15 replies to this topic

[DonnieM]

I see a lot of completed games on the Android and IOS section. There's a lot of good quality games on that forum that easily beat other games on Android games homepage.
But most of these completed android games on Game Maker forum, have bearly 50 downloads. Theres only 1 or 2 games that have more then a 1,000 downloads. And im not talking about paid.

So what do you guys think is some good strategy for getting the word out about your game out there?(other then right here)

Edited by DonnieM, 19 August 2012 - 02:10 AM.

[newkill]

Show your work on other forums related to game creation, try to convince the writers of video games website to make an article about your game.

[nujuat]

If your iOS game is good enough it can get featured by apple, and apparently that is really good for the sales. But it has to be REALLY good. Drawing Galaxy has lots of downloads, but it is free... I guess making your games free could be a strategy, but then you don't make money out of them (which you will probably want to do).

[Mailas]

I've asked numerous successful people that have made apps for the android market.
All of them told me that there is a huge amount of luck involved.

[GameDevDan]

Well, luck and hard work.

One reason I haven't got many downloads is probably because I've only let people know here, on facebook and on twitter. So that's mostly just game devs and family.

If you want your game to really get out there you'll have to spam review sites / games news with free copies of your app until they post them up somewhere.

[GM Studios]

If you want your game to really get out there you'll have to spam review sites / games news with free copies of your app until they post them up somewhere.

^ Pretty much just this. One thing I would recommend against is buying ads, In my experience they have been a waste and probably didn't even make back 1/4 of what they cost assuming that some of the people that clicked on them actually bought the game, but unfortunately there is no way to tell if it was them or not.

Also I haven't found many sites that focus on Android apps not that I've looked properly as I tend to focus on iOS.

Also being easily searchable should be high up there I don't have much to say on the subject but I'm pretty sure that most of my sales for Simply Kids Colouring came and still come from people searching for "kids colouring apps" or "colouring for kids" and other similar phrases as my app fluctuated between the first and second pages when using those search terms.

Edited by GM Studios, 20 August 2012 - 05:03 PM.

[ChefDavid22]

It's not easy. Even our local news came out and did a story on my son and his apps and I only sold 50 more copies of the game for those two days, then I was right back to 3-6 a day.

Marketing is the only way but most of us on here dont have that kind of cash to throw at marketing.

Look at this scenario:
I have a game called Mycatangelo that is designed for cats. I only sold 35 copies of that game total. I decided to give it away for free last week and it was downloaded 350 times in three days. That tells me people want free games.

So I am trying this model - my next game called Cubeles ( see post Here ) is a free game. In that game I have a button you can click that gives you links to my other games that you have to pay for. Will it work? I dont know, but it's worth a shot.

Once we can monetize games next month I plan to make a free version of every single game I have that has ads in it. With a link to the full version to "remove ads" - will that work? I dont know that either.

Edited by ChefDavid22, 20 August 2012 - 06:00 PM.

[BlaXun]

It's not easy. Even our local news came out and did a story on my son and his apps and I only sold 50 more copies of the game for those two days, then I was right back to 3-6 a day.

Marketing is the only way but most of us on here dont have that kind of cash to throw at marketing.

Look at this scenario:
I have a game called Mycatangelo that is designed for cats. I only sold 35 copies of that game total. I decided to give it away for free last week and it was downloaded 350 times in three days. That tells me people want free games.

So I am trying this model - my next game called Cubeles ( see post Here ) is a free game. In that game I have a button you can click that gives you links to my other games that you have to pay for. Will it work? I dont know, but it's worth a shot.

Once we can monetize games next month I plan to make a free version of every single game I have that has ads in it. With a link to the full version to "remove ads" - will that work? I dont know that either.

Please provide us with updates bout this. I just got the android module and still have to see how everything works and how to use the google store.
It would be nice to see some experiences...I find far too few experience reports from GM developers bout this

[ChefDavid22]

Go here: http://gmc.yoyogames...l=&fromsearch=1

This is a post I keep updated with my experiences.

[PanicBomber]

this is a problem im running in. My game Didi's Adventure is high rated (22 votes 4.6) with 2200+ downloads, when the paid has the same rating but only 30 downloads. I'd love to figure out how to get the word out, im trying to get some reviews done over the inet tho.

[ChefDavid22]

I see a lot of completed games on the Android and IOS section. There's a lot of good quality games on that forum that easily beat other games on Android games homepage.
But most of these completed android games on Game Maker forum, have bearly 50 downloads. Theres only 1 or 2 games that have more then a 1,000 downloads. And im not talking about paid.

So what do you guys think is some good strategy for getting the word out about your game out there?(other then right here)

How are you able to see total download sales for everyone? I've always wanted to see this.

[GameDevDan]

I see a lot of completed games on the Android and IOS section. There's a lot of good quality games on that forum that easily beat other games on Android games homepage.
But most of these completed android games on Game Maker forum, have bearly 50 downloads. Theres only 1 or 2 games that have more then a 1,000 downloads. And im not talking about paid.

So what do you guys think is some good strategy for getting the word out about your game out there?(other then right here)

How are you able to see total download sales for everyone? I've always wanted to see this.

You can see a rough estimate of any android app's downloads on its google play page.

[ChefDavid22]

Oh I see it's listed as "Installs" ok thanks

[GameDevDan]

Just finished sending out my first huge bunch of promo codes to reviewers. I'm going to do a blog post letting you guys know if they reviewed it and how many downloads it got when they did.

[BlaXun]

Just finished sending out my first huge bunch of promo codes to reviewers. I'm going to do a blog post letting you guys know if they reviewed it and how many downloads it got when they did.

Thx a lot. Lookin forward to your report.

[ChefDavid22]

I realized I should have been a bit more clear. Those free 350 downloads (which is now over 400) - were ALL on iOS. None of those downloads were on Android at all.