old_kipper said: Good luck with! I am sure most on here will download it. I'm curious to know if they are playing in Texas yet?
Austin Texas? The GameSalad team? I don't know. My game was sent to them when building the app, so I don't know if they keep a copy to play with.
I haven't chatted with them in a while. Also, they've been quiet. I don't know what they think of BOT. But considering this thread is now at 12 pages, I suspect that the team is aware of it.
June 7, 2011 - Progress Report (Second Supplemental)
"The Language Theory"
An app description requires at least 10 character. That's not a lot, is it? The description for BOT could have been, "It's a great game!" and I would have been over the minimum by 8 characters. That's where "The Language Theory" enters the picture. It's based on two principles...
1 - The more languages an app supports, the more copies are likely to be sold. 2 - The less you say, the less chance you have of saying something wrong.
So, I was thinking... if I could think of something short... I could probably use Google Translate to make a nice line of copy. I do know some Spanish, so that's a place for me to test this theory.
BOT has no words. The display text is not used ANYWHERE in the game. Aside from those annoying Game Center alerts, the app is entirely language agnostic. (I'm not sure if GameSalad supports apps other than English.) So, it makes sense to create a description for each language.
Here's my checklist...
• Australian English • Brazilian Portuguese • Canadian English • Canadian French • Dutch • French • German • Italian • Japanese • Korean • Mexican Spanish • Portuguese • Russian • Simplified Chinese • Spanish • Swedish • UK English
So right away, I see something puzzling... Australian English? What am I supposed to put for this? "Hey mate, if you're not busy killin' kangaroos, you might want to take a gander at this." Clearly watching Crocodile Dundee is not enough to be a master at Australian English. I don't know if it's necessary to translate for the different versions of English. It seems like a simple cut and paste should work, but I'm not sure if it would do anything.
I'm disappointed that Polish is not an option on the app store. I wrote to Apple about that, but they did not reply.
So, I'll have to think about a good way to describe BOT in 25 words or less... and test the theory if less really is more. The English and German descriptions of the app will be robust though.
: The less you say, the less chance you have of saying something wrong :
That's a sound train of thought especially since I doubt the description has much influence other than confirming the necessities of a game of good value: (varied) content, music selection(s), intuitive control & various features that you are proud off. Once those things are clear & actual gameplay is evident from screenshots/description then just a short enticing sentence or two about the experience that awaits should do the trick.
things that annoy me in app descriptions?
overdramatic adjectives in capital letters. a hench chunk of irrelevant text i could have done without reading. everything i read i want to mentally tick a check box and once im satisfied and the screenshots are enticing ill be prepared to read whatever bullshit the developers written at the end - then again im not the sort of patient minded person that would play exploring type games so perhaps that doesnt appeal to the sort of person who wants to be enveloped in the BOT world when he spends hours (many im guessing) playing it...in which case more elaborate wording may be needed..
short paragraph fantasy storyline bull checklist of game content prepare for a great experience
After I uploaded BOT to Apple, I was struggling to be productive again. I didn't know what to do next. I was tired. But even after a good night's rest, I still felt unmotivated.
QuickTime is pretty good for recording screen video. It's included with Mac OS X Snow Leopard, so I liked that I didn't have to spend extra money. Yet, the software is a little cumbersome when trying to record iOS video. I didn't want the mouse pointer in the way. That's why Sound Stage worked out great.
I'm not a lazy guy. When I'm not productive, it usually means that there's a problem. Until I resolve that problem, I have trouble being productive. So, Sound Stage was $4.99 (plus 44¢ sales tax) well spent! Otherwise, I might have wasted the day. It's a good thing that the PlayStation Network web page was down again, otherwise I might have wasted the day playing Infamous.
But instead of wasting the day, I created a promo video...
I'm using QuickTime because it works great on iOS devices. The video is 480x320 pixels. The video's 3:2 ratio is full-screen on an iPod touch or iPhone. It looks almost like the game is playing. (The app is higher resolution.)
I'm trying to keep new Flash files off of Photics.com. I like that I'm moving away from Adobe software. It was expensive and not as good as it should be.
I'm not sure if the video will actually help with the promotion of BOT, but I think it is something of a requirement. I did state that a promo video would be released before BOT launched. So, I'm glad that the video is done. I get nervous when releasing new content, because I'm not sure if people will actually like it. I think that the video is great, but I'm the only one that's seen it so far.
FIrst I will say its nice to see the video and the game in action. The video is good but you could sell harder. I think you could make more of the game by having more pace in the build of the video, with possibly opening with a reveal on BOT, fast cuts of locations, some running sequence, abrupt arrival of opponents,cut to full on fighting with cuts to the weapons page in close up on different guns, then cut back to fighting with those weapons and different explosions from them, intercuts with score rising etc. And I would get some game sound in the track as well. Pile it high and SELL! (Major trick with editing is even if you don't use the music in the is to find something with the style and pace you want and let it lead you and help structure the sequence). I was around tv ads for a few years and its not a complicated formula.
I know you are probably knackered, and when I hit the end of a big run on something I get killer headaches about 3 hours after I relax, then I come out of it and wander around like a zombie for a day or two.
About the video, it's not over-the-top. I made a conscious decision to keep the BOT promo video clean — more like how Apple markets their product and less like the ShamWow or the Slap Chop. I think the music is OK. I like it. I think it gives a sense of excitement.
I think the video will work well on the official BOT page. It's just part of the marketing campaign.
What are the four P's of Marketing?
• Product - I think BOT is a good product. Even four months later, I still enjoy playing the game. Even though I made the game, it's still exciting to play. There have been complaints that the iTunes App Store is too casual. BOT is a game that can be played by casual players, but has some great challenges for Hardcore players.
• Place - The iTunes App Store is hot right now. In an otherwise crappy economy, apps are doing alright. Getting featured is the best form of Marketing. Making that happen is the real focus of my marketing efforts. I don't remember any apps where the video alone decided if I purchased the app or not. Heh, but ePig Dash was close. The main point of the video is that it can be played from iOS devices in the Safari mobile browser. That's a huge difference from my previous app videos.
