Competition on SaladGamers.com
Hey all. I've been thinking of changing the competition on SaladGamers.com. At the moment we give away 1 promo code a day. But should we change it to a game free a day? like http://www.freegameoftheday.com/. I'm thinking the later would prove much more popular... Plus it'll allow non-US gamers a look in.
Comments
But to be blunt, I'm still not motivated to participate with the website. I think GameSalad stuff should be here. Why fragment the community? I've seen it with Guild Wars. The fansites went off form their little cliques. I think the community would have been better with an official forum. Here, we have an official forum... so I don't see the need of spin-offs. Maybe there is, but I'm not really seeing it right now.
This GS forum is great for developing, but not for marketing or selling your hard work. I hope you reconsider, i think most people agree we need better marketing for our games.
Maybe make a TV guide of free apps. Instead of one app for the whole day, how about a time block. Like from 4:30-5:00 this app will be free... so visitors have to keep checking for the schedule. It would then be up to the site to motivate the developers to fill the programming schedule.
...but I don't see how that helps developers. Does giving your app away for free really work? Also, comparing your blog with toilet paper and diarrhea isn't a tremendous motivator for me.
I wasn't comparing the blog to diarrhoea, i was comparing it to the need for toilet paper when you have diarrhoea. I'll change it to : This blog is better than the verbal diarrhoea you get from Photics on the GS forums. will that work?
*edit* I see that's what you said in the post above. I should read all the posts before I post.
I was skeptical of the current system as not seeming very inviting, but the change up should do well. IMO.
1) If I give away a game for free, how does that ultimately translate into sales? This is not me poking at your website. It's a general question and I don't know if it's been fully answered here. If you want to build a popular website, and stand out in an already saturated market (as admitted on the website), you have to address the needs of your visitors. Why would developers go to your site, rather than the promo code dispenser website?
2) Why would people visit your website? Free games are a good lure... but how is that going to be useful to developers? If they're just looking for free games, how will that audience translate into real sales?
Scitunes has an excellent example... roughly a quarter of a million downloads when the game was free... but how was the action after that? What was the final outcome? Is it better to give your apps away for free for promotion? I think one of the conclusions is that just giving your apps away for free is not enough. A follow-up plan is needed.
So... if developers give away apps for free on your website, are they helping themselves or are they helping you build up a website? There's a difference for a developer to give away one promo code and making a game free for a whole day.
When does the race to the bottom stop? It's bad enough that games have to be sold at tier 1 or tier 2, but now developers are regularly being asked to give away their games for free too? No, you didn't convince me. Rather, you decided to insult me... that shows me that I should stay away from your website.
"If I give away a game for free, how does that ultimately translate into sales?.. but how is that going to be useful to developers?"
For you personally (the person giving the game away for the day), hardly at all. It's a way of generating traffic, and repeat visitors. This benefits all those developers who have registered, and have games on the site. Like i said before, "Free apps for a day helps to bring people to the site, the site promotes your games."
"If they're just looking for free games, how will that audience translate into real sales?"
Because of the other content we offer and are building, Reviews, Awards, Videos, the Blog, list of games, etc will hopefully convert visitors into purchasers. Does this really have to be explained?
"A follow-up plan is needed."
*Sigh* The whole site, acts as a 'follow-up' plan. It generates repeat visitors to the site: more vistors, more sales. Ok, so you 'donate' one day's sales, but in return you get a good marketing platform for your apps.
"So... if developers give away apps for free on your website, are they helping themselves or are they helping you build up a website?"
If you are still in doubt. Please start reading this post gain, slowly.
"When does the race to the bottom stop?.. now developers are regularly being asked to give away their games for free too?"
Sadly, i have very little control of the app market. All i can do is raise the profile of GS games, by building an attractive website to showcase your talents. I too feel it's a shame that we don't get more money for our games, but i can't take responsibility for that, nor can i buck the trend, if we're going to compete.
Unfortunately i'd love to give you visitor and conversion stats to make you feel better, but the site is only 9 days old.
I don't think mrfunk is doing this for any other reason than to help GS devs (no ads, no fees, he is eating the hosting costs). There may be a better way, and he is obviously open to suggestions. However, I don't think your prejudicial criticism is what he is looking for...
Edit: Just noticed mrfunk's response. I was only a little late this time... ;-)
1) I think one day is long time. Maybe smaller blocks would work better... but maybe leave that up to the developers to decide.
2) It seemed in another post that you were looking for suggestions. Attracting developers is probably primary to your site's success. Tshirtbooth, Weswog and FireMapleGames are so loved by the community for their helpful tutorials. Perhaps that's something useful for your website... tutorials. I posted about the "Project: Benchmark" idea. That's one tutorial idea that I've thrown out there for the community.
Also, teaming up might be a good idea. There are so many external projects out there. Is the GameSalad ebook still in progress? It seems like there are more GameSalad sites popping up rather than good GameSalad games. I have a website too. I could do reviews, tutorials and contests on my site... but why? I think the should focus should be on building up this community. The GameSalad website shouldn't be about posting links to other GameSalad websites. There's one site for "pro" GameSalad developers... there's another site for promo codes... there's your site... there's the reviews... the youtube videos.
Why don't people update the Wiki here?!
...or if there's such a need for a spin-off, why don't more people team up?
Gendai Games should get involved and decide what they want. Do they want to build up this website or not. It seems that they've not been meeting expectations in that area, so people are going off and doing it on their own.
Reviews, promo codes, tutorials, promotion... all of that could and should be done here. If it's not going to be done here... then the spin-off sites have to be really good. Your site is new and off to a good start, but I'm still skeptical. It seems like so many sites have special offers for developers... but I don't see how any of it works.
@Rob2 you're going to make me blush! I look forward to your first game.
Here's an idea, Photics. Why not update one of your older games? Add a link to your NEW game to it. Then make the old game free for a day?
That's my plan. If nothing else it'll get picked up by the price drop sites, and will get your old game more downloads than you've had before.
THEN, hopefully, people will follow the link to your new game.
If you make your app free for a day, with no 'backup' as it were, then yes, other than getting your name out to more people, it may not benefit you.
Make sense?
QS
*Edit* Of course, this only works if you've got a 'pro' license...
Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io
:-))
Food Fight! (free) http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/food-fight/id352646643?mt=8
Would be cool if you could feature them
I haven't forgotten about my first GameSalad projects. It would be cool to add better controls to Photics: Revisions - Course Correction, more features to Photics: Fireball and more tools for the Photics: Toolbox. I'm waiting for a better version of GameSalad, so maybe I can refresh my GameSalad game library with faster loading times and better performance.
Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home...
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Quantum_Sheep
Web: https://quantumsheep.itch.io
I think there should be a window, of opportunity, and never the same time of day, (so hopefully they'll check back all day) but during this time you can get the game, maybe for like an hour or something..... And only say its free like when it immediately is.
Honestly my first games !@#$%.... It was to learn the program though and its made me $175 so no real complaints against that...
I wouldn't be willing to put that game on there and even the possibility of giving that game away for free makes me cringe!
It would only destroy any hope in your site and give me alot of bad reviews haha
I plan on putting my next game on your site though!
Honestly I don't know anything really about tracking websites and stuff, and I understand its a brand new site, but do you know how many unique visits your getting there right now?
Im appreciative of you putting this together though!
I hope we all live long and prosper!
Stay Funky!