Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How (not) to sell your iOS app

stoicjesterstudios.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 100 posts

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#81

Post by comex »

alanfalcon wrote: post #45
alanfalcon wrote: post #43

The game lacks the fit and polish that sells iOS games. Yeah, much easier said than done (this coming from an aspiring iOS game developer). The advice to change the icon is spot on. I'd also advise changing your screenshots (which would probably also involve changes to the game graphics): all that grayscale is very depressing, and the monospaced serif font for "Gyroscope Controlled" is very bland and ugly. You want s…

Here's a quick (15 minute) mockup of what I'm talking about: http://imgur.com/o5sp1 The iPhone graphic is swiped from a Kotaku article about iPhone motion controls, and the arrows are kind of terrible, but this is the basic idea. Frankly, the "Gryroscope Controls" is probably too techy for a screenshot ad like this, the text "Motion Controls" would probably sell better with mention of the gyroscope in the app descrip…

Aw, please don't do that. I hate it when developers put flashy ad images in the screenshots section; I look at that section to see screenshots, and those types of images are distracting and annoying. There is plenty of room for features in the description.

Maybe it's just me...

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#82

Post by thestoicjester »

ymir wrote: post #69
thestoicjester wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate all of this. The purpose here was to take a quote-unquote negative experience and spin it into something hopefully helpful for other devs, and myself (hello, hn front page). The plan has definitely been in the back of my head for a while to release a free ad-supported version. I just wanted to get this postmortem-type thing out the door first, and it's been difficult to force myself to sit down and take…

I would be very interested in some sort of summary how this HN post increased your sales. Seriously: we (Blade Polska s.c.) have been through this also. We did everything according to common marketing wisdom about Tap4Two (even the landing page! [1] and real-life video [2]) -- it concluded in 10-20 sales each day. Mostly on the German Store. We're planning runnig a facebook campaign targeted for Germans, spending all…

Yeah, I definitely plan on follow-up posts with any changes that occur.

As for engines, I used cocos2d for all of the 2d (imagine that) stuff like menus and the HUD. The 3d objects I made using blender, modified some code I found online[1] to load them into the project, then pretty much just cobbled together a physics and rendering engine by hand. Good times.

[1]http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/2008/12/start-of-wavef...

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#83

Post by xsmasher »

thestoicjester wrote: post #26
aorshan wrote: post #7

Wow that was a very interesting article. Thank you so much for the advice. I am working on an app of my own now and my marketing plan was essentially the same as what you did. I would have never guessed it would be so hard to get people to look at an app.

Yeah, but don't let my results get you down. Just keep in mind that whatever you do, it seems like the App Store still involves a bit of luck.

I appreciated your article too, but I have a different opinion on the value of luck.

The "big players" don't trust to luck when the release an app, especially if they've poured in thousands in dev costs. They use paid installs to push onto the charts, and then them momentum of the app takes over from there.

It's only the small fry that are scrambling around for a mention on RandomAppBloggger.com.

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#84

Post by thestoicjester »

ja2ke wrote: post #74
thestoicjester wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's horrible to think back and remember that I went out of my way to go for a "gritty" look, way back before I was even considering thinking about the marketing angle. There's one lesson well learned. I'm definitely going to take this advice to heart. Thanks!

I don't think the gritty/old timey look is bad, but I think you could push it further to sell it as such. I think you could go a long way by adding SOME saturation back into the world, and tinting things a bit sepia for an aged look. I'd still leave the bullseyes full saturation, though, as they really do pop right now. If you want to keep things feeling deliberately old timey and worn, adding a little bit of aged fi…

You're definitely not coming across as an asshole. I know a lot of assholes and I hardly ever see them mock-up screenshots for strangers. Very much appreciated. The screenshot is definitely food for thought.

Btw, I feel like I should have a good answer for why the bullseyes are spherical and not flat... but I don't. More to think about there...

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#85

Post by thestoicjester »

xsmasher wrote: post #83
thestoicjester wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but don't let my results get you down. Just keep in mind that whatever you do, it seems like the App Store still involves a bit of luck.

I appreciated your article too, but I have a different opinion on the value of luck. The "big players" don't trust to luck when the release an app, especially if they've poured in thousands in dev costs. They use paid installs to push onto the charts, and then them momentum of the app takes over from there. It's only the small fry that are scrambling around for a mention on RandomAppBloggger.com.

True... but I think it'd be hard to argue that I'm not a small fry in the App Store.