• Price - The app is 99¢. I can't go any lower than that. Otherwise, it would be free.
• Promotion - I'm still working on this. I'll be contacting review sites, sending out an email blast and some other stuff.
I was considering a launch party... http://gamesalad.com/forums/topic.php?id=20011 ...but it doesn't seem like enough people are interested. I think it could have been a cool event for GameSalad developers.
Now, I'm kinda stuck. I don't know what I should work on today. It's really hot in NYC. The temperature could hit 100° today.
Do I work on Arcading? (Multi-game pack) Do I work on Spoko? (Cutesy platformer) Do I put BOT on the Mac App Store?
I think I should wait. Lion is supposed to launch next month. I think there will be more activity on the Mac App store after Lion is live.
Do I keep focusing on BOT marketing?
I think the latter is the correct answer. I have the German translation for my app's listing. Now I should try to get some more translations online.
"BOT es un juego de aventuras de ciencia ficción."
I'm surprised that the video didn't raise more questions... like how the laser works or how did I get so many animated characters on the screen. So, Kipper might be right. However, I'm not going to endlessly fuss over the video. There are two reasons why.
1 - I like it. Ultimately, I have to put my business name on the video. That means the video has to be something I'm comfortable with. I like the clean and professional style of the video. The overall feedback about the video is either good or great. I'm fine with that. Could the video be better? Sure, but I'm not here to make movies. I'm here to make games.
(The numbers aren't too bad either. The .mov file got over 500 hits yesterday. That's pretty good considering that I only showed it to a few people that I know, added an AIM Lifestream update and posted a link on two forums. This is one of the two forums.)
2 - I remember the original Legend of Zelda commercial.
What is BOT? Basically, it's like Link from The Legend of Zelda and Samus from Metroid got together and had a kid. Nintendo is not about to release their games on iOS anytime soon. So, I created my own.
Why did I originally play Metroid or Zelda? Was it the great marketing?! Heh, no. While the gold colored cart was a nice touch, the original Zelda commercial was awful... a guy dressed like a mime, prancing around and acting weird.
Zelda is a popular franchise because the games are fun. That's where I'm focusing my energy... making BOT more fun. Right now I'm adding International support... localizing Game Center for players all over the world. So when you're the top survivor, it's not just English speaking players that notice!
Just watched your video again (is this going on YouTube?) and seeing BOT in action is amazing. Highlights for me include the vertigo feeling platform and cool lighting effects. :-) As I've told you before this is an instabuy game for me and most probably everyone who has viewed this 12 page thread. I think the reason people haven't asked about how you managed to pull off certain actions/physics in BOT should be a compliment to the overall fluid quality that we can see.
However I do hope you forget about your next project for at least a few weeks and concentrate on how you are going to get BOT noticed around the world. I know your tired after all this but it would be a shame if BOT only sold a few thousand copies after all your hard work. The global language conversions and local leaderboards etc are a great idea. Review sites are equally as important but I really think you should Market yourself as much as Tank. Tell the world about this developer thread. How you wish the world of Nintendo was on iOS and so you've created your own original game. How you were fed up of the iOS app reviewing community branding all GS games poor and so decided to do something about it. How this is the game you always dreamed of making. Editors love these types of stories. If I was you I would be going down this route. :-)
The music in the video is disappointing for me though even if it is a commercial. Why? because it sounds to repetitive, safe and even slightly up-tempo like this is just another average day in the life of Tank. I think it should be more dramatic, urgent, epic. Hopefully your in-game music will be more like this? Yes Apple do good commercials but they are selling the products and not content. Not an adventure of a lifetime that hopefully BOT will be. As you said ePig Dive is a stunning trailer which helps engage the potential player, creates a dramatic impact, interest, excitement etc yet you have an even stronger product thats even more important people know about it. I also can't agree with your "i'm not here to make movies" comment, as you know most of the GS community are 1-man bands therefore your already the head of marketing, head of games design and head of Game Trailers. So in all your roles you should be the best job you can do and more importantly listen to Feedback?
Anyways congratulations on completing your project. I really can't wait to play BOT and have already been upselling your Game to my non-GS friends so good luck Photics ;-)
AddictiveGames said: Just watched your video again (is this going on YouTube?)
I don't have a YouTube account. I don't really see the benefit of putting the video there... and maybe that's what this is about. I have a different philosophy. I don't think videos are that important.
As for the music, that loop is what was left over. It's not used in the game.
AddictiveGames said:and seeing BOT in action is amazing. Highlights for me include the vertigo feeling platform and cool lighting effects. :-) As I've told you before this is an instabuy game for me and most probably everyone who has viewed this 12 page thread. I think the reason people haven't asked about how you managed to pull off certain actions/physics in BOT should be a compliment to the overall fluid quality that we can see.
Wow, I'm happy to read such kind words. Although, I'm still surprised that other developers aren't filled with questions. It reminds me of Mortal Kombat, back in the days when people were still figuring out fatalities. If you busted out a fatality, onlookers would be like, "How'd you do that... how'd you do that!" If you had a cheat-sheet from the Internet, you were like a legend at the arcades
AddictiveGames said: However I do hope you forget about your next project for at least a few weeks and concentrate on how you are going to get BOT noticed around the world.
Oh, I'm still working on BOT. That is the right thing to do, so that's what I'm doing. This is the marketing phase. I'm making decent progress on the language project. I was tired earlier in the week. Staying up late and getting little sleep messed me up. I'm OK now though.
AddictiveGames said: I know your tired after all this but it would be a shame if BOT only sold a few thousand copies after all your hard work. The global language conversions and local leaderboards etc are a great idea. Review sites are equally as important but I really think you should Market yourself as much as Tank. Tell the world about this developer thread.
I thought Touch Arcade would have gone for the story. They didn't. I contacted 148app.com and they didn't reply to my exclusive either. There are great stories to be told here. The problem is that the review websites don't think it's newsworthy. It's a catch-22. Press coverage makes you popular, but the press rarely covers you if you're not popular.
