Fight for the souls of the players or how I tried to enter the mobile market
It all started a year ago when my first game (I work like indie in my spare time) was quite favorably received by the Desura audience. “We need to move on,” I thought, and began to prepare the game for mobile platforms. No sooner said than done: $ 25 to Google Play account, Unity forums to help and go!
Despite the fact that Unity (namely, this engine I use for my game projects) without any problems allows exporting to different platforms, I still had to suffer. The first launch of compiled apk on an Android device brought a completely obvious crash to the desktop. This is where the real work of optimizing my rather difficult game went. However, the fun began after publishing on Google Play.
Once and somewhere I read a clever phrase that the real work begins after the game is released. “Come on!”, I said to myself, “I will throw a couple of posts on Twitter, on well-known forums - and I will row the money with a shovel.” Naive…
I must say that as the monetization of the first game I chose the display of advertising. Just at the time of completion of the work on optimization in the Unity Assets Store there was a sale of one of the adMob plugins. This was due to the choice of the advertising network. No Google Play services and even statistics were connected. To be honest, I considered the release of my game for Android as a kind of experiment, I wanted to “test” the platform and get the right experience. Therefore, the transfer of the game to the mobile platform was rather rude. No, I'm not saying that the game crashes or does not start on weak devices. Despite 3D and rich effects, it works quite successfully with 512 memory and weak chips. That's just originally it was created for the desktop and for small screens the management was not so hot. Therefore, I had to restrict its loading only for tablets.
')
The first few days brought only disappointment. The game just no one saw. Placing the relevant news in my tweeter feed gave only a few downloads and I had to go into PR. Work days began when I searched through the Internet in search of contacts on thematic blogs and websites, registrations on forums, writing posts. All this activity has somewhat increased the number of downloads, but did not lead to any jerk. More than 30 letters have been written, and this is not counting the sending of information in the contact forms of sites. The result is almost zero ... Then I, of course, turned a little soul out of it - the answers were, but only with purely commercial proposals. Unfortunately, I simply had no money for promotion.
The situation changed a little when I published the news about the game on the official English-speaking forum Unity. Thanks to one of the forum regulars, I received an offer from the Giftiz team to place the game in their app for free. That's just the deadline for the start was appointed six weeks after the publication of the game. Of course, by this time the game was out of the "new" category. However, it was giftiz that brought several thousand players to the game.
In accordance with the disappointing results of my first company, I made the following conclusions:
If anyone is interested, here are the forums, where there was at least some return:
forum.xda-developers.com
forum.unity3d.com/forums/showcase.11
forums.tigsource.com
gamesdreams.com
gamespot.com/forums
In addition to posting on Google Play, I tried publishing in alternative stores. I will not be unfounded, but I will give a summary table with the results (installations for all the time):
Compared to Google Play, the alternative stores SlideMe and Opera showed a much better result, but there is simply a giant fly in the ointment. I earned almost nothing on all these thousands of players. The reason - adMob just did not show ads.
Given the stuffed cones, I began to create a new game. This time I designed the game exclusively for a mobile platform. Approaches to the organization of the GUI were revised, the internal structure of the application was changed, and ease of localization was ensured. As an experience, I screwed some social chips.
The new game has become a kind of mix of platformer and runner (now 2D). As a unique chips added the ability to draw during the game process on the screen of various obstacles or bridges. But most importantly, I organically implemented the ratings of Google Play.
To retain players, he introduced some competitiveness into the game, when before launching the next level a peculiar slogan with the name of the best player of this level is shown. At least, with the doubles test, this chip really spurred interest. I also wanted to introduce pushes - reminders, but so far I have postponed due to technical misunderstandings.
Since adMob showed itself disgustingly in alternative stores, I added another MoBFox ad network. I liked the ability to integrate other third-party grids in it. May have to take advantage of this. With advertising, I decided not to overload the game. It is shown at the second and subsequent restart of the current level and when loading each odd level. Only full screen is shown, without any banners. Inquiries from acquaintances showed that such an approach does not irritate the players and is even perceived favorably by them.
As a result, the game was laid out on Google Play, Opera, SlideMe. Now traditionally, the main android store shows a modest number of downloads. But it pleases the decision to fasten and integrate into the gameplay ratings on Google Play. It is interesting to watch players fighting for tops.
By the way, the new advertising network has shown itself much better than adMob in alternative stores. So at least some kind of advertising is shown, but the filling wants to be the best. Taking into account the fact that the game appears on the main page in the list of new in the Opera and SlideMe sites for a while, downloads are much more active. Of course, ratings for these stores had to be turned off. Here, I think, maybe it is worth screwing something like Parse?
At the moment, taking into account the launch of two games, I came to the conclusion that Google Play is very bad for a startup with a zero budget. Perhaps with the number of games published, it will be possible to take full advantage of the cross advertising offered by AdMob. So, I now in the first game show mostly banners from the second game. And a certain percentage of transitions are already observed. Perhaps this, plus a more active dialogue on the forums, will help the second game to rise a bit. Wait and see…
Tip! Dedicated to all those who could not start a home campaign in AdMob (i.e. advertising their applications in their own programs). Although google and assures that this function is free, but if the account does not have a certain amount, the campaign will not start. I spent a lot of time trying to start showing my banners and only after adding 100 rubles. On account, my promo earned.
Despite the fact that Unity (namely, this engine I use for my game projects) without any problems allows exporting to different platforms, I still had to suffer. The first launch of compiled apk on an Android device brought a completely obvious crash to the desktop. This is where the real work of optimizing my rather difficult game went. However, the fun began after publishing on Google Play.
