And I literally spent 15 minutes promoting my app, crazybreadman. I posted an old Game Maker forum which garnered 1 or 2 downloads maximum, this forum which actually got me a lot of helpful reviews (10 or so out of 14 probably), and I made a facebook event for my group which only has 80 friends in it or so. I'm really doubtful that did anything, either.
What I really believe did it was the fact that if you were to search for crush the castle in the app store (a fairly successful app), my little app comes along with a pretty good rating and 99 cent pricetag and people figure what the hell. I noticed this by mere coincidence.
So it would seem that keyword spamming is the way to go (which I did not do, I think the keyword of castle simply did it). I would just suggest to follow Apple's guidelines- the main one being not to use copywrited names as keywords, and to just really think about your keywords and how to use those to your advantage.
Keywords are key that's great! I think the illustration for your app really helped too, I think it's great! And it's a really fun game!
So what other keywords did you use if you don't mind me asking? I think there are some keywords that you can get away with as long as you're not using a brand name as a key word or someone else's game name
Hey, bought the game last night as I'd seen you post on here.
Plays really nicely, simple idea well conceived everything an iphone game needs to be. Those damn windmill blocks are a pain in the arse (meant in the nicest possible way).
Just finished my first app (more app then game), just registered to test it on my iphone before doing the whole submission process. Still awaitng link...(when your ready gamesalad)
Your sales figures sound very good. Please keep us posted as its fascinating and keeps the excitement of making apps up with the possibility of some real returns for our efforts.
Fingers crossed for Kill the king, getting featured on itunes front page 'new and noteworthy' perhaps.
Sales have been steady, but it has only been out 3 days. I don't know if I could have made a lot more money at the 1.99 mark or if sales would still be as high, but honestly I don't think it should sale for more than 99 cents anyway.
So nothing remarkable. And Eastbound and studios are there because I am still under my real name in the app store, but still want people to see it if they search my studio name
I just used app rankings and discovered that KtK is #62 in both strategy and puzzle categories in the US app store, and number 8 in strategy and 14 in puzzle in Hungary! haha
Yeah I've known about the bug, but didn't want to release an update until I had a lot of content to add- otherwise people will get upset about reset scores when they update.
Oh okay cool. Everyone tore into Field runner's update because of loss of high scores and they charged for additional maps- didn't want that to happen to me!
I have noticed a little issue. Sometimes when tapping near the top of the screen the level seems to reset. For a short moment, the numbers of bombs left displays the infinity symbol and then all progress and lack of bombs is reset. Are you planning on adding in new levels?
Well, in the 5 days it has been out, my sales have gone from:
117 382 302 174 105
...so a pretty steady curve downward, but still a lot of downloads. A release of an update could put me in the top 50 for puzzle/strategy I think, but I don't know if that would even matter. Ah the mystery of the app store.
As far as i know updates dont effect anything. I know they used to put you back in the first page for release date when you updated.... Just by original release date due to Devs updating every 5min to stay on the first page... and also bogging down the review team. From i read review time was at an all time low until they changed that
Yes, but I mean that the sheer number of existing users downloading the update should get me higher.
When I sold 382 I was in the mid 40's for ranking in puzzle game's probably. With an update, that would get me at least 600 upgrades + downloads for the day, which could get me around spot 20 in puzzle possibly.
Plus, I didn't want to request reviews from sites without updating the controls first, anyway
Also, I've found the longer your app is in the store, the ranking is more tied towards the average # of downloads over a timespan longer than a day. Meaning, even when I have a big spike in sales for a day or so, my ranking does not change considerably, nor does it immediately drop if I have a day of poor sales.
Yeah same here! I still have a marketing ploy under my sleeve I'm hoping will help haha
And really, feta? iJump has been popping back in the top sales every once in a while for a year now, and I could've sworn it was because of updates. Maybe in-app purchases or something.
Hey, when you've completed the game on the iPhone it says you've unlocked another play mode. What is that play mode? I didn't check if the levels were unlocked, but the Record mode seemed to be there from the start, so what is the new mode being referred to?
Comments
So can your 512X512 icon be a bigger illustration, and the smaller one be a piece of that bigger illustration?
And I literally spent 15 minutes promoting my app, crazybreadman. I posted an old Game Maker forum which garnered 1 or 2 downloads maximum, this forum which actually got me a lot of helpful reviews (10 or so out of 14 probably), and I made a facebook event for my group which only has 80 friends in it or so. I'm really doubtful that did anything, either.
What I really believe did it was the fact that if you were to search for crush the castle in the app store (a fairly successful app), my little app comes along with a pretty good rating and 99 cent pricetag and people figure what the hell. I noticed this by mere coincidence.
So it would seem that keyword spamming is the way to go (which I did not do, I think the keyword of castle simply did it). I would just suggest to follow Apple's guidelines- the main one being not to use copywrited names as keywords, and to just really think about your keywords and how to use those to your advantage.
So what other keywords did you use if you don't mind me asking? I think there are some keywords that you can get away with as long as you're not using a brand name as a key word or someone else's game name
Just saw your post, I'll check tonight Butterbean.
Plays really nicely, simple idea well conceived everything an iphone game needs to be. Those damn windmill blocks are a pain in the arse (meant in the nicest possible way).
Just finished my first app (more app then game), just registered to test it on my iphone before doing the whole submission process. Still awaitng link...(when your ready gamesalad)
Your sales figures sound very good. Please keep us posted as its fascinating and keeps the excitement of making apps up with the possibility of some real returns for our efforts.
Fingers crossed for Kill the king, getting featured on itunes front page 'new and noteworthy' perhaps.
My keywords were:
artillery, kill, king, shoot, castle, cannon, eastbound, studios, destroy
So nothing remarkable. And Eastbound and studios are there because I am still under my real name in the app store, but still want people to see it if they search my studio name
Great job! Wish you continued success!
I noticed in level 1-7, I was on the last cannon ball, and killed the king
It spawned: Failure but went to level 1-8
I can try testing it again, but it was a total fluke that I won on the last ball, but it spawned the word failure and still unlocked the next level
Thanks for the feedback, though!
I had actually already DL'ed it before the promo codes.
I pretty much DL just about everything people announce....
also as far as i know the saves are written to a separate file so unless the user deletes they should stay.
Are you planning on adding in new levels?
117
382
302
174
105
...so a pretty steady curve downward, but still a lot of downloads. A release of an update could put me in the top 50 for puzzle/strategy I think, but I don't know if that would even matter. Ah the mystery of the app store.
When I sold 382 I was in the mid 40's for ranking in puzzle game's probably. With an update, that would get me at least 600 upgrades + downloads for the day, which could get me around spot 20 in puzzle possibly.
Plus, I didn't want to request reviews from sites without updating the controls first, anyway
Also, I've found the longer your app is in the store, the ranking is more tied towards the average # of downloads over a timespan longer than a day. Meaning, even when I have a big spike in sales for a day or so, my ranking does not change considerably, nor does it immediately drop if I have a day of poor sales.
And really, feta? iJump has been popping back in the top sales every once in a while for a year now, and I could've sworn it was because of updates. Maybe in-app purchases or something.
Cheers, Weswog