weird business

ilan

ilan

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Informatix said:
Two, in fact. MyPlayground and Diktatour.
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my kids love to play "MyPlayground".
you have not updated it for a long time but its still fun to play it.
 
Informatix

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ilan said:
The example i posted in post #1 just proove that its not about marketing. Does anyone here believe that this guy spent money on promoting his game?
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Sometimes success comes from a newspaper article about your application or good word-of-mouth in playgrounds. If tomorrow Justin Bieber writes on Twitter that he has had fun with your application, you will have millions of downloads in less than 24 hours, no matter how good your application is.
What I have come to understand with the mobile world, as opposed to the PC video game world, is that everything is ephemeral. I, like many people, have tried hundreds of games or apps on my phone, whereas I had to install or try only a dozen on my PC in the same time. This ephemeral reign means that it is essential to be able to capture the air of the times and to offer the right product at the right time. Moreover, because of the extreme competition (the volume of games posted every day is mind-boggling), you must have the little extra something that will get you out of the crowd.
Good communication around your product can help to promote it and improve its visibility, but it won't be enough. A good marketing study that targets the expectations of the moment and tries to identify the game that could be a hit will probably help too, but it won't be enough either. You need a combination of factors that come together at some point in time, some of them being out of your control, such as word-of-mouth. That's why I'm not sure that the author of a successful application really knows why his application was so successful.
 
tufanv

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ilan said:
its easy to say everything is about marketing but i dont agree with it.
marketing is important but before you market your product it needs to have potential.
potential does not mean A GOOD APP potential mean IS IT NOW A POPULAR CONCEPT?
WILL IT INTEREST PEOPLE?

i saw some videos from big companies that gives advice how to make a popular app and i followed their suggestions.
thats why i made "Cowboy VS Ballz" (i changed the name from Ballz Shooter to Cowboy VS Ballz and i will explain why i did it later in this post)

so the guy (KETCHAPP CEO) gives some advice how to make a popular app and he has a lot experience.
i advice anyone to watch the video (i will put it at the end of the post)

so his biggest advice is to make an app that in trendy right now. there are a lot game concepts like JUMP UP, ENDLESS RUNNER, FLAPPY BIRD, PLATFORM,...
but if you open the TOP CHARTS you can see what people are right now playing and what is right now trendy.

and you should look for simple games that are trendy and that are NEW in the market. you will find some games that are a long time on the top 10 like Hill Climber or MINCRAFT but you should look for those that are NEW and simple.

Now you can have a clue whats people are playing and what is trendy now and make your own game (NOT CLONING) just take some features from that game and put it in yours. this is what i did.

i took BALLZ concept and put a cowboy that shoots all BALLZ that fly to him. i put physics to the game and some effects like Slow motion and share HIT Picture like in Hill Climb and make a simple game with a lot potential (i hope)

first i called it BALLZ SHOOTER but then i saw that there are a lot X VS X games out there like SNAKE VS BLOCK, SLIGHTER VS BALL,.. so i decided to use the same name type and called it "Cowboy VS Ballz" like this it is more interesting to people and also femiliar with other games (i mean the name type)

i made it also simple with no childish graphics so it will point to anyone in any age and not only 7 to 13 years old kids.
(this is also an advice by KetchApp guy.

you can see the game here (i have uploaded a new build so the name is right now not correct)

link: https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/cowboy-vs-ballz-ispritekit.83889/

and i advice anyone to have a look at this video (especially game developers in this forum):


Click to expand...
isn't this guy is the founder of buildbox : Trey ?
 
