new itgb game released: Are You Quick Enough?

#41 > what can help a game become well known and successful.

that's the next step, Public Relations, advertising; I was wondering if anyone here can send some pointers on this, like game sites, etc.

after 2 days, "word build" did 6 sales on day 1 and 10 sales on day 2;
the only advertising was the post on this site, so pretty good news I guess :-)

#42 @pedro - One of those sales is mine!

Nice game. I was a little confused as to what to do but I think i got it eventually. Also little confused to why the letters are moving.

Thanks for sharing your numbers. I look forward to future games of yours.

#43 @Rennie - Here's some info. Anything to help the great GG members.

1) The featured on monsterfreeapps was for 1 day and then you stay on their list for 7 days before being taken off completely.

2) 8 days after being featured was the peak number of downloads for the app. It has been slowly declining now.

3) The day of being featured I probably had about 20k downloads. I peaked at 180k about 8 days later. It was a slow rise to the top 2 position.

4) The app was released about 6 months ago as a paid 99 cents app, this is the first time making it free.

5) I currently am planning out what would be best next. I'm looking into more levels, but I will only do that if I can make more quality levels.

#44 @Johnny, thanks for sharing.

@Pedro, yep, I bought a copy as well for the iPad. Haven't had a chance to play yet - mad busy on CC.

#45 @Johnny,
Cool. That is excellent. I love studying the games on the market, and seeing which ones are popular and why. You can usually judge by various means and then apply that to your own work. As I am doing. It is only encouraging seeing you get the numbers you have. Regardless of what path next (more promo, entire new app etc), good luck!

@Pedro,
I have seen reasonable downloads of my first release. Nothing like the numbers of Johnny's. I am in the 1000s not millions. I was approached by Free App a Day, and was considering them. I think these type of things like monsterapp are beneficial but you have to be willing to pay the money they demand for their service. I at the time I was not willing to pay the $3000 (I believe) as I thought it was a bit much and I did not have the funds regardless. Having said that, if you study their catalogue many of the apps they advertise are in the top100s at least. So they do work, but again at a cost.

The ultimate benefit of using a promo tool such as that, is getting your company's name and associated apps out into peoples hands. Then, when you update, you can always use it to promote links into a new app. In @Johnny's case, he now has a potential audience, automatically(!!!) of 1.3 million. Not too bad. That audience will now have a name they trust and may want to invest in further.

I did do a smaller promo with another company for $50 I believe which saw http://igiveaway.us/ use Twitter to promote my app. Essentially, many of the prominent app reviewers, crazyMike etc, are paid a portion of my fee to promote my app. It got me a few 1000 downloads I believe in a single day with my app being tweeted and retweeted 1000s of times. Perhaps an avenue to take.

One other avenue which I did use which helped was promoting, myself on various web forums. I created and designed posters. Offered free promo codes to the first X people, made some youTube videos and encouraged the communities for feedback. Which I got. Some good, some bad, all useful.

The other pursuit is obviously to get in with a major publisher. They can help in promotions. But what it really comes down to is having an app that people truly love and enjoy.

#46 One thing Apple have changed is that promo codes can't leave feedback on iTunes anymore.

#47 I have a couple games planned for iTGB but I am also looking into other engines that are cross platform. It's too bad because I really like Torque but other engines like Unity and Corona supports multi platforms and that is a huge advantage.

#48 So Android?

One distinct advantage Unity has, forgetting cross platform abilities is that I believe there is one engine which can support 2D and 3D, so if you want, you can venture into either field. I have a few ideas for games that remain in 2D mostly, but things like projectiles would be enhanced with a lot with 3D.

#49 @Rennie - Yes! I'm trying to get the game on Android.

#50 Hmm. well good luck. I was looking at Unity, when I could not get the game i wanted, requiring some physics, but not a lot to run. However, the problem was not in the engine iTGB gave me but in how I was running my engine. Two too stressful onUpdate calls.


That being said I am happy with iTGB, as I am content to simply concentrate on the brilliant device template for the massive Apple market.

#51 @Johnny, Rennie, Scott
Thank you for the app purchases and advertising info, I will explore those options in the next months. Yes, user base is the key thing here.

The purpose of the blocks moving was one of the original goals of the game, to do a "auto pilot" mode where the blocks are moving constantly and when they touch a neighbor, if both letters match, they turn red and stop moving;

so, the words would be auto assembling eventually;

this was partially accomplished, since at the moment, there may be cases where there is not enough room for the word to auto-assemble; therefore the user must drag the red blocks to make space;

this "auto-pilot" mode is probably for some future version; it could be interesting to connect the device to an external TV and just watch the words auto assemble as a back channel :-); like "Invaders World Tour" does; I purchased and it's one of my things to try, to connect to a TV, pretty cool.

#52 @Johnny May i ask how long it took for this app to be created?
Btw, i played the game and you did an awesome job on it! :D

#53 @Oliver - Thanks for the kind words.

The game was my 4th iTGB app and it took me about 4 months to complete it. It took 2 months for the update that added the nightfall challenge pack. I did all the programming and design and outsourced the music and art. Hope that answers your question let me know if you need any additional info.

Update on downloads:
I became the #1 free app in Australia over the weekend! Looks like the #1 spot in Australia will bring you about 24k downloads a day.

#54 @Johnny Congratulations, its such a great game, thanks for your reply!

Im really thinking about purchasing a Torque license, which tutorials do you recommend for Torque?

#55 @Johnny, was this who you used?

http://monsterfreeapps.com

#56 @Scott - That's correct, that's the website. I paid to get featured for 1 day. They will put your app on the front page in their iphone app and send out a push notification to all their users that day. After that you stay on their app (not front page) for 7 days. At the time I paid 725.

@Oliver - I recommend the breakout tutorial if you are still looking for one. That's a really good one!

#57 @Johnny, thanks, I've emailed them for a price, $725 is very good, Free App A Day quoted me $6,500!

#58

Quote:Free App A Day quoted me $6,500!

Whoa they went up dramatically. Two years ago it was $1500. I am thinking of promoting with the for my next game but it is going to be a tough call if the price is $6500. I'll be interested in seeing how Monster Free Apps works out for you if you decide to go with them.

Edit:
I just did a few searches to see if $6500 is the average, and at least according to somebody on Touch Arcade, it is that high because the app is already free with IAP and FAAD only takes a limited number of already-free apps.

#59 MonsterFreeApps have quoted $3325 for ONE day.

#60 @Scott - That's ridiculous. I really don't think it's fair what they are doing. I don't think it cost them that much in resources to feature an app for one day. I guess I won't be using them again.

Also give freeappreport a try. When I used them it was only $100 for a one day feature. They do the same thing as MonsterFreeApps.