Promoting your game with Monsterfreeapps
Mayhemmmarty
Member, PRO Posts: 39
I just ran a one day promotion using Monsterfreeapps. They promised 5,000 downloads for $1761.00. The result was 10,434 downloads. I was thrilled. However, this has not translated into players on GameCenter (?) I would think that I would get at least 1,000 new players on Game Center from 10k+downloads. I am questioning just how legit the downloads are... of course the downloads are real but could they all be done somehow by MFA? Out of 10,434 downloads I gained 40 players on Game Center. Something just doesn't add up. As soon as level 1 is played you are signed into Game Center - does this mean 10,000 people downloaded it and never tried the game? Seems unlikely. Has anyone had a similar or better experience?
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I had a freebie on http://freeappaday.com (one of the biggest i think) and the downloads were simply not worth it if i had to pay the asking price.
Darren.
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I believed that some advertising was or would be necessary no matter how good your app is - to at least get it going. I still believe that, even though it hasn't worked yet. Which tells me I probably need to try and make a better game. I thought JAX was a decent game and I put a lot of effort into it... art, languages, story, IAP's, a lot of testing... but it's obviously missing something. When it's free, I'll get 5 to 20 downloads a day. When I switch it to .99, it's like hitting a light switch. So, I'll possibly go back and rework the IAP's to make them more necessary at earlier levels, but I don't think that's the solution either.
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I'm not going to say I have good icons or descriptions but my first game hit about 300-400 downloads in the first few days where it was a lot easier to find new games, but my second released after iOS7 hasn't even made 20 downloads in the first week (and in my opinion I think it looks and plays better than the first, it's just no one is finding or seeing it)
It'll be interesting to see a small unknown developer release a new game now without any marketing and reach the same numbers as you are each day.
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On Kindle, it averages between 20-50 downloads a day (until my recent patch screwed things up! LOL) and since release some 3 weeks ago, has around 400 downloads. The game is free.
My 'main' game - Santas Present Drop, I spent some money on facebook ads, gained over 800 Likes from these adverts(people actually had to click the advert and then LIKE), yet downloads on google play have been VERY poor.
On Amazon - again on Kindle, its being downloaded around 20 times a day during a free promo week, which ends today.
The only way to get some serious coverage is to get in contact with the media sites and give them some hands on preview and review time - this will help increase coverage. Of course during xmas, all the established developers have taken every slice of the pie, making it harder to be seen.
The changes to google/apple have made it harder to be seen and sorry to say, unless you have a truly unique game idea, the chances of an indie making major bucks have ended.
But dont lose hope - it took Rovio 9 attempts I believe before Angry Birds became a hit and even then, its the only thing they can make.
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That's the spirit!
Also in regards to Indie games, I saw a story on Player Attack about an Indie Games publishing house that works with Indies in Australia - it is run by a guy who was a marketing lead for a massive 200 person plus studio on Aus that shut down.
So it's been launched recently.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/196536/
He mentions music in his interview, and how about this...
Imagine doing a remix of somebodies game?
People remix music all the time, why not video games?
That could be something really different I have thought of.
Further to that collecting is now a big thing online, look at the cards you can collect at NeonMob and on Steam now, so how about putting some collectable items in your game which shares another game. I suggested this to somebody but as I have not really shown much on here was politely refused, but I am trying to put my brain to the task of making a difference in this freemium ad driven economy that is apps. You have to go viral, it was hard in 2009 to get an app noticed and now? Well it's a real uphill battle. What I have learned in life is often it's not what you know it's who, so in terms of marketing this is so true.
That is where this indie publishing house steps in, it's like Angry Birds was a flop at first, and they had to get a partner to help out and do distribution, once that happened it took off. Like a bird out of a catapult.
Doodle Jump was a failure, what turned that around at the time was the simple act of marking other players on the climb, somebody at Apple liked that, they got featured, and it went viral.
Two messages here, don't give up, keep pushing your wares, they are you dreams, and your hard work and to give up on them once over the finish line is not what you should do. In that time, it's share and try get noticed as much as possible. Don't give up on it after a week of dismal results.
I am yet to release anything, but when I do I will no doubt have to suffer the sadness of lack of attention, but I will do everything to try and get through that and push on to make it better and better.
It's a journey, lets enjoy it
Cheers, M@