AddictiveGames said: How you wish the world of Nintendo was on iOS and so you've created your own original game.
Heh, actually, I see opportunity because Nintendo is not on iOS devices. If they were involved, it would be even harder for independent developers to get noticed.
First time I have posted in here....and only to tell you
Youtube is really really important... Probably the most important social media site. More-so than facebook or twitter (imo) I have lost count of the amount of times I have been sat here chatting with friends about a song, or a tv show, or a game, and then gone to youtube to find the song, or a clip of a show or movie or game.
From a music point of view (so slightly different), I now a lot of younger people, who ONLY listen to music on youtube these days (as well as ripping mp3s from the videos to listen to when they are not at a computer, or don't have wifi around)
Youtube is slowly becoming the new myspace.......just my opinion.
agree about Youtube ... in there almost everyday if I have some downtime .. also believe the screenshots of Apps don't do them justice so I check youtube for a gameplay video and the comments to see if the game is worth it.
Also Photics ... not that any of my past posts seem to have been of any value to you ... but I was thinking of various efforts I might do to get an audience for my game when I finally finish it and I thought one idea might be of interest. How about making a few mini-games with BOT art/theme and or gameplay and releasing it for free as a promotion of the paid version. I know Darren seems to use some free games for cross promotion but I thought you could take it further with it not being a completely different game but a BOT promotional game. Just a thought.
Sparkyidr said: Youtube is really really important... Probably the most important social media site. More-so than facebook or twitter (imo)
YouTube is a huge site — ranked #3 on Alexa.com — but I'm not seeing how that's going to be a boon for app sales. I view social networking sites pretty much all the same way... if you're not maintaining your space, it could be more damaging than not being there at all. A lot of the comments there are juvenile too. I don't see how they translate into real customers. It's more like a dice-roll. Just posting a video on YouTube doesn't do anything.
Sparkyidr said: I now a lot of younger people, who ONLY listen to music on youtube these days (as well as ripping mp3s from the videos to listen to when they are not at a computer, or don't have wifi around)
That sounds like a reason to stay off the site. Unscrupulous viewers might see the video and put it on their list of apps to steal. The reason why YouTube got so popular is because it's access to free video... and often without permission from the copyright holder. I'm just not seeing the connection. If someone is bored, looking for apps, they can just browse the "Release Date" section of the App store.
Sparkyidr said: Youtube is slowly becoming the new myspace.......just my opinion.
Do you mean that in a positive or negative way? MySpace is dying. That's another way how I view social media websites. I remember sites like AOL and GeoCities being popular. I remember when AOL Instant Messenger was an extremely popular way to communicate. Sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter are one good invention away from destruction. It just seems like "me too" marketing. Just because everyone has a Twitter account or Facebook account, where's the value?
I remember when I got my first article on the front page of digg.com... http://photics.com/wii-sports-boxing-how-high-can-the-skill-level-go ...It was great traffic, for about half-a-day. And occasionally, I still get the random visitor. Yet, these aren't real visitors. They're just one-hit wonders that bounce right off the page. And ultimately, Digg.com traffic fell off a cliff. I closed my account just before the place imploded.
Who am I really helping by putting my content on YouTube, Twitter or FaceBook?
simo103 said: agree about Youtube ... in there almost everyday if I have some downtime .. also believe the screenshots of Apps don't do them justice so I check youtube for a gameplay video and the comments to see if the game is worth it.
That seems logical. If someone is not sure about buying a game, they might do some research. They might look for a video. The app page will have a link to the BOT Promo Video. If I link to YouTube, then I run the risk of having some pretty awful comments appear. Or if the view number is not in the millions, the visitor might think my game is bad. It just seems like a YouTube page could harm as easily as it could help.
simo103 said: Also Photics ... not that any of my past posts seem to have been of any value to you ... but I was thinking of various efforts I might do to get an audience for my game when I finally finish it and I thought one idea might be of interest. How about making a few mini-games with BOT art/theme and or gameplay and releasing it for free as a promotion of the paid version. I know Darren seems to use some free games for cross promotion but I thought you could take it further with it not being a completely different game but a BOT promotional game. Just a thought.
I did consider two options...
1 - Have BOT/TANK make an appearance in Arcading. 2 - Launch a BOT comic.
I have a copy of Comic Life, and I could create some nice artwork with DAZ 3D and SketchMee. I'm waiting to see how the launch goes. I'm not sure what I'm going to work on next.
Yeah I see where you are coming from with Youtube perhaps being a double edged sword. Whatever you do I think you would want to at least make it easy for people to share .... I often email friends youtube links and I get a lot from my friends. We all also post video links here and in other forums ... so consider it from that side ... can a person who likes your game quickly and with almost no effort, help spread your game? If they can do that with the photics.com link then maybe good enough, if not then I think the upside of youtube beats the downside. I also think people are becoming used to ignoring the hate that open forums bring .. like youtube and thus any negative posts might have no effect.
Photics said: YouTube is a huge site — ranked #3 on Alexa.com — but I'm not seeing how that's going to be a boon for app sales. I view social networking sites pretty much all the same way... if you're not maintaining your space, it could be more damaging than not being there at all. A lot of the comments there are juvenile too. I don't see how they translate into real customers. It's more like a dice-roll. Just posting a video on YouTube doesn't do anything.
the game looks great, but i think not tapping into the youtube market is a huge oversight. it will only drive more traffic and awareness to your game. if comments concern you, you can disable them. you can pull your video after sales have slowed down. but for someone who has put so much planning and effort into your game, it's a mistake to skip it.
simo103 said: Whatever you do I think you would want to at least make it easy for people to share .... I often email friends youtube links and I get a lot from my friends.
The video will ultimately be available at http://photics.com/bot ...which will also have social networking links. People can post about it on Twitter, Facebook and others.
jonmulcahy said: but for someone who has put so much planning and effort into your game, it's a mistake to skip it.
