
3 Weeks already, $0 income – what are we doing wrong? - gumbo
http://www.buildnrun.com/it-is-hard-promote-mobile-games/
======
teej
I'm co-founder of MinoMonsters. We launched our game on iOS but spent a lot of
time prototyping on the Android market. Our android prototype has 250k+
downloads and 2k+ reviews. Here's some steps you can take _today_ to try to
move the needle.

* Test your screenshots! Assume that 50% of the people in the market will never read your description. Right now, your screenshots communicate "Samurai game". Try a different direction, maybe one more Sudoku focused.[1] Test lots.

* Test your app icon. Test lots.

* You should have a purchase already. Review your monetization strategy. Most developers err on the side of under-monetizing their game, in the hopes that they won't "make players mad" or some other nonsense. Spoiler alert: you're wrong. Start your re-education here: [http://www.edery.org/2012/08/your-first-f2p-game-where-you-w...](http://www.edery.org/2012/08/your-first-f2p-game-where-you-will-go-wrong/)

* Doing games is hard and a lot of what works in games is non-obvious. Be very skeptical of advice you get from anyone that hasn't done games.

* There is only one "tried and true" marketing channel - getting featured on the platform. Outside of that, you need to hustle _hard_ to get your app featured in other places. You've reached out to "a few" sites and forums. Expand your reach to 10x as many sites and forums. Point to your past reviews as social proof for potential future reviews. No one site is going to bring in all the downloads - it's about building buzz and the snowball effect.

That's all I can think off the top of my head.

=======================================================

[1] - No one can tell you what's going to work best. The only way to know is
to test.

~~~
mirsadm
I shall repeat: It is very very very hard. We were featured on CNET,
AllThingsD, Kotoku, 148Apps and even reviewed on TV. Result: You get a nice
bump in downloads for a couple of days then it drops back down.

The best thing I have learnt is your budget should be at LEAST 50/50 between
marketing and development. If you spent 3 months making the game with 2
developers then your marketing budget should be in the tens of thousands if
you really plan on getting anywhere.

Simply having and spending the money won't get you good results though. It
needs to be spent really wisely with a lot of thought placed into metrics and
analytics. You need to have them in the game. You need to test
screenshots/icons/descriptions. Simple change of screenshots helped us get
25%+ more downloads a day. There is a lot of info out there but it is a huge
uphill battle right now. If you take a look at some app review web sites
you'll notice every single day there are well over 20 very well polished games
being released on iOS and Android. That is every single day. Most don't get
anywhere.

~~~
cageface
I've had some modest success with my own iOS apps but I think that's mainly
because they're targeted at a more specific niche (music making) and I've been
able to do my own grassroots marketing on forums etc where I know the audience
really well and there's far less competition overall.

Games are such a big, saturated market that I wouldn't even consider trying to
tackle them as an indie unless I could find a similarly specialized sub-niche.

~~~
kokey
I believe the apps market, especially games, is and will become even more like
the chart music industry. It will settle into major 'labels' who will pick
games on criteria they think will make it a success, and then apply their big
guns on promoting it using ever evolving methods. Sometimes an indie
production will slip through but as the methods mature so will the independent
successes be increasingly niche bound.

------
alanbyrne
You're going after the wrong target market. Sudoku apps are for middle aged
women (Yes, I generalize, but it's pretty much the only game my mother plays
on her Android phone).

Stop targeting your ads at Android related users (Android forums, games review
sites). Go find a place where the people who will actually play your game hang
out and then advertise there. Mothers group forums, parenting forums, business
traveler hangouts, school teachers - whatever.

~~~
Lewisham
Yes, it is worth reading this about how Tiger Style got their target market
wrong:

[http://www.edge-online.com/features/success-on-greenlight-
is...](http://www.edge-online.com/features/success-on-greenlight-isnt-just-
about-your-pitch-its-a-matter-of-appealing-to-the-right-gaming-culture/)

~~~
r0s
That's interesting, they ultimately passed.

I'd like to read their reaction.

------
angersock
We may have reached Peak Sudoku on mobile devices.

Also, your price is "Free". That may be why income is 0.

~~~
gumbo
The OP here Yes, the Game is indeed free, but only with basic feature to get
excited about the app. Then the user should upgrade to get access to the other
cities and unlock level.

