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We're targeting the iPhone, and hoping that we didn't miss the gold rush.
Has anyone else taken a similar plunge? What have your experiences been? I'd also be happy to answer ANY questions you might have about getting started on the iPhone.
Repeat after me: The App store is NOT a marketing strategy.
Create a webpage, do advertisements, etc. Good luck, and keep us informed!
Having not done the indie game entrepreneurship thing myself, I can't speak with any certainty, but I know enough about the business to know that some of what works for web startups won't work for game companies, and yet this industry has a lot to learn from the cutting edge of how software gets made in other sectors. I'd be interested to hear if you've got any thoughts about all this that might be interesting to the HN crowd.
I'm happy to say I've heard of Kids vs. Zombies, though I don't remember in what context (I don't own an iPhone, so I don't keep up much with games there). Given that indie games seem to be a growing segment of the industry (or at least an increasingly coherent cultural force and identifiable subsection within the industry), I hope you're doing your best to get indie and casual game press on your side. A lot of free publicity can be gained that way, and can really help word-of-mouth advertising.
Best of luck!
Yeah, we're learning that the App Store alone is not enough marketing -- I'm amazed at how many games are released every day.
We've reached out to app review sites (avoiding sites that charge $$ for reviews), which seem to be the lowest hanging fruit (if your game gets good reviews!). Facebook and Twitter are all the rage these days, and we're trying these as well.
However, by far, the most important thing that we did was release a free "Lite" version. Our best single-day sales had been about 75 copies, until our demo version was released yesterday and had over 1300 downloads in a single day, and drove up our sales. I highly recommend this approach.
Funny story about trial versions -- don't call your free version a "DEMO" -- we were rejected by the Apple store last week ("DEMO" phrase is bad, "Lite/Free" is good), and had to wait 7 days for our renamed "Lite" version to be approved and put up for sale.
The problem is that people seem to be somewhat averse to paying for a browser based game (like a Java applet or webstart app), even when they'd have no problem paying for the same game as a standalone program (literally simply using a JPanel instead of a JApplet, or providing an installer to a local version instead of a webstart link).
Of course browser games still get a lot more hits than locally installed ones.
I'm also interested in doing that, but with windows/mac/linux & possibly browser games. The problem is that people seem to be somewhat averse to paying for a browser based game (like a Java applet or webstart app), even when they'd have no problem paying for the same game as a standalone program (literally simply using a JPanel instead of a JApplet, or providing an installer to a local version instead of a webstart l…
I'm also interested in doing that, but with windows/mac/linux & possibly browser games. The problem is that people seem to be somewhat averse to paying for a browser based game (like a Java applet or webstart app), even when they'd have no problem paying for the same game as a standalone program (literally simply using a JPanel instead of a JApplet, or providing an installer to a local version instead of a webstart l…
Yeah, I noticed that as well. Originally I was working on a Flash game, but decided that it was almost impossible to make any money (unless you are Desktop Tower Defense).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I noticed that as well. Originally I was working on a Flash game, but decided that it was almost impossible to make any money (unless you are Desktop Tower Defense).
How about Android? Seems to be a less saturated market than the iPhone.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/132665-mobile-ad-market-shar...