No love for GameSalad :(

Player_EPlayer_E Member, PRO Posts: 604
edited November -1 in Miscellaneous
So I was checking my Twitter this morning and I just saw this most recent tweet from a game reviewer over at TouchArcade

"Unity has come FAR since iOS games first started using it. Unity logos on load screens used to cause the same dread as GameSalad does now."

Now I fully realize the value of my pro membership. Being that I purchased when I still had to use the GS load screen I might get some reviews without the load screen.

Honestly I cant think of a single successful GS game that had the load screen with it. Is GS really that unappealing to that many people?

Comments

  • SparkyidrSparkyidr Member Posts: 2,033
    From chatting to people over the year to 18 months I have been using GS :

    Your average punter really doesn't care.

    Game reviewers/bloggers....some of them do seem to care.

    Your sales are going to come from those average punters who :
    a) Have no idea what GameSalad is
    and
    b) couldn't care less that you have a logo for it before the game starts

    as developers, it's easy to get caught up in the whole app world of forums and the usual websites.
    The honest truth is, 90% of your customers don't even know about those sites either.
  • SlickZeroSlickZero Houston, TexasMember, Sous Chef Posts: 2,870
    Just to some reviewers. Average everyday people looking for a fun game to play have no idea what GameSalad is, but if they go to review sites, they see the negative remarks that are made about it.

    I think there are a lot of great games made by GameSalad, it's just that it's made it so anyone can make an iPhone game, and lot's of those people shouldn't be.

    Lot's of people trying to make a quick buck because they saw on T.V. that some young kid had millions of downloads, and they think they can cash in just by making a piece of crap and putting it on the app store. And then wonder why it doesn't sell at all. I think it's those people and games that have given GameSalad a bad name.
    Warning There was an error rendering this rich post.
  • Player_EPlayer_E Member, PRO Posts: 604
    SlickZero said:
    Lot's of people trying to make a quick buck because they saw on T.V. that some young kid had millions of downloads, and they think they can cash in just by making a piece of crap and putting it on the app store.

    To be honest its stories like these that drive me nuts. Im not hating or anything but take bubble ball for instance. I downloaded the game and I would give it a 4/10. Yet it still made top free games. Why? because it was made by a KID. It had a good news story behind it and people wanted to see what it was all about.

    People then see this and try to figure out how to make a game the quickest and GameSalad is what they stumble upon.
  • CaptFinnCaptFinn Member Posts: 1,828
    Maybe GS could provide 10 different Loading circles to choose from. Or different loading animations. Maybe allow you to input your own animation file in to replace it. Input a Prompt to replace default loading animation file with users Loading animation file. that would be a big help.
  • butterbeanbutterbean Member Posts: 4,315
    Removing the Splash screen is divine, but Sparky is right, 90% of consumers don't know what GS is, nor do they care.
    Just for the record, I had Dark Woods for the iPad reviewed under the sister site of 148apps.com (the portable gamer), I had the splash screen on there at the time, and they gave it 3.5 stars.
  • XpandemicXpandemic Member Posts: 157
    Check out these keyword search results for app reviews

    app reviews- 3,600/month
    app reviews iphone- 250/month
    iphone app reviews- 9,900/month
    iphone game reviews- 5,400/month
    ____________________________________

    Same keywords but on mobile devices

    app reviews- 1,300/month
    app reviews iphone- 91/month
    iphone app reviews- 1,600/month
    iphone game reviews- 1,600/month

    As you can see not a lot of searches for app reviews, I expected it to be a lot higher since theres millions of iDevices out there
  • DizkoDizko Member Posts: 498
    Well to be honest, any reviewer that judges a game based on the platform it's created on, is a crappy reviewer.

    That would be judging all games made in the Unreal 3.0 based on 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, just because it happened to use that engine. Despite the the other awesome games that uses it like Gears of War or BioShock.

    It's a pretty biased and unfair treatment from what's supposed to be a subjective source.
  • Player_EPlayer_E Member, PRO Posts: 604
    To be honest I highly value the views of the reviewers over at TouchArcade. I have been monitoring the site pretty closely for the past few months and it seems that about 70% of games they review and give positive feedback end up on the main page of apple.

    One week in particular I noticed that TA reviewed 4 titles and all 4 of them ended up on the front page.

    After reading stories like one about TrainYard. I know that apple searches review sites for ideas on games to feature. If you dont know Trainyard was out for a few weeks with no luck. It was reviewed by some Italian site (I think) and from then it got featured and blew up.

    Stories like these make me value review sites so much and I truly believe that TouchArcade has a BIG part in "running" the app store.

