Game Discoverability Day: Free vs. Paid: Discoverability for Smaller Mobile Games

Summary

El desarrollador de videojuegos, tras trabajar en equipos grandes y pequeños y desarrollar 17 juegos móviles individualmente, reflexiona sobre su trayectoria y estrategias de lanzamiento. Se enfoca en la importancia de la calidad y la rapidez en la producción de juegos, destacando su preferencia por juegos de pago sobre juegos gratuitos. Comparte su experiencia con juegos gratuitos, desafíos en la optimización y la preservación de la pasión por la creación de juegos, sugiriendo que la colaboración con expertos puede ser esencial para el éxito en juegos gratuitos.

Takeaways

• 🕹️ El desarrollador ha creado 17 juegos móviles como desarrollador solitario, la mayoría auto-publicados.
• ⏳ A mediados del año pasado, su trabajo en Revival Productions estaba terminando y decidió volver a desarrollar juegos de forma full-time.
• 📊 Al analizar las estadísticas de juegos anteriores, se dio cuenta de que 'Slide Race' tenía tres veces más sesiones de juego que 'Inferno', su juego más vendido.
• 🆓 Decidió crear una secuela de 'Slide Race' como un juego gratuito, estudiando cómo hacer juegos gratuitos y observando videos sobre la materia.
• 📱 Seleccionó los juegos móviles por la cobertura constante de Touch Arcade y Pocket Gamer, y por la facilidad con la que Apple les da visibilidad.
• 🎮 Ha aprendido que hacer juegos gratuitos requiere de un enfoque más amplio, incluyendo aspectos de ASO (Optimización deMotores de Búsqueda) como iconos, capturas de pantalla y descripciones.
• 🚀 Su objetivo principal no es hacer la mayor cantidad de dinero posible, sino crear tantos buenos juegos como pueda antes de que termine su vida.
• 🔄 Tiene una estrategia de lanzar muchos títulos pequeños rápidamente, utilizando su experiencia para enfocarse y ser paciente, y se enfoca en el desarrollo del juego más que en aspectos de marketing.
• 📈 Ha observado que los juegos de pago en móviles están en declive, pero no cree que estén muertos, y ha tenido éxito con lanzamientos recientes.
• 💸 Ha encontrado que los juegos gratuitos requieren una mentalidad diferente y un enfoque en la facilidad de uso, la interfaz de usuario y la sencillez, además de la necesidad de estar obsesionado con el seguimiento de estadísticas en tiempo real.
• 🤝 Recomienda que si no se disfruta con la optimización y el seguimiento de estadísticas, se busque ayuda externa, ya sea un socio, editor o consultor, para manejar aspectos que no se disfruten y posiblemente aumentar los ingresos.

Q & A

¿Cuál es la ocupación del narrador y cuántos juegos móviles ha creado?

El narrador es un desarrollador de videojuegos y ha creado 17 juegos móviles como desarrollador solitario.

¿Por qué decidió el narrador volver a desarrollar juegos de lectura después de tres años?

El narrador quería regresar a desarrollar juegos de lectura a tiempo completo, pero estaba incierto si aún podía ganarse la vida haciendo juegos de pago en móvil.

¿Qué juegos destacaban en las estadísticas de sesión del narrador y cómo influyeron en su decisión de crear un secuela?

Inferno y Slide Race destacaron en las estadísticas, siendo Slide Race el juego más jugado. Esto influyó en su decisión de crear un secuela llamada Sliders 2 y hacerla gratis.

¿Qué plataformas prefirió el narrador para desarrollar juegos y por qué?

El narrador eligió las plataformas móviles porque Touch Arcade y Pocket Gamer cubren regularmente sus juegos y Apple les da características menores.

¿Qué estrategia de lanzamiento utiliza el narrador para promover sus juegos?

El narrador envía un correo electrónico a aproximadamente una docena de personas de prensa y hace algunas publicaciones en redes sociales, centrando su promoción en el lanzamiento y los días inmediatamente después.

¿Cuál es el objetivo principal del narrador al desarrollar juegos?

El objetivo principal del narrador no es hacer la mayor cantidad posible de dinero con sus juegos, sino crear tantos buenos juegos como pueda antes de que muera.

¿Cómo aborda el narrador el problema de la descubribilidad de sus juegos?

