

Show HN: A game I've been working on for the last year is out today - savethejets
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/asteroid-smash/id730150968

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CyrusL
Cool game! I just set [http://www.asteroids.com](http://www.asteroids.com) to
redirect to your app store page for the next couple weeks.

~~~
guiambros
While the gesture is noble, you may end up hurting him/her in the long run. If
media start linking to your domain rather than to the appstore page, he'll
have broken links and lost pagerank if/when you decide to do something else
with the domain.

Having said that, what a great domain!

~~~
AznHisoka
Plus if somehow Google thinks asteroids.com is a spammy domain (for whatever
reason), it'll now be associated with his game.

~~~
clamprecht
Wow, if it's that simple, that is a great way to destroy a competitor's
domain's reputation in Google, isn't it?

~~~
austenallred
Unfortunately it's even easier than that to destroy a domain's "Google
reputation." Go on fiverr and buy a ton of spammy links, direct them at your
competitor. It runs about $5 per 100,000 links last time I checked. (I've
never done it, but it's a common blackhat technique).

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bazzargh
Hey just in case you've not noticed... apple is linking to
[http://www.codeherdstudios.com/AsteroidSmash/](http://www.codeherdstudios.com/AsteroidSmash/)
from the game description, which is 404ing on your site (should be
[http://www.codeherdstudios.com/AsteroidSmash.html](http://www.codeherdstudios.com/AsteroidSmash.html))

~~~
savethejets
Thanks for the heads up. I've added a redirect to the proper page!

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egypturnash
Here's some critique of your presentation in the App Store:

\- Why is there a pause symbol in the middle of every screenshot? \- Terrible
layout on the corner banners in the screenshot. Play head to head Against your
friends!

[large top margin] Play with up [no leading between this line and the next] to
4 players on 1 ipad [no bottom margin]

\- Random placement of text next to the circles in the 'How to Play' screen.
Why aren't all of those lines of text centered above/below their circles? Be
consistent.

And when I click the link to your website, hoping for maybe a video of the
game in action, I get served nothing but "Cannot GET /AsteroidSmash/".

Wearing my "random browsing of app store hat" my reaction is "okay I'm moving
on to another game".

\----

After finding the webpage for it and watching the video: Wow this thing looks
confusing. I have absolutely no idea what's going on from the video. Blue
things moving around in front of a blue background with no contrast of any
kind, and four fingers rapidly tapping. And a couple of blocks of text that're
close enough to being centered that they look amateurishly off-center.

~~~
ketralnis
I really wish Apple would enforce that the screenshots had to be actually
screenshots. The markings like in this one make it worse, but it seems like
more and more popular games are just putting marketing images there and not
bothering to include any game play.

~~~
girasquid
They used to enforce that, but then relaxed the requirement a (year?) ago.
Since then there's been a lot more marketing shots instead of screenshots
showing up in app listings.

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hboon
Tip:

If you haven't, every iOS/OS X developer should sign up as an iTunes affiliate
[http://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/](http://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/)
and use affiliate links. It is more or less transparent unlike other link
wrappers. E.g. a link to the same app with _my_ affiliate account will be
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/asteroid-
smash/id730150968&a...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/asteroid-
smash/id730150968&at=10l4TP&ct=hn). (no you don't have to click on it) There's
just 2 additional values.

The key thing about this is you can use the campaign tag to track click
throughs. It's not about the affiliate revenue.

~~~
ronyeh
Wow, this is truly a pro-tip. I had never considered it before. Thanks!

Plus, if someone buys something from iTunes/AppStore shortly after clicking
your link, you end up getting 7% commission.

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benzor
Fellow (mobile) game developer here, congrats on the launch! Can you tell us
about the development cycle for this game? Were you alone, did it take a year
full-time, etc? I'm curious.

~~~
akg
I would be curious as well. What is your marketing plan? I also released a
game a month ago after working on it for about a year, but soon realized that
it is very tough to break through the noise on the app store and get your game
noticed.

What has your experience been with this? I see that you are doing pay-up-front
model. I'd be curious to get your sense of why you went with that as opposed
to the freemium + IAP model.

I also released as a paid app initially, it almost seems as if there is an
expectation that games should be free to try and then either progress via
upgrades or IAPs.