I haven't seen any examples though. I don't know of any GameSalad games that were popular because of their YouTube video. As an example, I did a search for "The Sercret of Grisly Manor", which is the most successful GameSalad game that I know of. Instead of a promo video, I saw a bunch of Walk-through videos. I think that's more effective marketing. BOT has challenges like that. I think more buzz will be generated by people figuring out how to get the upgrades, complete the quests and defeat certain bosses... and then sharing those secrets with their friends.
Heh, I look forward to seeing the question, "How do I get the cloud icon?"
I did consider joining YouTube, but the user name "Photics" wasn't available. I don't want to post videos as "MrPhotics". HA HA.
the only thing i know for certain about the video is that you know the second encounter with the bee when he is standing near the octagonal pathway, just as he begins to move you see the awesome background scrolling effect - that WILL sell man, DEFINITELY give that more show time then the standing still action or at least more than 0.5seconds :0) - (after the blurring when the pixel exploration text comes up).
i wasnt really satisfied the first time i watched the video but it has noticeably grown on me now - not the effect you want though but i really think that's the situation or at least it seems that way from the other posts that mention the vid aswell and im not sure why, it may be the pacing as others said?
music suited the theme of space exploration action, but perhaps there could be a better choice for a trailer? it was ok though not a big issue, although having said that it might have contributed significantly to the effect i mentioned above..
i know you are quite self-reliant but thought i should mention what i was thinking just incase..
youtube videos are good for a few things:
*when there is scarce information on a title out at the moment (no reviews etc) *only way of finding out gameplay is youtube, its become like second nature to me similar to googling and im sure it's similar for many other people *you can disable comments on the videos so no worries about thoughtless posts sabotaging the video *view count gives you a tally of how successful certain marketing strategies are *might increase the likelyhood of a sale: even though "photics bot" google search has 1st hit ur site, it will benefit to have a nice youtube link right underneath the second link also relevant to your game. - although might need to make sure people type photics cause right now bot + iphone(game) isnt good! so if they miss it and just type bot iphone, the youtube vid right at the top of the google search will be pretty essential
so research how popular your video is and once its up to scratch, youtube can only help imo.
OK, I think I might have finished the translation. I basically went through all of the single languages from the Game Center area of the iTunes Connect App listing. In other words, I only added languages like "Portuguese" and not "Brazilian Portuguese" or "UK English". I don't see a need to create multiple versions of the same language. English is pretty much English. As for Portuguese, I don't know the difference between Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. From what I've read, I think the two different languages are going to merge.
To give BOT international support in Game Center, I only needed to translate three words...
Gold, Survivor and Seconds.
I also had to figure out how the country formatted numbers — commas and decimals. Is it 123,456,789.00 or is it 123.456.789,00? That's just so weird. Why doesn't the world just standardize these things? The United States should start using the Metric System and everyone else should start using commas instead of dots! HA!
It really was difficult to figure out the translations for those three simple words. To figure out if I was translating it correctly, I used two ways to check. I would reverse translate with Bing, Google and/or Babble Fish. If I didn't get the same word as what I started out with, something was wrong. Also, I would do image searches on Bing and Google. Even for something as simple as the word "Seconds" or "Gold", lots of pornographic images appeared.
While looking at these various images to illustrate the meaning of the word, I could get a sense of the culture. I felt closer to the rest of the world. Russia became more than just 1980's stereotypes, or hackers that try to spam my website. Russia looked more familiar. This carried through to other countries... Japan, China, Korea... people in these countries might be playing my game. The world became larger and yet smaller... and definitely more friendly.
I think it's a bit insane. This is an international launch of a video game. I actually felt great love, like this is something new and exciting in my life. I'm an American and I didn't really have an interest to see the rest of the world. I figured that everything important eventually reaches New York anyway. But today, I started thinking differently. I was virtually exploring the globe, learning about different countries, learning new languages... it was interesting.
Heh, but that utopian feeling was diminished when I tried to translate the app description.
For English and German, it's a robust description. For the other languages, it's just one line — "BOT is a science-fiction adventure game." And for Korean, Japanese and Simplified Chinese, it's basically... Sci-Fi Game or Sci-Fi Adventure. At least, I think it's "Sci-Fi Adventure". It could mean... "Idle fancy scientific venture."
The less certain I was of the translation, the less words I used. Visions of Zero Wing and Metal Gear entered my mind. I didn't want to have the Korean equivalent of "All your base are belong to us!"
That's what's interesting about being a developer. Sure, I knew that translation was tough, but I always figured that these game development companies should get it right. But now that I'm actually making my own games, I have a better understanding of the problems that they face. With GameSalad, game development process is less mystical. I always pictured the big companies with lots of money. But in reality, Photics of today is not that far from Konami or Capcom in the mid 80's.
When I read the story behind the development of Mega Man 2, one of the greatest games of all time, there were big challenges. Passion and determination kept the project going. The origin of Mario is the same story. If Nintendo didn't have trouble paying the rent, would we have a bouncy plumber squishing mushroom shaped enemies?
I think that's what makes BOT special. I am passionate and determined about this game. There were lots of challenges during the project, but I kept going! Now I wait and see how this turns out. There's not much more I can do until Apple approves the app.
Photics said: There's not much more I can do until Apple approves the app.
When do you expect it will be Available in itunes? Was hoping it would be live by this weekend can't wait :-)
ps: about YouTube. I don't wanna keep banging on about the video (you've explained your reasons which we respect) but I forgot to point out what happened to me the other night... you see not everyone who has an iPhone also has a Mac. Sure QT looks great on iOS devices but I don't use my phone for browsing of an evening because of the flash sites I visit (family friendly of course lol). Sure Apple fans are likely to own macs & iphones but I bet there are still a LOT more iphone/ipod owners with Windows machines than Macs.
Just like me. When you released your video I was on my Windows Laptop browsing. I didn't have Quicktime installed, VLC media player only played your music and Windows Media spat your video out moaning about codes. I eventually gave in an downloaded QT because I wanted to see it but others may not. I just think it would only take 10 minutes to create a quick "botgame" account, upload your video, disable comments and then we can all embed it quickly and easy on our personal facebook profiles etc... like check out my mates cool new game etc
Anyway you can't blame us for trying to convince you. I also promise I won't upload it to youtube myself haha :-)
AddictiveGames said: When do you expect it will be Available in itunes?