El narrador no se enfoca en la descubribilidad de sus juegos a través de la construcción de comunidades o el contacto con creadores de contenido, sino que se enfoca en crear juegos de calidad y publicarlos rápidamente.

¿Qué tipo de juegos son más adecuados para los desarrolladores pequeños que desarrollan juegos de pago según el narrador?

El narrador menciona que los juegos de aventura, rol y otras experiencias basadas en historia son más adecuados para los desarrolladores pequeños que desarrollan juegos de pago.

¿Cómo ha cambiado el mercado de juegos de pago en los últimos años según el narrador?

Según el narrador, los juegos de pago están siendo menos publicados y representan una fracción menor del mercado, lo que hace que sea más difícil obtener posiciones altas en las listas de juegos de pago.

¿Qué consejo da el narrador a los desarrolladores que quieran hacer juegos gratis?

El narrador recomienda que si no le gusta obsesionarse con la optimización y las estadísticas, deberían obtener la ayuda de alguien más, como un socio, editor o co-desarrollador, para manejar las partes que no les gustan.

Outlines

00:00

🕹️ Trayectoria y experiencia en desarrollo de juegos

El presentador comienza explicando su trayectoria como desarrollador de juegos, mencionando su experiencia trabajando en equipos pequeños, grandes y como desarrollador solitario. Ha creado 17 juegos móviles, la mayoría auto-publicados. Se destaca su interés en regresar al desarrollo de juegos de lectura después de un tiempo trabajando en otro proyecto, y su incertidumbre sobre si podía ganarse la vida con juegos de pago en móvil, especialmente habiendo analizado las sesiones de juego de sus juegos anteriores en la App Store. Decide crear un secuela al juego 'Slide Race', un juego de rompecabezas infinito, y estudia cómo hacer juegos gratis para jugar (F2P), lo que lo lleva a reflexionar sobre las estrategias de marketing y promoción que no le apasionan pero que son esenciales para el éxito de los juegos F2P.

05:01

📈 Análisis de la viabilidad de juegos de pago en móvil

El presentador reflexiona sobre su elección de enfocarse en juegos móviles en lugar de otras plataformas, atribuyéndolo al apoyo constante de medios como Touch Arcade y Pocket Gamer, y la dificultad para obtener atención que enfrentó con juegos para PC. Abarca su experiencia con la versión móvil de 'Inferno 2', que tuvo mucho más éxito que la versión de PC. También menciona su enfoque en la creación de juegos en lugar de invertir tiempo en aspectos de marketing y promoción, y cómo su estrategia se basa en hacer muchos juegos buenos para construir una audiencia leal. Describe su proceso de desarrollo y lanzamiento de juegos, incluyendo la actualización de juegos basada en retroalimentación y su enfoque en la creación de juegos nuevos en lugar de perfeccionar los existentes.

10:03

📊 Comparación entre juegos de pago y gratis

Se explora la tendencia actual del mercado, donde los juegos gratis dominan y los de pago parecen estar en declive. A pesar de esto, el presentador argumenta que los juegos de pago no están muertos, sino que su mercado se ha reducido. Comparte su experiencia con el lanzamiento de 'Devastator', un juego de pago que, a pesar de tener menos ventas que 'Inferno 2', logró un rango similar en las listas de ventas. También analiza las ventas y ranking en las tiendas de aplicaciones a lo largo del tiempo, y cómo la disminución de juegos de pago ha afectado la cantidad de descargas necesarias para alcanzar ciertos rangos en las listas.

15:03

💸 Desafíos y estrategias en el desarrollo de juegos gratis

El presentador discute los desafíos de desarrollar juegos gratis, mencionando la necesidad de enfocarse en la facilidad de uso, la interfaz de usuario y la simplicidad del juego. Explica cómo la mentalidad para crear juegos gratis es diferente y cómo requiere un enfoque más estratégico en la generación de ingresos a través de anuncios o compras dentro de la aplicación. Comparte su experiencia con el lanzamiento de 'Sliders 2', un juego gratuito, y cómo su rendimiento fue comparado con 'Scorcher', un juego de pago, resaltando la importancia de la optimización y el seguimiento de estadísticas para el éxito en juegos gratis.

