3. Centrifeud (April ’12)
Wall Street Journal: “Games to Play”
COOL PIZZA (Sept. ’12)
Touch Arcade: Top Arcade Games of 2012
Paste: Top 20 Mobile Games of 2012
6. App Store 2008 - 2013
$99 to be start distributing your games
641+ releases per day!
19,000+ new apps per month!
775,000+ apps!
Very lightly curated
About 25% are games (real numbers hard)
8. Why we picked Apple
Large install base: half a billion iOS devices
Expectations commensurate to small games
No time to port to 80 different Androids
Medium game production time 4-12 mo.
Medium game cost between $20k to $200k
9. Caveats
Games supposedly have a harsher curve than
utility apps
An obvious way to stand out is via brand
Techniques depend a lot on how you intend
to sell your game (paid vs. F2P vs. ads)
10. More Caveats
Our first year as
marketers! Uh-oh!
Didn’t think too deeply
about target audience, so
most tactics were tailored
to “people like us”
11. Last Caveat
It would help if you have a good game
It better look fantastic, this is HUGE
“Too many games are dead from the outset
because they simply do not choose a setting
or character which is appealing to the
market. “ -Ben Cousins
12.
13. Game Review Sites
Timing is key; try to synchronize with launch
TONS of game review sites
Emailing all of them is time intensive
Target most popular sites first
Can hire a PR firm to badger people
Could give a whole talk on this...
17. Top of the charts -->
New releases list --^
- People browsing won’t dig too deep...
+ First day + first week sales are key!
18. Cross Promotion
+ Why not!
- Kick out to store
+ Just you or a ring
- Only intra-platform
19. Viral Design
Hi-tech word of mouth
Farmville style, from the land of Facebook
+ Very powerful way to get new customers
+ Part of the design of the game
- Spammy :(
20. + Whoa! Front page! Maybe even the TV!
- Unpredictable without a contact...
There are things that make a feature more likely:
Use new hardware or iOS features
Be popular
Get a publisher
22. Price Drops
Free App blogs may syndicate the price
change
+ Crazy Tweetbots from Russia
+ Huge payoff in installs
- Only 5% conversion rate
- Makes more sense for IAP games
23. Spongiform Metafount 2
Search!
Memorable names are important
Keywords!
Examples:
Centerfeud :(
Cool Pizza :|
24. App Store Copy
Under your control
Great screenshots and copy
Used by journalists when talking about your
games
Icon should stand out