Hi!
Sorry if I make any english mistake, I’m not native speaker of it.
I looked a little bit through the forum and implemented some tips but I don’t feel I gained much visibility. I recently uploaded a dress-up game targeted for kids/girls and all the rating and download I have are from family and games… I had less than 30 download in almost 1 week after release.
The game is simple (as all the dress-up games) and I think the graphics I made are pretty cute comparing with some of the competitors.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.otomecha
I submited the app to review sites (about 20 or so) Have promo video, social networks and yesterday I started to submit the app to alternative stores
Mobango
Samsung store
Aptoide
Mobogenie
Yandex
slideME
Opera store
1Mobile
I dont know what else to do, I dont wanna spend money on ads because dress upo games have very low retention (you play once or twice…)
Thank you very much for your time!
Well, to be honest, that’s not unusual. If you submit a game and spend no money you’ll more than likely get 2 or 3 downloads a day, and that’s it. You’ll see some of the guys around here post huge numbers, but they’re really not the norm, and some of the methods required to hit those numbers are very much on the black hat side and you are putting yourself in a bit of risk at being banned. Plus, I think it might be less effective than it used to be, maybe b/c Google’s onto it or maybe it’s just because a lot of devs are doing it these days so there’s more competition. Either way, I don’t believe there’s any effective way to get a lot of downloads unless you spend a lot of money. I’ve never seen anything that worked, at least. I’m assuming you’ve done all the usual ASO tactics (which have limited usefulness in themselves).
Maybe some of the guys have a secret they’re willing to share.
Don’t bother posting to any of the other Android stores, other than Amazon, which can get you some decent downloads. None of them seem to make a difference.
You’ll probably want to release on iOS, if you haven’t already. I know this is an Android site, but I usually get more downloads in 1 day on iTunes than a month on Android. I couldn’t tell you why. It’s the exact same game with the exact same screenshots and description.
You Either have to spend some money or as he said above - go black hat. That’s the current state of android circa 2015
The real question you should be asking is what should you spend your money on. You’ll see that discussed a lot around here. People are more than willing to share their experiences and their numbers. You have to keep in mind that it’s always in flux, Google keeps adjusting their ranking algorithm and we keep trying to find the optimal method to increase our place in it. So something that worked even a couple months ago, may not work as effectively today.
Otomecha,
I noticed that your YouTube channel doesn’t have your promotional video uploaded to it. Once you have your app live on YT, I would like to offer you a free trial of our video views service. PM me and we can arrange for 5,000 free views for your video.
Wow, thank you very much everyone for your responses 
scbundy
I was not sure about IOS because it’s 99 bucks a year and I’m not very sure I could make that return lol I was trying to release them in android first and look how it goes before doing it, but probably I will register to iOS after 3 or 4 games. I’ll defentilety gonna try some ‘alternative methods’ for now LOL 
the-count
I know I know, it’s super sad. I am an artist and since 2012 I work in the mobile videogames field, first in a small startup, now in a middle sized company, and I’m really sad that since I finished my studies I wanted to start a small business and nobody wanted to make team with me lol I have seen soooo manyyy oportunities fly away and I could do nothing about it. Now, finally I could make my own game without a programmer in my free time, but It’s so late the market is ruled by a few large companies and it’s almost imposible to make any money without a big budget.
Everyone:
Thank you again, Probably I will release a couple of more dress-up games, then in the following months try to market them without money as I am doing now, After that try to release a bigger game with engagement (I am working on a virtual pet ‘pou like’ game) and try to put money on it + crosspromo with the other project, let’s see how it works ^^ When the time comes I probably will comeback to check what people says about ‘where is the best place to put your money’.