20:04

🎮 Equilibrio entre desarrollo de juegos de pago y gratis

El presentador reflexiona sobre su preferencia por el desarrollo de juegos de pago, a pesar de los desafíos que presenta el mercado actual. Aborda la satisfacción que siente al terminar un juego y la ansiedad que le causa la idea de tener que continuar trabajando en un juego después de su lanzamiento, lo que es más común en juegos gratis. Comparte estadísticas de ventas totales de sus juegos y cómo los juegos de mejor calidad tienden a tener mejores ventas a largo plazo. También menciona la importancia de obtener una buena calificación en la App Store para el éxito de los juegos de pago y cómo la reducción en la cantidad de juegos de pago ha afectado la cantidad de descargas necesarias para alcanzar ciertos rangos en las listas.

25:05

🤝 Colaboración y desarrollo de juegos

En la sección final, el presentador ofrece consejos sobre la colaboración en el desarrollo de juegos, especialmente en juegos gratis, donde recomendaría buscar ayuda de expertos para manejar aspectos como la optimización y el seguimiento de estadísticas. Comparte su experiencia con la creación de tráileres y cómo, en algunos casos, publicar un tráiler temprano en el desarrollo puede ser beneficioso. Finalmente, responde a preguntas de la audiencia sobre estrategias de desarrollo y marketing de juegos, y cómo ha logrado mantener una visibilidad constante en las tiendas de aplicaciones a través de la creación de juegos de calidad y la cobertura de medios especializados.

Keywords

💡Desarrollador de juegos

Un desarrollador de juegos es una persona que crea y produce videojuegos. En el guion, el narrador menciona su experiencia como desarrollador de juegos, habiendo trabajado en equipos pequeños, grandes y también como desarrollador solitario, creando 17 juegos móviles.

💡Autopublicación

La autopublicación se refiere a la práctica por la cual un creador de contenidos, como un desarrollador de juegos, publica y distribuye sus propias obras sin intermediarios. El guion destaca que la mayoría de los juegos creados por el narrador fueron autopublicados.

💡Juegos móviles

Los juegos móviles son videojuegos diseñados para dispositivos móviles como smartphones y tabletas. El video trata sobre la experiencia del narrador desarrollando juegos para plataformas móviles, destacando las ventajas y desafíos de esta plataforma.

💡Free-to-play

Free-to-play hace referencia a juegos que se pueden jugar gratuitamente, pero que pueden incluir compras dentro del juego (microtransacciones) o publicidad para generar ingresos. El narrador discute su experiencia al crear un juego free-to-play y las estrategias para hacerlo exitoso.

💡ASO (Optimización deMotores de Búsqueda)

La ASO es el proceso de mejorar la visibilidad de una aplicación en los resultados de búsqueda de una tienda de aplicaciones. En el guion, se menciona que el narrador no se enfoca mucho en la ASO, pero reconoce su importancia para el éxito de los juegos free-to-play.

💡Tienda de aplicaciones

Las tiendas de aplicaciones son plataformas digitales a través de las cuales los usuarios pueden descargar y comprar aplicaciones, incluyendo juegos. El guion habla sobre la importancia de obtener características o 'features' en la tienda de aplicaciones para aumentar la visibilidad de los juegos.

💡Descubribilidad

La descubribilidad se refiere a la facilidad con la que los usuarios pueden encontrar y acceder a una aplicación o juego. El narrador discute cómo la consistente cobertura de sus juegos por parte de medios especializados como Touch Arcade y Pocket Gamer ha ayudado a mejorar la descubribilidad de sus juegos.

💡Publicidad

En el contexto de juegos free-to-play, la publicidad es una forma común de monetización que implica mostrar anuncios a los jugadores. El guion menciona la publicidad como una de las estrategias para generar ingresos en juegos free-to-play.

💡In-app purchases

Las compras dentro de la aplicación son transacciones que los usuarios realizan para obtener contenido adicional o beneficios dentro de una aplicación, como juegos. El guion discute cómo las compras dentro de la aplicación son una forma de generar ingresos en juegos free-to-play.

💡Ciclo de desarrollo

El ciclo de desarrollo se refiere al proceso y la secuencia de pasos que se siguen para crear un videojuego. El narrador describe su enfoque en crear muchos juegos pequeños rápidamente como parte de su ciclo de desarrollo y estrategia de negocios.

💡Juegos pagados

Los juegos pagados son aquellos que se compran por un precio fijo antes de ser descargados o jugados. El guion explora el desafío de vender juegos pagados en una industria cada vez más dominada por juegos free-to-play y cómo el narrador ha tenido éxito con este modelo en el pasado.

