1,500,000 installations in 3 months - Tap Tap Builder development history
Good day! I am an indie developer and author of the Tap Tap Builder game. In this short article I will share my experience and tell you how a small game makes its way into the big world.
In brief, I’ll tell you about the development, because I already wrote about it in the previous article “Optimization of the game on Unity and dev story Tap Tap Builder” . Tap Tap Builder is a simple city builder with clicker elements. We have one person in the development team, that's me. The game is written on the Unity engine and the C # language. The development of the prototype took 3 months, and the game was first shown at GamesJamKanobu 2016. The game fell into a selection of interesting projects, where the publisher Herocraft noticed it. A month later, Tap Tap Builder went into softlaunch (Google Play Russia), and six months later there was a global release. The total development time was about 1 year.
')
I am 100% satisfied with the cooperation with Herocraft, nothing would have happened without them. I happened to work with very qualified producers - Sergey Kopov and Sergey Manucharyan. Development of the game is constantly headed in the right direction. For all tasks, feedback was tracked, analytics and communication with players was actively used. In addition, I express special thanks to the entire QA Herocraft department for their help with testing!
In promoting games, useful contacts are essential. That is why major publishers have the opportunity to get featured in gaming stores. Of course, the game must meet a variety of criteria for the store to put it on its storefront. And it is communication with representatives of stores that allows you to determine the conditions necessary for this. For example, Google asked us to bring all of its gaming services to the main screen. Also asked to localize the main languages ​​(DE, FR, IT, ES), in addition to EN / RU. Apple wants to see great content updates, especially related to various events (for Christmas, for example). Alas, without a publisher, one would only have to guess what would interest stores.
We had featured in the App Store and Google Play. At this time, the game should get as many installations as possible in order to “stake out” a place in the games category. For example, in the App Store it turned out about 300.000 installations during the feature, and on Google Play - about 600.000.
The average score of the game at all sites is 4.5 points, which is considered a very high score. In addition, the sites themselves have responded well about the game and are ready to help the project further. To a large extent, this was influenced by the fact that the target audience of the game was very wide. The Tap Tap Builder is played by both girls 6 years old and boys 40 years old.
The easiest way to promote is to reach a new audience. Now I am working on a browser version of the game (WebGL, HTML5) for social networks Facebook and Vkontakte. There are plans to publish on popular gaming platforms with browsers. Steam - also in the plans. In parallel, I am engaged in the release of content updates and the expansion of social functions. So there is enough work.
Then I will tell a few funny facts that have greatly influenced the success of the game.
The game icon is what the potential player sees first. It is for her that the player makes the decision to go and download the game, or scroll through.
At the very beginning I had a rather simple icon with a city, cut out of a banner. The publisher often chooses the icon himself, and here I did not resist. In many games on the icon there is the face of the character, with which many players, in theory, should associate themselves. 4 characters were drawn. Boy and girl, since the game is focused largely on a children's audience. There was also a sexy blonde, but there were no curvaceous forms. Although this trick really works in many other games. And finally, there was a brutal peasant builder from whom no one really expected anything.
First, I showed the icons to the players in the VKontakte group. By that time, there were already several thousand players in it. Secondly, we launched AB testing on Google Play to determine which icon is more effective. Both experiments gave the same result - a brutal man unexpectedly became the face of the game for us. My explanation is simple - even a little girl who plays a building simulator imagines herself to be a hefty uncle in a helmet.
Communicating with players is the easiest way to find out what they want. This allows you to properly prioritize the development. Of course, there will be a wide variety of suggestions and complaints. Someone wants his amusement park, and someone wants cats and dogs. Definitely no need to immediately run and implement what the players are asking you. I communicate with players on social networks, and there are also separate topics where you can leave feedback, suggestions, or report a bug.
Then I choose the most significant offers and invite the players themselves to determine what needs to be added to the game first. For example, I made a simple survey based on a Google form in which 200 people took part. This gave answers to the most important questions that stood before me at that moment. By the way, for participating in the survey, the players received cookies so that everyone was happy.
In our game, users can exchange coupons with each other, in which there are loans, resources and other things. For example, I go to the post office building and choose what I want to send a parcel with 1000 concrete to the player with the index 12600. The game takes 1000 concretes from me and issues a coupon, for example GMR6T. This coupon I can tell the player with the city index of 12600. If he enters it in the mail building, he will receive 1000 concrete. Simple, original, and no network connection required.
In our groups on social networks, we publish random coupons every day. This simple way attracts new players to groups and creates activity in them. Well, players get a new topic for communication every day, because comments are open. Under the cut, they exchange coupons, ask and answer questions. Someone even tried to sell some junk, but got banned.
Of course, everyone is interested in numbers. At the time of this writing, the game has more than 1,500,000 installations: 1,000,000 on Google Play and more than 500,000 on the App Store. The total income, unfortunately, I can not disclose. Income distribution: 45% of the App Store, 15% of Google Play, 40% advertising on both platforms (UnityAds + Chartboost).
As always, I will be glad to talk with you in the comments, so ask questions! Thank you for your attention and good luck in the design!