The real issue is not only the big 0 income, but the fact that after 3 week we
barely pass the 100 downloads. Google advertise everywhere that there are more
than 1M new android activations everyday.... Those are potential users of any
game right.

What is not quite right I believe is the discovery of new app on the market.
It took us 13 days to start appearing on the 20th page of the search "sudoku".

~~~
xshoppyx
So your app that just got released and has 100 downloads should appear before
an app that has been out for a longer period of time and has more downloads? I
don't really think this makes sense from a user perspective, maybe fiddling
with the search results once or twice to show recent apps, but it doesn't make
sense to permanently move an app like yours up the list. Sorry if this comes
off as harsh.

~~~
gumbo
Fair enough @xshoppyx I don't mean that a recent app should appear before
others. But at least give opportunity to "users" (not apps) to discover
alternatives to the apps they have been using or games they've been playing.

For example, on IOS, when you launch your app, you have a section where only
the newest apps appear, at that give them enough exposure to sufficient
traction if they worth it.

------
dubcanada
Maybe try making a game there isn't already 50 million ways to play it.

Sorry, but Really!? You expect a game that is also in every single newspaper
in the world and has a puzzle book on every single book selling stand to do
really really well because why? You launched it and sent it to a few app
review sites? That's not all it takes to advertise something, there has to be
a reason for someone to choose your game over the 50,000 other Sudoku games.
And looking at it, there really isn't.

~~~
Macsenour
And while we're at it, please don't make game #2 an Angry Birds game.

~~~
lurkinggrue
Hey! Angry Sudoku!

~~~
bobbles
Hey now a modification where you need to slingshot the appropriate numbers
into the correct position might have a market.

Think angry birds meets bubble bobble meets Sudoku.

I'll take 50% of the profits thanks guys

------
n9com
This is the perfect example of a why many devs here on HN need to stop
undervaluing the benefits of a non-technical co-founder that can seriously
rock the marketing side of stuff.

What I see here is a pretty good looking app. Sure, it lacks things like
scratch marks, but a solid version 1.0. However, you have really not done very
much to promote the app. Emailing press and posting on forums won't get you
far. The press get hundreds of review pitches a day - you can't expect to
email them out of the blue on launch day and get them to cover your app -
especially when it is not exactly noteworthy (it's not the first app of its
kind).

Learn to hustle. The newspaper ad under the sudoku puzzle was a good idea.

~~~
nostrademons
I think there's a more fundamental problem here: entering a market where there
are already literally 1000s of other competitors. It doesn't really matter how
much he promotes his app - the people who like to play Sudoku probably already
have a Sudoku app installed. And there're limited ways to be "better" than
existing entrants.

Perhaps a non-technical cofounder could've helped here, but really what he
needed is courage and the ability to take risks. People who strike it big - in
any market - do so by providing what other people are _not_ providing; you
have to be willing to say "I'm going to do what other people are not doing,
because they're doing it wrong" and then be right about that.

~~~
gumbo
First, I have a non technical co-funder and he's doing a lot of stuffs to get
us traction.

I am not playing it defensive here. I've explained in a previous blog post
where the game come from. I admit it should have been out a few months ago
already. Nevertheless, what I tried to express in the blog post is my
surprise/disappointment the results we are getting from our strategy. For
example of getting featured on two facebook page of more that 200k fans each
and not get at least 1k download is still interrogating me.

And to come to the point of "providing what others are not providing", this is
the whole point of the app. Our premises were: \- Sudoku can be fun. \- Sudoku
can have nice design too with nice ambient sounds. \- You can build a fully
featured sudoku game with all the above extras.

Now I know, one can say that it is not enough...

~~~
regomodo
> getting featured on two facebook page of more that 200k fans each and not
> get at least 1k download is still interrogating me.

That stat is pretty worthless. You can buy "fans".

~~~
gumbo
I don't think so. I don't want to disclose here the concerned pages. But It is
pages of android device manufacturing company. I don't think those kind of
company need to buy fans.

~~~
katbyte
I wouldn't expect the majority of those likes to be people who like your type
of game, out of 200,000 how many like sudoku? Of of that smaller number how
many would want to play it on their phone? Who don't already have an app they
like with historical data/saves already?

From 200k your potential target audience drops rapidly I would imagine.