Highlights

El desarrollador ha creado 17 juegos móviles como desarrollador solitario.

Decidió volver a desarrollar juegos de lectura a tiempo completo después de un periodo trabajando en otros proyectos.

Observó que su juego más vendido, Inferno, tenía menos sesiones de juego que otros en las últimas analíticas del App Store.

Diseñó Sliders, un juego gratuito, como secuela de Slide Race, un juego de rompecabezas infinito similar a Tetris.

Estudio y aprendizaje sobre la creación de juegos gratuitos y cómo funcionan los juegos gratuitos.

Elegió desarrollar juegos móviles debido a la buena cobertura de Touch Arcade y Pocket Gamer, y la atención de Apple.

Menciona que la versión móvil de Inferno 2 ha vendido aproximadamente 50 veces más que la versión de PC.

Destaca la importancia de la estrategia de lanzamiento y la promoción de juegos, y su enfoque en crear juegos en lugar de en promoción.

Su objetivo es crear tantos buenos juegos como sea posible antes de que termine su vida, y ha establecido esto como el núcleo de su estrategia.

Cree varios títulos pequeños rápidamente, aprovechando su experiencia y capacidad para enfocarse.

Normalmente pasa un día promocionando el juego, justo antes y después del lanzamiento.

Nunca ha contactado a las personas de la App Store o Google Play, pero sus juegos han sido destacados en la App Store.

Ha aprendido que los juegos gratuitos están ganando la batalla por el mercado y que los juegos de pago están en declive.

Compara las ventas de juegos de pago y gratuitos a lo largo de los años y cómo ha cambiado el mercado.

Destaca que los juegos de pago no están muertos, pero han sido reducidos en número y que aún hay un mercado para ellos.

Menciona que trabajar en juegos gratuitos requiere un enfoque diferente y puede ser abrumador si no se tiene experiencia en ello.

Recomienda que si no se disfruta el proceso de optimización y seguimiento de estadísticas para juegos gratuitos, se busque ayuda de un experto.

Compara las experiencias de desarrollo y lanzamiento de juegos de pago y gratuitos, y sus respectivos retos y recompensas.

Presenta estadísticas totales de ventas de sus juegos, mostrando que los juegos de mejor calidad tienen mejores ventas a largo plazo.

Transcripts

[Music]