The app is still waiting for review. That could change at any moment. Although, I suspect that BOT won't be reviewed until next week. Usually it's like 7 days.
I started some sandbox testing of Game Center today. WOW... my phone got stuck in Japanese. It took me a while to figure out how to change it back. HA HA!
Anyway, I don't think the leaderboards are unified. It seems that the one for Japanese has different scores than the English one. Bummer!
This is clearly what I love doing. I don't know if BOT will be a success. I don't even know if BOT will be approved. But there's only one thing I can do about it right now — WAIT!
So while waiting, I've been wondering what to work on next. Logic says, "Well... maybe wait to see how this app turns out before you start waiting time on another one." Heh, nope. I've already got an amazing idea for another app. I'm planning to do some testing later today. I think I'll keep this one off-the-grid though. I'm not sure if the community wants another 12 pages of game development dialogue. HA HA.
Here's what's cool though. Last night, I played BOT. Sure, this is nothing new. I've been playing the game for months. Here's what's different though... I just played.
I wasn't worried about testing. I wasn't worried about adding new features. I was just roaming around, shooting enemies and collecting loot.
It was fun!
Even after all the frustration in creating this game, even after all the development monotony, I genuinely find this game entertaining. So far, I accomplished what I intended to do.
I'm still waiting for BOT to be approved. So, I'm trying to prepare for the launch. I've been collecting email addresses for review websites. I'm planning to do a lot of emailing on the day BOT is launched. I still haven't decided if I will be sending Touch Arcade a promo code.
...and that's when I started thinking... do I want to add more iOS reviews to Photics.com?
I started cleaning up my app portfolio. Apps that I felt weren't big successes were removed. They might reappear in a compilation app, but right now they might distract potential customers. I don't want BOT to be judged by the quality of my previous apps. It's far better than the other games I made with GameSalad.
So, one of the apps that got purged was Critique. It was an experiment with iAds. Even though the app was featured, I'm not happy with the results. So, I decided to put almost all of the reviews on Photics.com.
Commove is a successful app, so I've been trying to update it. But unfortunately, a GameSalad update has rendered it unplayable. Despite numerous attempts, I haven't been able to repair the damage just yet.
Also, there will be a price drop on the day BOT launches. I'm planning to reduce the price of Commove, the Photics: Toolbox and Photics: Revisions to 99¢ (tier-1). That should create some activity on the price-drop sites. I very rarely mess with the pricing of apps, so this is a significant occasions.
As for my new app. Heh, my test wasn't so unsuccessful. I was thinking of creating individual frames for a 3D background... like Sewer Shark for the Sega CD, but not as blurry... but the size of the game would probably be too big to publish. The GameSalad server can't handle a game that's 200 MB in size. I might revisit this idea in the future.
...waiting for review... ...refresh... ...waiting for review... ...refresh... ...waiting for review...
I did download the new iTunes Connect app. I don't think all of this refreshing is necessary, as I should be alerted to change of status with BOT. Yet, I still feel like checking.
...waiting for review... ...refresh... ...waiting for review... ...refresh... ...waiting for review...
I like how the iTunes Connect app alerted me about the status change. That means I no longer have to refresh the page listing like an obsessive-compulsive monkey.
Photics said: I like how the iTunes Connect app alerted me about the status change. That means I no longer have to refresh the page listing like an obsessive-compulsive monkey.
Comments
I haven't chatted with them in a while. Also, they've been quiet. I don't know what they think of BOT. But considering this thread is now at 12 pages, I suspect that the team is aware of it.
"The Language Theory"
An app description requires at least 10 character. That's not a lot, is it? The description for BOT could have been, "It's a great game!" and I would have been over the minimum by 8 characters. That's where "The Language Theory" enters the picture. It's based on two principles...
1 - The more languages an app supports, the more copies are likely to be sold.
2 - The less you say, the less chance you have of saying something wrong.
So, I was thinking... if I could think of something short... I could probably use Google Translate to make a nice line of copy. I do know some Spanish, so that's a place for me to test this theory.
BOT has no words. The display text is not used ANYWHERE in the game. Aside from those annoying Game Center alerts, the app is entirely language agnostic. (I'm not sure if GameSalad supports apps other than English.) So, it makes sense to create a description for each language.
Here's my checklist...
• Australian English
• Brazilian Portuguese
• Canadian English
• Canadian French
• Dutch
• French
• German
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Mexican Spanish
• Portuguese
• Russian
• Simplified Chinese
• Spanish
• Swedish
• UK English
So right away, I see something puzzling... Australian English? What am I supposed to put for this? "Hey mate, if you're not busy killin' kangaroos, you might want to take a gander at this." Clearly watching Crocodile Dundee is not enough to be a master at Australian English. I don't know if it's necessary to translate for the different versions of English. It seems like a simple cut and paste should work, but I'm not sure if it would do anything.
As an example, I didn't translate the textbook for UK English, but it's there...
http://itunes.apple.com/uk/app/an-unofficial-gamesalad-textbook/id409726843
I'm disappointed that Polish is not an option on the app store. I wrote to Apple about that, but they did not reply.
So, I'll have to think about a good way to describe BOT in 25 words or less... and test the theory if less really is more. The English and German descriptions of the app will be robust though.
That's a sound train of thought especially since I doubt the description has much influence other than confirming the necessities of a game of good value: (varied) content, music selection(s), intuitive control & various features that you are proud off. Once those things are clear & actual gameplay is evident from screenshots/description then just a short enticing sentence or two about the experience that awaits should do the trick.
things that annoy me in app descriptions?
overdramatic adjectives in capital letters. a hench chunk of irrelevant text i could have done without reading.
everything i read i want to mentally tick a check box and once im satisfied and the screenshots are enticing ill be prepared to read whatever bullshit the developers written at the end
short paragraph fantasy storyline bull
checklist of game content
prepare for a great experience
Video
After I uploaded BOT to Apple, I was struggling to be productive again. I didn't know what to do next. I was tired. But even after a good night's rest, I still felt unmotivated.
