Yet another indie developer's game. Promotion problem.

vilgus · June 2012

Hello guys,

my name is Alexander, I'm an indie game developer. I've just finished and released a game I was working on during last year. It seems like my expectations of game sales were totaly wrong. The only thing I'm absolutely convinced about now is - "the game won't generate any profit on it's own". There were only about 50 sales ($0.99) during the first month and now there're no sales at all. I hadn't do any marketing research before I released the game and it was a shock to understand how many games are released every day on the App Store (~100). My game has just dissolved in a huge amont of other applications. App Store is just glutted with enormous amount of applications now. Even if Angry Birds didn't exist and have just been released they won't be noticed. I heared a phrase that 95% of Forex traders lose they first deposit. Now I can equally suppose that 95% of indie iOS developers never generate enough profit for comfortable living. And I can even suppose that 95% of companies that develop games for iOS never achieve ROI. But enough lyrics :)

There is always no sales without good advertisement. But iOS applications are not casual goods - what is the best way to advertise an iOS game? I'm pretty sure this is the questions indie developers ask most often. Does anybody here succesfully promoted any $0.99 appication and earned lets say $10k?

1) Banner advertisement. I own several websites and know which CTR do banners give. It's about 0.2% for a 200x350 first screen banner. This means that if a web site generates ~100k page views per day you'll get about 200 banner clicks per day, 6000 clicks per month. A click is not a sale!!! I think at most 1 of 10 will buy your appliction. Which means you'll get 600 sales per month. For $0.99 application (your share is $0.70) you'll earn $420 per month. But do you know how much does a 200x350 first screen banner cost on a website which generates 100k views per day? Much more! It is only an estimation but my opinion is that normally any banner advertisement won't work for iOS applications.

2) Google AdWords. I'm pretty sure this kind of advertisement won't help to sell mobile games. People do not normally use search engines to find and buy mobile games.

3) Reviews. How many iPhone/iPad users do read reviews? I'm not sure but I think that not so many. I think this could help only if your game is 100% addictive hit like Cut the Rope. This could initiate a word of mouth wave which could generate profit. But a review of an ordinary game IMHO won't help at all as no word of mouth wave will be initiated.

4) ???

Though I'm an indie developer the game I created is of high quality. May be it's not so much addictive and easy to get started with but at least it's stable, colorful, funny and unusual. It's a 3D deathmatch game. You can play against bots (AI) or other humans via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or over Internet. Technically the game is really complicated. It took me over 15 years of experience in IT field to bring together knowledges from different areas (3D graphics, AI, networks, audio, C++, Objective-C, etc., etc., etc.) and finally develop the game. And now I met another challenge - how to monetize the project. Does anybody have an idea? I can provide game URL if it's allowed on this forum.

Raffaello · June 2012

Hi!
I've been in the same position, I know what you mean (probably almost everyone here knows). I've been able to keep my main game to generate around 150$ per month (and its been a year since the release) by making it free every week or so (this brings lots of new users, that help spreading the game with friends and such).
Having ads (iAds + others) also helps.
Cross promoting (release other apps, preferably for free, and put a fullscreen ad for your main game, this helped me a lot).
Sadly if your game is not adictive enough then the chances of generating big money is slim.

mer10 · June 2012

Yeah go ahead and provide a link.

shigaugi · June 2012

I totally share your feelings. Even with a good product, you won't succeed unless you create a very well planned AND orchestrated marketing strategy. Review sites might help considerably, if you manage them to write a positive review about your game - especially the big names (toucharcade, pocketgamer, slidetoplay, 148apps, appadvice etc.). Don't underestimate the power of virallity that these blogs can create. This should be timed correctly with the release of your app. Later on, it will be 100 times harder to market once it is drowned in the app store under hundred's of other apps. Social media marketing is extremely important - you need the word about your game to be spread in Facebook and Twitter. There is no easy way to do that. You should think of giveaways, making the game free for a day or two, get in touch with special free-app-a-day services that can greatly push your game. There are many other things to do.