Instead of being featured on device pages you should try and get featured on
actual sukoku or puzzle pages where a greater percentage of likes are from
people who are more likey to be interested in your product.

------
lubujackson
Well here's some advice: since you've written an article about your game, link
the name of your game to the app store or a review or something. Also, mention
that it is free since it is free. And explain what the game is and why anyone
should care. In other words, you are always advertising and the biggest
mistake people make is to not remove the roadblocks from all the roads.
Marketing is easier when you realize, by default, no one cares. Not in a rude
way, but no one will put in effort to care about something for no reason. Give
them a reason.

------
andrewdubinsky
If your game is a cool evolution of Sudoku, then focus your initial marketing
efforts on places where people discuss that game.

Find where your customers are, then spend your time and effort there. Go to
those specific forum boards/google groups and be helpful and cool. Don't just
barge in and spam everyone with new topics. Help people out first. Ask senior
members to review your game and give you direct feedback. Take their
concerns/comments seriously.

Trying to market to everyone simply dilutes your effort.

Make sure you have a good keyword rich domain name like sudoku-pro.com or
sudoku-evolved.com or something (I have no idea if those names are taken).
Highlight how your product stands out from "generic" soduku games.

Setup a simple landing page (e.g. from a wordpress app template) with more
information that details how great your game is specifically for Sudoku fans.

Add google analytics or kissmetrics to the landing page.

List your landing page in google for indexing (be patient it takes a while).

Then buy a little traffic on adwords when people search for the keyword Sudoku
(like 50-100 clicks). Limit your budget at first. I'm not suggesting you spend
a lot. Just a little.

Check google analytics to see the keywords that showed up on your page. When
people click on an adwords ad, it shows the keywords they searched google for.

So, if someone clicks your ad for "Bacon-flavored Sudoku", you will see in
your logs their search term of "delicious tasting sudoku"

You can learn a lot about what people are looking for this way and then fine
tune your messaging and even your product to fit what people are looking for.

Hope that helps.

------
zalambar
You released a free app in a crowded market. You are going to need something
exceptional to stand out.

Searching for "sudoku" in the Play store returns "at least 1000 results" for
Android apps. Potential buyers are unlikely to discover yours on its merit
alone even if it is the best in the field.

Review sites are unlikely to want to review "yet another sudoku app". Your
1000+ competitors are all asking for reviews as well. Unless you can offer a
compelling narrative or give them an interesting reason to write about this
app in particular you should not be surprised that there seems to be little
interest.

Your app also requires significantly more permissions than some of the other
most popular sudoku apps. I don't know if most users care but given a choice
between several free sudoku apps that might make a difference.

------
Dove
18MB seems pretty heavy for a Sudoku app. And it comes with a lot of
permissions, and it's free with no obvious monetization strategy?

I don't have data to tell you those things scare away users, but they'd sure
as heck scare away _me_.

~~~
gumbo
Thanks. I'll definitely work on that, I'll be able to remove few of them even
if it mean removing features.

~~~
Dove
Do take it with a grain of salt. I develop for Android, but mostly as a
contractor for other people. I can tell you what would worry me as a user, but
it's the guys up the thread who have had success selling their own apps that
you really want to listen to.

------
duiker101
I totally feel your pain. It seems a very well done game.

Unfortunately there are already hundreds of sudoku games, so a user will
hardly find i.

I can give you a couple suggestions anyway: send it to the guys over
androidpolice.com every 3 weeks they make a list of the best games that just
came out like this one [http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/01/15/40-best-new-
android-...](http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/01/15/40-best-new-android-
games-from-the-last-3-weeks-122512-11513/) so I think you might have good
chances of getting in there more than a fully featured article.

Post it here. I think HN is more than willing to review your game.

Post it on reddit.com/r/android it's a very open community and they often try
apps for people that ask nicely.

------
boonez123
Go buy an ad in the Newspaper right under the Sudoku puzzle.

So many freemium models invest hundreds of man hours into development then
expect to pay $0 for advertising. It doesn't work like that. If you invested
100's of hours into dev, then get ready to spend 1000's of hours marketing, or
alternatively buy your way into the market which is expensive.

Good luck!

------
bstar77
Curious what your 'freemium' strategy is for this app. Crafting a strong
freemium strategy seems to be a very difficult task which is probably why many
companies struggle to find that perfect balance.

