iPhone App Developer Tip #1 – Listen, Observe and Improve
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This isn’t exactly rocket science – so I apologize in advance for stating the obvious. It isn’t realistic to expect your app to gain any traction on version one. My first mistake was in expecting to incorporate too many features into the first version. As a result, the project went over budget and took too long to complete. We worked hard to eliminate memory leaks and bugs and as we hoped, it was approved at the Apple store on the first try. On the big day of the release, we were blown away by the roaring silence of the game’s reception. The silence was deafening. For two weeks I agonized about the painful anonymity of an app that cost several thousand dollars and hundreds of hours of labor to “complete”. It was a flop. It was a flop like the vast majority of apps on the Apple store. It was generating about $5.00 per week in revenue. Since Apple doesn’t send the first check to a developer until $150 has been generated, this was going to take a long time to even see the first check – let alone recovering my investment or (to dream) - paying off my mortgage.
Oh Marbles! was published in the fall of 2009 when there were about 80,000 apps in the Apple store. Now there are more than 200,000, and about 20,000 added per month. This knowledge left me with two choices. I could cut my losses and move on, or figure out what I am doing wrong and make corrections. After periodic bouts of depression, I have committed to the latter.
The obvious question to ask then is how to improve the app.
Listen: Marbles is a game usually played by kids. In the US, it hasn’t been widely played for decades. Young kids tell me that they like Oh Marbles! My teenage kids tell me that the game really sucks. One adult reviewer completely misunderstood how it works. My reviews indicate that people either really love it, or they don’t get it at all and give it a one-star rating.
Some of the features that I implemented from the start are either unnecessary, unhelpful, or poorly done. Features other people routinely implement to help their app gain users were missing completely from my app.
User Reviews: In spite of not finding bugs in testing, users report bugs, and we are gradually fixing them.
Friends and Family – If I had listened to my family, I wouldn’t have made this at all. Sometimes you must follow your dream.
Target Audience – It has been important to understand my target audience. I have come to realize that this is a kids game targeted to sentimental adults. This corresponds with the reality that kids are more likely to download free games, while adults have credit cards associated with their iTunes accounts. If kids like it for the play and their parents approve the purchase, all the better.
Observe – You can identify an independent iphone app developer because they are the ones logging into the developer portal and checking stats daily. We are the ones buying other apps just to see how they implemented facebook or some other social networking device. This is a productive exercise. Purchase some of the most popular or best revenue generating apps and consider how to use the marketing strategies built into their applications. Oh Marbles uses the video link in a similar fashion as Angry Birds, for example.
So be inspired. Take the best ideas used in other applications, synthesize them into your design, and make the app better.
welcome @ July 26, 2010
Tips for the Independent iPhone App Developer
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Oh Marbles! This has been tough! It is certainly true that the work just begins when an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad application is finally published on the iTunes App Store. For the independent and self funded developer, the act of publishing can be like playing the lottery or starting a rock band. This independent developer is of the opinion that success will come if we think of it like becoming a rock star. Sure, it takes some luck, but the odds improve with a good strategy, masterful execution, persistence, and hard work. In the same way that most garage bands never become famous, you cannot expect anything good to come of a simple, look-alike game that you throw together and abandon on the Apple store. It will just be more debris in the Apple wasteland of abandoned and anonymous apps.
This section of the Oh Marbles! Blog is to describe for you the lessons I have learned in making just one app and promoting it for the App store. These are the topics that will be covered here:
- Listen and improve
- Go global
- Monitor your performance in various App stores
- Make a map
- Tell a friend
- Adjust the price
- Get reviews
- Try free app
- Build in a review prompt
- Add facebook integration
- Press releases
- Make a narrative
- Videos
- Video help
- Be unique
- Be consistent
- Choose keywords carefully
- Chose publishers name carefully
- Numbers game
- Use google keyword research to identify good app keywords
- Google analytics
- Jumptap.com
- Advertising that sucks
- Cross marketing
- Facebook strategies
- App wasteland – standing out from the debris that get zero sales
- Keeping the product description fresh
- Pick a good name (include keywords, refer to Peter Whitley’s categories)
I hope that you find this to be helpful. The individual articles will be added as time permits.
Wes Sauer
welcome @ July 26, 2010
Oh Marbles! The #3 Family Game!
