How important do you feel the integration of Push Notifications is?
osucowboy18
Member Posts: 1,307
Please read my first post in this thread before answering this question.
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What i'd like to know is, that can we send out in-game Notifications. Like game progress and other stuff..
If not, GS guys.. i know u guys got a long list.. But simply .. here is an add on to that..
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Benjamin
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Benjamin
Well I don't usually do this kind of thing, but after reading some articles about best marketing and promotion practices, I figured I would share what I learned and hopefully get others to consider how significant the introduction of Push Notifications truly is to GameSalad Creator, as well as make the chefs aware of the need for this feature.
Ok, so since we are in the middle of development for one of our new apps, and because marketing has never been our strong point, I started reading some articles about the best ways to market and promote your game without taking out a small business loan. One of the best FREE ways to promote your apps is through a method called Cross Promotion. Most of you have heard this term, but basically, cross promotion reefers to promoting your other games / apps within your existing apps. Several major and indie companies do this by utilizing Apple's Push Notification System. What this will enable you to do is have a doorway open to communicate with each and every user of your game! You can then notify them about anything you want - when you are about to release a new game, want to announce something, preview new features, etc. All this can be done, and done easily and effectively, with Push Notifications.
But don't just take it from me. According to a survey ran by the writers of this article I've been reading, 55% of their respondents cross promote their apps. This is a very healthy number, and makes sense considering it's a low cost technique with high degrees of success. One respondent says this:
“Yes, I heavily cross promote. All my apps have an alert view that’s shown upon launch. It downloads the alert message from a server, and the alert has 2 buttons (‘Close’ and ‘Sure!’). If you press Sure, it automatically opens a URL that I choose (the URL is also downloaded from my server, so I can easily change the popups). I have this popup system in all my games, and it’s worked out amazing.”
So why should GameSalad incorporate Apple's Push Notification System soon? Research has shown it is a great way to not only communicate with your customers, but to help market your new games as well through cross promotion. As anyone who has released a game in the last 6 months would know, it is very difficult to get noticed on the very competitive market that is the Apple App Store due to the sheer volume of apps currently available. So, why not use your current user base to your advantage. Let say you currently have 3 apps available for sale on the App Store. And, for demonstration purposes, lets say each app has a user base of 500 people. So you're ready to release a new app, but how do you get the word out quickly without spending a fortune? With Push Notifications set up in your existing apps, you could spend 5 minutes and a grand total of $0.00 and send an alert to each app notifying your users you have just released a new game. Instantly, you have just told 1500 people about your app the first day it is available on the App Store! But the use of Push Notifications doesn't stop there. You could use them to alert your customers about a sale you're having, a promo code giveaway, a new app update that is available, a new newsletter you're putting together, a link to your website or social networking outlets, new features you're working on, upcoming new releases down the road, and so much more!
So, how can GameSalad integrate Push Notifications? With the release of GameSalad Mac Creator Beta 0.10.0, GameSalad has introduced their new Web Publishing System to streamline the publishing process, allow us to better organize our apps, and make changes quickly and easily! So, why not set up a Push Notification tab for each of our apps right in the Web Publishing flow? All our Push Notifications for all of our apps could easily be managed right from the new Web Publishing system introduced in 0.10.0. Not only would it be easy and convenient for us to use, but GameSalad has stated the switch to Web Publishing will make it easier for them to manage the publishing process and fix any issues that might arise. So why would the inclusion of Push Notifications into the Web Publishing system be any different? Within Creator, you would add a new behavior like "Check For Push Notification" when your app is launched. Then, in the Web Publishing System, you would add a new notification when you want to notify your users of something!
Still with me? Good! To summarize, using Apple's Push Notification System is a great tool to use in your marketing campaigns to stay in touch with your customers and make them aware of new apps, updates, and features. Please take a moment and answer the poll above as to how valuable you would consider the inclusion of Push Notifications into GameSalad. I understand GS has some bigger fish to fry (bug fixes, engine improvements, etc.), but they are always talking about increasing our monetization options, and what better way to do this then by adding Push Notifications so we can successfully cross promote our apps without having to create new updates. With the new roadmap coming soon, I hope to see this feature on the list because it has the potential to greatly impact users and increase our revenue through cross promotion easily and quickly!
- Alex
Thanks for your feedback everyone!
- Alex
This is a very interesting idea. I wonder if GS has considered trying something along these lines. Tagging @SaladStraightShooter, who might be able to ask the dev team if this something worth investigating. And to nip it in the bud, yes, I would be willing to pay an additional fee to access GS servers for this feature.
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I'd like a whole lot of other stuff before this.
I am getting worried about an ever increasing list of features required and requested of GS. The list is getting longer and they are even at a point where things on the wanted list are likely to become irrelevant or obsolescent before appear!
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http://www.tuaw.com/2012/07/16/local-notification-spam-devs-please-dont-do-that/
Honestly though if GS were to ever consider doing it I would say it wouldn't be a bad idea for GS to create a Pro members server that we can utilize for games. Do things like allow people to compete online. GS game Leaderboards. Etc. I'd prefer that more than Apples Leaderboards because atleast if GS had their own Pro member server we could have Leaderboards on Android as well and the scores could be compared across both platforms. Even if it were an Elite Pro membership for access to that kind of content.
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Push notifications help you sell apps. A LOT of them.
Love them or hate them it doesn't matter one tiny bit. You will LOSE money without push. Yes they are annoying but so is 90% of the things that make money. Our personal preference means very little in this regard.
The other big money making features GS covers, at least to some degree. To not at least support Urban Airship is crazy in my opinion.
It's true that adding push support would be a complex endeavor for GS, however urban airship integration is a no brainier.
Push push push for push!
It's easy to look at the top 10 apps and see that they all have IAP, push notifications, etc. and come to the conclusion that that is what is needed to be at the top.
But it is also important to realize that most of the other 600,000 apps that are NOT in the Top 10 also have all of these things.
You need to make games that people want to play. Period.
And that is something that GameSalad already lets you do. I would focus on GameSalad's strengths instead of always waiting for new features. (I know there are some show-stopping bugs out there, but they will get fixed.)
You cannot let a missing feature stop you. You need to be more resourceful. You need to work around it.
When I first started using GameSalad there weren't any monetizing features at all. No Android, no IAP, no tables, nothing.
In fact, you couldn't even save your game! The devices didn't multitask so every time you wanted to play the game, you always started on level 1, with a score of zero. An interesting game design problem for sure!
I am older than most people here and I have seen pretty much every device come and go. It's important to assess the market, assess the devices, assess what GameSalad can and cannot do - at this precise moment in time - and then run with it! Design your game with all of these things in mind.
If you are still waiting for the Commodore 64 to fix all of its bugs before you make games for it, you have missed the boat!
There are so many people out there waiting to play your amazing games! Go go go!
Anyway.
Use this amazing tool to make amazing things!
Joe
*And I realize that a lot of you don't even know what a Commodore 64 even is, but that's ok, I have no idea what Urban Airship is ;-)