Million Dollar Game: Cover Orange Interview
We offer interesting material about the experience of developing and promoting the game in the App Store. Yevgeny Kuzmin (known on the Internet as Johnny-K), the author of the Cover Orange application, told us about the number of downloads and how much they brought, and also answered several other questions.
The Cover Orange game for iPad and iPhone appeared at the end of 2010 (November 17 and December 13, respectively). During its existence, it was both paid and free; almost two months ago, the possibility of in-game purchases appeared in it. In mid-August, the game reached the third line of Top Paid iPhone Apps USA, and since the release, both versions have earned almost a million dollars.
Being in the American top 5, Cover Orange gave from 9 to 12 thousand downloads per day. Together with sales inside the game, the game brought about an average of 10 thousand dollars a day. For 2.5 weeks since the launch of In App Purchase, she earned 150 thousand dollars (including Apple's share).
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Function In App Purchase in the application appeared on August 2 - those who had difficulties with passing levels, were offered protective helmets. The first three users received for free, the rest acquired in sets for $ 0.99 or $ 1.99. Only in the first three days after the appearance of this opportunity, the helmets were bought about 10 thousand times - the publisher and the developer earned about 7 thousand dollars from this. Over the next two weeks, the total income from In App Purchase in Cover Orange rose to 37 thousand dollars - while the full version of the application was paid, the sales of helmets remained at the same level.
The game regularly comes out updates (now in the App Store is already the 8th version), in which there are new levels and achievements.
Did you get Apple's Cover Orange feature?
I must say that the game was extremely featured. There was not a big banner, for a very long time they did not get into the hot games section and the team favorites section. For some reason, our game is not much like Apple =)
When did the game get paid when free? What did you follow when choosing a pay / free period?
When the game fell heavily in the overall standings, the publisher decided on a temporary free game. As a result, the game took off in the free tops, scored good reviews - and became paid. The number of people who managed to download the game during this time (several days) reached a million, sometimes more. Then people recommended the game to their friends, shared links on Twitter and blogs, due to which the game quickly reached the fifty US top stamp. Then the recommendations became less, the game again crawled into tasteless positions, the publisher made it free and so on.
What did you do to promote? Do we need to do anything at all, or, according to some developers, it is enough to simply make a “cool game”?
I personally, as a developer, did nothing. Only gave stupid advice to the publisher =) Promotion and all such should be done by those who are intended for this. The developer should develop. Although these “helmets for oranges” are my idea. They slightly increased the popularity of the game, delighting people who were stuck at some level and could not continue playing.
Just making a cool game is not enough. Going to AppStor without a publisher is like getting up on a deserted outskirts of a city with a tray and selling new brand cigarettes from it - no one will go to you, even if these are harmless cigarettes, even if they do not cause cancer, but they are cured - just about you nobody will know. The publisher also motivates people to go to your tray.
In your experience, can a good launch determine the fate of an application, or does a lot depend on what to do with it later?
The launch of the application, of course, does not determine the fate. A good launch only allows you to reduce some of the costs of promotion, because with a good start, Apple itself is engaged in promotion, placing banners and application icons on the home page of its store. But even if Apple did not notice the game, it does not mean anything. Rather, it means only one thing - you will have to work on promoting more. By the way, according to my observations, a good launch of applications without further support by the publisher did not save the game from falling in the tops. The game came out, got a promo from Apple, it lit up there, they told about it, got to the top ... The publisher calms down, and the game soon goes down. By the way, the launch of Cover Orange on the iPhone was extremely unfortunate, Apple ignored us completely.
The main thing to remember is that the life cycle of an application in the App Store is much longer than the same flash games. Cover Orange came out almost a year ago, and I’m sure that it will bring us more than one hundred thousand American money.
How did you get started? What did you focus on?
I can not say. The subtleties of advancement are definitely not for me =)
My business was to keep abreast of and quickly respond to bugs that could get out. To my pride I will say that there were practically no bugs, there is also the merit of the publisher.
Has the game changed a lot since launch?
Virtually unchanged. In addition to the "helmets" no new chips were added. Just because the game is self-sufficient, it does not need to add anything. In addition to the levels, of course. The first version had 80 levels, now there are 240 levels. In November, when we celebrate the year since the birth of Cover Orange, we will give players a gift, adding 40 levels to the next update, bringing the total to 300.
In your opinion, is there any point in giving your games to the publisher? After all, he will take part of the proceeds - maybe it's better to do everything yourself?
It always makes sense to give the game to the publisher. Isolated cases, such as Tiny Wings, for example, when the game is stuck in tops without a publisher - these are just isolated cases. This is not about us. There should always be a publisher. Games every day produced a huge amount. The publisher will help the game stand out, will help to know about it to a large number of potential buyers.
Do not be greedy. The publisher does not "take away" part of the proceeds, he is honest (if, of course, this is an honest and good publisher), it works out. Also spends money on promotion agencies, to pay for banners. Relieves headaches associated with bureaucracy. In the end, a good publisher always has a large team of testers, that is, he is even ready to take on some of the developer’s functions.
