Interesting - Honey Tribe reached top 100 overall free in UK. Some figures for you.

HoneyTribeStudiosHoneyTribeStudios Member Posts: 1,792
edited January 2012 in Announce Your Game!
So I thought I'd set Honey Tribe free for a week (again). Just to see download numbers with no proactive PR at all. So just relying on price drop sites.

Today was the first day and it got 18,000 downloads.

6,000 in the UK was enough to reach number 74 in overall free charts.
3,000 was number 68 in Germany.
2,000 for number 86 in Italy.

So that's pretty encouraging for the iap route. I haven't put any in yet but definitely will do with an update. Or maybe release a new spin-off game. Or both.

Better start thinking of some fun power ups and stuff...
________________
On the GS asset store: Rock Music, Pack 2
Casual & Platformer Music, Pack 3
Atmosphere Music, Pack 1
www.honeytribestudios.com
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Comments

  • Braydon_SFXBraydon_SFX Member, Sous Chef, Bowlboy Sidekick Posts: 9,273
    edited January 2012
    Congrats, @HoneyTribeStudios!

    I set Penguin Pounce free for a week and it got about 8,000 downloads throughout the week.


    My GameSalad Academy Courses! ◦ Check out my quality templates! ◦ Add me on Skype: braydon_sfx

  • HoneyTribeStudiosHoneyTribeStudios Member Posts: 1,792
    @Braydon_SFX

    Well it seems pretty random to me. This is the third time I've made it free for a week. Last December it got about 5000 for the whole week.

    And the first time had hardly any, although for that I pressed the 'now' button instead of using a scheduled date in the price settings.

    Maybe it's a simple algorithm and I'll get more every time I set to free ;)
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  • Braydon_SFXBraydon_SFX Member, Sous Chef, Bowlboy Sidekick Posts: 9,273
    @HoneyTribleStudioes - it seems like that, yes.

    I set my game free for 2 days and got 200 downloads throughout that time. Then I made it free for a week, and it got 8,000. :P

    My GameSalad Academy Courses! ◦ Check out my quality templates! ◦ Add me on Skype: braydon_sfx

  • beefy_clyrobeefy_clyro Member Posts: 5,394
    I did notice that earlier Shaz when browsing the store, weird how it kicks off at different times, sometimes could go unnoticed, other times really appeal and go viral so to speak ... you just never know
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  • Benjamin_m5Benjamin_m5 Member Posts: 646
    Congrats

    Yesterday evening i was surprised as i surfed in the top 25 list as i found this:
    Photobucket
    AppStore list in switzerland

    Nice from you :)
    ---
    Benjamin
  • HoneyTribeStudiosHoneyTribeStudios Member Posts: 1,792
    @beefy_clyro Yeah, I'm gonna just just assume it'll be fairly random and not expect x downloads for the next update and price drop. Will just keep taking shots and hope a few will reach the back of the net...!

    @Benjamin_m5 Thanks for posting the screen shot :) And for your info number 71 in the Swiss free charts was from 650 downloads.
    _____________
    On the GS asset store: Rock Music, Pack 2
    Casual & Platformer Music, Pack 3
    Atmosphere Music, Pack 1
    www.honeytribestudios.com
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  • Benjamin_m5Benjamin_m5 Member Posts: 646
    @HoneyTribeStudios 650 downloads in switzerland? That means if you got 650 downloads in switzerland you are in the top 100? i hope i get this with my next game :)
    ---
    Benjamin
  • ozboybrianozboybrian PRO Posts: 2,102
    edited January 2012
    :bz :bz :bz :bz :bz :bz :bz :bz CONGRATS :D :bz :bz :bz :bz :bz :bz :bz :bz :bz

    I think it also has a lot to do with your logo, it draws the eye, and being free it's worth a go. I like it! :)>-
    Sounds like iAP and iAds might be the way to go now! :D

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  • HoneyTribeStudiosHoneyTribeStudios Member Posts: 1,792
    @Benjamin_m5 Yeah definitely. I think it could be an advantage to be based in a country with a smaller iOS market. If you make an impression in your home market I would guess that makes it easier to get featured in the app stores for other countries. Isn't that how the Angry Birds myth goes? First they were popular in Finland and then it spread...?

