So the first day of sales came in, and a whole 2 copies were sold. Great!
Why was that number so low? I screwed up in a couple of aspects:
- I did not have time to market the game before its release. In retrospect, I should have waited until a quieter time at work before submitting it, so I would have time to send out promo codes to app reviewing sites, and try to get attention to the game.
- I did not fully understand the iTunes Connect release date. I chose to release the game on the 13th, but as the app was approved on the 9th that is the official release date by Apple standards. If I had gone in and changed the date upon approval to the 9th, I would have been much higher up on the list of new apps sorted by release date, which probably would have meant a few more sales.
- The game got marked as a Kids game. In iTunes Connect you can add two subcategories if you make a game, and I chose Action and Kids, since they were the closest matches (with maybe Arcade competing for a spot). However, the game is rated 9+ for “Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence” as I wanted to be on the safe side when submitting. I don’t know how they chose which subcategory to show in the listings, but I don’t think the combination Kids and 9+ helped.
- No trailer for the game. This is simply because I don’t have a clue how to do one. You would need to show someone playing it as there are no visual cues on the screen where the fingers are, and that would be hard for me to shoot.
- The game description and screen shots did not attract the potential buyers enough to buy the game. I have no idea if this is the case since I don’t have any data on how many hits the store page got.
I will now send out a few review codes to app reviewing sites that may or may not write about the game. The market is extremely crowded, but it’s worth a shot. More marketing would help, but I’m terrible at it, so that will be hard.
I’m also thinking about doing a small update that includes an easy mode where there are fewer monsters that moves slower. If it is marked as a kids game, I might want to have a game that is significantly easier than the game is today. When developing a game, you play it so much that it is really hard to judge how difficult it is. The update wouldn’t take much time at all to do, so it might be worth it.