Rocketcat games had a huge problem selling their game "Punch Quest", which was
stunning due to that game's high quality. They ultimately realized that the
money drops were too generous, that links to buy stuff were lost in the UI,
that not enough compelling upgrades existed, etc. What you have built seems to
be very polished and I think it's a very interesting take on the genre, but I
think you might be in similar territory here.

I'd also guess that the lion's share of people that pay for sudoku games are
not the type that would want RPG elements mixed in. They are probably an older
demographic that values simplicity over everything else. When the game
"10,000,000" integrated rpg elements with "match 3" style gameplay, the masses
loved it because it was a convergence of two types of gameplays that had
similar demographics.

~~~
gumbo
Not all the feature are free, there is in app purchases to unlock levels and
cities. It also allows the user to take notes while playing and use hints
(only for paying users).

------
justjimmy
"Is It hard to promote mobile apps?"

Hard when you are a few years late, in a genre (Sudoku) where there's not much
room for innovation in game play.

------
endymi0n
On top of ALL the comments here, which all have very valid points - even if
you had a brand-new, innovative game concept, it's still damn hard to get
traction and visibility in the app store(s). Nobody knows why this game is so
good or that he needs to have it, and for some of those games, it's really a
shame. The situation is comparable to web sites a few years ago. There's
basically the SEO way - sideline promotion, forums, reviews, people skills
etc. and there's the SEM way. If you invest enough to push your way up in the
store through advertising (Trademob, the company that I'm working for,
estimates around 10-100k, depending on category and target market), you'll
eventually be paid back through the resulting organic installations coming
from the visibility once you get into the top charts. TL;DR: In 2013, even for
killer apps, there's no way to the top except through the hardship of
promotion on all possible channels. Viral campaigns, PR, spreading the word,
posting, blogging, and often pure money investment as well.

Sorry, pal!

------
chipsy
Like others, I would have to point to the choice of making another sudoku as a
critical flaw. When a game is the same game as every other, it gets very
little buzz or word of mouth...unless it has some overwhelmingly strong new
feature to add value.

Content items like art, storytelling, quantity of levels and pre-scripted
events are mostly reflective of how video game development budgets tend to be
proportioned against marketing budgets, where as the marketing budget gets
bigger, more money is spent on making a lavish production that slightly
outclasses the competition. These things help when a game has an existing
audience that needs to mature into a more elaborate experience, but they have
strongly diminishing returns on investment.

Software features like multi-player, solvers, hints and tutorials, puzzle
generators, are all good incremental extensions that can get people's
attention, and many of these features are relatively cheap compared to
additional content. Unfortunately, all of the big, obvious features for
incrementally extending sudoku have been covered - there's no chance of
gaining a lot of new users in this market when it's so thoroughly saturated.

Monetization has also been saturated. Game monetization follows a pattern
typical to innovative technology: Innovators can go pay-to-play if they're
selling the privilege of a new experience. A good number of niche games can
slip under the radar, making good profits for the innovator, but not enough to
get attention. If the game is so profitable that it attracts a lot of
attention, clones will appear and add incremental improvements, which
pressures both price and quality. Eventually price collapses as free-to-play
versions appear. However, free-to-play is _not_ the last step - open-source
is. When people are hacking together polished, open-source versions of the
game design, it's usually well past profitability, and sudoku is definitely in
this category. (Exceptions to open-source as the last step exist, but are
mostly related to the relative costs of content vs. technology)

Which leaves you with "create a new, sudoku-inspired game design." Game design
is the underlying source of both profitability and popularity in the
videogaming sector, but it means having design skills in addition to
production skills - formulaic processes for making original, marketable
designs don't exist. The vast majority of people in the sector understand
either original(but unmarketable) or marketable(but unoriginal), but have
trouble recognizing when a design decision and a marketing decision are
related, and what the implications are. And since maximizing marketability is
more likely to keep you in business, industry consensus always biases around
it.

------
jasimq
This is what's wrong with your game: \- It's on Android. In my experience
Android apps don't monetize as well as iOS. \- It's Sudoko. There are a lot of
Sudoku apps out there. \- It's free. You probably need to change the pricing
model.

Try soem of the suggestions given in the comments above and let us know what
happens.

------
michaelhoffman
You made a sudoku game and most people who want a sudoku game already have
one.

------
georgelawrence
Try a little AppStore SEO

Using my AppStore SEO tool (still in beta) I see you only appear in the
results page of one popular search phrase "amazing sudoku"...
[http://www.straply.com/app/android/guru-mobile/empire-of-
sud...](http://www.straply.com/app/android/guru-mobile/empire-of-sudoku-
single)

But some other Sudoku apps appear in the results of hundreds of popular search
phrases... [http://www.straply.com/app/android/genina-com/sudoku-
free/so...](http://www.straply.com/app/android/genina-com/sudoku-free/sort-
strongest)

Perhaps you could try expanding your description to include more of the
popular phrases related to Sudoku?

But the real problem is what everyone else has been saying. Sudoku is just too
crowded.

------
webreac
Hi. I play a lot sudoku and I will not try your app. All the fancy you added
to the sudoku game may be interesting, but the first thing I noticed is that
your sudoku game is not ergonomic: on a touch screen, you MUST make the grid
as big as possible. Personally, I use a sudoku game where I can put remaining
possible digits in cases. If the purpose of your game was to improve my sudoku
level, there would me more than 4 levels. I do not know who are your clients.
I think that if I had a good free sudoku game (better than the one I am
using), I would accept to pay (not too much) to have one more feature: the
possibility to play a photographed grid.

------
SeoxyS
One of the things you're doing wrong is that social sharing bar which, besides
bring completely tactless, overlaps the content on mobile devices such that
reading the article is impossible—even when scrolling due to it being fixed.