That changed when I downloaded Sound Stage!
QuickTime is pretty good for recording screen video. It's included with Mac OS X Snow Leopard, so I liked that I didn't have to spend extra money. Yet, the software is a little cumbersome when trying to record iOS video. I didn't want the mouse pointer in the way. That's why Sound Stage worked out great.
I'm not a lazy guy. When I'm not productive, it usually means that there's a problem. Until I resolve that problem, I have trouble being productive. So, Sound Stage was $4.99 (plus 44¢ sales tax) well spent! Otherwise, I might have wasted the day. It's a good thing that the PlayStation Network web page was down again, otherwise I might have wasted the day playing Infamous.
But instead of wasting the day, I created a promo video...
http://photics.com/videos/bot-promo.mov
I'm using QuickTime because it works great on iOS devices. The video is 480x320 pixels. The video's 3:2 ratio is full-screen on an iPod touch or iPhone. It looks almost like the game is playing. (The app is higher resolution.)
I'm trying to keep new Flash files off of Photics.com. I like that I'm moving away from Adobe software. It was expensive and not as good as it should be.
I'm not sure if the video will actually help with the promotion of BOT, but I think it is something of a requirement. I did state that a promo video would be released before BOT launched. So, I'm glad that the video is done. I get nervous when releasing new content, because I'm not sure if people will actually like it. I think that the video is great, but I'm the only one that's seen it so far.
I know you are probably knackered, and when I hit the end of a big run on something I get killer headaches about 3 hours after I relax, then I come out of it and wander around like a zombie for a day or two.
kipper
........(although maybe use better more epic music in your video)
BOT IS GONNABE EPIC :-)
I think the video will work well on the official BOT page. It's just part of the marketing campaign.
What are the four P's of Marketing?
• Product - I think BOT is a good product. Even four months later, I still enjoy playing the game. Even though I made the game, it's still exciting to play. There have been complaints that the iTunes App Store is too casual. BOT is a game that can be played by casual players, but has some great challenges for Hardcore players.
• Place - The iTunes App Store is hot right now. In an otherwise crappy economy, apps are doing alright. Getting featured is the best form of Marketing. Making that happen is the real focus of my marketing efforts. I don't remember any apps where the video alone decided if I purchased the app or not. Heh, but ePig Dash was close. The main point of the video is that it can be played from iOS devices in the Safari mobile browser. That's a huge difference from my previous app videos.
• Price - The app is 99¢. I can't go any lower than that. Otherwise, it would be free.
• Promotion - I'm still working on this. I'll be contacting review sites, sending out an email blast and some other stuff.
I was considering a launch party... http://gamesalad.com/forums/topic.php?id=20011 ...but it doesn't seem like enough people are interested. I think it could have been a cool event for GameSalad developers.
Now, I'm kinda stuck. I don't know what I should work on today. It's really hot in NYC. The temperature could hit 100° today.
Do I work on Arcading? (Multi-game pack)
Do I work on Spoko? (Cutesy platformer)
Do I put BOT on the Mac App Store?
I think I should wait. Lion is supposed to launch next month. I think there will be more activity on the Mac App store after Lion is live.
Do I keep focusing on BOT marketing?
I think the latter is the correct answer. I have the German translation for my app's listing. Now I should try to get some more translations online.
"BOT es un juego de aventuras de ciencia ficción."
1 - I like it. Ultimately, I have to put my business name on the video. That means the video has to be something I'm comfortable with. I like the clean and professional style of the video. The overall feedback about the video is either good or great. I'm fine with that. Could the video be better? Sure, but I'm not here to make movies. I'm here to make games.
(The numbers aren't too bad either. The .mov file got over 500 hits yesterday. That's pretty good considering that I only showed it to a few people that I know, added an AIM Lifestream update and posted a link on two forums. This is one of the two forums.)
2 - I remember the original Legend of Zelda commercial.
What is BOT? Basically, it's like Link from The Legend of Zelda and Samus from Metroid got together and had a kid. Nintendo is not about to release their games on iOS anytime soon. So, I created my own.
Why did I originally play Metroid or Zelda? Was it the great marketing?! Heh, no. While the gold colored cart was a nice touch, the original Zelda commercial was awful... a guy dressed like a mime, prancing around and acting weird.
Zelda is a popular franchise because the games are fun. That's where I'm focusing my energy... making BOT more fun. Right now I'm adding International support... localizing Game Center for players all over the world. So when you're the top survivor, it's not just English speaking players that notice!
However I do hope you forget about your next project for at least a few weeks and concentrate on how you are going to get BOT noticed around the world. I know your tired after all this but it would be a shame if BOT only sold a few thousand copies after all your hard work. The global language conversions and local leaderboards etc are a great idea. Review sites are equally as important but I really think you should Market yourself as much as Tank. Tell the world about this developer thread. How you wish the world of Nintendo was on iOS and so you've created your own original game. How you were fed up of the iOS app reviewing community branding all GS games poor and so decided to do something about it. How this is the game you always dreamed of making. Editors love these types of stories. If I was you I would be going down this route. :-)
The music in the video is disappointing for me though even if it is a commercial. Why? because it sounds to repetitive, safe and even slightly up-tempo like this is just another average day in the life of Tank. I think it should be more dramatic, urgent, epic. Hopefully your in-game music will be more like this? Yes Apple do good commercials but they are selling the products and not content. Not an adventure of a lifetime that hopefully BOT will be. As you said ePig Dive is a stunning trailer which helps engage the potential player, creates a dramatic impact, interest, excitement etc yet you have an even stronger product thats even more important people know about it. I also can't agree with your "i'm not here to make movies" comment, as you know most of the GS community are 1-man bands therefore your already the head of marketing, head of games design and head of Game Trailers. So in all your roles you should be the best job you can do and more importantly listen to Feedback?