My biggest distress about this whole thing, that most of us are not marketers. We came to this field for the joy of development and love of game/app creation, and yes - to make some money. But we find out we need to be skilled marketers too, which most of us are not, and probably don't want to be. I for one, am not interested in marketing. But we are forced to... because the other two options are either to hire an agency and it costs 1000s of $$$ (and most indie devs are not left with such money at the end of the dev process). And even then you might miss and loose this money because you invested in the wrong PR agency (like it happened to me sorrily). The last alternative is to get in touch with a publisher and convince them to publish your game. This will make you loose a lot of %% (but it's ok if they manage to make your game sales very high), but nowadays it is really hard to find a good publisher who is willing to invest in your game and still not rip you off 70% of the share. Even just finding a publisher to want to publish you game, is hard enough task these days.

So bottom line - having a great product does not guarantee you anything in this market. The app store algorithm is built so that there is a catch 22. If you sell well, you rise high in the charts, and in turn it makes you sell even better and so on. If you don't sell so good quickly, you are doomed - you will soon plummet and then it's bye bye. Discovery on the app store is a big tragedy for many indie devs. And as you already mentioned, most of the people are downloading apps and games according to the app store chart alone, and we need to cope with that.

vilgus · June 2012

Thank you for all your replies. Ill tell you the whole story of my game marketing. At first I decided to make the game free but limit its functionality which one can unlock via an In-App purchase. It was totally wrong decision in my case. As I mentioned the game is not so much addictive and honestly saying a bit difficult to start playing (game interface is a bit complicated and theres no clues). A good thing about game startup was I had over 1000 downloads on the release day. A bad thing was that I had no In-App purchases that day. The conclusion I made people like free software but people dont like to examine things. At the days of my childhood we played 8-bit NES video games. These games didnt have any tutorials, clues, etc. I didnt speak English and understood absolutely nothing of what was written on the screen. I even played several games in Chinese. But I played and didnt complain. Nova day situation is so that if you do not explain gamers which button to press youll get great amount of 1-star reviews about your bad user interface. The situation repeated next day (about 500 free downloads and no In-App sales) and I decided to remove the game from sales and started thinking.

I had two choices. The first was to continue the insanity of giving away the game for free in a hope that some people will make the In-App purchase later. The initial price was $2.99 which again was totally wrong. App Store is a place where people get used to $0.99 and free apps. Its almost impossible to sell something for more than $0.99 if youre not selling Max Pain or GTA. So, the option was to drop the price of the In-App purchase to $0.99. The second choice was to send for review another game version with all functionalities unlocked and sell it for $0.99. It was hard days and hard decision.

I thought that way. If you want to unlock (sell) full game functionalities from within you application you have to be sure people will like free limited version of your game. You have to be sure people understand the idea of your application. And you have to be sure that your In-App marketing is great. In my case I think people just didnt understand the game idea. I locked all social functions (network game play) and allowed users to play against 2 bots on a single game map. The problem was that users got killed by bots earlier than they understood game steering. And probably being frustrated just closed the application.

I decided to refuse the idea with In-App purchases. Honestly saying being a developer I integrated In-App purchases in my application only for the sake of interest to check the framework. Thats the problem if you develop and promote an app yourself. You do something not because its the right thing to do, but because you just want to check something. If I had considered game development as a business I would have never integrated this kind of In-App purchases in this game. But I was eager to implement it and as a result got a headache.

So I sent another version of the game for review with all functionalities unlocked. Nobody actually made In-App purchase (except for me) so I concluded it would be honest to discontinue the initial release. A week later new version was released for $0.99. And I realized that instead of 1000 free downloads I had had during the first day of initial release of the free version I got only 10 $0.99 purchases that day. It was the same application. 1000 downloads of free version against 10 purchases of paid version. It was a total disaster. Again people get used to free software. They will buy a hamburger for $1.99 to swallow it whole in 10 seconds. They will buy a cup of coffee for $2.99 and it would be usual thing they do. But they will think thousand times before buying a mobile application for $0.99. And even if they buy it but dont like it they would write a 1-star review about wasting their MONEY. Although I didnt get any reviews yet - thats what I saw reading many other game reviews.

