What to do next?

BigDave

Not sure if i should add quests to orcs or brofist legend
or make a premium mini game in pewdiepug.

I started another platform game like creepy with a skeleton knight but I will most likely stop working on it even tough I already got voices and a neat story. The gameplay feels wrong and I kind look at the graphics anymore without connecting them with it.

Monetization wise:
In creepy i have a donate option / pay as you like
but they don’t pay if they don’t get a thing in the game mostly.

There are some sales for three points remove ads 1.99
so for very simple addicting game they remove ads.

For level based as Creepy is they are less likely to pay for in-apps at-least with my approach.
For incremental games like Orcs,Orcs Galaxy,Brofist Legend they buy items and collectables upgrades.
In Orcs Galaxy in-apps sell extremely well but the amount of game downloads is weak. Which also will make it a candidate for the move below.

Advertising wise:
I am going to invest $100 into a Chartboost video Campaign for Orcs targeted to the united states. Will let you know what comes out of that.

Just thoughts shared.
Cheers
David

Hopscotch

Thank you for sharing @BigDave!

If you are willing to elaborate, I would be interested in your Remove Ads conversion in your different games. This is usually very low to non existent for quick games.

As you say, if the games are addicting, the chances are better.

BigDave

@Hopscotch I guess its more about being popular than addicting. Somehow people value games more if they now a lot of people already have played it or better are still playing.
But chances to sale a purchase increase the longer the play specially if they can see the long time benefit of what they are buying.

I have seen clear proof of that after a big review on Orcs. The in-apps where not equally scaling up with downloads.
They had a big boom coming with the energy out of the review and youtube video. These people were more likely to give good reviews and much more likely to buy.

So the game has to have to have the potential but the external forces are equally important to drive sales I guess.

Once you have some mass exciting and willing customers I prefer to have a bit bigger game where I can sell 1-3 in-apps and they stay 30 minutes+.
Ofc you can also have this for a smaller game but it is just so much more profitable with a game that sells a bit more.

I get sales for remove ads mainly for three points. It also has todo that it is very clean and the ads are really intrusive and breaking its purity. But its a minor. Compared to Orcs galaxy it had 6 sales yesterday from only 120 new users and each sale was around $5. But I am still worried about advertising this one because i know they came most likely from pewdiepug or orcs as these games redirect and they already are hyped customers.

Orcs, Brofist legend and human harvest have the remove ads always together with another benefit. Get more points progress faster.

I deleted the other only "remove ad" low price $0.99 games from my portfolio.
The price range in my games I want to be around $1.99 to $9.99 but this obviously have to be objects. They like to buy and get something physical.

So if you have a free game maybe make the remove ads an object that will be "physical" present within your app on some major screens. And also show the lack of it there while not having it.

Not sure if that helped just random thoughts about it.

Dues

Good insights Dave!

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Unless a game is really popular I can't see wasting time on games with weak downloads by adding levels. I would move on to a new game. Watching your posts you seem to be stuck in a genre. Maybe it's time to move out of your comfort zone and do something completely different.

crestwoodgames

@BigDave I would also look at app store optimization. This is very important when it comes to listing apps on the store. Some would think that simply using common keywords for apple, or a common description with google will help your app be found when searched for. This may be so, but you are also grouped with thousands of other apps that had the same keywords and descriptions.

Franto

@BigDave Thanks for the insight, and your strategy of capitalizing on trends is effective.

Have you tried making it so ads appear 30% of the time or something? I tried it in my first google play game released just before X-mas, with it being of the same theme but in a humorous tone. What I noticed is that the ads only appeared at the percentage of how many people downloaded it, basically 30%. lol

What I had in mind was to not overwhelm the user with ads at the end of every play, so they could see the results screen without ads 2/3rds of the time.

I'm gonna try out other stuff in the next small game.

For example, using interstitials and set ads to appear 50% of the time, as I think video ads might only be effective if your game is already popular or addictive, people will be willing to wait for the vid to be over to play.

BigDave

@Lost_Oasis_Games
i think I'm pretty various. Ofc the most are incremental games but creepy was totally fresh, a platformer. I am not stuck in a genre I am more conflicted with the worry of missing out on a good opportunity. Since pug still gets 2 k downloads a week updating it would be maybe profitable. Same with orcs with 500 downloads a week but balancing it out due longer play sessions by players.

Hopscotch

Thank you for the detailed response and insights @BigDave!

I like how serious you take both the gameplay/design considerations AND the marketing/monetization.

Both aspects can be exciting and fun.

BazookaTime

Thanks for sharing.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

@BigDave said:
@Lost_Oasis_Games
i think I'm pretty various. Ofc the most are incremental games but creepy was totally fresh, a platformer. I am not stuck in a genre I am more conflicted with the worry of missing out on a good opportunity. Since pug still gets 2 k downloads a week updating it would be maybe profitable. Same with orcs with 500 downloads a week but balancing it out due longer play sessions by players.

Well those are numbers worth an investment.

BigDave

@Lost_Oasis_Games
jeah i think i do the pug update with a premium mini game it could lead to some nice sales. Now I only have to figure what to do with the pug and the cloths from screen 1.
but i see that too

mhedges

@BigDve,

Have you tried adding seasonal items to the games? Valentine's Day is big (at least in the US), so you might add some items to the apps, one free, the rest paid, or the like. Cupid suit, bow and arrow, flowers, a companion dog, whathaveya. Then comes Easter - have the pug hatch some eggs or something!