
Ask HN: My game was just featured in the Windows 8 app store, what do I do next? - aschearer
I'm a longtime lurker of these forums and after reading your stories for years I took the plunge and started a company to focus on making indie games. It's just me working my tail off and trying to create something original and fun. So far I’ve shipped two games and have a third one on the way.<p>The reality is I'm an engineer at heart and terrible at marketing. Just when I was starting to give up hope on my first game Adlib (http://spottedzebrasoftware.com/app/adlib) I found it was going to be featured in the Windows 8 app store! Now that it's happening I want to try to do everything I can to make hay while the sun is shining. I truly believe in this game and know from a previous version that its fans love it.<p>From those of you who have been down this road can you give me some tips on how I can best take advantage of this event? In particular, what advice do you have in order to reach new customers?<p>Thanks and looking forward to your feedback, Alex
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far33d
If you want to make money in games and reach a large audience you absolutely,
positively need to be on iOS, then Android before you are on Win8. According
to your bio, you used to work @ MSFT so I understand the choice of platform
but you want to keep making games, right?

I would take a close look at your retention rates and find where people are
dropping out of the game and use that information to make the best iOS version
possible.

It looks like a great game and will translate well to touch interfaces. Do it.

~~~
Avalaxy
iOS and Android may be the bigger platforms for now, but probably not for
long. Windows is huge, around 90% of the PCs and laptops around the world runs
it. I think there will be over a billion devices running Windows 8/RT in a few
years.

Developing for Windows 8 now is really smart: there are only 43.000 apps at
the moment, meaning that there is very little competition. If you start
building a Windows 8 now, you are a huge leap ahead of the competition.

~~~
aschearer
Avalaxy you basically summed up my thoughts behind choosing Windows 8 to
start. Of course I get strange looks whenever I tell other developers what I'm
doing. If you are interested you can read my full thoughts complete with some
numbers: [http://spottedzebrasoftware.com/blog/ignore-windows-8-at-
you...](http://spottedzebrasoftware.com/blog/ignore-windows-8-at-your-peril/)

~~~
Avalaxy
It may not come as a surprise, but I am currently interning @ Microsoft
(Netherlands), doing research into the Windows Store vs the competition (Play
Store, Apple App Store) to find out where the opportunities for
developers/marketeers/entrepreneur in the Windows Store lie. I've got some
interesting numbers, there are more opportunities than one might think.

~~~
underwater
Here's a freebie: fix sort by rating. Currently the Windows store does a
simple average. This means all apps with a single self-awarded five star
rating dominate the rankings.

~~~
lifeisstillgood
Interesting - can any statistician point to the "proper" way to weight such
rankings?

~~~
aaronharnly
This post describes an approach:

[http://www.evanmiller.org/how-not-to-sort-by-average-
rating....](http://www.evanmiller.org/how-not-to-sort-by-average-rating.html)

and this little page demonstrates an adaptation to a 5-star rating system:

[http://www.goproblems.com/test/wilson/wilson.php?v1=0&v2...](http://www.goproblems.com/test/wilson/wilson.php?v1=0&v2=0&v3=3&v4=0&v5=0)

Randall Munroe gave a user-oriented explanation of the system here:

[http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-
sorting-s...](http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-
system.html)

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n9com
Featuring doesn't really have a big impact - take it from someone who has had
two apps featured on the w8 store.

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useful
I like the concept. Combining tetris and word finding is a neat gameplay
mechanic.

~~~
aschearer
Thanks useful. If I may say, I think it's a really unique and fun word game!

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drucken
That's a nice concept! Do you do languages other than English? Or is there
some API non-English developers or linguists can add new languages or specific
knowledge domains?

~~~
aschearer
Thanks drucken! Right now the game is only available in English. For my next
game (think Adlib with multiplayer) I plan to support others. Localizing the
app is a challenge of course, and finding dictionaries is also a problem, but
the most difficult part will be dealing with the occurrence of words in a
given language. Given the game finds and collects the words automatically
another language could throw off the balance.

I really like the idea of crowdsourcing some of the localization via an API or
even a simple WIKI. Just one more thing to add to the never ending list...