~~~
gumbo
Thanks, just fixed. Launched the blog yesterday, haven't get time to test
everything yet. Thanks again.

------
tjtrapp
Tony Wright has a good write up about free vs paid iOS apps here
[http://www.tonywright.com/2012/how-to-evaluate-a-paid-
iphone...](http://www.tonywright.com/2012/how-to-evaluate-a-paid-iphone-app-
idea/)

------
gumbo
To respond to those asking why I made YET another sudoku game... Well, ... As
I explained here : [http://www.buildnrun.com/sudoku-as-an-arcade-whould-you-
play...](http://www.buildnrun.com/sudoku-as-an-arcade-whould-you-play-a-multi-
player-sudoku/)

This game is in the pipeline since a few month now (I made few mistakes by not
being lean) but I wanted before the end of the year get it out and see how
it's really look like to be out there in the wild. And YES it is out, and I'm
not feeling like throwing it, so I need to see what I can make out of it.

There are very good piece of advice bellow though.

~~~
georgelawrence
Mamadou, Just curious, are you going to continue to refine Empire of Sudoku,
or are you going to move on to other apps, like LiberTweet or perhaps other
ideas?

~~~
gumbo
:-) We'll keep refining the app based on the feedback we get from users.
Currently working on a few stuffs like LiberTweet, but those don't affect my
commitment to Sudoku Empire. The multiplayer edition is already ready, but we
don't want to push it out yet because it could be confusing for user to grasp
the game. We want to release it, when we will have enough user, and when those
users will get confort using the single player edition.

------
moore1474
I agree with the commenters that there is just too much competition for Sudoku
apps. I don't think the game I have on the android market
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.moore1474....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.moore1474.android.games.pyoo&feature=nav_other#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDYsImNvbS5tb29yZTE0NzQuYW5kcm9pZC5nYW1lcy5weW9vIl0)
is nearly as polished as yours, but it gets a couple hundereds installations a
day with little marketing from me, because there aren't very many games like
it on the market.

