

How should I market this game? - mdonahoe

My friend and I made a fun memory game for the iPhone, but it isn't selling very well. All our beta testers gave us really positive feedback, but now that it is up in the app store, we are only seeing one or two sales a day. It is selling for $2.99<p>Here is the homepage
http://mattdonahoe.com/memix/<p>I'm pretty surprised by the poor sales. The $1 app I made in 5 hours is out-selling this one.<p>What should I do? Free version? Better video/website? Advertise? Give up and make iBurp?
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patio11
Here's why I hate games as applications for the typical one-man software
development shop:

1) They require a huge upfront investment in asset creation.

2) The assets start depreciating instantly, because gamer expectations are
constantly advancing. (Expectations for all apps advance, but for games it is
particularly acute. In five years Bingo Card Creator will still look like
Bingo Card Creator, but a 2013 game which resembles a 2008 game will be
virtually unsaleable. Look at how much even "casual" games have advanced in
the last 24 months if you don't believe me.)

3) 1+2 means that the post-launch sales curve is decreasing, rather than
increasing (as it is for most apps). This makes post-launch marketing and
other improvements largely a black hole of effort, instead of a series of
steps one can proceed through to build value.

4) Games are typically needs not wants. Accordingly, it is both hard to
convince people to pay for them and hard to market them via search engines,
because people don't typically know they want a [match three game with dragon
theme and some differentiating feature].

5) Hit driven -- winners win, everyone else takes a bath on asset development
costs.

6) The people who play them most are those who are least able or willing to
pay for them, and most capable of getting them for free

The App Store brings the fun that is writing a game to any other field of
software development, with the exception of point #6. Selling a game on the
App Store brings you to the double whammy -- you have constantly depreciating
art assets AND the fall-off-front-page-and-watch-sales-die effect contributing
to murder your post-launch sales graph.

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flashgordon
sorry with (40 do you mean games are typically "wants" and not "needs" instead
of the other way around??

also willingness to pay is i think a result of comparisons... you see
"another" app (regardless of its purpose or category) for a much lower price
and subconsciously users get a twitch for a mild spike in the price, without
even stopping to think about the possible value... ie costs are often thought
about instead of the benefits..

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vulpes
1\. Get blogs interested in the app, VentureBeat has been reviewing a ton of
apps lately. 1a. Give out few redeem codes in return for a review, blogs love
it.

2\. Word of Mouth, wether it be twitter, facebook updates, social events
impressing people with your mad memory skills, people talk and their friends
listen.

3\. Comptention - best way to do it is through webcharts and ingame
leaderboards. If a friend just got 120k points in a game, I'm going to buy it
just so I can beat him.

4\. Get out of Games category, other categories are easier to get to the top
lists of and therefore will help bring in sales. Not sure if you can switch
categories later once you are selling enough to be featured.

I have seen these suggestions work for other apps but I speak from
observational stand point as I have never promoted any iPhone app, so take
that as you will.

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MrBob
You know, the game might be really addictive, but the graphics of the tiles
doesn't really attract attention. No doubt they are easy to remember, but for
attracting people to play the first time you want a game that _looks_ good
when playing it the first time.

The games of the early eighties had very simple graphics but made up for it by
having very imaginative paintings in their advertisments instead to get people
excited about playing the game in the first place.

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gojomo
Blog about your problems selling it. Gist: "I've learned you still have to
market in the app store."

Lower the price to $1; blog about the painfulness of that choice. Try to get
attached to stories about iPhone app pricing issues.

Offer a demo version that works on the web (flash), so people can try it out.
Blog about that demo version.

Get yourself attached to stories on 'brain fitness'. Make sure the app has
some way to chart improvements in memory over time. Reposition as memory
workout.

Blog on success (or failure) of previous marketing efforts; try to get
yourself attached to any stories about iphone developers -- successful,
struggling, or failing, it doesn't matter as long as they spell your app's
name right.

Add the ability to customize the tiles, perhaps with your own photos. Use that
as another blog/news hook.

Plug it, honestly disclosing your proprietorship, anywhere it could be
relevantly discussed. Threads on other memory/iphone games? Reviews of similar
memory games, at the app store or elsewhere? Etc.

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Tichy
Try a version that creates fart sounds when you click on he tiles? iPhone
users love special effects.

OK, joke aside, I am just thinking: iPhone users love to show off. So if your
app is about memory skills, maybe you could tune it so that the showing off
aspect becomes more apparent ("look what I can do").

For example, if I could do stacking, I would probably show it off at any
possible occasion: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bDgO3_vRXQ>

Same goes for guitar hero: if I could play some complicated songs on 100%, I
would show them off.

Maybe your app could become something people show off, like solving the
Rubik's cube.

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Paul_Morgan
How about also selling it for $1?

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mdonahoe
Thanks for the advice. My next step will be to release a free version that
acts like a tutorial, and maybe a web version since I'm pretty fast with
Flash. Then maybe I will give up and lower it to $1

Changing the game mechanic to somehow reflect your "brain fitness" is probably
a good idea, but then again, the whole thing feels like a sunk cost. If I am
going to have to do some coding, I would rather work on new stuff. Maybe I'll
start a blog about making a new $1 iphone app every week.

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siong1987
iPhone application always has distribution problems. My only suggestion for
you is to submit your application to some of the iphone application review
websites. I did a google search and came up with some websites -
<http://www.appcraver.com/> and <http://www.148apps.com/> . Try to provide
them free applications for reviews.

Paul_Morgan has a very good advice of selling your application for $1. People
tends to buy $1 application more than a application which costs more than $1.
I have no statistic to back me up with this reasoning. But, it's obvious that
many successful applications are sold for $1 like the recent Ocarina and iFart
applications.

And, the more selling you made by selling your application for $1 will help
you to get into top paid applications list. Once you get into the list, it
means more selling.

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m_eiman
A free version should help a lot, try that before you lower the price.

I'm in favour of "try before your buy", especially if what I'm buying more
expensive than the competition (which in your case is about a gazillion other
games, many (most?) of which are less expensive than $3).

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vaksel
since thats a pretty classic game type...how many competitors do you have? You
need to look and see what they are doing. Better graphics? Better sounds?
Better gameplay? Better price?

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flashgordon
or simply too many competitors resulting in over supply ....

