Following the publication in Google Play / App Store / Steam Greenlight

It all started with the desire to make their own games instead of making others.
Six months ago, I (the programmer) and my friend (artist) quit my job and decided to start making a dream project - a rally simulator.
We conceived this project for a long time, but did not have enough experience and knowledge to start and finish.
Over the past few years, we both gained experience and matured to finally make this project.
But in the 10 years that we have tried our strength, our achievements have completely become outdated. The code base turned out to be difficult to port to mobile devices. Content not up to date.
For a couple of months, we picked something that we already had in the hope of understanding what to do ...
And they came to the conclusion:
Need to test the soil

We needed to understand how a cross-platform engine is being developed that can work adequately on both PCs and mobile OSs. How is the game published? How do separate sites behave and under what conditions do they work?
We cannot make children's mistakes on a dream project. The project should be developed and published with a clear understanding of how, what and for what is being done.
And for this, we undertook to implement a test project. A small casual game.
This article is about how we published on Google Play, how we failed publication on Greenlight and what surprises we were waiting for in the AppStore.


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To begin with, as we have seen entering the market.
Our main goal was to publish on Android in Russia, fix bugs that will pop up and, in a week, publish in the AppStore and Android worldwide. The next step after publication is marketing.
Marketing with an emphasis on two game chips: a local cooperative (which is very unusual for a mobile game) and as many as four types of management.
Naturally, everything went completely wrong.
But let's order.

Week before release

The game is almost ready. Android version is being tested among friends and relatives.
One of the testers offers to publish in the Steam Greenlight.
The answer to our observation that the game is unformat for Steam (the Steam is a big game, and we have a mobile casual game), was a link to the Casual section on Steam.
I have been using Steam almost since its inception ... And I didn’t even think that there was a Casual section in it.
It turned out that our game is quite consistent with the level of this section and the idea to try to climb on Steam seemed sensible ... mistakenly seemed ... But more on that later.
Thus, a publication in Greenlight was added to our plan.

Release day

The day came when we decided that the game was ready. All contributions were paid and could be published. Our game was completely ready in Russian, a video and description was made in Russian.
The first day we have two goals: Google Play and Steam Greenlight.

Google play

About Google Play, I have nothing to say. He fully met our expectations. No surprises.
Carefully fill out all the descriptions, uploaded screenshots and videos. Publication and after 5 hours the game is available.

Steam greenlight

We just posted a game on Google Play. Our next step is publishing to Greenlight.
Our plan was simple:
Add the game in Russian. Slowly translate, add a description in English.
FAIL! FAIL! FAIL!
But let's take it in order ...
We create a game page, click publish ... And within ten minutes we get fifty minuses!
Even then, we understood what was going on, but the confirmation did not keep us waiting:

Skoardy
Seems you accidentally tagged 'English'.

The problem is not that we "accidentally indicated English." The problem is that we did not expect that the game would be on the first page and that visitors would immediately fall on it without any marketing.
As a result, at 12 am, we are in a hurry to translate the entire page into English.
And here it turns out that the video, flooded by us - also in Russian.
Fortunately, there is only one piece where the Russian text flashes. Quickly replace it. Hooray!
Began to come positive feedback.
The night after the publication I could not sleep. The Greenlight statistics page was updated regularly, probably every half hour.
Every negative review was perceived very personally ...
In general, publishing to Greenlight is a mistake. Of course, this is an experience that will allow you to publish the Rally correctly in the future. But precisely from the point of view of promoting Space Xonix - publication makes no sense.
And the point is not that the game is unformat for Steam. The Casual section shows the opposite.
Our game is unformat for the Greenlight community. The community supports truly unique and interesting games. Well, or at least, more serious.
And I understand them perfectly.

Although on the first and second day we believed that we could reach the hundred of the leaders of Greenlight.
The dynamics of the first days gave us the lead in 50 days.
And even realizing that such dynamics would not be preserved, we still naively believed that there were chances.
The dynamics collapsed in four days, along with hopes of getting the green light.



This is a schedule for visiting and voting on our Greenlight page.
Yellow line - unique visitors.
White line - voices.
Green line - voices "FOR".
First day - we hang on the Greenlight main page. There are only four games and one of them is ours.
The second day - we leave the main page, but still hang on the first page of all projects.
The fourth day - we leave from the first page. This is the end. Next is a fairly flat line. On average, we get 20 votes "FOR" per day. I think it will last for a long time.

Week after release

We made conclusions and decided that it does not make sense to invest in the promotion of the game on the Greenlight.
Our main goal is to publish iOS / Android worldwide.
In general, this week everything went according to plan. The version under iOS was finished. It only remained to activate the store account and enable game services.
Among the friends found translators into the main languages.
Fixed a couple of minor bugs on the Android version.
A week has passed. It's time to publish the game on iOS.

AppStore

The game is ready. All that is needed is to activate a prepaid account, under which the game will be published and to assemble the signed assembly.
Open the letter with a link to activate your account.
Click on the link with the nice text "Click to activate the account."
Push ... FAIL!
And, as is often the case, Apple has no useful information:
“Your account has not been activated. Contact Support".
In a panic we google. Everywhere references to technical support service. Accidentally stumble upon one of the messages, where the developer says that they did not activate the account because he was paid from his father’s credit card.
I go to the account ... and for sure. In my account, I listed as Alexandr, and on the credit card is Alexand e r.
I am writing a letter to Apple technical support:

Not activated account. Perhaps the fact is that my name does not match on the credit card and in the account. Alexandr and Alexander are correct spellings of my name.

