Towers: Further adventures in the App Store
by Michael or something like that · 04/29/2012 (10:01 pm) · 1 comments
Some praise for Towers and obligatory screenshot:
"This is the kind of game design ingenuity that makes you stand back and remember what indie development is supposed to be all about! ...Towers has "completely unassuming yet completely awesome indie gem" written all over it." -Sean Koch, iFanzine.com
I released my first iPhone game, Towers, about a week and a half ago. You can find it right here: itunes.apple.com/us/app/towers/id509478507?mt=8 Even though my experiences haven't been entirely positive, I'm very eager to share them with the GarageGames community. If you're interested in learning about what sort of environment the App Store is today, read on!
Towers was released in the RPG and Adventure category, for reasons described in my last blog (www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/21656.) Unfortunately, launch was delayed by a week. Sales started out promising, but quickly dipped: it turned out that our late release caused us to run into some very heavy competition. Although we came close to Adventure's Top 200, we never did manage to make it in. Long story short, we were essentially buried by new releases, including a simple but addictive action RPG with a similar retro look, and big ticket games like Marvel VS Capcom 2.
Not one to feel discouraged, I decided to check out how a few other April releases that caught my eye were doing. I was surprised to learn that a lot of them were having similar troubles... Games with much bigger budgets than mine, that received a lot of praise on huge sites like kotaku.com, ended up posting good numbers on release, but dipping sharply or falling off the charts entirely in a week or two.
This is a very valuable lesson learned. When approaching the App Store, good reviews and a great launch aren't always enough. The game itself has to be designed to have longevity. It should be something that retains interest of its customer base for as long as possible, and as firmly as possible. One thing that really caught my eye? A quick but polished title called 8Bit Ninja.
8Bit Ninja is free to download. It's very casual. It serves up advertisements and offers in-app purchases of game currency -- any of which also remove the advertisements from the game. The game is extremely relaxed with its IAP strategy; earning in-game currency through play is a breeze, but there are enough perks and extras to purchase to constantly tempt you into considering it. After seeing 8Bit Ninja outperform many respectable games with ease, I am definitely going to consider a similar strategy for monetizing future titles.
So what's next for Towers? Well, I still have a few plans to try to get the sales numbers back up a bit, but I hope to get started on a free, ad-supported version in short order, with a few neat features and IAP to follow soon after. Most importantly, I hope to learn what to expect from the App Store through Towers, and that's a goal I feel I've already come a long way towards achieving.
"This is the kind of game design ingenuity that makes you stand back and remember what indie development is supposed to be all about! ...Towers has "completely unassuming yet completely awesome indie gem" written all over it." -Sean Koch, iFanzine.com
I released my first iPhone game, Towers, about a week and a half ago. You can find it right here: itunes.apple.com/us/app/towers/id509478507?mt=8 Even though my experiences haven't been entirely positive, I'm very eager to share them with the GarageGames community. If you're interested in learning about what sort of environment the App Store is today, read on!
Towers was released in the RPG and Adventure category, for reasons described in my last blog (www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/21656.) Unfortunately, launch was delayed by a week. Sales started out promising, but quickly dipped: it turned out that our late release caused us to run into some very heavy competition. Although we came close to Adventure's Top 200, we never did manage to make it in. Long story short, we were essentially buried by new releases, including a simple but addictive action RPG with a similar retro look, and big ticket games like Marvel VS Capcom 2.
Not one to feel discouraged, I decided to check out how a few other April releases that caught my eye were doing. I was surprised to learn that a lot of them were having similar troubles... Games with much bigger budgets than mine, that received a lot of praise on huge sites like kotaku.com, ended up posting good numbers on release, but dipping sharply or falling off the charts entirely in a week or two.
This is a very valuable lesson learned. When approaching the App Store, good reviews and a great launch aren't always enough. The game itself has to be designed to have longevity. It should be something that retains interest of its customer base for as long as possible, and as firmly as possible. One thing that really caught my eye? A quick but polished title called 8Bit Ninja.
8Bit Ninja is free to download. It's very casual. It serves up advertisements and offers in-app purchases of game currency -- any of which also remove the advertisements from the game. The game is extremely relaxed with its IAP strategy; earning in-game currency through play is a breeze, but there are enough perks and extras to purchase to constantly tempt you into considering it. After seeing 8Bit Ninja outperform many respectable games with ease, I am definitely going to consider a similar strategy for monetizing future titles.
So what's next for Towers? Well, I still have a few plans to try to get the sales numbers back up a bit, but I hope to get started on a free, ad-supported version in short order, with a few neat features and IAP to follow soon after. Most importantly, I hope to learn what to expect from the App Store through Towers, and that's a goal I feel I've already come a long way towards achieving.
About the author
Torque Owner Scott Wilson-Billing
MeYuMe
My advice is to keep updating - we have a 1-2 week update cycle - Apple do seem to notice Apps that regularly update e.g. we are currently in "What's Hot Game Adventure/Arcade" for some of the European stores, including the UK.
Also, if you can, try and add a social element to get people posting game status updates on their wall - this way friends who see it and hopefully will be curious and download - you need a Facebook App/page to maximise this opportunity - take a look at
www.facebook.com/CannibalCookout
Whatever happens, don't give up. It is hard work.