This plan for my game? good?

My game is nearly complete and after the weekend it should be, do you think that the plan im thinking of could work?
The stratagy im thinking of is relesing the game for free on android i want adds but now it seems i need unity android pro to intergrate addmob(also i have no idea how but i guess i could learn but not pay $3000)? so i think what ill do is relese the game on android for free without adds then if it goes well ill ask for investors (like $3000) for an IOS version then because it went well on android they will most likely get there money back soon(selling for 99c) and ill offer them twice the amount they invested with 75% of sales of my profit unitill it is repaid?

Do you think its a good plan or not?

 

I haven't been in that situation yet, but that sounds like a good plan to me. Testing the waters and building a reputation for your game on Android first before putting such a huge sum on the table, especially since sales on the Android market won't cannibalize possible iOS sales too much.

 

I would say it all depends on how good your game is.

 

This is guessing it goes good, if it dosent get many downloads then ill just give up and make annother game

 

$3000 on any app store is mostly pipe dream material now a days.

The majority of the apps or games struggle to make a tenth of that. You would also have to make around 8695 sales at $0.99 to pay back your investors with your current scheme.

If you are programming to get rich quick then you would be better off spending your time entering the lottery and cash prize competitions as that is basically what it amounts to to get to the top of the app charts

 

So then hippo just batently lied? onless my games is atrocious? or i am hopeless at marketing(i plan on learning a bit before i relese):

 

Hard to say, since I don't seem to be able to find any links/references to the latest version fo the game other than Android versions which I can't test. However don't be in a rush, take your time and do this right.

I'm puzzled as to why you need $3000, do you mean for both Android and iOS Pro? In which case do you really need both? Isn't the general line of thought currently that iOS is a far better opportunity to make money than the Android market? Besides if you release for free on Android first then you have no Android market to sell to later.

How are you planning on getting investors? You appear to offer them no collateral, just (empty) promises of money when the game sells, that's simply not going to be enticing to anyone. Strangely with all the talk of kickstarter and the couple of threads recently where people seem to think its their own personal bank, this is actually the first case where I think you could make it work, but....

The game must be far more developed and polished than the versions I'd seen to date, with clear instructions, nice graphics, good playability etc. I could understand you not wanting to release any webplayer versions since that could easily cannibalise potential sales on mobile, so how about making a video and posting it on youtube?

Now I don't think you'd be guaranteed to get a successful kickstarter project, but if you have a polished looking game to promote and keep your goals low (say < $2500), you could stand a decent chance. However you have to build on your strengths, such as having a completed game, clear statement of aim/objective behind the project goal, play up the 'breaking into the indie game industry' etc.

Ideally you'd offer a very low reward tier say $1-2 that gets the backer the iOS version of the game. The only trouble is i don't think its possible to do that with the Apple store? I.e. you either have to sell the game for that price or give it away for free, which would obviously remove the incentive for backers.

Its tempting to offer the Android version for that tier instead, but then that means you can't release it for free, losing a large proportional of potential marketing, which would be the driving force behind the kickstarter project.

Its both interesting and tricky situation you find yourself in. Whilst the early version of the game I played wasn't anything special, once I'd worked out the game rules it was a fun enough diversion. I guess what you have to work out now is where you'd get your biggest 'bang-for-buck' in terms of generating some profit on it, in order to expand into other markets and buy hardware etc.


As I said though, DON'T RUSH. Take your time, plan everything out meticulously, spend a weekend reading up on marketing, looking at previously successful kickstarter projects/ indie games etc. Prepare and then prepare some more to make the biggest impact you can.


Good luck

ok one potential thought on kickstarter - its a risk, though not really any more than your initial plan.

Release you game as a webplayer, let people play it, then use kickstarter as a kind of 'donation' approach (i.e. hey you enjoyed playing this game for a bit, why not back it with $1), except one where backers get nice rewards and one which looks far more professional and 'feel good' than simply having a pay-pal donation button on your webpage, which is rather old an tired way of raising funds these days.

