TASTE of FREEDOM

[DmitryK]

My first GLBasic game TASTE of FREEDOM in App Store
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/taste-of-freedom/id461496644

NAME : TASTE of FREEDOM
Genre: Match3
Cost: FREE

Description

TASTE of FREEDOM is a classical match3 game with a pleasant graphics and music.

TASTE of FREEDOM gives you for free:
•Chance to rescue the princess Lily and people of Tampria
•10 levels of a different complexity
•Music from Kevin MacLeod
•Pleasant pastime


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[Kitty Hello]

It looks very nice. I will download later. I really love "match 3" games.

tried.
It looks nice. But I was unable to get the idea "how" to "get" the key or the extras. I did, but I could not reproduce it.
-Please fix the help for that.

When you swap tiles that won't make a chain of 3, the swapping animation looks broken. As if you swapped them, which you did not.
-Fix the animation

I made chunks of 5 blocks and got 10 pts for each. Please update a better scoring system. 10 for a chain of 5 feels so... underpaid Also, combos (chain reactions) did not yield great score-ups. (at least not visually). It should go "Bang", "Kazooom", "WAHOOOOOOO", "Yodeldi dri oh larydee dee-oh" (You get the point)


And make the Icon less detailed. It looks a bit like a mess or random pixels. Zoom into a 3x3 area of your gamefield for the icon. Maybe.
And the text on the springboard is too long. It says "TAST...EDOM". I don't want to taste edom. Maybe Eden.
Shorten it to "Taste of f." or "T.o.Freedom"

[DmitryK]

Thank you Gernot for feedback

Help ... OK ... will change ... I thought it's clear since I'm not original
Swapping ...Yes...I's a feature I know about it. Is it really ugly ? then will change ...
Chunks of 5 blocks should give 20 points ... strange ... < 5 blocks - 10 p.,  5-8 - 20 p., 9 and more - 50 p. I need to check
Combos ... yes, I had such messages, but hid them later ... will think
Icon and text ... fully agreed ... first name was ESCAPE, but I was late to reserve it and needed to change it ... so well, will change

[DmitryK]

I got mail from a man by name Marcus Vern who proposed promoting my game.
He couldn't call names of games he worked with, no real average possible downloads he can help reach.
Have anybody got experience of a communication with the man ?
That info I got from him:

Helping you attain more ratings and reviews is part of my services. You need a solid number to attract downloads and to stop people from skipping your apps. Essentially if an app has very little ratings then some users immediately write it off.

I've been actively observing many developers over the years. With my help you can avoid many of the most common mistakes app developers make. This will save you a lot of time and help you avoid pointless stress.

I guarantee at the following prices (prices apply only to free apps):

50 ratings and 5 comments – 50 USD
75 ratings and 7 comments – 75 USD
100 ratings and 12 comments – 100 USD
150 ratings and 20 comments – 150 USD
200 ratings and 35 comments – 200 USD
300 ratings and 55 comments – 300 USD
400 ratings and 75 comments – 400 USD
500 ratings and 95 comments – 500 USD

Keyword optimization is also part of my services (25 USD)

Conducting specific research on marketing your app is one of our many services as well as assisting you in your marketing campaign.

I offer all my additional services in 3 different variations:
1) Basic Media Promotion – 100 USD
2) Expanded Media Promotion – 200 USD
3) Complete Media Promotion – 300 USD

[Kitty Hello]

50 ratings, 5 comments - they put no information about the star-count of the rating. You don't want 50 1-star ratings.

[ampos]

EULA from Apple is against payed comments/rating, but I don't know if they have ever "sentenced" anyone...

[Crivens]

Forgetting what happens to this "company" if found out, but to yourself then I would imagine you would at least lose your developer account and possibly get blacklisted for a set time for signing up again. So unless you can easily offload to someone else's bank details (eg. Wife) then I wouldn't risk it.

Just make your game fantastic and peddle it to everyone you can think of! Plus proving family and friends put 5 star ratings against your game cos you asked them would be very difficult. Now just to follow my own advice...

Cheers

[DmitryK]

thanks everybody for opinions
Crivens, are you successful in sales by following your strategy ?

[Slydog]

My take on what that '50 ratings, 5 comments' was that they wouldn't just create fake comments or ratings to achieve this.
They would promote your app properly (mainly via Review Sites and a well worded press release) so enough people will rate and comment on their own. 
Those numbers were just guarantees for the price paid, otherwise you would get a refund.
That's how another app marketing company I looked into ran things. 

But I can't say for sure about Marcus, and wouldn't consider his services unless he states that he DOESN'T just cheat with fake comments!
However, I searched Google for 'Marcus Vern' and came up mostly empty.
Even though his prices are very low (or especially since they are) I would want references beforehand.
And at least to tell you how he is going to achieve those numbers.
Otherwise he may do a worse job that you would do on your own, and who knows, may damage your company's reputation.

The following company charges $95 and they create a press release and send it to 2500 journalists.  There are a ton of his previous clients press releases to view, so you can evaluate how good they are before deciding.
http://www.indiedeveloperconsulting.com/

Or here's a great post on Unity's forums that contains an extensive list of app review sites:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/48042-list-of-most-important-review-sites-amp-blogs
If you want to do the marketing on your own!

[Kitty Hello]

Should I contact such a service for GLBasic, maybe?

[DmitryK]

Slydog, could you (if used the service) show number of downloads before PR\advert with it and after (maybe just in %) ?
2 Gernot, If this service really works GLB definitly should be announced with it   

[Slydog]

No, I've never used it, and I don't even have a game done yet!   
I've been collecting resources for when I finally get mine done.

I would still research that company using Google to make sure they are reputable.
If so, for only $95, my time is better spent elsewhere! 

Like more procrastinating!
Actually, my goal is October, as Ludum Dare just announced their (annual?) 'publish a game and make $1' challenge:
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2011/09/28/announcing-october-challenge-2011/

[DmitryK]

well, now i'm making some improvements of my game and after that will try http://www.indiedeveloperconsulting.com/ and something else

and will disclose results of course before and after
now for 5 days in app store i have only 2500 downloads

will work will try

[DmitryK]

Week diagram of country's distribution of my game
Can be useful for planning of your games localizations

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