this is a quick timeline of my history

as a game developer I worked on small

teams large teams and all by myself I've

created 17 mobile games as a solo

developer and most of those were

self-published a bunch of icons are

probably a terrible way of showing games

so here for you games I'll be talking

about today

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

all right let's go back here okay so in

the middle of last year my work at

revival productions was coming to an end

I had stopped reading games to for about

three years to work on a spiritual

successor to descent I knew I wanted to

go back to the reading games full-time

but I wasn't sure if I could still make

a living doing paid games on mobile like

I had in 2014 when I was looking through

my previous games analytics on the App

Store something stood out this last

column over here that's the sessions

that players have played the game in the

last year and Inferno to my best my

best-selling game by a large amount is

actually played lot three times less

than slide race which is down near the

bottom slide this is an infinite puzzle

game similar to Tetris in a few ways I

wanted to make a sequel and it seemed

like a good idea to make sliders to a

free game so I studied lots of free

games and watch lots of videos about how

to make free-to-play games I'll come

back to how that worked out first sight

just to later well let's step back for a

second and ask why I chose mobile games

over other platforms actually the reason

is simple touch arcade and Pocket Gamer

consistently cover my games and Apple

gives them minor features I spent a long

time working on overload with the guys

at revival it's an awesome game but very

people very few people knew about the

game and the sales reflect that it

reminded me how hard it is to get

attention and then I should take

whatever attention I can get and just

for reference the mobile version of

inferno 2 has sold about 50 times better

than the PC version when people talk

about discoverability they often

mentioned reaching out to content

creators and building the community but

not me I don't like spending time

talking to people I'm not sure there I'm

sure there are other things that are

worth doing on a game that takes a month

I'm not sure these things are worth

doing on game that takes a month or two

if you make free-to-play games you need

to make a good game and you need to do a

lot more stuff on top of that this is

just the ASO side of things you need to

think about the icon to tie it all the

screenshots the description the video

you can optimize those things this is

stuff I don't want to do I don't want to

spend time doing anything really

besides making a game so I just do a

good first pass and I don't spend any

time refining but if you want to do well

with free games you should be doing this

stuff so if I don't like spending time

on major aspects of making my game

successful why am i up here my goal is

not to make the most amount of money

possible with my games my goal is to

make as many good games as I can before

I die like that's my goal in life that's

my bucket list is to make lots of good

games so I've made that the core of my

strategy like I basically say if I make

lots of games that are decent people

will follow me and then they'll buy more

of my games and I can keep making games

so first I create lots of small titles

quickly I have lots of experience I'm

able to focus I'm impatient the next

game is always appealing to me that's

the fun part of game development is

working on the games then I create all

the stuff that I don't enjoy doing

though I do enjoy making trailers more

or less except for the capturing the

footage part and then around launch I

email about a dozen press people and do

some social media posts and I usually

contain this to a dozen people because

those are people who consistently cover

my games I usually spend about a day

promoting the game when it's about to

launch and the days after the launch

I usually update the game to deal with

feedback and refine it based on reviews

and then I move on as fast as possible

I'm usually excited to work on something

new in fact I've probably worked on the

new game for the next game for a week by

the time the previous one is released

this cycle does not include contacting

people at the App Store or Google Play

I've never talked to those people but

obviously they see the games on touch

arcade and Pocket Gamer because I would

say like 15 of the 17 games are released

on App Store have been featured the only

forms I use our touch arcades I just

respond to the people there because they

like my games and then I also do a

weekly blog post but it's more more for

me than anyone else because it just

helps me sort out my thoughts and this

is what happens when I get into a good

cycle this is the sales chart from my

iPhone releases in 2014 it's not very

impressive but keep in mind that the

Android versions were adding decent

multiple

on top I didn't realize it at the time

but I averaged $10,000 a month between

these four releases for on those two

platforms and my next game was inferno -

which outsold all these games combined

stopping to do another interesting

project is one way to screw up the cycle

and that's what happened with inferno -

but there are other ways to do it

you can also do your trailer too early

and you don't making a second one like I

did with scorcher you get too ambitious

and you end up with an alpha trailer

early on and then nothing close to a

finished game like gigatron because I

ran out of money or you can usually end

up doing too much at once and it's hard

to finish something when you're doing

multiple things at once I can usually

handle two projects at once one that's

starting and one that's finishing but I

can't handle more than that I have

trouble so keep in mind that I make rkt

action and puzzle games my deeper and

more relaxed action games that have

actually sold better well that usually

involves more complexity in a longer dev

cycle many other genres are actually

better suited to paid games for small

developers such as adventure games

role-playing games and other story based

experiences I'm not against doing larger

games but all my games have either been

less than 2 months or more than 10

months something in between is probably

the sweet spot for me and I'll try to