Another conclusion its almost impossible to sell something in App Store without marketing even for $0.99 because therere a lot of free apps. Why to pay? I realized that therere about 100 new games coming out every day. Majority of them are free (will Ads, In-App purchases or other marketing approaches of monetization). People like and get used to software that is free. Therere no free hamburgers, theres no free coffee. But therere free applications. Great!

Im not complaining. I just described things as they are. Thats a cruel world and you have to accept it because you cant change it. Im still convinced that my game is VERY far from being the worst in the App Store for $0.99. It just fails marketing. I think Ill start with something like iAD. At the moment I dont like the idea of spending money for PRs, reviews, etc.

What do you think about Chillingo publisher? Did anybody work with them? What are they conditions? Is it possible at all to agree with them if youre an indie developer?

For those who are interested, here is the promo-page URL: Crazy Teapots - iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad

mediaspree · June 2012

Looking at the video on your site, the game looks very well put together and you clearly know what you are doing on the technical side of things. It looks like a great demo reel to show a potential employer that you've got the goods to make quality games for the iOS platform. However, the game just dosen't look all that fun to play. We've seen this type of game hundreds of times before, the teapot characters are kind of lacking any personality. Why am I teapot? Why am I shooting fruit at other teapots? The graphics, perhaps intentionally, look like they are out of the 1990's . Retro design has its place, but if you are trying to appeal to a mass audience on the app store who is expecting the next angry birds (and by the way they want it free!!) you're going to have to blow them away with originality and addictive gameplay even for a mere .99 cents

vilgus · June 2012

mediaspree;437942 said:
It looks like a great demo reel to show a potential employer that you've got the goods to make quality games for the iOS platform.

Show something to a potential employer is the last thing I'll do. Right after I'll jump off the sky-scraper roof. And if I survive I'll apply for a job again only after a second jumping try. But even then I'm not 100% sure :) I quited one year ago not to apply for a job again. My life philosophy is too complicated in that sence. There's no such employer who will make you rich, happy and "free". If you work for a company - you're a loss record in thier accounting book. And they will fire you as soon as their shareholders will decide to cut down thier expenses at the next meeting. Such lifestyle is definitelly not for me.

The graphics, perhaps intentionally, look like they are out of the 1990's .

I'm an indie developer, not Blizzard Int. studio :)

but if you are trying to appeal to a mass audience on the app store who is expecting the next angry birds (and by the way they want it free!!) you're going to have to blow them away with originality and addictive gameplay even for a mere .99 cents

The point is how to sell a game if you're an indie developer. If I had an addictive game which could blow gamers away with originality I would have never started this topic on the forum. And I'm pretty sure you don't have to have such a game to generate good money flow. Everything can be sold, it's only a question of marketing.

mer10 · June 2012

vilgus;437947 said:
Show something to a potential employer is the last thing I'll do. Right after I'll jump off the sky-scraper roof. And if I survive I'll apply for a job again only after a second jumping try. But even then I'm not 100% sure :) I quited one year ago not to apply for a job again. My life philosophy is too complicated in that sence. There's no such employer who will make you rich, happy and "free". If you work for a company - you're a loss record in thier accounting book. And they will fire you as soon as their shareholders will decide to cut down thier expenses at the next meeting. Such lifestyle is definitelly not for me.

I'm an indie developer, not Blizzard Int. studio :)

The point is how to sell a game if you're an indie developer. If I had an addictive game which could blow gamers away with originality I would have never started this topic on the forum. And I'm pretty sure you don't have to have such a game to generate good money flow. Everything can be sold, it's only a question of marketing.

Not everything comes down to marketing. A lot of it depends on graphics, gameplay, and the addiction factor. Looking over your app, I'd say there are probably a bunch of improvements you could make. I'm a firm believer that the best investment an indie developer can make is in the game itself. You do that and you'll have a chance at getting featured by Apple, which costs nothing.

Either way I wouldn't feel so bad with this being your first app. I'd keep at it if I were you, or maybe find someone else to help out. Kind of jealous cause it's easier being indie in Russia compared to the US given the cost of living.

apppicker.com · June 2012

mer10;437950 said:
Not everything comes down to marketing. A lot of it depends on graphics, gameplay, and the addiction factor. Looking over your app, I'd say there are probably a bunch of improvements you could make. I'm a firm believer that the best investment an indie developer can make is in the game itself. You do that and you'll have a chance at getting featured by Apple, which costs nothing.