Anyways congratulations on completing your project. I really can't wait to play BOT and have already been upselling your Game to my non-GS friends so good luck Photics ;-)
As for the music, that loop is what was left over. It's not used in the game. Wow, I'm happy to read such kind words. Although, I'm still surprised that other developers aren't filled with questions. It reminds me of Mortal Kombat, back in the days when people were still figuring out fatalities. If you busted out a fatality, onlookers would be like, "How'd you do that... how'd you do that!" If you had a cheat-sheet from the Internet, you were like a legend at the arcades Oh, I'm still working on BOT. That is the right thing to do, so that's what I'm doing. This is the marketing phase. I'm making decent progress on the language project. I was tired earlier in the week. Staying up late and getting little sleep messed me up. I'm OK now though. I thought Touch Arcade would have gone for the story. They didn't. I contacted 148app.com and they didn't reply to my exclusive either. There are great stories to be told here. The problem is that the review websites don't think it's newsworthy. It's a catch-22. Press coverage makes you popular, but the press rarely covers you if you're not popular. Heh, actually, I see opportunity because Nintendo is not on iOS devices. If they were involved, it would be even harder for independent developers to get noticed.
Youtube is really really important... Probably the most important social media site. More-so than facebook or twitter (imo)
I have lost count of the amount of times I have been sat here chatting with friends about a song, or a tv show, or a game, and then gone to youtube to find the song, or a clip of a show or movie or game.
From a music point of view (so slightly different), I now a lot of younger people, who ONLY listen to music on youtube these days (as well as ripping mp3s from the videos to listen to when they are not at a computer, or don't have wifi around)
Youtube is slowly becoming the new myspace.......just my opinion.
Also Photics ... not that any of my past posts seem to have been of any value to you ... but I was thinking of various efforts I might do to get an audience for my game when I finally finish it and I thought one idea might be of interest. How about making a few mini-games with BOT art/theme and or gameplay and releasing it for free as a promotion of the paid version. I know Darren seems to use some free games for cross promotion but I thought you could take it further with it not being a completely different game but a BOT promotional game. Just a thought.
I remember when I got my first article on the front page of digg.com... http://photics.com/wii-sports-boxing-how-high-can-the-skill-level-go ...It was great traffic, for about half-a-day. And occasionally, I still get the random visitor. Yet, these aren't real visitors. They're just one-hit wonders that bounce right off the page. And ultimately, Digg.com traffic fell off a cliff. I closed my account just before the place imploded.
Who am I really helping by putting my content on YouTube, Twitter or FaceBook? That seems logical. If someone is not sure about buying a game, they might do some research. They might look for a video. The app page will have a link to the BOT Promo Video. If I link to YouTube, then I run the risk of having some pretty awful comments appear. Or if the view number is not in the millions, the visitor might think my game is bad. It just seems like a YouTube page could harm as easily as it could help. I did consider two options...
1 - Have BOT/TANK make an appearance in Arcading.
2 - Launch a BOT comic.
I have a copy of Comic Life, and I could create some nice artwork with DAZ 3D and SketchMee. I'm waiting to see how the launch goes. I'm not sure what I'm going to work on next.
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Heh, I look forward to seeing the question, "How do I get the cloud icon?"
I did consider joining YouTube, but the user name "Photics" wasn't available. I don't want to post videos as "MrPhotics". HA HA.
i wasnt really satisfied the first time i watched the video but it has noticeably grown on me now - not the effect you want though but i really think that's the situation or at least it seems that way from the other posts that mention the vid aswell and im not sure why, it may be the pacing as others said?
music suited the theme of space exploration action, but perhaps there could be a better choice for a trailer? it was ok though not a big issue, although having said that it might have contributed significantly to the effect i mentioned above..
i know you are quite self-reliant but thought i should mention what i was thinking just incase..
youtube videos are good for a few things:
*when there is scarce information on a title out at the moment (no reviews etc)
*only way of finding out gameplay is youtube, its become like second nature to me similar to googling and im sure it's similar for many other people
*you can disable comments on the videos so no worries about thoughtless posts sabotaging the video
*view count gives you a tally of how successful certain marketing strategies are
*might increase the likelyhood of a sale: even though "photics bot" google search has 1st hit ur site, it will benefit to have a nice youtube link right underneath the second link also relevant to your game. - although might need to make sure people type photics cause right now bot + iphone(game) isnt good! so if they miss it and just type bot iphone, the youtube vid right at the top of the google search will be pretty essential
so research how popular your video is and once its up to scratch, youtube can only help imo.
"Someone set us up the bomb!"
OK, I think I might have finished the translation. I basically went through all of the single languages from the Game Center area of the iTunes Connect App listing. In other words, I only added languages like "Portuguese" and not "Brazilian Portuguese" or "UK English". I don't see a need to create multiple versions of the same language. English is pretty much English. As for Portuguese, I don't know the difference between Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. From what I've read, I think the two different languages are going to merge.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/portugal-pays-lip-service-to-brazils-supremacy-819728.html
Basically, here is my translation technique...
To give BOT international support in Game Center, I only needed to translate three words...
Gold, Survivor and Seconds.
I also had to figure out how the country formatted numbers — commas and decimals. Is it 123,456,789.00 or is it 123.456.789,00? That's just so weird. Why doesn't the world just standardize these things? The United States should start using the Metric System and everyone else should start using commas instead of dots! HA!
It really was difficult to figure out the translations for those three simple words. To figure out if I was translating it correctly, I used two ways to check. I would reverse translate with Bing, Google and/or Babble Fish. If I didn't get the same word as what I started out with, something was wrong. Also, I would do image searches on Bing and Google. Even for something as simple as the word "Seconds" or "Gold", lots of pornographic images appeared.
While looking at these various images to illustrate the meaning of the word, I could get a sense of the culture. I felt closer to the rest of the world. Russia became more than just 1980's stereotypes, or hackers that try to spam my website. Russia looked more familiar. This carried through to other countries... Japan, China, Korea... people in these countries might be playing my game. The world became larger and yet smaller... and definitely more friendly.
