How to keep my game popular?

[andymc]

I wasn't expecting this at all. But my copy of space invaders on the play store has got a lot of downloads over the last two months. It's basically gone from 2 downloads a day to 1500 a day. I've been making updates to fix any bugs I can find and add some new features but would welcome suggestions to keep the downloads going
It's entirely written in b4a and libgdx.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.coffeeinducedgames.invaders

 

[sorex]

I guess your game got featured on the store or reviewed by someone/a_site with a lot of followers.

Keeping it like this is a matter of pure luck I guess. It might drop again to 5/day and a few months later having huge graph spikes again.

Hopefully this big install amounts lasts for a while

 

[ilan]

wow 1500/day. congratulation andy.
its amazing. i never had such a download rate in all of my apps. the most download i got / day was about 300 but never more then that.
its really amazing to get so many downloads.

are people keeping the app or do many uninstall it again?

from where are the most downloads?

 

[sorex]

overhere when I enter space invaders in the google play search it's the seconds app in the list.

that must be it I guess.

I don't think that people will try it out when it's the 30th in the list they usually try a few only.

 

[andymc]

Most downloads are from the US and UK. I see about 40% un installs for the number of downloads each day. But that still means I'm getting nearly a thousand active installs per day. The developer console shows 28000 active installs. I'm going to do more games that are similar. I wanted to keep this one close to the original arcade version. So I can now either make more similar games or other old arcade games like frogger or asteroids as they don't seem to have very good versions right now.

 

[sorex]

the uninstalls don't really matter because the high install rate your app will stay on top there and only leads to more installs.

 

[Beja]

Hi Andy,
In 1980 I addicted this game.. I would suggest to you to make the objects smaller relative to
the screen.. and in the first level the invaders be far in the sky.

my 2 cents

 

[udg]

Congratulations Andy!
About your thread's question ("How to keep my game popular?") one sure answer is: money!
You may pay a weekly/monthly prize to the top 5 scores or any other similar scheme you may find right for you.

ps: I started this answer as a joke..but the more I think about it the more it seems to make sense to me.

 

[ilan]

You may pay a weekly/monthly prize to the top 5 scores or any other similar scheme you may find right for you.

i dont know if this is allowed, i also had the idea to make a competition and first guy that finish my game receive a donation but i dont know if it is allowed.

 

[sorex]

and what if you set €50 as first price and it turns out that it takes 6+ months to generate such revenue in a month?

you'll create some nice debt first.

 

[andymc]

I like the idea of a prize each month. But I'd have to make the score board online and make it impossible to hack. I see a lot of games where the online scores were obviously hacked, like flappy bird.

 

[udg]

Consider to make the on-line scoreboard and prize an option.
Only those who opt to partecipate in the competition will be requested to register to a server, entering data like PayPal account and personal details for a receipt/pro-forma invoice (or any other document needed by fiscal laws).
Those measures would hopefully take away a few "pirate candidates"..

To hinder code-hacking pirates probably the best measure will be to keep the prize low and update the program often. It will still be inviting to those willing to show friends how smart they are, but at least they will be able to steal just a few bucks. And once the code gets updated they have to start their hacking from zero.

@sorex : I was thinking of low-budget prizes, say $5-10 for first place. Even paying prizes for $20/25 each month you hopefully benefit of a large enough audience for a game that gives you the chance to advertise other apps from yourself and, obviously, be part of an ad system like admob or similar.

just my 2cent

 

[melonZgz]

First of all: congratulations for those results!
I think mobile games is an unpredictable market, very very crazy sometimes. I experienced something similar with my catapult game. From 100 daily downloads, it started to grow (without doing anything) to about 4000 a day and growing, I even reached 6000 downloads in the best days! What I did was updating the game, to fix bugs and to change some things according to the reviews. In the last months installs have decreased (now I have between 1500 and 2500 a day) but the rating is growing so I really don't know what to do! that's why I said it's a crazy market...

 

[dar2o3]

Congratulations, What memories! Very accomplished.

 

[LucaMs]

Congratulations Andy!
About your thread's question ("How to keep my game popular?") one sure answer is: money!
You may pay a weekly/monthly prize to the top 5 scores or any other similar scheme you may find right for you.

ps: I started this answer as a joke..but the more I think about it the more it seems to make sense to me.

and what if you set €50 as first price and it turns out that it takes 6+ months to generate such revenue in a month?

you'll create some nice debt first.

Create a jackpot. Users can participate by paying X$, hold a percentage and the rest will be the monthly jackpot.


How to keep my game popular?

I've been making updates to fix any bugs

What I did was updating the game, to fix bugs and to change some things according to the reviews

 

[sorex]

Aren't we all fixing our bugs and adding suggestions if they are suitable? That shouldn't be it.
In the best case you get a change from 3* or 4* to 5* for implementing the request and some don't even care to do that.

Melon: didn't you write once that you did a marketing campaign at app release which caused a temp install boost?
I guess once passed 10K installs apps get notified easier.

 

[andymc]

I think my app getting into the trending section made a big difference. It's still there now. But I think I will see a big drop when it goes.
I may get more players keeping the game installed by improving it, but probably not more installs.

Advertising wise I will make some changes but don't want to upset players with too many ads, need to find a good balance.

 

[melonZgz]

Melon: didn't you write once that you did a marketing campaign at app release which caused a temp install boost?

Yeah, after the campaign I doubled the daily installs. But after that I made two more campaigns wich had absolutely no effect.

I guess once passed 10K installs apps get notified easier.

I think this is also true. I think total installs is the main factor, and then there are other ones like retention, reviews, ratings...

 

[andymc]

One thing I am doing is reskinning the game with purchased graphics and better sound and music. Adding gameplay changes like powerups, boss levels and asteroid fields then releasing it as the "deluxe" version. It will look much better and more professional.

 

[Peter Simpson]

@andymc I have a couple of simple apps on the play store. I get steady sales via simply upgrades, basically pay $0.99, £0.99, €0.99 etc for the full version (in your case more difficult screens). Maybe you should seriously consider do that. I personally hate popup ads in apps, if I like an app but I can't pay to remove the ads, I just uninstall the dam app, really annoys me lol

There's two idea for you to try and monetise more on your great success. BTW if I search for Space Invaders in the play store, your game appears 2nd in the search results over here in good old Blighty.