Super advice.

Getting the app right is the only important requirement at the beginning. Only then can the pros and cons of different marketing methods be weighed. Having the best marketing will only bring short term gains at best and probably not even profitable gains.

1) Banner advertisements. Expensive for sure but 1 of the top sites has 15 banners costing $1,500 per month and is almost always sold out.

2) Adwords. Only good if you have a website as part of your marketing strategy. People do search for "best iphone apps" etc. 100s of 1000s per month.

3) Reviews. Many users scan and subscribe to review sites, searching out new apps, apps on sale, cool apps, etc, A review won't make you rich overnight but may become the beginning of a success story.

Hope this helps

vilgus · June 2012

mer10;437950 said:
Kind of jealous cause it's easier being indie in Russia compared to the US given the cost of living.

:) That is false supposition. Probably depends on a region one lives in Russia. Moscow is the most expensive city in the world (probably after Tokyo). Most goods are imported (electronics, cars) - they just can't be cheap. iPhone/iPad definitely cost more in Russian than in the US :)

1) Banner advertisements. Expensive for sure but 1 of the top sites has 15 banners costing $1,500 per month and is almost always sold out.

The fact a banner is sold out doesn't guaranty it will generate profit for the advertiser. It really depends on the cost of the goods/services you sold. If you sell cars and a banner gives you 1000 clicks per month then you're probably on the right side. But if you sell applications which cost $0.99 I do not belive it will be profitable. Banners are good to advertise brands and expensive goods/services.

apppicker.com · June 2012

vilgus;438025 said:
:)
The fact a banner is sold out doesn't guaranty it will generate profit for the advertiser. It really depends on the cost of the goods/services you sold. If you sell cars and a banner gives you 1000 clicks per month then you're probably on the right side. But if you sell applications which cost $0.99 I do not belive it will be profitable. Banners are good to advertise brands and expensive goods/services.

I will clarify.

The banners are on an iphone app review site and the average cost of these banners is over $1,000 per month, advertising apps costing $0.99 to $2.99.

Doesn't guarantee profitability of course but someone thinks it's worth paying that price.

vilgus · June 2012

apppicker.com;438035 said:
The banners are on an iphone app review site and the average cost of these banners is over $1,000 per month, advertising apps costing $0.99 to $2.99.

Which review site do you mean? Can you provide its URL or title?

apppicker.com · June 2012

vilgus;438038 said:
Which review site do you mean? Can you provide its URL or title?

Sent you PM with the links

mer10 · June 2012

vilgus;438025 said:
:) That is false supposition. Probably depends on a region one lives in Russia. Moscow is the most expensive city in the world (probably after Tokyo). Most goods are imported (electronics, cars) - they just can't be cheap. iPhone/iPad definitely cost more in Russian than in the US :)

The fact a banner is sold out doesn't guaranty it will generate profit for the advertiser. It really depends on the cost of the goods/services you sold. If you sell cars and a banner gives you 1000 clicks per month then you're probably on the right side. But if you sell applications which cost $0.99 I do not belive it will be profitable. Banners are good to advertise brands and expensive goods/services.

I suppose there are expensive places but overall it's much easier to live on <$1000 a month compared to the US. I remember my ex paid $100 per month for rent for a flat that would go for 10x as much here in the US, plus food was a bit cheaper too. I rather have lower taxes/rent/cost of living with a more expensive iphone/ipad than the opposite. <br />
Anyhow I haven't heard of many indie developers getting a good return or raving about huge banner ads. Maybe it would be a good strategy for a big player in the long run, but I'd be very skeptical of getting my money back even if the site had hundreds of thousands of visits each month.

vilgus · June 2012

mer10;438079 said:
I suppose there are expensive places but overall it's much easier to live on <$1000 a month compared to the US. I remember my ex paid $100 per month for rent for a flat that would go for 10x as much here in the US, plus food was a bit cheaper too. I rather have lower taxes/rent/cost of living with a more expensive iphone/ipad than the opposite.</div>

I pay twise as much for my own flat to public utility (water, heating, electricity, etc.) per month. Renting a flat costs much more. And I don't live in Moscow - costs are much higher there. I'm not sure one can rent anything suitable for $100 in Russia. May be a room in a hostel in a village 2000 km away from Moscow towards the North Pole :)

Anyhow I haven't heard of many indie developers getting a good return or raving about huge banner ads. Maybe it would be a good strategy for a big player in the long run, but I'd be very skeptical of getting my money back even if the site had hundreds of thousands of visits each month.