This and other interviews read on our site http://app2top.ru
The Cover Orange game for iPad and iPhone appeared at the end of 2010 (November 17 and December 13, respectively). During its existence, it was both paid and free; almost two months ago, the possibility of in-game purchases appeared in it. In mid-August, the game reached the third line of Top Paid iPhone Apps USA, and since the release, both versions have earned almost a million dollars.
Being in the American top 5, Cover Orange gave from 9 to 12 thousand downloads per day. Together with sales inside the game, the game brought about an average of 10 thousand dollars a day. For 2.5 weeks since the launch of In App Purchase, she earned 150 thousand dollars (including Apple's share).
')
Function In App Purchase in the application appeared on August 2 - those who had difficulties with passing levels, were offered protective helmets. The first three users received for free, the rest acquired in sets for $ 0.99 or $ 1.99. Only in the first three days after the appearance of this opportunity, the helmets were bought about 10 thousand times - the publisher and the developer earned about 7 thousand dollars from this. Over the next two weeks, the total income from In App Purchase in Cover Orange rose to 37 thousand dollars - while the full version of the application was paid, the sales of helmets remained at the same level.
The game regularly comes out updates (now in the App Store is already the 8th version), in which there are new levels and achievements.
Did you get Apple's Cover Orange feature?
I must say that the game was extremely featured. There was not a big banner, for a very long time they did not get into the hot games section and the team favorites section. For some reason, our game is not much like Apple =)
When did the game get paid when free? What did you follow when choosing a pay / free period?
When the game fell heavily in the overall standings, the publisher decided on a temporary free game. As a result, the game took off in the free tops, scored good reviews - and became paid. The number of people who managed to download the game during this time (several days) reached a million, sometimes more. Then people recommended the game to their friends, shared links on Twitter and blogs, due to which the game quickly reached the fifty US top stamp. Then the recommendations became less, the game again crawled into tasteless positions, the publisher made it free and so on.
What did you do to promote? Do we need to do anything at all, or, according to some developers, it is enough to simply make a “cool game”?
I personally, as a developer, did nothing. Only gave stupid advice to the publisher =) Promotion and all such should be done by those who are intended for this. The developer should develop. Although these “helmets for oranges” are my idea. They slightly increased the popularity of the game, delighting people who were stuck at some level and could not continue playing.
Just making a cool game is not enough. Going to AppStor without a publisher is like getting up on a deserted outskirts of a city with a tray and selling new brand cigarettes from it - no one will go to you, even if these are harmless cigarettes, even if they do not cause cancer, but they are cured - just about you nobody will know. The publisher also motivates people to go to your tray.
In your experience, can a good launch determine the fate of an application, or does a lot depend on what to do with it later?
The launch of the application, of course, does not determine the fate. A good launch only allows you to reduce some of the costs of promotion, because with a good start, Apple itself is engaged in promotion, placing banners and application icons on the home page of its store. But even if Apple did not notice the game, it does not mean anything. Rather, it means only one thing - you will have to work on promoting more. By the way, according to my observations, a good launch of applications without further support by the publisher did not save the game from falling in the tops. The game came out, got a promo from Apple, it lit up there, they told about it, got to the top ... The publisher calms down, and the game soon goes down. By the way, the launch of Cover Orange on the iPhone was extremely unfortunate, Apple ignored us completely.
The main thing to remember is that the life cycle of an application in the App Store is much longer than the same flash games. Cover Orange came out almost a year ago, and I’m sure that it will bring us more than one hundred thousand American money.
How did you get started? What did you focus on?
I can not say. The subtleties of advancement are definitely not for me =)
My business was to keep abreast of and quickly respond to bugs that could get out. To my pride I will say that there were practically no bugs, there is also the merit of the publisher.
Has the game changed a lot since launch?
Virtually unchanged. In addition to the "helmets" no new chips were added. Just because the game is self-sufficient, it does not need to add anything. In addition to the levels, of course. The first version had 80 levels, now there are 240 levels. In November, when we celebrate the year since the birth of Cover Orange, we will give players a gift, adding 40 levels to the next update, bringing the total to 300.
In your opinion, is there any point in giving your games to the publisher? After all, he will take part of the proceeds - maybe it's better to do everything yourself?
It always makes sense to give the game to the publisher. Isolated cases, such as Tiny Wings, for example, when the game is stuck in tops without a publisher - these are just isolated cases. This is not about us. There should always be a publisher. Games every day produced a huge amount. The publisher will help the game stand out, will help to know about it to a large number of potential buyers.
Do not be greedy. The publisher does not "take away" part of the proceeds, he is honest (if, of course, this is an honest and good publisher), it works out. Also spends money on promotion agencies, to pay for banners. Relieves headaches associated with bureaucracy. In the end, a good publisher always has a large team of testers, that is, he is even ready to take on some of the developer’s functions.
This and other interviews read on our site http://app2top.ru
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/133052/
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