Hopefully allowing people to play the game will either encourage them to support you and your endeavour. You could have a $1 tier to get the Android version and maybe you could have a limited $10 tier for say 40 backers and give them 40 of your 50 free download codes (I think that's right - need to check apple store etc).

Obviously you still need to work through the details (double check how many free codes you get etc, etc), but I feel that might be a more realistic plan and something that you could build on?

 

I think on ios you can get promo codes? so if kickstarter gets a promo code then i can just email every kickstarter a promocode

Mac + Ios basic + $99 apple fee + some for software and other stuff i may need to make(convert.. should just be slight moving around and a click of a button) the game

This is a new build... the lighting is bad and no anti alias but it gives a good idea of the game FPS goes at ~130FPS and on phone ~60(I think its caped?) the drops are not bad anymore so it dosent lag once it gets high.

PLEASE NOTE: this dosent represent the quality of the android builds they run better the lighting isent screwed up etc.

 

titanty, grab a mac mini $700, ios basic $400 and apple fee $99, that's only $1200, which is a fairly low startup fee imo

 

Of which you only get 50, so 50 people would need to back you $60 each in order for you to give them a $0.99 game for free.

 

You need Android Pro to use admob? This is news to me...
Prime31 doesn't mention that it's required at all.

Neither does this plugin

 

I don't think Android Pro is required to have ads...

in any case, you could always release a restricted (no ads) free version, and a 99¢ (or whatever price you feel is reasonable) full version. If your game is actually good then the sales should speak for themselves.

 

I dont really like your game but thats just me just seems bland its seems like a variation of snake

 

Your game isn't ready yet. It has potential, but it's not ready.

How are you going to make promo images with a snake that is essentially circles?

Intro screen could use some love too. Different levels should have different textures and of course pillar configurations. This could also solve your issue with FPS and the snake becoming too long, since once you reach a score the snake is reset, the level changes and we
start again.
I suggest you work on both the snake and the levels (add a few levels with different configurations). Make art for food and snake. You can do basically whatever you like with both snake and food and keep the collision objects the same.

Ads can be added with 40-50$ using Prime31's plugin as people mentioned above.

As it is it won't get you anywhere, so rushing it is pointless, I understand you want the Mac and licenses, but that is not the end game here, because if your game isn't good enough you won't make it. The goal should be: make the game as good as you can.

There is a nice start on the floor, for me, a professional, floors are a piece of cake, I could get like 10 done in a day, so having only one and incomplete means that you do have to work on your skills, a Macbook won't make you better at this, actually doing it will.

Anyway that's my advice, if you are still in highscool, it's not your rent you are worried about, so spend the time actually acquiring the skills.

You are on a good start, but it's too soon to monetize, you still have to focus on the game.

 

Thanks everyone for the advice

@Koyima, thanks for the advice ... I think the FPS issues are fixed? and im redoing the floor(making it tile) because it was over 1megabyte :O and the whole game(web build) is only 89kb

Anyhoo, im rather urging to make a game idea i had so i plan on wrapping up pillar snake soon, then if it get =< 1000 downloads ill make PillarSnake:TheAnchientTemple and have it in all its glory

 

titanty,

Feel free to ignore me but the most important process of creating a game is adding the polishing stage, this is also the slowest and I am sure people will agree the most boring part of the game design process as it is mainly just tweaking things to get them just right. But this stage is the difference between a game that falls flat and a game that succeeds.

Once you start a game you seem eager to push it out the door as fast as possible and start the next project to just do the same thing.

There are plenty of people who can start a project, less can finish a project and even less can release a finished project that is polished and actually ready for release.

 

Why not just make a deal with someone who has unity iOS and an apple developer account and share the profit, a sort of publisher agreement of sorts. Apple developer accounts can have add on accounts so you can see exactly how much was sold and the money coming in. Just find someone who's willing to do it and has a good reputation on the forums, however probably more of a hobbyist as others might not be so willing if they have a collection of games already available.
And if your game is good enough, go straight to a publisher and they'll probably give you an advance.

 

have to agree with Varedis, very true...you only get one chance in making a game a success and first impressions last. I think your idea has a niche though

Just hang in there and take the criticism as positive!

