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After being an indie game developer I begin to doubt myself (Forums : General Banter : After being an indie game developer I begin to doubt myself) Locked
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Sep 23 2016 Anchor

Hi,everybody, I am an indie game developer from china. I build an indie game studio with my friend.I work as the only programmer and my friend works as game artist. We design the game ourself, there is no game design documents,when we need some feature we just discuss it and then work it out.We do this work as fulltime job,the game studio has been run about 6 months, but we only release a game : "Tap dragon".


We first release it to google play store, but we only get 10-30 installs per day. A week later we release the iOS version on appstore , the same situation appears. We earn no more than $500 per month. We don't known how to do the marketing, so the game keeps have very small installs. I have no idea what wrong with this game.

Is it a garbage game or we lose at the marketing? We need to earn money for life, raise kids, we began to doubt myself.I need your help, here is the link of my game, would you please try it and tell me whether the game is too awful or just the marketing problem. thank you very much.


Sorry , my English is not good, hope your guys can understand what I mean.


Google Play : Play.google.com

AppStore: Itunes.apple.com



Sep 25 2016 Anchor

I have no answer. I don't think anyone knows for sure.


However, you aren't the first to notice this. There have been a few developers that made a game that is ok, or even good, and the game was ignored. Other times, people can make bad games and make money.

Sep 25 2016 Anchor

Yeah you need marketers. The game itself looks good art-wise though I have not tried it. I'm not an expert or anything but I hope I could help.

Sep 25 2016 Anchor

Yeah it is a marketing problem;
I never heard about that game before now, yet I have heard about "Candy Crush" even before I owned a smartphone, the more you get your game "out there", the more people will try it out of curiosity alone.

There is a game... "Dungeon Boss" which I found out through a youtuber, that is one way to let other people know about your game.

--

Meadow of Dreams

Blast82
Blast82 game developer
Oct 13 2016 Anchor

Yeah, I have the same problem with my game, too. I'm thinking about paying some money for marketing in the future. I have heard that on facebook you can do that. I think marketing isn't easy, I have definately underestimated it. If you would do it all by yourself it would be a fulltime job, so try to get some help on this.

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HOTAR

garigcw
garigcw Account Manager - Broken Crayon Games
Oct 15 2016 Anchor

Getting your game noticed these days is far and away one of the most difficult things to do when publishing your own games. Who knows how many games hit the marketplace every day? If you can, it might benefit you to seek out the aid of an indie game publisher. They sometimes offer a bit of brand recognition that can aid new developers in getting their games noticed and making a bit more money, and they usually don't ask for too much of the royalties. WIth more money, you have more time to dedicate to making the games you want and increasing your quality, building more brand recognition....and on it goes. Please don't be discouraged by the results of your first game! You keep working and making better and better games every time and you will garner the recognition that will increase your sales...even if you need a little bit of help getting started! Best of luck to you!

Oct 16 2016 Anchor

Marketing your game is very hard these days but marketing for your game is essential. I would suggest running some form of blog whether it be a twitter or a facebook. You can update current fans and show people what you've been working on. With twitter you can use hashtags to gain more notice. I wouldn't get discouraged, now you know for the next game you make that marketing is essential. Another thing you can do is find reviewers and send them press release emails to review your games. Here's a couple of resources that might help you:

MobileAppReviewersList

VideoGamesCaster

Listofmorereviewers

Marketingyourindiegameguide


Good luck!!

Galope
Galope Galope
Oct 25 2016 Anchor

Mobile market is totally based on marketing in my experience. I tried to release games in that platform, but since we are totally indies (no company, just a team), we did not had any money to start investing in marketing, that's why it failed. Mobile IS marketing, that's why big companies have tons of profit while just few indies can grab their slice. So, IMO, you will need to invest hard in marketing if you want better income on mobile.

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"Keep moving forward"

magicrat_larry
magicrat_larry Programmer and Hype Man
Nov 17 2016 Anchor

You should be marketing the development of your title. Think of yourselves in this way, you are an entertainments company that markets games that you make. It is in that order.

  1. Entertain daily
  2. Market daily
  3. Make a game daily

You miss either of those steps every day you are messing up. Oddly making the game is the last thing you really need to do if you plan to sell copies in the future. Sounds off, but market, market, market. Talk about everything you are building. Tweet, use facebook, create a webpage. Tell the world everything about you and your game and how it is progressing.


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