aim for that in the future now everyone

knows that free games are winning the

battle for a market share and paid games

are going to extinct this graph is from

3 years ago it's 92 to 8% and it's only

gotten farther than that

since then very few developers are

making only paid games on mobile and the

main reason these are screen caps of

today's top charts with a grossing chart

on the right minecraft is a top-selling

paid game and it's ranked number 62 in

the grossing chart the next theme after

minecraft isn't ranked number 224 and

this chart doesn't measure ad revenue

just in-app purchases so there's plenty

of ad based games that are way above

Bloom's td6

there's no question paid games are a bad

idea if you're trying to make a lot of

money if that's your only goal you

should make free games and I'll get back

to that let's see how paid games have

done for reading games over the past 7

years

Ferno plus is the third game I'd

launched as rating games and my most

successful of 2012 it got some press

coverage but no Apple feature that I can

remember it wasn't a significant launch

but it had a pretty long tail because

it's a pretty good game after moderate

success in 2012 converting four games to

iOS I spent about 10 months on a larger

game called bomb cats it was a huge

disaster and the most stress I felt as a

developer in my life it's still painful

to talk about to be honest but just

search my blog if you want to learn more

let's move on after bomb cuts failure

crush was a desperate attempt to get

some money back well I also worked on

Android ports of all my games it was a

pretty simple game so I tried launching

at $0.99 to see if maybe $0.99 games

were better for me because I all my

previous gaming had been in $1.99 it was

my fifth solo release and I still

couldn't break the top 200 in the paid

game sales charts the Android ports

ended up doing pretty well and I signed

a contract to work on a game with

Cartoon Network so raiding games was

able continue despite Bobcats failure

after the Powerpuff Girls game which was

another 10 month project like Bobcats I

went back to smaller games Joey Joey was

the second release in 2014 and probably

the start of what I would call the

golden era of raiding games releases I

got the usual amount of coverage and

some actual good featuring by Apple for

the first time it had a solid launch

week and my first game to break the top

200 in the paid sales games charts fluid

came the month after with pretty

consistent results June had fewer game

releases that year so even though it

sold less loot got a higher ranking on

the charts I'm gonna tight all these

rankings together at the end

so you'll see why I'm covering that

super cross fighter or same year another

month later also got good coverage it

was a remaster of a game I did three

years before that but it still got

featured by Apple and had a sales spike

the week after because it was released a

little bit in a weird time in my best Us

sales days so far thanks to that feature

and it broke the top hundred then came

Inferno 2 and I finally had my first hit

game they got the number three slot on

the new games list the highest of all my

games notice that it took over a

thousand sales to reach number 44

the top rankings in September of the

next year I launched Devastator it got a

good feature by Apple though not quite

as good as inferno to notice that it

reached almost the same paid game sales

rank with under half the number of sales

we can start to see the effect of fewer

paid games being released because this

game sold way less than inferno to

almost got the same ranking the sales of

course dropped off a cliff because his

name was way too hard at launch but it

also only took five Meek's to five weeks

to make so why did it launch 11 months

after inferno - well I started working

on overload before I knew how successful

Inferno 2 was going to be I was a huge

descent fan and had worked on descent 3

so it was a very cool opportunity to

work on overload a spiritual successor

the next year after Inferno 2 was pretty

messy in terms of development and was

probably my least productive since I

started reading games after Devastator I

went back to overload with more people

helping out and revival 2 decided to do

a Kickstarter this was two years after

Kickstarter had peaked these pics are

from the overload Kickstarter campaign

when we decided not to shave until we

made it it was the second most stressful

time in my life as a developer and we

only made it with 2 hours remaining and

it was not worth it I have to say like

we promised so much stuff from the

Kickstarter that we ended up taking like

a year longer than it would have taken

to make the game otherwise and that year

cost way more than what the Kickstarter

made on the positive side the cent fans

love the game and I learned a lot about

unity and became a better programmer

because of overload so getting back to

paid games we now fast forward to my

first paid release since Devastator this

game released two weeks ago and I have

to admit I was a bit worried that it

wouldn't make it out in time for this

talk it looks like a normal launch

sales curve to me except for a bigger

than usual Saturday spike thanks to an

extra feature on that day it's doing

about as well as I expected to be honest

the game stands out visually but let's

also score focused and score focus games

don't sell that well in my experience

they're just a little too hardcore for

most people and it doesn't have quite

the same appeal to a broad audience

it has significantly fewer sales than

Inferno 2 but a much better chart

ranking and this is four years four and

a half years after Inferno 2 launched so

let's look back at a bunch of numbers to

see how many downloads it takes to get a

certain slot in the top page charts if

you look at the early years verses 2019

you can see it takes a lot fewer

downloads to get it into the top like

number 25 is 664 downloads and I bet in

2013 that would have been like ranked

100 so this chart kind of graphs the

approximate sales to chart ranking it

used to take over 200 downloads to get

into the top 200 games in 2013 and now

if you get 200 downloads you'll be in

the top 80 the top yellow line shows how

many downloads you need to get to reach

the top 50 and that's down below it's