~~~
savethejets
The game was all developed in my spare time. Mostly through staying up really
late after work.

This was the first time I've gone out and tried marketing one of my games, and
I've learned a ton.

The number one thing I would recommend is to get eyes on the project as early
as possible. I'd hit up TIGSource and start posting a dev log as soon as you
can. Be sure to take it out to local events, and definitely start showing
other game developers.

The game took a lot longer to make than I was originally planning for, and a
lot of that was due to some design decisions that I struggled with. However
when I took it out and started showing some local developers they had tons of
ideas to help contribute, and actually helped me through the problems that I
had been stuck on.

As for the pay model, The whole reason I made this game is because I love to
make games. I don't think there was really any strategy behind the
monetization. I just put it out there for a couple of bucks. Honestly I
expected this to come out and maybe a few people play it, and then I'd be onto
my next one; to me that was totally cool.

Actually this morning I had posted a thread on touch arcade and I got 1
response about how a mom had played the game with her daughter and they both
had fun. Really if all the game amounts to is that, I'd be happy.

So far though I've been pretty humbled by the response, and all I can say is
thanks!

~~~
ronyeh
If your only goal is to have people play it and have fun, you should make it
free but have In-App Purchases.

Many more people will end up downloading your game, and it may spread better
that way (since it's multiplayer).

Now the question is how do you make money with IAP? Maybe keep some awesome
game modes locked? Unlock them by getting enough coins (e.g., 100K). You can
do this by playing enough, by sharing the app with friends on FB/Twitter, or
by purchasing coins through IAP.

Good luck!

------
antr
On the App Store: I wished Apple allowed to upload demo videos of the apps,
games could really benefit from such medium. Screenshots sometimes aren't the
best way to communicate/sell software.

~~~
euphemize
This gives you a pretty good idea of how it looks (video on page) :
[http://www.codeherdstudios.com/AsteroidSmash.html](http://www.codeherdstudios.com/AsteroidSmash.html)

------
danpalmer
Looks good. I'm wondering why you highlight "Only on iOS" as a specific thing
on the screenshots?

~~~
jheriko
its not official but apple will dick you over on a number of things if you
ship on other platforms. most specifically the highly valuable 'being featured
early on the app store'. from what i've heard they have a secret internal
policy of checking to see if you shipped on android before doing that...

one of their submission rules is not to mention other platforms in metadata -
i'd also take that as a hint that "we like exclusives" \- my interpretation of
that is that you can't say "also available on Android" \- for example.

this is not fresh news either, a quick google on the subject reveals a long
history of people moaning about this particular problem... if you are shipping
a game and do your homework then you will know this.

