Ridiculous, vindictive review department

Discussion about Rogue Touch for the iPhone and iPod Touch
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CommanderData
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Re: Ridiculous, vindictive review department

Post by CommanderData »

Kestre wrote:What if you connect with other retro game developers to cross promote your games? For example, on the main screen if there were a button that brought you to a screen with mini screencaps of four other retro games. The five of you could help increase sales. I'd trust you to recommend other quality retro games. There are a boatload of games out there.

I'm a believer of low prices and larger volume. The better word of mouth and the higher you are on the App Store List, you're going to see a dramatic increase in sales. I can't imagine you've tapped into a very large % of actual iPhone app owners so there's significant room for expansion given the right price. And yes, $1 is the right price. The number of bad reviewers from people who "expect more" from a $3 is going to offset any improved profit.

Lastly, more competitions with active participation on community sites like toucharcade will bring in more interest. Having more secret characters will eventually be unwieldy but you could probably brainstorm on other ideas for promotions.

Kestre, That does seem to be a neat idea! If developers of similar games (or at least Retro themed in this case) banded together it could help out everyone's situation. Right now there are very few sales per day, and we most certainly haven't tapped into a large number of users. I can't be bothered to figure it out exactly, but I've heard that there are approximately 37 million iPhone and iPod Touch devices in use out there. That means such a small market penetration that I've only tapped into a few ten-thousandsTHs of ONE PERCENT. An incredibly small figure :lol:

I think this idea does have merit, the trick would be getting others to think the same way, and then including a little "retro lovers" screen in each app to showcase other's work. Definitely worth a try :mrgreen: Different forms of competition couldn't hurt too. It seems like sales were better merely by having the active discussion here and at TouchArcade. Once I can get version 1.6 ready for sale hopefully we'll see a bit of turnaround and activity again!

Nathan 0 wrote:I'd be curious what the numbers are like on other apps jumping from $1 to $3, and how the sales numbers behave (in general) over time. Intuitively, I feel like game apps are going to tend to have a short shelf life, primarily driven by getting onto lists like this one.

Rogue is an excellent value at $3. I suggested it (at that price) to a friend the other day and he said, "isn't it funny how the economics of iPhone applications make it feel as though $3 is a lot of money?" And he's right, it does (particularly in light of all the free and 99c apps). However in addition to being well designed for pick up and play - as iPhone games should be - Rogue Touch stands up quite well as a destination game (such that I stopped playing other games for a bit and dumped about 25 hours into Rogue). It's easily worth $3.

Will it sell at $3?

Absent an advertising budget, your best bet is to cozen yourself to the various big-market list makers (IGN, GameSpot, etc) and do what you can to get on their lists. Start with a friendly/open email: "Heard you guys are working on a feature about iPhone/retro gaming, hope you'll consider my game..." Also keep a very close eye on aggregaters such as Fark.com and Digg.com - try to get an early comment in when an iPhone game list gets picked up (which seems to be happening about once per week right now). Tweet #Rogue with the hash so that people can search you a little more readily there. Draft some promotional material so that when you see an opportunity you can fire off quality copy right away.

Nathan 0
I agree that it would be great to get more of that sales data for comparison. I my particular case it's probably a combo of factors that caused the BIG dropoff. 1) Rogue is an acquired taste, and you either LOVE it or HATE it, and 2) The market for such a game at $2.99 appears to be nearly saturated, due to the "must be nearly free" mentality that has taken over the app store :D

Point #2 is one I wish most developers would give a shot. Even Apple did this with the initial iPhone release a couple years ago. They sold at a higher profit margin until sales slowed down a bit, then dropped the price once all the people willing to pay a "premium" were satisfied. I mean, I was lucky to get featured by Apple for a week, and have the sale at the same time. But even though that week added *many* new players, the best profit ever made by Rogue Touch was it's opening weekend back in February at $2.99.

I do agree that $2.99 for this game is a great value. I've played more of it myself (beyond mere playtesting for bugs) than almost any other game out there (I do have a couple of other games that get a fair amount of use, Fieldrunners and Puzzle Quest). And I've bought a *LOT* of games, for uhhh, market research. ;) My total spent in the App Store so far is well over $500, I can't even keep all this stuff on my phone at once, not enough pages!

Of course, convincing others that it is worth $3 is the tough part. Good targeted advertising is important. TouchArcade would be a good spot for a start. Kestre's idea is interesting too, retro developers banding together to promote each other. A lite version of Rogue if done properly would help. Maybe even cutting down the piracy would help. :D

jhawk wrote:i currently have 49 games on m iphone, and probably have played at least 50 others that no longer remain, i have not ventured over the 4.99 range

thank god the iphone doesnt have a /time command referring to my old WoW days because i really wouldnt want to know

rogue touch is definately my top 5, and probably has the most time played on it, and has by far the best response time and consumer influence as to changes and improvements and just overall good business, good communication makes all the difference

a couple of my other favs,
fieldrunners
iDracula
heavymach
besiegement
elemental TD
trace
orions
enigmo
Jhawk, I'm glad to know that I'm still in your top 5 after all this time! :mrgreen: Based on your list it looks like I am in some good company there, as I have also bought and played most of those things on your list!

Its great to know there are still thoughtful supporters out there that care about what happens to me and Rogue Touch. Once we've wrapped up the planned updates to RT hopefully you guys and girls will be interested in my new projects for the rest of the year. So many ideas! I hope to make several of them a reality :D
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