Minus two days and the account is activated.
We collect the version and send it for approval, having previously checked the checklist:
www.makayama.com/checklist.html
We hope for a quick acceptance of the game, because nine days have passed instead of seven ... Of course, we are aware of the “week for approval”, but it’s written everywhere that it is in the worst case.
Yes, we had the worst case. On the 16th day we were rejected the application.

The reasons were two:

1. When you click on the "buy coins" button, nothing happens;
2. Invalid links to other mobile platforms.

The second point is clear. We have a button right on the main screen, where there is a link to Google Play.
There was an option to remove only Android. After all, Steam is not a mobile platform. But we did not take risks and just completely cut out all the menus with the platforms.

But the first point is more interesting. The fact is that when you try to conduct an internal purchase in Android, the Google Play window opens immediately. That is, you click on the button in the game, at the same time, the Google services window with the store opens over the game.
Focusing on this behavior, we did not make any reaction in the game to pressing the buy button. In Android, no reaction is needed. From the moment of purchase initiation to the very completion of the purchase, the user cannot interact with the game.
In iOS, the situation is completely different. You initiate a purchase and nothing happens. Within a few seconds, the usual interaction with the game continues. As if you did not press the button. It is perceived as a button failure. It is the correct reason for the rejection ... But why not open the store immediately upon the initiation of the purchase, as is done in Google ??? Solved the problem by adding a purchase animation after pressing a button and before completing the purchase.
We quickly assemble the assembly and ship it. Ironically, again the publication in the night.
The next day I decide to check the status of the project in itunesconnect.
Damn it! The game is waiting for evaluation ... And game products have been rejected since the last attempt ...
And I can not send purchases for evaluation ...
I begin to actively google and find out that the only way to send goods for evaluation is to cancel the evaluation of the application, add products and only then fill in the new version.
Moreover, even if you have not yet filled the application, but have already set the status “Ready for download” - you cannot add goods anymore. What to do in this case? Pour. Wait until it is added to the queue for evaluation. Canceling ...
But when you cancel the assessment, your place in the queue for evaluation is reset.
This time, lucky and the assessment took less than a week. On the 20th day we received the approval of the game on the AppStore.

W3bsit3-dns.com

Separately, it is worth noting the publication of the game in the directory of Android-games, resource w3bsit3-dns.com.
Since the game is free, only purchases are paid, we don’t receive any harm from downloading outside the store.
Therefore, we decided to post the game on w3bsit3-dns.com.
I create a theme on w3bsit3-dns.com, attach apk version 1.03 there and, satisfied, I leave to do other things.
After about half a day I receive a notification from the tester that the current version in the store is not working!
Just falls and that's it.
I'm starting to understand ... Version 1.03 is dead! It turned out that when signing ADT breaks apk. That is, we have a normal, debugged application, everything works fine. We make the Export Signed Application Package and, with some probability, we get a dead build.



I'm running on w3bsit3-dns.com ... and I can not correct the message. For this you need to have 50 messages, but I have about 35. Stuffing is not an option, they will be banned and will be right.
I add a message to the topic: "Here is version 1.04, do not download from the header - dead apk in the header."
But nobody reads me and the number of downloads continues to grow.
After half a day I finish the number of messages to 50, replace apk ...
For the sake of justice - he finished off not with flood, but with meaningful messages, so don’t kick for it.
Meanwhile, the game begins to creep away on one-day sites.
If you are now in the search to drive Space Xonix, then the first pages will be filled with Android sites with our game. Build analysis shows that most sites have taken away the game with w3bsit3-dns.com. That's not bad. We have the first place in the search engine. But there is no special meaning either, they do not increase the number of downloads. I do not quite understand why they live and who their clientele is.

findings

Right decisions:

• Publishing the game first on Google Play in Russia was the right decision. This gave us time to solve several problems without haste. It allowed to evaluate the attitude of players to the game as a whole.
• The publication in w3bsit3-dns.com well played with the removal of us in the top search engines on request Space Xonix. Although it still does not bring any result, but in general the event is positive.

Wrong decisions:

• Testing testing testing. Using the example of version 1.03, I was again convinced that it is impossible to skip testing cycles. Even if you think that the version is 100% working, it is better to spend a little bit of time and check what to fly with the publication.
• Full failure on the timing of publication in the AppStore. We lost two weeks. But the top of the new Google Play is very important to get to the success of the project. The project must be sent there on the same day as Google. It will just be possible to test the Google version while the project is being approved. It is better to cancel the assessment in Apple, if a critical fault is found, than to lose time.
• On Steam, it makes sense to twitch only if you clearly understand that your project will be of interest to the Greenlight community.

Conclusion

I deliberately did not touch the topic of marketing deeply. It will make sense to talk about marketing by the results, when you can evaluate the whole picture.
Here I wanted to talk about the process of publication. Publication is a difficult and crucial moment, which is rarely covered by developers, and this should be corrected.

I hope that my next material on the publication of the game will be devoted to the publication of a much more interesting project: