
Show HN: My side project iOS game just hit #3 in the Finnish App Store - aparadja
http://www.gymnastickgame.com
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aparadja
So, I feel like I'm a little bit out of my league. I read the book "Surviving
the App Store" and decided to follow its strategy of releasing an MVP in the
App Store as early as possible.

Today, I woke up to see it at #3 in the paid apps for my country's overall Top
Chart, #2 in games and #1 in its subcategory.

A publisher has now approached me about publishing the game. I have no idea
about the pitfalls. If anyone here has any experience, I'd love to hear any
pointers.

~~~
Im_a_throw_away
Congrats, and the game looks really cool!

I'm curious: how did you market your game? What made you go in the top charts?

~~~
aparadja
Finland is a rather small market, so friends & family were probably a big
influence to get it off the ground. (Seems that it only takes some hundreds of
downloads to reach the top spot.)

I also started threads with promo code giveaways in TouchArcade and Reddit,
and emailed reviewers.

With those as a base, it got some initial visibility and then
bloggers/reviewers started asking for promo copies.

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avitzurel
Your landing page is 100% on point. Explains about the product in the first
second. No hassle, not too much fluff.

Awesome stuff. Congrats for reaching #3.

~~~
aparadja
Thanks!

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bananicorn
Wow, that's what I call elegant and minimalistic design - both the landingpage
and the game footage itself. Are you planning to release it for android too
sometime?

~~~
aparadja
Thanks! It's built with Swift, so I'll have to see how far it goes in the App
Store first before porting it. Finland alone is not a huge market, so it's
hard to tell.

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danielhooper
Pretty neat game. I commend you for not integrating ads or IAP. I went the
same route with my iOS game.

~~~
aparadja
Was it a financial success? And care to link to the game?

In a way I feel like saying no to ads and IAP is a noble goal, but not the
financially smart one. I was OK with it for this one, because this was a
hobby/passion project that I wanted to make for a long time. I didn't want to
ruin my baby with filthy ads, profits be damned.