------
davidcollantes
The game looks fantastic. I think you developed for the wrong platform. On iOS
you would have seen tangible results.

~~~
seestheday
I agree on your premise, but think you got the os completely wrong. Why would
iOS be any different for them? If they developed it for blackberry or Windows
he would have had much less competition and may have found success.

------
clarky07
I've been trying to get off the ground with a few Android apps myself [1]. A
few suggestions:

1\. As others have noted, test screenshots and icon. People looking for a
sudoku app probably want to see a board playing sudoku.

2\. SEO. There aren't keywords on Android like there are on iPhone so
everything goes on the description. I think you might be better off with a bit
longer description with more keywords.

3\. Keep working on outside promotion. You picked a really crowded niche. When
I search for Sudoku on the play store it tells me there are over 1k results.
That is not going to be an easy thing to crack so you really need to get an
outside feature and get word of mouth working for you. The multiplayer aspect
should help with that.

4\. Look at more aggressive monetization strategies. I haven't tested it yet
(my device is currently dead and charging), but it sounds (and from the
screenshots looks) like you might be being too passive. You have to ask people
for their money before they will give it to you. Don't give away too much of
the game and make it obvious how to upgrade. You have to provide lots of value
or they won't want to obviously, but you can't give away so much that people
think the free version is "good enough"

[1] - [http://www.entrelife.com/2013/01/case-study-of-android-vs-
ip...](http://www.entrelife.com/2013/01/case-study-of-android-vs-iphone-
app.html)

------
vellum
When I go to your app’s page, these are the things I see (in order): 1.)
smiling samurai on top, 2.) a bunch of menu pages in the screen shots + 1
sudoku puzzle, 3.) a description that’s more tell than show - “the most
outstanding sudoku app”. The problem is, I have no idea what makes your game
so special. You have about 3 seconds to grab someone’s attention before they
hit the back button. I don’t see anything here that differentiates this from
other sudoku apps in a meaningful way.

------
swastik
As an answer to the actual title of the article, yes, it is hard. It can't be
any other way.

The answer to the question here: there could be many reasons for this. The one
that stands out is the fact that the market is very crowded and thus, to get
traction in the early days, you need a lot of marketing. The method you have
adopted (blogs, forums, videos, etc.) sound like a good start.

To make money — and since the app is free, I presume you are looking at ads —
you will need traffic. That traffic isn't going to come in a month; it may not
come at all. It seems you've had high expectations and are disappointed at not
meeting them. So, yes, here are some of the things you did or are doing wrong:

* the market and the offer (as a combination, not separate) — A crowded market and a me-too offering. There has to be something distinct, something that makes you stand out in a market as crowded as this.

* the marketing itself — You need to be a lot more aggressive in marketing, get your app out on a lot more places. Even if a few blogs aren't publishing as quick as you'd like — and there's a reason for that — be persistent. With this kind of an app, it will be difficult. But not impossible. Get traffic in as many ways as you can.

In some ways, as far as the traffic is concerned, you are also limiting
yourself. Why advertise on just game related forums? You can go anywhere you
think there is a good percentage of Android users and post. Build some
reputation and you will drive some traffic. Again, the key is to be
persistent. You may not meet your expectations but the traffic will go up.

Great job on getting something out there! You have made some mistakes, and set
some really high expectations, but you have something that you can learn from,
if nothing else.

------
dice
As others have mentioned, Sudoku is a rather crowded market.

Still, your take on it looked interesting so I clicked over to the Play store
intending to install it. I then saw that your app wants the "phone status and
identity" privilege, which is an automatic no-go for me. Perhaps your
potential customers do not want you to know what their phone number is, or the
phone numbers of the people they're calling?

------
robomartin
These are some thoughts and ideas from the launch for "Tommy Teaches the
Alphabet" (www.tommyteaches.com)

1- I knew that this was a crowded segment and had no illusions as to the high
probability for failure. In fact, my assumption was that I would have to
almost personally make every single sale until other aspects of the "plan"
could start to generate them.

2- I also assumed that the app would not do well by itself and would require a
family of related apps that could cross-market themselves.

3- The app was built with an SMS-based recommendation mechanism from the very
start. In fact, the code is there to extend this to email and social, but I
wanted to see if SMS would work well first. Testing is important.

4- Enhanced cross-marketing would be turned on as new apps are released in
order to make parents aware of the expanded line-up.

5- The current thinking is that half the apps are going to be absolutely free.
The working hypothesis being that they will drive traffic to paid apps.

6- Being that the target users are small kids you really can't have
advertising and in-app purchases. Including these things can have viscerally
negative reactions from parents. Probably not a good idea. Apps geared towards
adults have huge advantages in this department.

7- Given the expectation of having to exist in an already crowded segment I
also put forth another working hypothesis for the problem of getting eyeballs
to the app. The idea is that, in some ways, it is far easier to market and
test (A/B testing) on the Web than on the App Store. Therefore, a companion
website was, so the idea goes, of crucial importance. The primary goal of the
website being that of a conduit to the various app stores.

8- These days you have to consider strategies beyond iOS. That's why I said
"various app stores". The website could also vector traffic to other
platform's stores.

9- Website traffic would mostly consist of adults looking for learning tools
for their kids. Here's an opportunity to also potentially generate revenue
with other branded items and/or affiliate revenue.

10- A website for an app like this can also become a destination in and of
itself. Porting these games so that kids can also play them online could be a
great way to sell them on mobile devices. Parents might see their kids enjoy
them online and want to have time natively on their devices for when they are
out of the house. The jury is still out on this idea.

11- Once a few more apps are out I plan on issuing press releases and
generally making the product far more visible to relevant sites and reviewers.
My thinking here is that doing so with one app might not be the best
investment of time and money right now. Multiple apps means more hooks in the
water. Therefore, the probability for conversion might be greater.

12- Having one slow-growing app in the market is good in that it will help you
identify issues and usage patterns with the app that you are never going to
see in your own testing. I've already integrated user feedback and bug fixes
into this one app that would have been a disaster to deal with in the case of
having tens of thousands of downloads.

13- Analytics are important. Without this data you are blind. I understand my
app's usage patterns far better today than I did in the few weeks that it has
been out. This tells you where you might want to focus.

14- As I said above, being the my assumption is that I'll have to sell every
single copy myself, I have acted accordingly. For example, I took one of my
kids to get a haircut the other day. A woman was there with her little girl.
They had an iPad. I handed her my phone with the app running and ONLY asked
for her opinion. I left them alone and said absolutely nothing. When I got
back from my kid getting his haircut she told me that she bought the app and
had some interesting feedback. The moral to that story is: Get out there and
show your app to everyone that might be in your target market. And, yes, while
you are trying to sell, the most important thing you want out of the
interaction is to understand why someone might NOT want to buy it so you can
improve things.

15- Don't expect overnight success. It could take a year to get to the point
where you consider the effort worthwhile. If you are not OK with that then
don't jump into the mobile app market. Very few apps become overnight money
makers without a significant (read: expensive) marketing push from every
angle).

16- Don't give up.

I have hopes for the web+app model. The website has thousands of visitors per
day due to my efforts. And the site isn't even finished or optimized in any
way yet. I don't have solid conversion numbers yet, but I think that, with
time, it could be a good driver. It'll be interesting to learn if the apps and
brand can become more powerful as a web property than a mobile app. In other
words, an inversion of sorts: start with a mobile app and discover that
there's more money to be made on the web. Good question.

Sudoku is probably just as tough, if not tougher, than the children's segment.
Get creative.