ilan

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Informatix said:
Sometimes success comes from a newspaper article about your application or good word-of-mouth in playgrounds. If tomorrow Justin Bieber writes on Twitter that he has had fun with your application, you will have millions of downloads in less than 24 hours, no matter how good your application is.
What I have come to understand the mobile world, as opposed to the PC video game world, is that everything is ephemeral. I, like many people, have tried hundreds of games or apps on my phone, whereas I had to install or try only a dozen on my PC in the same time. This ephemeral reign means that it is essential to be able to capture the air of the times and to offer the right product at the right time. Moreover, because of the extreme competition (the volume of games posted every day is mind-boggling), you must have the little extra something that will get you out of the crowd.
Good communication around your product can help to promote it and improve its visibility, but it won't be enough. A good marketing study that targets the expectations of the moment and tries to identify the game that could be a hit will probably help too, but it won't be enough either. You need a combination of factors that come together at some point in time, some of them being out of your control, such as word-of-mouth. That's why I'm not sure that the author of a successful application really knows why his application was so successful.
Click to expand...

i agree with everything you wrote.

so bottom line, our job is to make a fun, fresh, trendy app (game) and then IF we get visibility we may get a chance to get into the top charts.

this is why i like iOS. when you release an app on the app store you have few days visibility on NEW APPS (not like in android, TOP NEW RELEASES where all are by big companies or maybe months in the market)

for example when i open app store on my iPhone and go to Games > Action > Free
i will find my new game on about place 100.

this won't happen on android unless you have a lot of downloads.
so, in my opinion, ios gives you more chances.

lately, my installs have increased on ios (i have crossed 100k installs) and it started only in the last month.
i don't know whats the reason but it happened.

i still don't see any money from it but at least my apps have more visibility on the market now, and now it's my responsibility to make good games so people will play then and keep them on their phones.

appstore.png


so its not a secret that if you have more installs your app will have more visibility on the store and that means more installs again so its a circle (like @melonZgz already said)

so i am a little bit disappointed by this forum in that part. if 10% (=9000) would install the app we put on the "Share Your Creation" Forum we would have a real chance, but only a few (or sometimes no one installs or rate the apps)

i would like to see more willingness by the community here to help each other when we release new apps. :(
 
tufanv

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ilan said:
yes i was wrong, its the founder of buildbox
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they are now making buildbox 3d , but that is not important. Even if we make the best game of the world , we dont know how to promote it :)
 
ilan

ilan

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Informatix said:
You cannot count on such a behavior. If all users of my libraries/classes clicked on Like when they download the zip, I would have more likes than Erel. ;)
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likes doesnot make you money :D

anyway, i think any one that shares for free libs, classes or any source he had to work on it deserves a like.
its not obvious that some one spent his time to share stuff for free with others.
 
LucaMs

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ilan said:
i would like to see more willingness by the community here to help each other when we release new apps.
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Just a vague idea.

If all b4x members added an "interstitial" (activity) to advertise B4X.com, users of these apps would find all apps developed with these tools and published in the "share your creations" forums.


Of course, the trouble would be that Erel would become too rich, but we can not care of this :p
 
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Star-Dust

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LucaMs said:
I was glancing at an app published by an our friend and I noticed this on the right of its page:
View attachment 59723


That "indispensable" app (Triangle calculator) has got 500,000 - 1,000,000 downloads !!!
This also, for me, is incredible.
Click to expand...
Dear @LucaMs the simplest ideas are also the most successful ones, indeed I am developing an App that calculates the circumference of a circle having only the radius
 
melonZgz

melonZgz

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ilan said:
and i advice anyone to have a look at this video (especially game developers in this forum):


Click to expand...

Thank you very much for the video!
What I've learned:
If you want success for your game, you have to take a look at what games are successful!
As a solo developer, you should be able to finish a game within months, because the trends may change if you take years to complete a game
The game should be fun from the very first moment. A LOT of games fail here: first levels too easy, difficulty not well balanced...
Of course the game should be solid, wich means not only bug free, the music should fit, the sounds, the graphics, the menus... everything should fit together perfectly
Having allready a popular game helps a lot, because you can promote your new games there. Just take a look at ketchapp: each new game they release is promoted in all the other games they have, so they have thousand of downloads assured from the first moment they launch a game.
 
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