Dropped 50 places over night :(

UtopianGames

We were 85 in games when i went bed and i woke up to see if were still in top 100 and wow weeeeee dropped 50 places to 135 :P

Shame we couldn't hold on because the Lite has just come out and 1.1 in review so that will be out any time now.

I will contact press and do a double promo, Lite and 1.1 but don't think it will get back in top 100.

I'm 100% sure it's the bad 1 star reviews we got i mean the 1st 3 reviews were all bad ones so tbh i wouldn't buy it with those ratings why would any one else.

It has also come off the front off the app store and didn't make it into what's hot on there.

Darren.

synthesis

It blows that the fall from grace has been that swift. Hopefully you get a "bump" back up a bit.
Who knows...you might have a nice recovery. Your Puzzle app rank is still solid isn't it?

Any exposure is key. Keep working on it...maybe release more puzzles in it...like a second island...or get that sequel app out with a different island.

You sold about 20-25K right? Well...I would suspect you have at least 10K that would like a sequel and would pay for it. Is 2 weeks of suffering to expedite a sequel (same game engine - different colored skin - new puzzles) worth $5-10K? It could give the franchise a definite "bump" in the shorts. If you got all those sales quickly...the sequel could rise up there quickly and pull bumps 1 with it (case in point = iParkiT! ... v2 came out this month and v1 is doing better than v2 in sales).

UtopianGames

1.1 should be released today and has another island with the new mini game and 9 extra levels.

20K so far.

Plan is to submit 1.2 (it's ready and waiting) with an extreme set of levels when 1.1 comes out later today.

We will start on iPad today.

Yes i noticed the park it games too, funny stuff.

Darren.

synthesis

Good stuff.
It might make another run at it!

iPad could help the exposure factor too!

Devils

These guys are right don't worry a out the bad reviews just keep working on the bug fixes and updates and you will do great this is just a small "Bump" on the road. I suggest you use some of that money for marketing and updates it will be fine.

beefy_clyro

Dude ignore the bad reviews, you have done amazing to get where you did and staying there has got to be soo hard! Especially up against the big boys and their money. I finally got around to downloading bumps last night, very late when i should of been sleeping, and i tried to put it down after a few levels but i just couldnt ... 'oh i'll just see what the next level is' hahaha. Excellent game, very well done, i left you a 5 star review on the UK store

expired_012

Wanna know the real reason why u dropped so hard? Because yesterday was when they updated the N&N apps on the front page

UtopianGames

Yep we thought so.

Being in the games area of N&N or What' Hot did little for us but being on the front page is MASSIVE!!!

But saying that "The Incident" is now featured on the front page under whats hot and were still ahead of that so....

Darren.

quantumsheep

utopiangames said:
Yep we thought so.

Being in the games area of N&N or What' Hot did little for us but being on the front page is MASSIVE!!!

But saying that "The Incident" is now featured on the front page under whats hot and were still ahead of that so....

Darren.

Good on ya!

The Incident is double your asking price btw - which may be why you're still ahead

QS

expired_012

And don't worry about reviews, theres always gonna be people that write a bad review for fun. Shouldn't you be dancing around with your 20K now? lol

Angry birds even has 4100 1 star ratings, but what flaws can you find in that game?

osalzano

Dude, don't worry... it´s App Store dynamics.

I'll tell our experience to make you more relaxed.

We've released 3 applications in the last 3 months (2 games and 1 World Cup app, all developed with GS) making it available in 3 or 4 new countries per day. We learned the following:

You have a 7-10 days window to get your app noticed, when it's on the "new apps" list. If your app is nice and you have some luck, Apple will feature it. During this time, it can reach Top#something# (Something = the success of your app.)

After this period, it's natural that the game drops in the rankings, unless you have tons of money to spend on promotion, as "big fishes" do. It's a cycle. And it behaves quite the same way in all countries.

Now comes the coolest part, once we don't have as much money as they. If you develop another successful application, it ends up stimulating sales of the previous releases.

So, IMHO, it's time to develop "Bumbs 2" and take advantage of the success of the first game to leverage the two.

20 - 25K in a month with JUST ONE app is a fabulous result for an independent publisher.
(We've made 1K per app so far)

We don't know yet sales behavior with a free / lite version, since I don't accept to pay $2K to get the GS Pro with URL forwarding.

I hope I've helped...

Can't wait your next release! Congrats!

millerbrother1

Utopian,

I just purchased and downloaded Bumps last night. I LOVED IT! Gave you a 4 star review. Everything worked great on my 3GS.

I'm sure we'll see Bumps back on the top 25 soon. Word of mouth from so many happy users is going to have to spread. Keep it up & congrats!