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My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

kerebus.com

11–20 of 73 posts

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#11
post #10

I think the next most obvious step should be to go for Amazon Appstore. They are serious and if your app gets selected for a free app of the day ..I am sure you'll be flying.

Do you have any stats on what a featuring on Amazon Appstore does for an app?

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#14

If the game has been around on the web (under various names), why did he have to get a license from iPhone developer? It's not like iPhone developer "invented" the game.

He got a license from the guy who invented the game originally, not the guy who wrote the iPhone app. I'm not sure if he really needed that as such, but it sure seems like a nice gesture.

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#15
post #10

I think the next most obvious step should be to go for Amazon Appstore. They are serious and if your app gets selected for a free app of the day ..I am sure you'll be flying.

Do you have any stats on what a featuring on Amazon Appstore does for an app?

The appstore was launched a few days ago...

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#17
Couple of things from someone who has been in a similar situation:

1) You don't have to be a good marketer to set up a twitter account and tweet when you add new levels and new features. Retweet them from your personal twitter account and it will at least hit your followers. Don't feel ashamed of asking a few friends to also retweet to their followers. The effect might be small, but it's a minimal effort.

2) Focusing on one app is a bad idea. It's like having a stock portfolio of 1 company. Make several games, even if they're smaller and less polished. You might see that one is more successful and can then concentrate on making it more polished.

3) Most important: do what you love. Don't make your platform, language, or design decisions based on what your google analytics says will make you a few bucks more. If you do that you might as well go back to working secure corporate jobs.

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#18
Don't foret that Angry Birds was Rovio's 40th game. Stickability counts.

I think to succeed though you need to put out more than 1 per year. I also think there is likely to be a network effect, if someone likes one of your games they may try the rest... this is the equivalent of the McDonalds "you want fries with that?" - that is they know they only get a certain number of people through their door, so they need to extract as much value from each customer as possible.

You will only get so many eyeballs, so if you have more than one game you may get people who try one also trying the other - free marketing. :D

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#19
post #5

> I knew I had a marketing problem but instead I preferred to refractor my code Heh, I know this too well. I suck HUGE at marketing. I've got 4 games in the iPhone app store and made since October 2010 whooping $780 ... Actually I would be very happy if I got 20 sales a day :) I guess my adventure in indie gamedev will end by the end of this year when my funds are used up and I'll have to get an office coding job ble…

I'm getting 20 downloads a day without marketing with my iPhone app. Trouble is, it's free.

Re: My Year as an Amateur Android Game Developer

#20
post #8

This needs a lot more polish. Why not contact some (student) animators or illustrators who are willing to work for a small percentage of the profit ?

I think it's got an appropriate level of polish. The original version with the marbles was rather ugly, but the updated graphics look super-cute while still remaining functional.
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