~~~
gumbo
Thanks for sharing all those insight. I'll definitely look into some of them
with my partner.

------
intenscia
We run www.slidedb.com which is a developer driven website for mobile games.
Whilst our site is only new so the installs we drive will be small, it is one
more outlet for you to promote your game (add it here
www.slidedb.com/games/add). And because all content shown (including the
homepage) is posted by the community / developers - you are not hoping an
editor decides to cover your game, any coverage you get is entirely dictated
by the effort you put in and what you post.

We have been running simarly themed sites ModDB and IndieDB for years now
reaching over 200k+ visitors daily. We hope to bring the same independent
developer driven coverage to the mobile space in time.

------
dominic_cocch
It's a great looking app - you definitely have a sense for design. However,
like many others have already mentioned, Sudoku is overdone.

While you may still gain some traction here (14 5-star reviews is a good
start!), you definitely have some talent to use on your next project.

If you go for another game, try to come up with an entirely new gameplay-type.
Or at least pretend it's a new gameplay type by not using the gameplay type as
part of the game's title. Halo isn't called Halo: First Person Shooter for a
good reason.

------
visualR
You made a game. Youre competing with every other game and other forms of
entertainment. Id say regroup and refocus on writing software that solves pain
points. Read patio11.

------
h4rrison
Unrelated to discussion, but I proof read your article for you:
<http://pastebin.com/Hd3YyqA6>

------
randartie
This is why: <http://i.imgur.com/QspUu.png>

You're getting overwhelmed by 1000 free versions of the same game.