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lifeisstillgood
I like the idea that windows app store is the only virgin territory left and
you can get in early and win. Unfortunately I suspect this is not true. Even
if win8 takes off, how long before AngryBirds-win8 appears?

I would recommend avoiding the serial-games, single sales model if at all
possible and try and get a recurring revenue stream and frequent releases 1\.
Games are hard, and the 800lb gorillas harder still

~~~
aschearer
In fact, Angry Birds is already on the Windows 8 Store! You're correct insofar
as Microsoft has worked hard to get some of the major titles onto the
platform. I also appreciate your advice to move off of what you call the
"serial-games" model. Ultimately I would like to reach a point with my game(s)
where I can offer it as a service to my players, but first I have to find a
market fit...

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meaty
You might be lucky enough to break even if you charge for your app. Don't
expect miracles from the win 8 app store.

~~~
Avalaxy
He is looking for advice, not for trolls.

My advice: make sure you have compelling logos ([http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/windows/apps/hh84629...](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/windows/apps/hh846296.aspx)), screenshots and a short description.
Also have a trial of the app.

~~~
meaty
This is advice. We sold 9 apps at £2.49 each.

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sycren
Interesting games, what did you make them with?

~~~
aschearer
I made the games using MonoGame and XNA. Overall it was a very pleasant
experience and let me make the games available for Windows 7 (and older) as
well basically for free.

You can hear me blab about some of my process on Channel 9:
<http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/From-XNA-game-to-Windows-8>

You can download the source code for a project running on Windows 7 & 8 from
GitHub: <https://github.com/aschearer/LudumDare24>

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orangethirty
How much are you charging for it?

~~~
joelhaasnoot
This is a good question that remains unanswered on your website till I click
through to actually buy it. Pleases list prices!

~~~
aschearer
That's a fair point, because prices vary per platform I chose not to list them
on the site directly. I would like to say I will A/B test to find the optimal
setup, but the reality is I get very little traffic to my site... so barring
data what does your intuition tell you? Show different prices for each
platform or hide prices?

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wilfra
I'd spend some time learning how to hack the press and try to get some free
publicity.

This is a good place to start:

[http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/80121/How-To-Get-
Media-...](http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/80121/How-To-Get-Media-
Coverage-For-Your-Startup-A-Complete-Guide.aspx)

You want to give them a pre-packaged story and from a quick look around your
site, you appear to have one (ex-MSFT guy who moved to Amsterdam, built an
awesome game and it's now featured in the app store - that's a story).

You might consider reaching out to the Microsoft PR department. They want as
much good publicity for the app store as they can get - so they might be
willing to put some PR muscle behind you and your game.

My background is in marketing (and I lived in Amsterdam for a year haha) feel
free to shoot me an email if you run out of ideas. Good luck!

~~~
aschearer
Thanks for the advice, Wilfra. I'm still reading through the link but I'm sure
it will prove helpful. Figuring out how to pitch the correct story is a good
point. I think one problem I suffer from is sharing my story and recognizing
it might be of interest to others. I mean I live my life everyday, hardly
newsworthy!

Will definitely try to reach out to Microsoft too, great idea.

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alexanderRohde
I feel this particular post (as a lot of HN) follows a pattern of the
"humblebrag." Are people whose games are _featured_ in windows 8 store really
the ones who need advice, or is this just basically a way to post an HN that
says "My Game was featured, here's a link" with some facade relevance?

Other example titles of shameless self promotion guised as useful information
migth be "What not do with your first million" or "What life is REALLY like
once your startup makes it" or anything else which trades a worthless anecdote
for attention.

~~~
hluska
I'd argue that anyone with the technical ability to get a game featured, yet
without the experience to capitalize on that exposure needs a whole lot of
advice. And frankly, I'm glad that HN is here because this 'worthless
anecdote' taught me:

\- there are only 43,000 apps in the Windows 8 store. Of those, only ~ 3,600
are games. Despite these numbers, one particular developer only sold nine apps
for a total of about twenty pounds.

\- how not to advocate for a platform. Or, how to genuinely annoy people while
trying to persuade them to do what you want.