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Madagascar
Well, sort of! Oh Marbles! It is currently ranked as the number three family game – in the App Store in MADAGASCAR!
We still have a ways to go to break into the top 100 in the US, Canada, France, the UK, Germany and other western countries.
We are working on another round of improvements to the game. We’ll make the process for downloading marbles a little easier, and we’ll be adding some special effects too.
Thanks for your support! Have fun!
welcome @ July 20, 2010
Day One of National Marbles Tournament
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Marbles tournament in Wildwood
What Is It: The 87th annual National Marbles Tournament is a four-day event in which “mibsters,” or marble shooters, ages 8 to 14 compete for national honors, awards, prizes and college scholarships. The event kicks off today.
What To Expect: The game played is called Ringer, in which 13 marbles are placed in the center of a 10-foot circle in the formation of an X. Mibsters from across the country will take turns launching their large, “shooter” marbles at their regular-sized targets. The first player to knock seven marbles out of the circle wins.
Event Info: The tournament will take place from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. today through Thursday at the Ringer Stadium, located at Wildwood Avenue and the beach in Wildwood. The event is free for spectators. Call 304-337-2764 for more information.
welcome @ June 21, 2010
Oh Marbles! Going Global!
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Oh Marbles! The number of cities where it is played is growing daily.
View Oh Marbles! in a larger map
welcome @ June 20, 2010
Happy Father’s Day!
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Update on Father’s Day Promotion – This has been a success! Oh Marbles! It was installed in the US, France, Italy, Great Brittan, Canada, Germany, Australia, Taiwan, Japan – a total of 50 countries. It ranked in the top 100 free games in France yesterday. The game will remain free through tomorrow.
Oh Marbles! Today is Father’s day. In honor of all of the dad’s out there, especially the ones that remember playing marbles as a kid, we have a special gift. We are making the game a free download for today and tomorrow. If you are a dad who just received a new iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, we encourage you to visit the Apple store and download Oh Marbles!
Happy Father’s Day!
welcome @ June 20, 2010
Mibsters Return to the Wildwoods
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WILDWOOD — Mibsters” from across the country will compete for national honors, college scholarships and many other prizes and awards during the 87th annual National Marbles Tournament here Mon., June 21 through Thurs., June 24 all vying for the title of “King” and “Queen” of marbles.
Players selected from local tournaments held in cities throughout the United States will unite in the Wildwoods for a week of serious marble competition and some fun on the famous Wildwoods Boardwalk.
More than 1,200 games will be played throughout the four-day tournament at Ringer Stadium, on the beach at Wildwood Avenue with the top eight shooters advancing to the semi-final competition.
The top two players will compete in a best of 15-game series for the championship. The victorious male and female will literally be crowned the victors of the tournament, and as part of tradition, the male winner will give a congratulatory kiss to the winning female – a tradition the winners may not like too much, but a tradition nonetheless.
The marble game in which competitors will participate in the tournament is called Ringer. It is played by placing 13 marbles in the form of an “X” in a 10-foot circle, with players alternating shots. The winner is the individual who is first to shoot seven marbles out of the ring.
The tournament will be held from 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. daily. The event is free. For additional information, please visit www.nationalmarblestournament.org or call 304-337-2764.
By Press Release.
welcome @ June 10, 2010
Oh Marbles! The only iPhone game with “Dropsies”.
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Oh Marbles! This is the only game on the Apple Store that presents the classic game of marbles so that players can “pinch” a marble and drop it. It isn’t a marbles checkers game, or a “roll the ball on a track” game like so many others. It presents the best of the traditional marbles games where you select from your marbles, hold one, look it over closely, and then drop it or flick it into a circle to win other player’s marbles. There are three games.
Ringer – marbles are placed in a cross pattern in the center
Ring Taw – marbles are place randomly in a small circle in the center.
Dropsies – marbles are place randomly in the large circle
welcome @ June 2, 2010
Oh Marbles! video
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Our short promotional video is online now at youtube. If you would like to see how Oh Marbles is played, check it out.
welcome @ May 27, 2010
Fascinated with Marbles Racing
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This documentary short from a Belgian Television News program describes a 72 year old man who has been racing marbles on tracks for 60 years. He plays marbles for eight hours per day. It provides a strange glimpse into the personal lives of these two seniors. What do you think of their experience?
welcome @ May 27, 2010