    @ozboybrian Cheers :) Lately I was wondering if we'd made the right choice with the icon. But looking at it in the charts compared to the other apps... it doesn't look too bad!

    I'd say iap. I think you'd need literally millions of downloads do get a decent click through rate for iads. @P-O-M was saying how he had terrible numbers. And I read the same on the TA forums - that in Jan iAD revenue fell off a cliff. Although they speculated that was because the ad budgets of the advertisers was for christmas so was all spent. Also iaps can actually indirectly make the game more fun if done well. Whereas ads are always annoying.

    Ok, no more messing about. Next HoneyTribe update: make it twice as fun, add more stuff to unlock, fix it so it never crashes. (Apparently one of the previous updates must have added some RAM usage. So now it's crashing for some people... How annoying)
    __________
    On the GS asset store: Rock Music, Pack 2
    Casual & Platformer Music, Pack 3
    Atmosphere Music, Pack 1
    www.honeytribestudios.com
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  • LumpAppsLumpApps Member Posts: 2,881
    Great news. Congretz!

    Lump Apps and My Assets

  • ozboybrianozboybrian PRO Posts: 2,102
    @HoneyTribeStudios - My friend made $700 in iADS for a mere week.
    The app store also glitched up and his iAds didn't appear for about 80,000 of his first downloads! What a bummer.. Just imagine.

    (Was something like that)
  • HoneyTribeStudiosHoneyTribeStudios Member Posts: 1,792
    @LudwigHeijden - cheers :)

    @ozboybrian - That doesn't sound bad. But still, I like the idea of iaps better. They are integrated into the game and can help make it enjoyable. Unlike ads which are stuck on and an inconvenience at best. And take up a lot of screen space too. And show random, not-related-to-your-game-stuff images. So ruin the aesthetic.

    I turned the game back to paid but the 2nd day got 15,000 downloads. So that's a good indication that the icon is working, I was expecting a bigger drop off.
    ______________
    On the GS asset store: Rock Music, Pack 2
    Casual & Platformer Music, Pack 3
    Atmosphere Music, Pack 1
    www.honeytribestudios.com
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  • SAZ_1SAZ_1 Member Posts: 397
    wait what?!..i might have read that wrong but did you just say you got 15,000 paid downloads?! .. or was that the 2nd day it was free? either way im not too sure of how it will compare to your paid sales but i hope its going well for you shaz ... when i released fowl ops last year and set it to free 800 downloads in china in one day got me to 156 in overall games 515 in all areas... so those figures seem of 6000 in uk store seem about right.
  • HoneyTribeStudiosHoneyTribeStudios Member Posts: 1,792
    @SAZ_1 Ha, I wish it were that easy :) No the 15k was from the 2nd day of being free. So I'm now going through the game and making it iap-ready. Hopefully the downloads will be ok again when it goes free after the updates. But if they're not I'll just try it again at a later date.
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  • BazookaTimeBazookaTime Member Posts: 1,274
    That is a good amount of downloads, I wonder if that exposure will help with sales once it is no longer free.
  • HoneyTribeStudiosHoneyTribeStudios Member Posts: 1,792
    @BazookaTime. That can happen but it's always short lived. I think QS had a bit of a spike with Air Supply following a free period. But once you change between free and paid you loose the chart position so have no visibility. Once I've improved/fixed the game and converted to iaps I'll see how it goes with downloads and keep the forum updated.
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  • HoneyTribeStudiosHoneyTribeStudios Member Posts: 1,792
    Honey Tribe v2.0 has just gone live. I've set it to free so if you didn't check it out before - now's your chance!

    Download links are here:
    http://www.honeytribestudios.com/games/honey-tribe-colony-collapse

    It's now an HD universal app. I went back to the original, hand drawn scans and re-imported HD size art. So it looks great on retina screen devices.

    If you like doing interesting things with sound in GS you'll like this game as it has a nice dynamic soundtrack.