I absolutely agree with you.

vilgus · June 2012

apppicker.com;438046 said:
Sent you PM with the links

That's one of the most visited website about iPhone/iPad applications. I wish I owned such website - there would be no need to make applications :) By the way, banners there are not professionally looking, IMHO. With several hundreds of applications released dayly I'm sure this website will have its advertisers. But I'm not sure that it is prolonged on a regular basis. I can suppose they have new advertisers avery new month. I provided ROI calculations of such website in one of my previous messages. It just doesn't work. For such small banners (area is small) for such number of them per page (> 10) you'll have CTR ~0.1% or even less. For 100000 impressions per day you'll have only 100 clicks which are not sells yet. I'd say you'll have only 10 sells per day at most - 300 sells per month - $210 or revenue. Much less than banners cost.

vilgus · June 2012

What would you say about FAAD (FreeAppADay) service? They claim to have an iOS app with over several million downloads where they will promote your game. Plus they claim to mention your game to over 30k twitter followers and over 600k facebook fans. Thay also have email subscribers database and a website with Alexa Rank ~30000. Did anybody use the service they provide? What is your expirience?

apppicker.com · June 2012

vilgus;438092 said:
That's one of the most visited website about iPhone/iPad applications. I wish I owned such website - there would be no need to make applications :) By the way, banners there are not professionally looking, IMHO. With several hundreds of applications released dayly I'm sure this website will have its advertisers. But I'm not sure that it is prolonged on a regular basis. I can suppose they have new advertisers avery new month. I provided ROI calculations of such website in one of my previous messages. It just doesn't work. For such small banners (area is small) for such number of them per page (> 10) you'll have CTR ~0.1% or even less. For 100000 impressions per day you'll have only 100 clicks which are not sells yet. I'd say you'll have only 10 sells per day at most - 300 sells per month - $210 or revenue. Much less than banners cost.

Indeed, that shows there's more to marketing than just instant sales. If it's simply instant downloads needed, there are "pay per install" providers.

vilgus · June 2012

apppicker.com;438137 said:
If it's simply instant downloads needed, there are "pay per install" providers.

I searched the Internet and discovered the following CPC/CPI providers:

- iAD
- Admob
- Flurry
- Chartboost
- Tapjoy
- Mdotm
- Tapgage

Common guys, tell your story about collaborating with these companies. I'm pretty sure most of you already worked with several companies from the list and already have some experience. What is the best choice in the list? Is it at all possible to get ROI in CPC/CPI campaigns?

Honestly I don't understant how to achieve ROI if you have to pay at least $0.75 CPI (Furry example). You share from selling $0.99 application is $0.7, so you have $0.05 loss from every install. There is profit? Just to acquire a user base and probably be noticed and featured by Apple? In this case a better way is to make your application free for a while - you'll get your users faster and for free. So, the only option to get profit from a CPI program is to raise app price to at least $1.99. Will it work? Does enybody have experience with CPI?

mer10 · June 2012

vilgus;438149 said:
I searched the Internet and discovered the following CPC/CPI providers:

- iAD
- Admob
- Flurry
- Chartboost
- Tapjoy
- Mdotm
- Tapgage

Common guys, tell your story about collaborating with these companies. I'm pretty sure most of you already worked with several companies from the list and already have some experience. What is the best choice in the list? Is it at all possible to get ROI in CPC/CPI campaigns?

Honestly I don't understant how to achieve ROI if you have to pay at least $0.75 CPI (Furry example). You share from selling $0.99 application is $0.7, so you have $0.05 loss from every install. There is profit? Just to acquire a user base and probably be noticed and featured by Apple? In this case a better way is to make your application free for a while - you'll get your users faster and for free. So, the only option to get profit from a CPI program is to raise app price to at least $1.99. Will it work? Does enybody have experience with CPI?