    Im just glad that in a month or so I'll be able to submit my first game without the GS splash screen and hopefully get some coverage.
  • SteverdSteverd Member Posts: 194
    Tshirtbooth, doesn't your Zombie Drop have the GameSalad splash screen?
    And it's in the top five!! So does your Picture Hunter!!

    I know people in the TouchArcade forums seem to be the hardest on GS..

    Steve
  • tenrdrmertenrdrmer Member, Sous Chef, Senior Sous-Chef Posts: 9,934
    Bumps has the GameSalad Splash screen. Seems like I saw somewhere it made 80,000 sales.

    GameSalad is only a negative to reviewers and other devs the reviewers see so many crappy apps shoved down their throat with the Game Salad logo they dread it when they see it. But I don't believe the logo it self hurts sales since you have to download it before seeing the splash
    Warning There was an error rendering this rich post.
  • SparkyidrSparkyidr Member Posts: 2,033
    butterbean said:
    Removing the Splash screen is divine, but Sparky is right, 90% of consumers don't know what GS is, nor do they care.
    Just for the record, I had Dark Woods for the iPad reviewed under the sister site of 148apps.com (the portable gamer), I had the splash screen on there at the time, and they gave it 3.5 stars.

    yep. 148 just reviewed Super Stack Attack, with a splash screen, and it got 4/5 :o)
  • Player_EPlayer_E Member, PRO Posts: 604
    tenrdrmer said:
    Bumps has the GameSalad Splash screen. Seems like I saw somewhere it made 80,000 sales.

    I believe the only reason bumps was that successful was because it was featured on the main page. Idk if it got any reviews from sites like TA. I'm not doubting how excellent the game is, I'm just saying that it might have joined the ranks of GS games that were good but didn't make it if things would have been different.

    What I'm saying is that without the help of review sites its up to luck whether or not your app gets featured. With Review sites ignoring GS games it makes it even tougher.

    Also without a review site its up to you to figure out how to get eyes on your game. Chances are highly unlikely that you will release a game and with no effort in marketing it will sell.

    Key to success in the app store is exposure and without it your app will just sink. Sure there are some rare exceptions.
  • Player_EPlayer_E Member, PRO Posts: 604
    Sparkyidr said:
    yep. 148 just reviewed Super Stack Attack, with a splash screen, and it got 4/5 :o)

    Thats awesome!

    This could be a whole new topic, but in my eyes the only review site that I'm interested in is TA. Sure the other ones help with exposure, but we all know that the heavy hitter is TA. Seems like you could have 7 reviews from different site and they all would not add up to the effect TA would have.

    Maybe thats just how I see it.
  • beefy_clyrobeefy_clyro Member Posts: 5,394
    Bumps with GameSalad splash screen was reviewed by Touch Arcade on their main page;

    http://toucharcade.com/2010/08/17/bumps-review-–-drop-em-like-theyre-hot/
    Warning There was an error rendering this rich post.
  • GamersRejoiceGamersRejoice Member Posts: 817
    Player_E said:
    Thats awesome!

    This could be a whole new topic, but in my eyes the only review site that I'm interested in is TA. Sure the other ones help with exposure, but we all know that the heavy hitter is TA. Seems like you could have 7 reviews from different site and they all would not add up to the effect TA would have.

    Maybe thats just how I see it.

    So far with my experience that is probably true. I've had several reviews and it seemed to help sales for my game Sketch Ball by a matter of zero. My problem with Touch Arcade is they seem to get fixated on certain games. How many articles do they really need to write about angry birds? Or, world of goo, etc. Don't get me wrong these are great games, but they review so little that it's a crap shoot to hope that they notice you. I might just be bitter but that's my opinion.
  • DreamLabDreamLab Member Posts: 2,127
    Yah man. Most of the successful games HAD the splash screen. Besides Gamesmold's games of course. But yah. Name a successful game WITHOUT the splash screen. besides from Gamesmold. just saying. Yes, it is true that The gamesalad logo does kinda put a bad name on our app. but is it OUR fault? nope. its the people that submit crap under the GS name. GS deserves a better rep than that. There are SO many things you can do with gs. but its that that makes people submit crap. Which i dont get. why not take your time and maybe get some success.
  • Player_EPlayer_E Member, PRO Posts: 604
    @DreamLab
    Easy to answer, People don't take their time because they want instant results. They hear stories like bubble ball and think "hey this kid made some game and got ________ fill in the blank (rich, famous, anything) Why cant I? So they find the quickest way to do it and produce what they do in a few days.

    I'll admit this was my exact thinking when I started. "hey they did it why cant I" But I still waited and took about 3 months to produce my first game Mother Earth, which is probably my best game to date.

    But once your in the app store you see how it works and it so much different than it first appears and its a lot tougher than just making a game.
Sign In or Register to comment.

© Vanilla Keystone Theme 2024