

Ask HN: Help? Breaking into the App Store top 100. - alanfalcon

I thought I would never do this. But here I am so I'm just going to get it out there.<p>Last year I had a baby and quit my awesome job as a graphic designer for the Blizzard web team largely because I wasn't making enough money to keep living in Southern California if my wife was going to be able to stay at home with our newborn. We moved to Las Vegas and now live with my wife's father. I spent most of the past year starting Falcon Empire and making my first iPhone game, Beat Boxes, which I finally released late last year.<p>Of course, nobody noticed.<p>Despite what you're reading here, I'm terrible at self promotion. In desperation and ready to give up on my dream and go apply for a job at McDonald's for a while, I started giving my game away for free. I figured that way at least some people would get to play it and I won't simply have wasted the last year of my life. I thought maybe a couple hundred people would find it and download it. Well, things have gone a little differently. And now I have a chance for things to go very differently, and I need all the help I can get, and that's the only reason I'm here now.<p>I know I'm essentially a nobody here, but I'm begging you to help me become somebody.<p>I'm asking for three huge favors.<p>First, please upvote this post.<p>Second, if you have an iPhone or iPad or iPod Touch or even if you just have iTunes downloaded on your computer, please download my game, Beat Boxes, for free.<p>There's no catch or anything, there aren't even ads in the game or in-app purchases. It's completely free, and hopefully also kind of fun. But even if you do nothing but download it and never play it and delete it right away, I think that would still help me so much.<p>Lastly, and this is asking a lot more, I know, please help me spread the word. Even if all you do is post, "check out this game by this one guy," on Twitter or Facebook and include the link to the game (in the comments, below), that would be a HUGE help.<p>You see, I thought I'd get a couple hundred downloads but it turns out that I'm getting many thousands of downloads. I'm getting enough downloads that I actually just barely poked into the top 100 free games on the App Store, which to me is a very big deal. I'm freaking out a little bit about it. But I also know that this is my one chance to get Beat Boxes noticed by a wider audience, and maybe even Apple itself if I'm extremely lucky. And I'm going to do what I can and what I have to in order to try to help make a little luck.<p>Right now I've obviously made negative money on the game between all the license fees I've paid and the music I commissioned, and that's completely ignoring the year I spent not having a paycheck. But if I can break into the top 50 or maybe even top 10 free games with Beat Boxes, then maybe I'll have momentum. When the promotion ends and Beat Boxes isn't free anymore, maybe people will actually drop 99 cents my way to play it if they hear about it from a friend who tried it and liked it. Maybe I can put off applying at McDonald's for another month while I try to finish up my next game, a game that I've been too depressed to put any work into for the past several weeks. I won't know unless I do everything I can to try to help myself, and that means coming here with this completely self-serving post and begging you. I don't want to do it, but I had to try.<p>Thanks, and if nothing else then please wish me luck. I'll gladly and happily do follow up posts about numbers and graphs and lessons and I'll answer any and all questions you guys have. You can e-mail me at alan@falconempire.com or post them here (though I have pretty strict noprocrast settings that I'm too afraid to disable so it could take a bit for me to have a chance to answer here). If you want to see any follow-up posts, check out my blog at syncingdreams.com - I'm going to head over and write up a post there right now.
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coryl
You may not want to hear this advice, but attack lower hanging fruit. As an
indie dev, you don't have the time or resources to try and build a hit. Your
biggest concern is money to eat tomorrow, so build apps that take less than a
month to launch. Don't build mass market games, build niche stuff
(educational, for kids, business utilities, etc.).

App distribution is a bitch; if you're not ranked at launch, you won't be
successful. Look at re-launching your app in the next month if its
unsuccessful. Try in-app purchases to allow unlocks rather than selling it for
99c outright (people download free, but rarely download 99c apps when its
unknown and there's so much competition out there). The timing of your release
is key too. Best of luck.

~~~
alanfalcon
At this point I want and value all advice, so thanks very much. Good points,
all of them. I also need to work on figuring out how long an app idea will
take for me to implement, or maybe just build the smallest possible app idea I
can conceive of having any potential market and try my best to finish it in
under a month?

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pkamb
Immediate feedback: it's really hard to time jumps due to the ball bouncing
along on the ground automatically. If I tap the screen in the middle of an
auto-jump, the ball then has to fall down to the floor before my jump action
is triggered.

Makes it feel as if there's always a lag between when I tap the screen and
when the jump occurs. Sometimes it doesn't jump at all. Lag is a major problem
in a reflex game like this.

You should consider always jumping immediately, even if the ball is already in
the air due to an auto-jump (physics be damned). Or having the ball roll on
the floor rather than jump along.

~~~
pfedor
I just played and I can second that a hundred percent. It's very pronounced
and a big detriment to the experience. Otherwise the game is very engaging.

~~~
alanfalcon
Thanks for the confirmation. Would a visual signal that you have tapped and
that the ball is "primed" for a high bounce be helpful? Or is that still not
really enough?

~~~
pfedor
Sorry, it's hard to predict. I am guessing that yes, it would probably help.

~~~
alanfalcon
Thank you! I'll have some new testers try it out, and ask them some specific
questions about it.

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guynamedloren
Hey Alan - I know your spirits are down a bit right now, but this post has a
very depressing and desperate undertone. You've gone through a lot and times
are rough. I completely understand. While that may urge me (and others) to
help you, I'm sure you don't want feelings of pity and desperation to be
associated with your game.

You used so many words telling us how we can help you that you neglected to
share the most important thing (and biggest selling point): how awesome your
game is and how much enjoyment we will derive from playing it. In fact, you
mentioned almost nothing about the game itself. You went on and on about the
importance of moving up in a list and gaining momentum, but most of us have
not the slightest clue of what your game is about.

Just some food for thought. Best of luck and I look forward to some followup
posts.

~~~
AznHisoka
I agree. The attitude in the post turned me off. There are lots of people who
have worked hard with nothing to show for it in this world... so your story
isn't unique. I'm an app developer too and can't feel sympathy. Heck, at least
you're even in the fringe of the top 100 apps - mine aren't even there.

Tell us why the app will help us. How it will entertain us or delight us. Why
it's different from other apps. Why we should even recommend it to friends.
What will wow us?

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alanfalcon
Clickable link to Beat Boxes on the App Store:
<http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/beat-boxes/id460798042>

~~~
kgutteridge
Added a couple more downloads from the UK.

Whilst I like endless games so this does appeal, I do echo the comments above
that it seems to be iOS users would prefer levels to complete, the game and
concept itself work great on the 4s