------
pkamb
Price: Free

Platform: Android

~~~
rtkwe
Game Type: Sudoku.

I think this is the larger factor. Getting people to pay for Sudoku seems like
a big ask considering the plethora of existing apps which scratch the same
itch (and better) for free. Graphics aren't a big thing for Sudoku to me.

------
JabavuAdams
1) Congratulations on shipping. That's more than a lot of people do.

2) There are too many Sudoku games out there. The product is fundamentally
flawed.

3) Cross-promote. You need to somehow get a friendly slightly bigger player to
put a link in their game to your game, and visa versa. The difficulty is that
you can't really supply clicks. So, play on their sympathies? Indie dev,
hometown dudes, etc?

------
MacsHeadroom
This game looks great.

Unfortunately, it plays horribly.

* There is no easy way to see when all of one number have been found.

* It is very easy to accidentally click the wrong number (thus losing points).

* Only one level is available without purchasing

What does this game even provide over the dozens of free Sudoku games? As far
as I can see- nothing, aside from some pretty graphics.

I wouldn't be paid $2 to play this Sudoku game.

------
clinth
Just downloaded and gave it a minute. Mute doesn't work. Reproduce: start app,
hit mute, start game, and this _tremendous_ gong noise rings out when the
round starts. Would uninstall right there.

Also, on the Play Store, it's "Empire Of Sudoku - Single", while in my app
list, it's "Sudoku Empire". I had to look for it after installing it.

------
deliv
Spend some budget on marketing. Or find free distribution channels. What
worked best for me was to create a channel on Playboard
(<http://playboard.me>) and add my app. Or just ask one of the more popular
editors to add it to their channels.

------
LukaD
I don't install apps that have a banner that says 'FREE' in their logo. I
always suspect these games to be of very low quality (I have no clue if that's
true of your app as well) and that they are packed with micro transactions.
This is how I see it from my user's point of view.

------
gumbo
The op here: Many have said that maybe the market is crowded with "sudoku"
games. I do agree, that may be in part a reason.

However, I'm talked to many indie developers that have built very nice game
and by nice I mean addicting that are unable to cross the 1k downloads.

------
jyap
"Now this is not our first mobile apps, we’ve made some in the past that got
after a few months (without any advertisement) 30k downloads"

Quick tip. Cross promote your new app to your established audience.

------
lurkinggrue
...Wait. It's free? Were you expecting to make it up in volume?

------
d0gsbody
I see that you are getting it posted on Facebook pages and G+. Why not give it
its own facebook promotional page? Ask all of your friends to like it, use
bufferapp, etc.

------
j45
How do you know what you were building was something people wanted before you
started building?

What steps did you take to find this out before starting?

------
watmough
Why does your app require permission to look at my phone calls?

~~~
gumbo
Will be fixed in the next release.

------
jamesaguilar
It's Sudoku.

------
vrajesh5
did you try appgratis?

------
rprasad
I have 3 sudoku apps on my phone; I can tell you what you are missing: scratch
marks. At higher difficulties, it is absolutely necessary to be able to note
eliminations or possibilities within a square. Without that, the best you can
hope for is casual sudoku player, but soduku is by nature not a game for
casual players.

~~~
dizzystar
This is exactly true. Soduku players are attracted to words like "difficult,"
"hard," "impossible," or any other challenge.

The level-up format sends a very strong signal that there are tons of "easy"
puzzles and like many of these level-up games, it is going to take a while to
get to "hard," and that is a tough investment to make when you are 99% sure
the payoff doesn't exist.

It is a nice-looking game, but I don't get the impression the creator is
someone involved in the soduku world or understands the market too well.

Think of soduku like you'd think of crosswords. Crosswords have a very quick
ramp-up. Those that do well early and like it will quickly move on to the hard
stuff, only bothering to do Monday and Tuesday as a speed-trial if they bother
at all. They use ink instead of pencil and they get very upset at poorly
designed puzzles and bad clues. In other words, you are dealing with a highly
finicky crowd.

------
TheAmazingIdiot
It's yet another sudoku game. No matter how good it is, or looks, you compete
with the multitude of free sudoku games out there.

Try something more vertical niche, and hunker down. A fill-in-the-blank game
is not super-profit worthy. Even Rovio took a decade before they hit it with
Angry Birds.

I think this is a problem too: Price: Free

Well, unless you make up for it in quantity...?

------
rorrr
Your main problem is that your app is a sudoku game. There are literally
thousands of sudoku apps on Android (I just verified with a search). Your app
probably doesn't even show up in the search results, which are limited to 20
pages on Google Play.

If you want to make money with anything, you start with checking your
competition.

So my advice to you is - make an original game.