    Can never predict the app store but would be great to hit the top free 100 again!
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  • WbokoWboko Tennessee, USAMember, PRO Posts: 621
    Nice deal!!!

    I just went and made Wboko Splat free for the next week or so to see what happens...
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  • HoneyTribeStudiosHoneyTribeStudios Member Posts: 1,792
    Nice deal!!!

    I just went and made Wboko Splat free for the next week or so to see what happens...
    Yeah why not? :) The app store is like quantum physics. Anything can happen...!
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  • PimanPiman Member, PRO Posts: 165
    I was in puzzle 19, Arcade 25 and 75 in the US with 6.3K downloads (free games).
    Many other countries also, including Canada, Japan etc. I had almost 16K downloads in 2 days that I went free.
  • wpatenwpaten Member, PRO Posts: 281
    Yeah timing has a lot to do with it when you make it free. I see a lot of the Big Boys making their "Sales" and "Free Apps" going live on Thursday (United States Time). What this does is assure you catch all of the weekend frenzy, across the entire globe, which will hopefully boost you up in the charts enough to carry you into the next week.
  • HoneyTribeStudiosHoneyTribeStudios Member Posts: 1,792
    I was in puzzle 19, Arcade 25 and 75 in the US with 6.3K downloads (free games).
    Many other countries also, including Canada, Japan etc. I had almost 16K downloads in 2 days that I went free.
    Yeah the rush of downloads is cool. Not easy to sustain though!
    Yeah timing has a lot to do with it when you make it free. I see a lot of the Big Boys making their "Sales" and "Free Apps" going live on Thursday (United States Time). What this does is assure you catch all of the weekend frenzy, across the entire globe, which will hopefully boost you up in the charts enough to carry you into the next week.
    Thursday does seem to be Apples preferred day of the week for anything new. That's why I had a new game + 2 updates come out today. Hopefully going free on my 2 older games will help point eyes at the new game.
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  • IsabelleKIsabelleK Member, Sous Chef Posts: 2,807
    Congrats Shaz, it's good to hear that Honey Tribe made so well :)
  • HoneyTribeStudiosHoneyTribeStudios Member Posts: 1,792
    Congrats Shaz, it's good to hear that Honey Tribe made so well :)
    Thanks, yeah although seemingly random, stuff like that does give me hope that nice things can happen to small devs :)

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  • HoneyTribeStudiosHoneyTribeStudios Member Posts: 1,792
    Honey Tribe is featured in AppsGoneFree today. See if that gives it a downloads spike...!
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  • ShmirlyWhirlShmirlyWhirl Member Posts: 189
    Do you plan to switch it back to being a paid app?

    I'm curious to see if this momentum might translate in to more paid downloads...
  • HoneyTribeStudiosHoneyTribeStudios Member Posts: 1,792
    @ShmirlyWhirl

    No I'll leave it as free for the time being.

    When it hit the top free 100 last year I should have left it as free and continued to work on updates as a free game.

    I made the mistake of switching it to paid after only a few days. And the downloads stopped completely.

    So in future, if any of my games hit the charts, I will say thank you to the app store gods and develop the game in whatever chart it happens to land in.
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  • ChakkuChakku Member Posts: 1,513
    Yeah, @ShmirlyWhirl, you don't want to turn it back to paid and effectively cut off the buzz coming from the free downloads. Instead, it's smarter to capitalize on the much larger downloads coming from it being free, as @HoneyTribeStudios is doing now.

    Chakku
  • HoneyTribeStudiosHoneyTribeStudios Member Posts: 1,792
    edited May 2013
    So all my games have a 'more games' button in that links to a page on my site.

    I was getting a spike in site traffic. People must be clicking those buttons from the free downloads. And now my server has decided to stopped working... Talk about bad timing...

    Edit: Well glad to say they fixed it.

    Will see what the download numbers are in a couple days...!
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  • SocksSocks London, UK.Member Posts: 12,822
    edited May 2013
    Good stuff HoneyTribeStudios !!!! Good to see you sandwiched between such big players as Google Earth and Instagram.

    :)>- :)>- :)>- :)>-
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