Once and somewhere I read a clever phrase that the real work begins after the game is released. “Come on!”, I said to myself, “I will throw a couple of posts on Twitter, on well-known forums - and I will row the money with a shovel.” Naive…
I must say that as the monetization of the first game I chose the display of advertising. Just at the time of completion of the work on optimization in the Unity Assets Store there was a sale of one of the adMob plugins. This was due to the choice of the advertising network. No Google Play services and even statistics were connected. To be honest, I considered the release of my game for Android as a kind of experiment, I wanted to “test” the platform and get the right experience. Therefore, the transfer of the game to the mobile platform was rather rude. No, I'm not saying that the game crashes or does not start on weak devices. Despite 3D and rich effects, it works quite successfully with 512 memory and weak chips. That's just originally it was created for the desktop and for small screens the management was not so hot. Therefore, I had to restrict its loading only for tablets.
')
The first few days brought only disappointment. The game just no one saw. Placing the relevant news in my tweeter feed gave only a few downloads and I had to go into PR. Work days began when I searched through the Internet in search of contacts on thematic blogs and websites, registrations on forums, writing posts. All this activity has somewhat increased the number of downloads, but did not lead to any jerk. More than 30 letters have been written, and this is not counting the sending of information in the contact forms of sites. The result is almost zero ... Then I, of course, turned a little soul out of it - the answers were, but only with purely commercial proposals. Unfortunately, I simply had no money for promotion.
The situation changed a little when I published the news about the game on the official English-speaking forum Unity. Thanks to one of the forum regulars, I received an offer from the Giftiz team to place the game in their app for free. That's just the deadline for the start was appointed six weeks after the publication of the game. Of course, by this time the game was out of the "new" category. However, it was giftiz that brought several thousand players to the game.
In accordance with the disappointing results of my first company, I made the following conclusions:
- Thematic sites and blogs are not interested in my game. It is likely that the problem is in the game itself. But nevertheless - it is a fact, sending letters did not give anything.
- Enough to use the forums. True rotation on them be healthy. It is important to warm readers interest and respond to all comments.
- There is a reddit effect. I used IndieGaming and playmygame
- Very good result from using giftiz. Only for the timely launch of giftiz'a need a paid approach
- It is necessary to get rid of all the mistakes and not hope for chance. Alas, updates on Google Play appear after a few hours.
- The absence of any sociality.
If anyone is interested, here are the forums, where there was at least some return:
forum.xda-developers.com
forum.unity3d.com/forums/showcase.11
forums.tigsource.com
gamesdreams.com
gamespot.com/forums
In addition to posting on Google Play, I tried publishing in alternative stores. I will not be unfounded, but I will give a summary table with the results (installations for all the time):
- Amazon ~ 100
- SlideMe ~ 5500
- Opera ~ 7500
Compared to Google Play, the alternative stores SlideMe and Opera showed a much better result, but there is simply a giant fly in the ointment. I earned almost nothing on all these thousands of players. The reason - adMob just did not show ads.
Given the stuffed cones, I began to create a new game. This time I designed the game exclusively for a mobile platform. Approaches to the organization of the GUI were revised, the internal structure of the application was changed, and ease of localization was ensured. As an experience, I screwed some social chips.
The new game has become a kind of mix of platformer and runner (now 2D). As a unique chips added the ability to draw during the game process on the screen of various obstacles or bridges. But most importantly, I organically implemented the ratings of Google Play.
To retain players, he introduced some competitiveness into the game, when before launching the next level a peculiar slogan with the name of the best player of this level is shown. At least, with the doubles test, this chip really spurred interest. I also wanted to introduce pushes - reminders, but so far I have postponed due to technical misunderstandings.
Since adMob showed itself disgustingly in alternative stores, I added another MoBFox ad network. I liked the ability to integrate other third-party grids in it. May have to take advantage of this. With advertising, I decided not to overload the game. It is shown at the second and subsequent restart of the current level and when loading each odd level. Only full screen is shown, without any banners. Inquiries from acquaintances showed that such an approach does not irritate the players and is even perceived favorably by them.
As a result, the game was laid out on Google Play, Opera, SlideMe. Now traditionally, the main android store shows a modest number of downloads. But it pleases the decision to fasten and integrate into the gameplay ratings on Google Play. It is interesting to watch players fighting for tops.
By the way, the new advertising network has shown itself much better than adMob in alternative stores. So at least some kind of advertising is shown, but the filling wants to be the best. Taking into account the fact that the game appears on the main page in the list of new in the Opera and SlideMe sites for a while, downloads are much more active. Of course, ratings for these stores had to be turned off. Here, I think, maybe it is worth screwing something like Parse?
At the moment, taking into account the launch of two games, I came to the conclusion that Google Play is very bad for a startup with a zero budget. Perhaps with the number of games published, it will be possible to take full advantage of the cross advertising offered by AdMob. So, I now in the first game show mostly banners from the second game. And a certain percentage of transitions are already observed. Perhaps this, plus a more active dialogue on the forums, will help the second game to rise a bit. Wait and see…
Tip! Dedicated to all those who could not start a home campaign in AdMob (i.e. advertising their applications in their own programs). Although google and assures that this function is free, but if the account does not have a certain amount, the campaign will not start. I spent a lot of time trying to start showing my banners and only after adding 100 rubles. On account, my promo earned.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/246805/
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