, I do think Unity could play a bigger role in this. Right now all we have to display our finished work is the show case forum which in my opinion has some issues:

First of all, it is hard to find. You really need to know where it is to find.

Second, the show case is not only for games, but for whatever people made. I find it strange that there is no special games subsection on the forums or even the site where half decent finished projects are presented in a standard format. After all, this entire community is almost completely about creating games, but the games are missing in my opinion. Maybe I missed something though.

Third, there is so much garbage on the show case forum that it becomes uninteresting. I am expecting to see cool games, but rather I am presented with mostly assets or first tries and even works in progress. The quality on the show case forum needs to be better for it to be more interesting.

I have changed my initial "OMG this is such a disappointment" to a cautious "Let's do this!" due to all the great replies here. I can now see what the mistakes I have made are and I am trying to salvage what I can. I'll keep you guys posted on my progress.

 

The showcase is for us developers to share what we have made with other developers. Sure someone may get your game. A few may buy a game found there. But are we really your target market? I wrote this before on another thread... not sure where now... but you need to know WHO your target market is. What are their interests? Where do they hang out? Why are they your target market? When you know the answers then you will know how to reach them so you can let them know your game is ready for them.

If you (or anybody else) is posting on the Showcase as a marketing activity then your product should be something wanted by developers. Something to help people make games faster, easier or better.

Know your market. Find your market. Contact your market.

 

Probably not, but it is a great way to get feedback and get those first much needed downloads / reviews. I am guessing most of us are code monkeys and not marketing guru's. Maybe I am asking too much here, but I see a serious gap here between the people building the games and the people using them and I am most certainly not the only one who is experiencing this. One of the major let downs for me in this community here was not getting any feedback at all, while the x-th Zombie Survival game that is nothing more than a few concept pictures and general info gets several pages of replies. That really got me frustrated.

On a side note: that EveryPlay looks awesome and definitely something that I would think fits with Ted's Mower since it is a skill based game. I am downloading it from the asset store as we speak.

 

Of course! That is what I mean. There IS a serious gap here between developers and gamers because this is a development forum. Everyone here is interested in making games. Either learning how to make their first game or learning how to make a better game or wanting to talk with other game developers etc. So you are absolutely right this place is way heavy on the developer side. Sure many of us are avid gamers too but when we are here we are probably much more in the dev mindset.

 

Most of the people posting on the zombie game are probably not your target market. I did just check and noticed I was the only person who commented on your game in the showcase.

So... why did I comment? Because it reminded me of a game I played on my C64. Obviously the graphics are much better. And there is more to it. I would happily play it. So from a gamer perspective I am your target market. But I only play games on my PC (Windows Vista), PS3, NES, Genesis and PS2.

Your target market is most likely retro gamers. But you are cutting out a lot of us because if we don't have an iPad we cannot get the game.

 

I am sure this has been said a thousand times so far, but marketing and awareness is the problem here. I know a guy who is pushing a game (board game actually) and he is going to events, conventions, and different venues to advertise and demo the game. He has been working insanely hard at marketing to get his Kickstarter and game into the spotlight. The apple store has thousands of apps updated and uploaded daily, and most of the games that hit it big (like Clash of Clans) have commercials to play during football games to convince jocks to play their game, the kind of people who don’t sit there all day browsing the store for new apps because they are not software enthusiasts.


You should also know what your market is. What group of people your product is geared to. The problem you face is one that many programmers face, they are great developers and can make great products, but can’t do sales. You can have the greatest product, but not being able to sell it won’t make anything.


I would recommend expanding your surface of contact by publishing the game for other platforms or even steam is possible. Steam and Xbox markets are great for getting attention. You may also want to contact a steam or Microsoft rep about getting your app some screen time on the new items lists that show up when you first enter their stores.

 

You make an excellent point here. I hadn't thought about it that way. I am going to push it more like a retro game. If you have an IPhone, you should be able to download it in the next few weeks, depending on how hard they work at Apple.

I am not sure this game would fit into the Steam or XBox markets, but I am planning on doing Android and Windows Phone.

 

Ok that is importiant to consider (if it would fit into that market) but have you considered going to events and conventions? One that we have here near me that is huge is OneSpark for example.

With something like this, you get advertising (on a massive scale) and the possibility of crowd funding. The idea is to have a setup that draws people in, and some may even buy and download on the spot!

For any projects in the future, I will be doing this for sure.

 

I don't have an iPad or iPhone. I have an Android but I do not play games on it. I am sure there are many retro gamers who do play mobile games but I also know that many of us retro gamers have a view these mobile games are crap. They are not real games like the same game on a computer or console. Just something to keep in mind.

But definitely market it as retro and feel free to take my comment from the showcase and add it to your marketing content. Having the reference to Hover Bovver and C64 coming from another person will help connect with the retro gamers who remember the good ole days.

 

Good one, but no, and I am not sure if there are any in the Netherlands, but I did some research and there apparently is a whole game design community housed in an old office building about 200 meters from where I live. I am planning to visit them and I am sure that they will know about them if there are any.