 

I have to agree as well, lots and lots of potentially great games have failed because they were released to fast and lacked the final touch. Make sure your game is as polished as it can be, even if its just a small game. Will increase the chance ppl will download your next game as well. Btw, i think the Creation of Adam had very nice assets and i would like to make a game with that style someday : D

 

I'm pretty sure this is illegal (please correct me if I'm wrong)

 

Why would that be illegal? Porting someones game and publishing it... Seems like it's quite a common arrangement.

 

I think that is against unity terms of use... you cant use someone elses copy of unity to build you games?

 

Any uncharted admob app will make $100-$200 a month from admob. This is completely uncharted on appstore. I know because we have one doing that. It's been doing that for two years. Do the maths.

Also, paid: a completely uncharted app, should make around 5-10 dollars a day. This is random app.

The thing is, it is highly dependent on if it looks great or looks bad. Why looks? That'll be what people judge it on before they pick it up if it is a game. Just polish it good.

 

Thanks hippo, ill get back to it next weekend ive got a mini project that im using to learn c# that im making this weekend.

 

This is your competition.

Jump to about 30 seconds in to get past the pointless black screens.

Now I don't think the additional game element of a labyrinth really works, however look at the level of polish this game has compared to yours currently, look at the amount of marketing and self promotion the guy has done (website, youtube, videos, facebook etc).

This is pretty much a direct competitor for your game in terms of the target market, funding and he's using Unity (probably here on the forums to ), so to succeed you'll going to have to be as good, if not better than this. On the face of it, you may feel you couldn't possibly match this guys output, but look closer. The video above is mostly black screens with some text and him talking and its as boring as hell.

So whilst he has some very good ideas and nice promotion its not perfect. So examine everything he's done, read through the website, look at the videos, analyse what you like, what you think works and what doesn't, write these things down and build up your own strategy for marketing and polishing your own game.

But let me be clear - I am not suggesting you copy his ideas or website or anything, you use it as inspiration and a learning tool.


p.s. If Mihai Cozma (Jungle Troll), reads this, I hope you don't mind me using you as an example (hey its some added publicity )

I know i'm slightly critical of the 'Wisps' game above, but overall I felt what you've done so far is a good example of the effort one needs to put into indie games these days, hence using it as a comparison.

 

Alternatively you pull out your phone game at during an interview at a game company , get a temp job helping them design, and work your way up from their

 

Admob requires unity andriod pro, right ???

 

No i think i was mistaken when i said that, using the things stated earlier in this thread it is possible in unity basic.

 

Hmm, I think I might put my game out on android for free with ads, see what happens .

I have alot of work to do first though

 

@keith, good luck

Is there anychance of you sending me a link to this game?(to see how good it is to compare to my skills)

Say i was to make a kind of basic game, change the graphics etc then relese like 5 versions in a month, then do the same everymonth with a difernt game, then is it likely to make $100 for each version... but the game is nearly identical?

so if i relsed 5 games a month(verry similar difernt graphics) then is it likely to make $500 a month? then $6,000 a year? so if i made 5 games a month i could potentialy make $72000 a year(2nd year after there all made)?

 

You could put on kongregate and see how it goes, then if enough people like it, you could try to get a sponsership (http://www.flashgamelicense.com/) and use that to pay for an iOS license. I personally like you game, so good luck

 

stop counting ducks or chickens or whatever and finish the game. You are assuming hippo was talking about admob on the Android and you are also assuming that your apps get approved.

 

Personally I can't stand people that do this, they just flood the store with their crap, your player base (if you have any) will begin to get wise to what you are up to and hopefully boycott your games and in an ideal world your developer account would be removed.

You are interpreting what Hippo is saying as "No matter what game I put out I will be guaranteed to make over X amount of dollars per month"
Everyone will have a different experience, I know many developers with highly polished games that are lucky to get 1-2 downloads a day.

Your idea of aspiring to be a crApp producer just to "make money" is just sad, if it was true that you have a passion for making games then you wouldn't want to put out anything like that at all.

 

Contact these guys, they're investors:
http://chillingo.com/developers/