Development
In brief, I’ll tell you about the development, because I already wrote about it in the previous article “Optimization of the game on Unity and dev story Tap Tap Builder” . Tap Tap Builder is a simple city builder with clicker elements. We have one person in the development team, that's me. The game is written on the Unity engine and the C # language. The development of the prototype took 3 months, and the game was first shown at GamesJamKanobu 2016. The game fell into a selection of interesting projects, where the publisher Herocraft noticed it. A month later, Tap Tap Builder went into softlaunch (Google Play Russia), and six months later there was a global release. The total development time was about 1 year.
')
Work with the publisher
I am 100% satisfied with the cooperation with Herocraft, nothing would have happened without them. I happened to work with very qualified producers - Sergey Kopov and Sergey Manucharyan. Development of the game is constantly headed in the right direction. For all tasks, feedback was tracked, analytics and communication with players was actively used. In addition, I express special thanks to the entire QA Herocraft department for their help with testing!
Featureing
In promoting games, useful contacts are essential. That is why major publishers have the opportunity to get featured in gaming stores. Of course, the game must meet a variety of criteria for the store to put it on its storefront. And it is communication with representatives of stores that allows you to determine the conditions necessary for this. For example, Google asked us to bring all of its gaming services to the main screen. Also asked to localize the main languages ​​(DE, FR, IT, ES), in addition to EN / RU. Apple wants to see great content updates, especially related to various events (for Christmas, for example). Alas, without a publisher, one would only have to guess what would interest stores.
We had featured in the App Store and Google Play. At this time, the game should get as many installations as possible in order to “stake out” a place in the games category. For example, in the App Store it turned out about 300.000 installations during the feature, and on Google Play - about 600.000.
Game rating
The average score of the game at all sites is 4.5 points, which is considered a very high score. In addition, the sites themselves have responded well about the game and are ready to help the project further. To a large extent, this was influenced by the fact that the target audience of the game was very wide. The Tap Tap Builder is played by both girls 6 years old and boys 40 years old.
Future plans
The easiest way to promote is to reach a new audience. Now I am working on a browser version of the game (WebGL, HTML5) for social networks Facebook and Vkontakte. There are plans to publish on popular gaming platforms with browsers. Steam - also in the plans. In parallel, I am engaged in the release of content updates and the expansion of social functions. So there is enough work.
Interesting Facts
Then I will tell a few funny facts that have greatly influenced the success of the game.
Game icon
The game icon is what the potential player sees first. It is for her that the player makes the decision to go and download the game, or scroll through.
At the very beginning I had a rather simple icon with a city, cut out of a banner. The publisher often chooses the icon himself, and here I did not resist. In many games on the icon there is the face of the character, with which many players, in theory, should associate themselves. 4 characters were drawn. Boy and girl, since the game is focused largely on a children's audience. There was also a sexy blonde, but there were no curvaceous forms. Although this trick really works in many other games. And finally, there was a brutal peasant builder from whom no one really expected anything.
First, I showed the icons to the players in the VKontakte group. By that time, there were already several thousand players in it. Secondly, we launched AB testing on Google Play to determine which icon is more effective. Both experiments gave the same result - a brutal man unexpectedly became the face of the game for us. My explanation is simple - even a little girl who plays a building simulator imagines herself to be a hefty uncle in a helmet.
Communication with players
Communicating with players is the easiest way to find out what they want. This allows you to properly prioritize the development. Of course, there will be a wide variety of suggestions and complaints. Someone wants his amusement park, and someone wants cats and dogs. Definitely no need to immediately run and implement what the players are asking you. I communicate with players on social networks, and there are also separate topics where you can leave feedback, suggestions, or report a bug.
Then I choose the most significant offers and invite the players themselves to determine what needs to be added to the game first. For example, I made a simple survey based on a Google form in which 200 people took part. This gave answers to the most important questions that stood before me at that moment. By the way, for participating in the survey, the players received cookies so that everyone was happy.
Kuponchiki
In our game, users can exchange coupons with each other, in which there are loans, resources and other things. For example, I go to the post office building and choose what I want to send a parcel with 1000 concrete to the player with the index 12600. The game takes 1000 concretes from me and issues a coupon, for example GMR6T. This coupon I can tell the player with the city index of 12600. If he enters it in the mail building, he will receive 1000 concrete. Simple, original, and no network connection required.
In our groups on social networks, we publish random coupons every day. This simple way attracts new players to groups and creates activity in them. Well, players get a new topic for communication every day, because comments are open. Under the cut, they exchange coupons, ask and answer questions. Someone even tried to sell some junk, but got banned.
The main question - the numbers
Of course, everyone is interested in numbers. At the time of this writing, the game has more than 1,500,000 installations: 1,000,000 on Google Play and more than 500,000 on the App Store. The total income, unfortunately, I can not disclose. Income distribution: 45% of the App Store, 15% of Google Play, 40% advertising on both platforms (UnityAds + Chartboost).
Tips
- Read the right books! For example, Eric Rees - BUSINESS WITH ZERA. Like many of you, I do not like to read books. I am already reading this for the third month) Nevertheless, for myself I find this activity very useful.
- Connect with the community and make connections. Listen to the opinion of respected people.
- Replay all the best games in the category in which you are going to work. Make a list of the advantages and disadvantages of each of them. Spend some time analyzing the information.
- And last but not least, believe in yourself and move towards your goal!
Conclusion
As always, I will be glad to talk with you in the comments, so ask questions! Thank you for your attention and good luck in the design!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/323048/
All Articles