I think it's a bit insane. This is an international launch of a video game. I actually felt great love, like this is something new and exciting in my life. I'm an American and I didn't really have an interest to see the rest of the world. I figured that everything important eventually reaches New York anyway. But today, I started thinking differently. I was virtually exploring the globe, learning about different countries, learning new languages... it was interesting.
Heh, but that utopian feeling was diminished when I tried to translate the app description.
For English and German, it's a robust description. For the other languages, it's just one line — "BOT is a science-fiction adventure game." And for Korean, Japanese and Simplified Chinese, it's basically... Sci-Fi Game or Sci-Fi Adventure. At least, I think it's "Sci-Fi Adventure". It could mean... "Idle fancy scientific venture."
The less certain I was of the translation, the less words I used. Visions of Zero Wing and Metal Gear entered my mind. I didn't want to have the Korean equivalent of "All your base are belong to us!"
That's what's interesting about being a developer. Sure, I knew that translation was tough, but I always figured that these game development companies should get it right. But now that I'm actually making my own games, I have a better understanding of the problems that they face. With GameSalad, game development process is less mystical. I always pictured the big companies with lots of money. But in reality, Photics of today is not that far from Konami or Capcom in the mid 80's.
When I read the story behind the development of Mega Man 2, one of the greatest games of all time, there were big challenges. Passion and determination kept the project going. The origin of Mario is the same story. If Nintendo didn't have trouble paying the rent, would we have a bouncy plumber squishing mushroom shaped enemies?
I think that's what makes BOT special. I am passionate and determined about this game. There were lots of challenges during the project, but I kept going! Now I wait and see how this turns out. There's not much more I can do until Apple approves the app.
Was hoping it would be live by this weekend can't wait :-)
ps: about YouTube. I don't wanna keep banging on about the video (you've explained your reasons which we respect) but I forgot to point out what happened to me the other night... you see not everyone who has an iPhone also has a Mac. Sure QT looks great on iOS devices but I don't use my phone for browsing of an evening because of the flash sites I visit (family friendly of course lol). Sure Apple fans are likely to own macs & iphones but I bet there are still a LOT more iphone/ipod owners with Windows machines than Macs.
Just like me. When you released your video I was on my Windows Laptop browsing. I didn't have Quicktime installed, VLC media player only played your music and Windows Media spat your video out moaning about codes. I eventually gave in an downloaded QT because I wanted to see it but others may not. I just think it would only take 10 minutes to create a quick "botgame" account, upload your video, disable comments and then we can all embed it quickly and easy on our personal facebook profiles etc... like check out my mates cool new game etc
Anyway you can't blame us for trying to convince you. I also promise I won't upload it to youtube myself haha :-)
I started some sandbox testing of Game Center today. WOW... my phone got stuck in Japanese. It took me a while to figure out how to change it back. HA HA!
Anyway, I don't think the leaderboards are unified. It seems that the one for Japanese has different scores than the English one. Bummer!
"Waiting For Review"
This is clearly what I love doing. I don't know if BOT will be a success. I don't even know if BOT will be approved. But there's only one thing I can do about it right now — WAIT!
So while waiting, I've been wondering what to work on next. Logic says, "Well... maybe wait to see how this app turns out before you start waiting time on another one." Heh, nope. I've already got an amazing idea for another app. I'm planning to do some testing later today. I think I'll keep this one off-the-grid though. I'm not sure if the community wants another 12 pages of game development dialogue. HA HA.
Here's what's cool though. Last night, I played BOT. Sure, this is nothing new. I've been playing the game for months. Here's what's different though... I just played.
I wasn't worried about testing.
I wasn't worried about adding new features.
I was just roaming around, shooting enemies and collecting loot.
It was fun!
Even after all the frustration in creating this game, even after all the development monotony, I genuinely find this game entertaining. So far, I accomplished what I intended to do.
"Preparations"
I'm still waiting for BOT to be approved. So, I'm trying to prepare for the launch. I've been collecting email addresses for review websites. I'm planning to do a lot of emailing on the day BOT is launched. I still haven't decided if I will be sending Touch Arcade a promo code.
...and that's when I started thinking... do I want to add more iOS reviews to Photics.com?
I started cleaning up my app portfolio. Apps that I felt weren't big successes were removed. They might reappear in a compilation app, but right now they might distract potential customers. I don't want BOT to be judged by the quality of my previous apps. It's far better than the other games I made with GameSalad.
So, one of the apps that got purged was Critique. It was an experiment with iAds. Even though the app was featured, I'm not happy with the results. So, I decided to put almost all of the reviews on Photics.com.
You can see them listed with other reviews here...
• http://photics.com/category/game-reviews
...and here...
• http://photics.com/category/technology
Commove is a successful app, so I've been trying to update it. But unfortunately, a GameSalad update has rendered it unplayable. Despite numerous attempts, I haven't been able to repair the damage just yet.
Also, there will be a price drop on the day BOT launches. I'm planning to reduce the price of Commove, the Photics: Toolbox and Photics: Revisions to 99¢ (tier-1). That should create some activity on the price-drop sites. I very rarely mess with the pricing of apps, so this is a significant occasions.
All of these changes to my app library creates a significant amount of rewriting for The Unofficial GameSalad Textbook.
As for my new app. Heh, my test wasn't so unsuccessful. I was thinking of creating individual frames for a 3D background... like Sewer Shark for the Sega CD, but not as blurry... but the size of the game would probably be too big to publish. The GameSalad server can't handle a game that's 200 MB in size. I might revisit this idea in the future.
"Refresh"
...waiting for review...
...refresh...
...waiting for review...
...refresh...
...waiting for review...
I did download the new iTunes Connect app. I don't think all of this refreshing is necessary, as I should be alerted to change of status with BOT. Yet, I still feel like checking.
...waiting for review...
...refresh...
...waiting for review...
...refresh...
...waiting for review...
BOT COULD LAUNCH TOMORROW! :-D
Cheers.
BOT LAUNCHES TOMORROW!