around 300 games now 300 downloads a day

so why are the top games selling less

because people are making less of them

everyone is making free games and not

many are making paid games because there

are more free games and many more of

them are good many people are less

willing to pay for paid games to be

honest it's hard to judge based on one

game released this year and I need to

release more to make any definite

conclusions but I don't think paid games

are dead they're just been gutted now

let's look at a comparable free game

which released four months ago

this is sliders two's launch which got a

similar level of coverage and featuring

a scorcher the overall revenue is

actually very similar to Scorchers for

the first five weeks just a bit more

smoothed out notice that it was getting

around six thousand downloads a day but

never broke the top 200 in free games

when I said the games had a similar

level similar level of featuring I

wasn't under selling it they literally

had the same slot in the new games list

and usually I found that the slot on the

new games list is directly corresponds

to how many downloads I'll get for my

game regardless of quality I'm not sure

if Apple meant to give them the same

slot but it sure makes for a nice

comparison the games are different and I

would still expect a reason about

reasonably similar sales between the two

so let's

compared more directly these are the

first week downloads in the US only with

a same featured slot sliders to release

at a better time of year in late

November but scorcher had a better bonus

feature I'm not sure this ratio is

totally accurate what it feels about

right to me and for lower lower price

gains the ratio will be a bit closer

than 20 to one the important thing aside

from the ratio is where the games ended

up on the charts they're just a lot more

free games getting tons of downloads so

it's a lot harder to get on to the top

charts their long-term slide just to is

continue to do pretty well for people

who figure out the game it's very

satisfying and enjoyable to play it was

my first game to get a significant Apple

feature beyond a good launch slot it got

game of the day in the u.s. in January a

bunch of other countries in February and

then China and March it was like getting

three extra launches for the game the

best revenue day was actually from the

China feature mostly due to ads so

here's the total stats for slightest -

up until last week given the quality of

the game their downloads these revenue

revenue numbers actually seemed pretty

low the reason is the retention and ad

revenue numbers aren't good enough for a

game of this quality I'm happy with the

downloads and overall results but I've

been lucky and those download and those

numbers up here the especially the ones

at the bottom they could be even worse

and I'll show you why this is pivotal

this was touch arcades game of the week

that weekend came out it's not a bad

game

it was feature than new games we love

lists and it got quite a few downloads

the first week but it was just a little

too hard for people to figure out for

lots of people to figure out and not

quite as good as sliders - this is what

happens when you don't really know how

to make a free game if it had been paid

I would estimate it would have made

three times as much if not more than

this amount so making free games is

harder than paid games in a few ways you

have to be more hardcore about

ease-of-use issues and refining the UI

flow and keeping things simple this is

the easy stuff the stuff is the

developer that you can handle it

requires a shift in mentality but it's

not painful now we're getting to the

more painful stuff

doing a free game means you have to

think about ads or in-app purchases or

both you'll feel more constraints on the

genre and you expect the complexity of

your game the game systems will be

warped to fit the need to retain users

and generate revenue ad based games need

to be simple and easy to get into and

in-app purchase games need to be deep

and content heavy you also need to be

obsessive with your stat tracking this

page right there it updates in real time

you can see every dot pop-up for every

time someone installs your game or start

your game and it's kind of it's not good

for your mentality I looked at this page

multiple times especially when sliders

to launch I was like I can't do this I

can't handle this as a solo developer so

after launch you'll get emailed by lots

of IDI companies offering to boost your

revenue saying you're not making enough

money do you use multiple companies or

you stick with one for simplicity how

much do you negotiate how much time is

required to set up all this stuff to

make them negotiate with each other in

real time then there are the reviews

some negative reviews provide critical

info about a bigger issue but many

others are not as fun to read and they

might be useful so you have to suck it

up and just read them anyway and all

that ASO and UA stuff that I mentioned

before that needs to be done - making

free games is overwhelming and I have a

simple recommendation if you want to do

them if you don't enjoy obsessing over

optimization and stats get someone to

help you it could be a partner a

publisher a co developer or consultant

if you're doing free games I'd almost

say this is a requirement let someone

else who knows what they're doing handle

the stuff that sucks you'll have to

share some of the money but there will

probably be a lot more of it this is

what it feels like to make a pay game in

2019 it doesn't mean you shouldn't do it

but you have to go into it with the

proper expectations there are still some

players who love and prefer paid games

there are lots of them on touch arcade

and you'll probably be able to make more

of these games if that's important to

you and comparing these two games

sliders and scorcher had similar

featuring and Reverend numbers in the

first few weeks

it's still too early to tell what the

long term sales will be and sliders too

has had lots of help

after those first five weeks but working

on scorcher was more enjoyable and the

launch was way less stressful and I

would have enjoyed working on sliders

too more if it were paid and made the

same amount of money I don't like that

nagging feeling that I need to keep

working on a game I like finishing