But your point is well taken. I don't see EA writing blog posts like mine.

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#86

Post by geuis »

comex wrote: post #80
geuis wrote: post #18

Here's my experience with a Hangover 2 app I released 1 month before the movie came out. (it was taken down after Warner Bros sent Apple a C&D.) 1) Reviews are the most important things when you sell an app. I made the app free for the first week or so until I had about 10 5 star reviews. DO NOT use scammy tactics for fake reviews. Make sure your app is well polished for what it does. If it's not, don't put it in the…

> They will leave 1 star reviews because they hear no sound. Their mute is on. Don't get upset about these people. Is it possible to detect whether mute is on and show a small alert?

That's an excellent question. I have no idea. =)

Next time I make a similar app, I'll look into that. Its really a great idea.

*Edit There is! http://stackoverflow.com/questions/287543/how-to-programatic...

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#87

Post by alanfalcon »

ja2ke wrote: post #74
thestoicjester wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's horrible to think back and remember that I went out of my way to go for a "gritty" look, way back before I was even considering thinking about the marketing angle. There's one lesson well learned. I'm definitely going to take this advice to heart. Thanks!

I don't think the gritty/old timey look is bad, but I think you could push it further to sell it as such. I think you could go a long way by adding SOME saturation back into the world, and tinting things a bit sepia for an aged look. I'd still leave the bullseyes full saturation, though, as they really do pop right now. If you want to keep things feeling deliberately old timey and worn, adding a little bit of aged fi…

The PS mockup is really beautiful. That's a game I would buy on sight for 99 cents, and get for $1.99 if there were significant good reviews to back up the visuals. The look of the bullseyes in particular are fantastic.

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#88

Post by alanfalcon »

comex wrote: post #81
alanfalcon wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a quick (15 minute) mockup of what I'm talking about: http://imgur.com/o5sp1 The iPhone graphic is swiped from a Kotaku article about iPhone motion controls, and the arrows are kind of terrible, but this is the basic idea. Frankly, the "Gryroscope Controls" is probably too techy for a screenshot ad like this, the text "Motion Controls" would probably sell better with mention of the gyroscope in the app descrip…

Aw, please don't do that. I hate it when developers put flashy ad images in the screenshots section; I look at that section to see screenshots, and those types of images are distracting and annoying. There is plenty of room for features in the description. Maybe it's just me...

I sympathise with you, but it's the only place a developer has to really get a potential buyer's attention beyond the icon, so the real estate is too valuable to give up! I think there needs to be a couple "raw" screenshots, but many successful devs recommend using that space to it's fullest potential.

There's a really good article out there about this that I can't track down at the moment, but here are a couple more that also drive the point home:

http://blog.jeybee.com/post/3518620621/taking-the-advantage-...

http://mobile.tutsplus.com/tutorials/mobile-design-tutorials...

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#89

Post by [deleted] »

ja2ke wrote: post #74
thestoicjester wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's horrible to think back and remember that I went out of my way to go for a "gritty" look, way back before I was even considering thinking about the marketing angle. There's one lesson well learned. I'm definitely going to take this advice to heart. Thanks!

I don't think the gritty/old timey look is bad, but I think you could push it further to sell it as such. I think you could go a long way by adding SOME saturation back into the world, and tinting things a bit sepia for an aged look. I'd still leave the bullseyes full saturation, though, as they really do pop right now. If you want to keep things feeling deliberately old timey and worn, adding a little bit of aged fi…

[deleted]

Re: How (not) to sell your iOS app

#90

Post by ja2ke »

thestoicjester wrote: post #84
ja2ke wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the gritty/old timey look is bad, but I think you could push it further to sell it as such. I think you could go a long way by adding SOME saturation back into the world, and tinting things a bit sepia for an aged look. I'd still leave the bullseyes full saturation, though, as they really do pop right now. If you want to keep things feeling deliberately old timey and worn, adding a little bit of aged fi…

You're definitely not coming across as an asshole. I know a lot of assholes and I hardly ever see them mock-up screenshots for strangers. Very much appreciated. The screenshot is definitely food for thought. Btw, I feel like I should have a good answer for why the bullseyes are spherical and not flat... but I don't. More to think about there...

I guess if they're spherical they're consistantly difficult to hit, even if you play spinning animations on them. However, if they're discs, and they rotate on X or Y, their size as a target will fluctuate. I made that mockup with just aesthetics in mind, but changing the shape from spheres would definitely have gameplay implications.
Post reply on HN