~~~
kaolinite
Moves is currently featuring on the app store and has a very successful
Android app. There are often cross-platform apps that are featured. I'd be
interested to see valid sources for your claims - they could very easily be by
people who are annoyed their app wasn't featured.

~~~
jheriko
well, there are exceptions its true. and really, if an app is very good and
already successful then they will feature it - the problem is that the success
of an app can depend on early features. angry birds will be featured because
its already successful - if they don't feature it something is obviously
amiss.

i don't really have any great concrete sources i'm afraid, its not documented
and aside from the web articles i assume you already easily found with google
from my prior comment, it comes from hearsay at the pub from talking to other
gamedevs and from at least one meeting with apple employees where everything
discussed was NDA although i'm sure i can say that such a meeting took place.
although the idea that they suggested not shipping on android for at least a
few weeks after launch on ios shouldn't be too far fetched...

the fact that not mentioning other platforms in metadata is a submission
requirement is a very strong hint too. its an unreasonable request however you
cut it.

i despise legal gagging of this kind - i consider it thoroughly despicable and
cowardly - only necessary when you know you are in the wrong and don't want
anyone to find out, or are deluded into thinking that your corporate secret
isn't better off in the wild where it can benefit all of humanity - i.e that
you are more important than everyone else and somehow deserve a reward for
acquiring knowledge or keeping secrets.

there is also a bit of 'i am going to ship something in the near future'. i've
already said more than enough to do damage to myself here. :)

as i hinted at in my initial response this 'idea' is easy to uncover if you do
the usual research anyone would do before shipping. (google)

EDIT: okay so not sure how i forgot this because /i worked there/ but when
apple ran their 'stargazing app' promotions about a year ago they only
featured ios exclusive apps - they also were regularly featuring starwalk
aside from that promotion (which is ios exclusive). the app i worked on 'star
chart' was not featured - it has been featured recently because it early
adopted the iOS 7 UI style - but before that it got missed despite outranking
most of those other apps and being a higher quality product more consistent
with apple's design guidelines and ethos. now i don't think that necessarily
the app was worthy of feature, but a lot of much less polished or worthy apps
got a lot of screenspace on the store and the only thing they had in common
was not having shipped on other platforms. as much as i dislike those guys for
their disgusting attitude towards customers and employees - frankly they
deserved better treatment than they got from apple in that regard. not being
featured is fine, but featuring vastly inferior competitiors because they are
exclusive is utterly despicable.

------
ndemic
Congrats - releasing is definitely something to be proud of!

Not sure if you want feedback but IMO - the text banners on screenshots feel a
bit too low quality and detract from the actual screenshots. Always hard to
get this perfect though!

------
Mithrandir
Main site (link in the description is not working):
[http://www.codeherdstudios.com/AsteroidSmash.html](http://www.codeherdstudios.com/AsteroidSmash.html)

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jmckib
Just bought it and played a round by myself (wife promised to play a game with
me later). Seems simple, but fun. I can immediately see it would be even more
fun with 3 or 4 players rather than 2.

I haven't deeply explored the game yet, but having an AI and the possibility
of unlocking additional weapons/upgrades would be exciting. Also, I'd love to
have online multiplayer or team play (me and a friend could get online and
play against another two-player team).

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ced83fra
I love the fact that it's not a 'I am alone, let me play' game. Apps that
encourages people play on the same device are a lot better than any others !!

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callmeed
Haven't had a chance to play yet–BUT it looks great and I'm excited to try it
later today. Multi-player, single-screen iPad apps are a favorite for me and
the kids. For the record, our favorite such apps are: Stratosphere, King of
Opera, Achtung, and Raiding Company.

I'll report back later tonight.

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adinb
You need to post a thread on the Touch Arcade forums & also let Eli Hodapp and
company know about it. Exposure on TA is a great way to get noticed and get
good feedback.

Edit: found an existing thread for your game, though it would really help if
you posted in the release thread to let everyone know your story and that
you're actively soliciting feedback.
[http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=209686](http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=209686)

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dlsym
I really like your 8-Bit graphics approach! But I am a little bit
disappointed, that you did not include Bootstrap somewhere.

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cocoflunchy
Looks great! I'm also building a multiplayer-on-the-same-device iOS game, but
I plan on adding a single player mode too. Are you not worried about being
multiplayer only? I'd be afraid to cut a large portion of the impulse
purchases this way (I won't buy it unless there is someone who can try it with
me right now).

------
hkmurakami
Really cool game! One quick question before I enthusiastically throw you my
money: It the music 8 bit too (like in the video)? :)

~~~
savethejets
Yup! Actually I also released the soundtrack for free/pay what you want here

[http://codeherdstudios.bandcamp.com/album/asteroid-smash-
ost](http://codeherdstudios.bandcamp.com/album/asteroid-smash-ost)

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sciguy77
Looks great. Reminds me a bit of Space Team. I'm loving all these new
collaborative games coming out.

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mion
Nice, concise and direct description. Great choice of graphics and screenshots
too! Really nice work

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lowglow
Congratulations on the launch! Putting a product out there takes chutzpah.
Cheers! :)

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akoumjian
This is actually the first app for iPad that has actually made me want one.

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mgkimsal
The music reminded me of Gyruss, one of my all time favorites... :)

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jheriko
well done. finishing and shipping a game is no small achievement.

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alecsmart1
It's not available for iPhone :( any reason for that?

~~~
iSloth
I would guess the screen size is too small for 4 people to play at once.

~~~
bennyg
Would be cool to have a 2 player or 1 player option for iPhone in the future
though.

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QuasiAlon
Good luck! Let us know when the android version is out :)

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banachtarski
Do you not know how to take a screenshot on an ipad?

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jonny_eh
This would make for a great port to the OUYA.

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shn
would you report revenue. I always wonder how much people are making from
these games. Of course if you don't mind.

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kirualex
Kudos to you for completing your game !