things and feel good about finishing

things and moving on to the next thing

and I'm always excited about the new

game that's coming up more game ideas I

finally get to work on this thing so if

you're doing paid games you probably

need to get an Apple feature to be

successful that's not new that's been

true for eight years probably you'll

also have a lower cap on the revenue you

make but you might enjoy working on the

game more there are fewer paid games but

I don't think the good ones are

necessarily selling less there's just a

lot fewer of them on the other hand I

studied free games for many months

before doing pivotal and sliders - and I

still sucked at it it takes a certain

mentality to do free games well and it's

hard to do by yourself

get an expert to help you and you'll be

less stressed and probably make a lot

more money I'm not saying this because I

have anything to sell I'm not an expert

but I've talked to other developers and

all our publishers and other people who

do this sort of thing and like you guys

just know so much more about this than I

do and you actually want to do that

stuff and I don't and before I end I

have a couple more quick slides earlier

Ike recommended not doing an early

trailer but sometimes it works out if

you have the right game and trailer I

have around 2,000 followers on Twitter

but a tweet with the trailer from speed

demons was this game got over 12,000

views in the first week it was the most

liked and retweeted thing I've done by a

factor of like 5 and it opened up new

opportunities for raiding games but it

was a risk spending that much time on a

trailer that early in development it

just happened to work out this time

let's take a look at some total sales

numbers as well cuz everybody like stats

these charts are a few days old so

scorcher sales are a little bit off and

the free games only show in-app

purchases only I don't know what

happened with Google Play this year but

it's been sucking

for me regardless my better games have

had better long-term sales and that's

pretty encouraging I think because if

you look at the top charts those games

have had good reviews in general and

have continued to sell pretty well and

when a new game comes out those are the

games to get the bigger boost and a

little while back someone put together a

comparison of first week versus first

year sales for a bunch of steam games

sign in from GDC asked me to do the same

thing for my game so here are six games

in order of release the ratios are

actually lower than I expected

though the revenue revenue numbers are

pretty much what I would expect the

biggest few factors in what affects the

ratio are the perceived game quality and

style of game leads to better long-term

sales and the games with the lower

ratios usually had better features in

their first week even though Devastator

at the bottom has the lowest ratio

that's because it got a really good

feature and then people really didn't

like the hard Cornus of it after it was

no longer featured so I don't think it's

a time thing that affects the ratio I

think the ratio is still the same over

time and that's it's and we're just on

time perfect

so if you have any questions there's a

microphone right there I'm happy to

answer any questions now or if you want

to talk outside that's fine too so I'm

curious who you recommend getting help

from who do you have had partners that

you've enjoyed working with and what do

you think I who would I recommend

anybody who does free-to-play games if

you have a good game to show off you

could just like you could contact any

publisher there's lots of other small

developers who are doing free games and

making lots of money you could contact

some of them like I'm not one of those

guys but but you have had people contact

me it's not like I've reached I haven't

really reached out to anyone people just

if you get your game featured on Apple

people will just email you and some of

them will actually play your game and

then like tell you what they like about

it and then offer to help you make it

better and I usually don't respond to

those things but some people are more

persistent and sometimes they are

obviously another developer who has

interest in the game so that's what

really happened with sliders is multiple

people emailed me about it and like this

game should be doing better I'm like

okay sure tell me how and so that'll

happen eventually but not right now yes

since you don't 'soon all that stuff how

discoverability has now never been a

problem for you

how would you learn ASL if you've never

been a publisher no since you never

liked doing here so and doing

screenshots and icons and truly like

doing a lot about them you always focus

on the content of the game so why

discoverability has never been a problem

for you it's never been a problem

because when I first my first few games

weren't actually that successful but

they got the attention of touch arcade

consistently like my first game fireball

it hasn't sold that terribly well but it

was a good game and the people on touch

arcades forums liked it and they would

keep talking about it and then my next

game was pretty good

more attention and so touch okay just

kept consistently covering my games

because I was consistent and putting out

good games and I did it pretty fast

which most people don't do the games

quite as quickly so because I was able

to do the games consistently and fast I

just kept getting coverage and and

eventually Apple started picking up on

that and started featuring the games and

so now I have a pretty reliable I put

out the game I tell touch forget about

it I tell Pocket Gamer they cover the

games Apple features games somewhere on

the new games we love lists usually not

that high but depends on the game so

it's just been a cycle of putting out

lots of quality games to get to the

point where people will pay attention to

the new games that I put out so it's I

don't really like I think I've gotten a

little better at the screenshots and

like the descriptions and stuff but I

don't really know for sure like doing

the trailers I think helps because those

are actually on the store now but beyond

that I don't think I'm like that much

better than what I did in 2013 or 2014

okay pretty pretty lucky you are thank

you okay looks like it thanks for coming

[Applause]