I'm planning on going commercial (le gasp!) for my next release on the App Store I plan on releasing my game for 99c.
Has anyone gone through this process before? If so, what did you do (if anything) to market your app/ game? I haven't bothered researching this yet (I know I am lazy but I will get round to it) so I thought I'd post here first... because I love you all (naww) (brackets).
There are some sites you can pay to get your game reviewed. This can range from $100 to $1000. I strongly advise that you DO NOT go with this method. I've seen people say that they've done this and had zero increase in sales.
The best way would be to contact smaller game reviewers on Youtube and give them a free code to download the game if they're interested. Submit the game to as many sites as you can, post about it on indie forums, but don't spam too much or it'll annoy people.
Of course it's a great idea to promote your game throughout it's development, but I've not got too many ideas on how best to do that... A lot of people seem to be successful with it. I'm sure there are people here on TDC who can enlighten us more about this..? Anyone?
Hey Jake
As recommended YouTube is a great way to get exposure by smaller reviewers what I would like to add to that is to find a few popular figures what I mean by that is personality on youtube or twitter that can tweet about your IOS game. They don't have to be mega popular online personalities but try to find ones with a few thousand subscribers/ followers it will help you allot if you can fine channels/ personalities that are game related or post game play vids are a good place to also check out.
A way to do this is quiet simple just youtube for either reviewers or youtube personalities that post game play videos. I hope this helps!
The whole world is in debt and the whole money thing is an illusion that was generated by the government's super-computers... Why bother to chase after illusive money that isn't really your's?
I released a game on app store for 99c, but it was just most for fun. All I did was tell friends about it and hopefully they would tell their friends and so on.
About 50 people bought it. Didn't really expect anything, but gives you an idea of where you might land. App store is swamped, and it's next to impossible to get a good marketing spot on there.
Also, the day I made it free, over 300 people installed it. So you know, going the free route will def give you more downloads. Perhaps get in-game purchases or commercials if you try to make revenue?
Yes it's difficult. Really the only hope for most devs is to have your app featured by Apple, or like you said go free and have IAPs.
Even really good apps are hardly noticed unless you have some sort of fan base to begin with. I find apps that have been building up hype on various forums seem to do well.
Pretty much if you aren't doing well out the gate then you prolly don't have a chance in the long run.