Not necessarily a loss. If you have a $.99 app with IAP (particularly with in game currency), you can come out on top in theory.

shigaugi · June 2012

mer10;438159 said:
Not necessarily a loss. If you have a $.99 app with IAP (particularly with in game currency), you can come out on top in theory.

What about free games with IAP to unlock the pro version? How can these games profit from a CPI model? (even with high conversion rates of let's say 5%, this is still far from being profitable)

vilgus · June 2012

shigaugi;438186 said:
What about free games with IAP to unlock the pro version? How can these games profit from a CPI model? (even with high conversion rates of let's say 5%, this is still far from being profitable)

I can suppose that this business model (In-App purchase in a free app to unlock the PRO version) is not effective to promote with CPI services. Such services utilize BID approach - you have to make a better bid than other competitors (for an ad impression). But higher bid means lesser revenue. It seems like everybody earns money in this process except for the game developer :) Much more effective model is to sell consumable goods or virtual coins (which allowes to buy consumable goods). Games like "happy farmer" where you sell fertilizers to speed up the process of growing up your tomatos are of great popularity. And you can sell the same thing many times - great approach!

mer10 · June 2012

shigaugi;438186 said:
What about free games with IAP to unlock the pro version? How can these games profit from a CPI model? (even with high conversion rates of let's say 5%, this is still far from being profitable)

I suspect most people who do it for freemium games are using it to boost their rank more than make revenue. Or as a long term strategy to gain loyalty/devoted users.

Pauluz85 · June 2012

vilgus;438211 said:
I can suppose that this business model (In-App purchase in a free app to unlock the PRO version) is not effective to promote with CPI services. Such services utilize BID approach - you have to make a better bid than other competitors (for an ad impression). But higher bid means lesser revenue. It seems like everybody earns money in this process except for the game developer :) Much more effective model is to sell consumable goods or virtual coins (which allowes to buy consumable goods). Games like "happy farmer" where you sell fertilizers to speed up the process of growing up your tomatos are of great popularity. And you can sell the same thing many times - great approach!

Hi, I have used Flurry AppCircle for a paid app of 0.99$, and it just did not work either. I don't believe in CPI/CPC as a business model for paid and free apps anymore.

-Paid apps: People just don't download paid apps via ads, because they are paid. A Flurry support employee even confirmed this to me after I complained about the results of the campaign.

-Free apps: People will download them, but not enough to get you in the top lists.

The whole problem is that most people who see an ad in another app don't want to install a new app at that moment. If I see an advertisement for an app in a game i'm playing, I want to play that game, not install a new app.

yaron.elh · June 2012

Pauluz85;438346 said:
Hi, I have used Flurry AppCircle for a paid app of 0.99$, and it just did not work either. I don't believe in CPI/CPC as a business model for paid and free apps anymore.

-Paid apps: People just don't download paid apps via ads, because they are paid. A Flurry support employee even confirmed this to me after I complained about the results of the campaign.

-Free apps: People will download them, but not enough to get you in the top lists.

The whole problem is that most people who see an ad in another app don't want to install a new app at that moment. If I see an advertisement for an app in a game i'm playing, I want to play that game, not install a new app.

I definitely support this view.

vilgus · June 2012

Pauluz85;438346 said:
Hi, I have used Flurry AppCircle for a paid app of 0.99$, and it just did not work either. I don't believe in CPI/CPC as a business model for paid and free apps anymore.

-Paid apps: People just don't download paid apps via ads, because they are paid. A Flurry support employee even confirmed this to me after I complained about the results of the campaign.

-Free apps: People will download them, but not enough to get you in the top lists.

The whole problem is that most people who see an ad in another app don't want to install a new app at that moment. If I see an advertisement for an app in a game i'm playing, I want to play that game, not install a new app.

They will probably install an adverteised app if they earn credits in the current game (there's such business model, rewarded install). Not sure if it will word for paid applications being advertised.

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Yet another indie developer's game. Promotion problem.

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