My game is on live almost 10 days, so far its not going well.
Here’s my game: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.korindon.alienterminator
I spent 80$ for advertising on appbrain in 5 days. Almost all traffic comes from appbrain no organic traffic yet.
Appbrain says, I get some marketing ranks but its ‘top new free’ and i dont even know where is this on google play
Here is the list:
retention is pretty low: current/total inst. 167/290
Im thinking of spend 1000$ or more and get a decent rank in the adventure category
But it seems its very risky
What do you think guys should I go forward or I should giveup and try another project?
Oh…my…god.
Look at your icon. Are you serious? This is possibly the most ugly icon I’ve ever seen on the Play Store. No Joke. Intead of wasting your money on this awful looking and laggy game, increase the quality of the icon and game itself. You can be happy to get 1000 downloads with this. Sorry for the harsh tone, but I want to save you from the biggest mistake of your life.
I wouldn’t spend any money on the game. Maybe spend some time on the description and icon etc so it can get some organic downloads, but plain and simple it doesn’t look enticing (without playing it).
Some people will still play it, but I doubt it will see many downloads.
You might see some return for your work if your icon looks realistic and exciting and maybe add some flare to the screenshots.
I’m guess this is your first game? If so, try and improve on the visuals for your next project.
Ima have to agree with StevePof but won’t be as harsh lol. Yes, the icon needs to change and gameplay is ok but not that great. Personally, I definitely would not spend $1000 on that game. If you are willing to spend that amount, I would use that to develop a better game that would do good numbers organically. Good luck
From a point of view of a user and a designer, I would say the graphic of the game is not good. It doesn’t impress me at all. The icon, the screenshots… you need you fix it all before advertising.
I agree with MilesP, I would not spend $1000 on marketing that game. There is a market for retro games, but this one needs improvements:
I dont like the green coin and its animation, that could use some work. Maybe gold one would look better? I’m not the best with graphics, so don’t take my improvements suggestions as granted, but I’m sure it needs some improvement.
I don’t like these green dot bullets - I think you should change the colour and the shape of it, and maybe add some tail that will suggest which way the bullet goes - when there is many bullets on the screen, I got confused.
I don’t like the jump animation, I would allow to “walk” while jumping, but that might be just me.
I would not put these green monsters on green grass - maybe purple would work better? But again, it might be just me. I am sure about 1. and 2. though.
I don’t know about the controls or performance / bugs cause I did not play the game, just watched the video few times to give you some support - but anyway, if you want to improve this game, you should start with what I mentioned here as I think most people just see the screenshots and video and decide not to download, like me.
Also, the icon needs improvements and that might be a big deal. The background is bad, and I don’t like the “badass” word - the font is no good, same with the colour, and its not connected with game title. Most of the icons have this stupid rounded edges (see angry birds), and most of the games have some border (see Blood Brothers), you should do the same.
The description could be longer so you could put more keywords there.
Whatever you decide to do, keep us updated and tell how is your traffic. Good luck
[edit]
Some people state that there is no money on platformers market, but for example Bloo kid (indie platformer made by one person) makes decent income. It is a beautiful platformer with mario style.
You should have chosen a somewhat newer platformer as reference. Bloo kid 2 seems to be a complete flop even though it’s much better than the first game.
“A complete flop” is not how I would describe $1500/ month from one platformer game, made by one person. Sure, its not as spectacular as Bloo kid but its still decent money.The market is getting harder for everyone, not just for platformers - at least I think so. Anyway, since he wrote a platformer already, he could try to improve it a bit and see if it helps to get some organic traffic.
Another hint: you should read the users comments and respond to them sometimes. Sure, some comments are no help, but some of them could be helpful.
[edit] I’ll edit the post to avoid pointless off-topic discussion for multiple posts. In april 2014 there was his last report, and the dev made ~$1400 and it was growing. I never said he earned $1500 last month, or that he will earn $1500 forever or anything like that… I am not an expert about platformers, I just wanted to mention that there seems to be the market for them.
And yet all versions of Lep’s World are popular. Bloo kid from what I heard does much better on iOS, on Android it didn’t do real good even in the first version - being in the 100k - 500k range for a game like Bloo kid probably didn’t pay for the time spent on making the game, such platformers are not easy to make (for example level design is a b-itch).
Leps World created a huge uproar back then, because it was basically a complete clone of Mario that even copied parts of the map design from the first Super Mario Bros. There is also a developer on Android who re-releases the same Mario clone over and over again with another account as a reskinned version. But this a phenomenon about Mario clones and not Platformers in general. You are moving on thin ice if you do Mario clones to this extend.
I will definitely post reports how my platformer is doing when I finally finish it. If it flops I will try to reuse the assets and engine for a run/dash game.
