We have submitted our game (CrackShot) to the Apple App store for review about a week ago. From experience, those that have games in the app store, how long does it usually take for the review to be done?
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The review by Apple ? According to Gernot, its about a month.
Quote from: MrTAToad on 2009-Nov-08
The review by Apple ? According to Gernot, its about a month.
Not good. O_O
Sorry. What dou you need in order to submit an app apart from the paid license??
I read that license is only for own developing/testing purpouses but is not enough for submision to the app store. I sthis true? Can you explain the submision procedure a bit?
Thanks in advance!
The license fee is also for publishing to the App Store. You need a different set of keys for doing that too...
Ok, so I understand that you only need to request the new keys before submiting the app.
I am dreading the submission process. Looks to be a total nightmare from what i have read.
However it is supposed to be faster nowadays. Some reports stating a couple of weeks and with recent reported changes stopping updated apps showing under new apps submissions for con updates should be cut down a huge amount.
Would be interesting to hear people experiences of how they get their apps known about as well.
In about two weeks we will start the marketing campaign and begin the leaking of information on numerous websites and hopefully build up some anticipation.
For this first game we don't really mind how it goes. It can sell 1 copy and we will be fine about that as its all a massive experiment at the moment.
Personally I can't wait to get onto the real projects up our sleeves. ;)
Part of the experiment is the actual usage of GlBasic itself and the pro's and cons of using it to develop what we are doing.
Main pros are the speed of development, the fact that we can compile to many platforms including our main platform of iphone/ipod touch development.
A negative is the fact that we have to do the development on pc. Means I have to have either windows on my mac (not something I like to have to do since moving to the mac 2 years ago) but its a minor issue for the benefits it brings.
looking forward to it all.
Mike
It would be nice if GamePark hurry up and get their portal up and running.
The whole iPhone certification process is a real pain - got one a few days ago, and it wasn't the proper public/private key one, which means another day of waiting for a new one...
For us this first project is just an experiment. We have some big projects planned for the future. Having said that I am quite happy with GLBASIC for now and it seems to have done the job nicely. =D
The opening of GPH's portal will show exactly how development on the Wiz is going. It's been awfully quiet of late - I wonder if devs are deliberately withholding their apps, ready to sell them on the portal or are they just avoiding it and waiting for the Pandora. If the second option is the case, then the Wiz is dead and GPH with it, probably.
In the German forums they said, that they wanted to drop the Wifi, but they were convinced to take a try on it, again.
I wonder why it's such a lot of work. I would write some summy-app store in php within a week or so. It's not that difficult, is it? And use paypal for the payment and done...
**** UPDATE **************
Guys it took 10 days from start to "READY FOR SALE" on the Apple app store. :good:
Quote**** UPDATE **************
Guys it took 10 days from start to "READY FOR SALE" on the Apple app store.
Nice, when i registered I got the Apple welcome email and they were saying
that they'd got the review time down to 14 days, which i took with a pinch of
salt but it looks like it's improving.
The biggest problem that most of are going to face is the marketing of the game. The iPhone market is completely flooded with apps and games and getting noticed is extremely difficult. I have also realised that alot of the developers out there are using extremely suspect methods (like using their PROMO codes) to create false accounts and thus giving THEMSELVES lots of reviews with 5 stars. Getting into the apple "NEW AND NOTEWORTHY" category is extremely important and only the really devious know how to do it. Apple, I believe do not disclose how it is achieved. So all very interesting and chances of success are small. But having said that, if you can figure it all out, there is still money to be made. We are up against some real SLEEK and unscrupolous marketing men and getting a piece of the cake away from their clutches is not going to be easy. :O :O
Hi there,
Congratulations for your hard work!
Nowadays, AppStore is flooded with apps and games (as you say), some of them, really bad and not polished (Apple seems that don't care about quality of apps and games lately).
You need to do, some hardwork again, to give your application some extra exposure; that is what i do.
1. There is a lot of websites about iphone games / apps, you need to talk with webmaster to try to get some review for your app; most of them never will answer to your e-mail; some will do for a few $; others will do for free. Anyway, you always can go to forums of this websites and talk about your game. (If they accept to do a review, you will have to send some promo codes).
2. This may seems a bit tricky but... Give some promocodes on big forums (like toucharcade), exchange it for reviews on itunes (give about 10 or 15 promocodes and you will get 25% reviews, that, will definitly improve your sales).
3. Do a website for your game and a video too, its important that people can see app before buying (i mean see somebody playing, not only static images).
4. If you are enough lucky, Apple, misteriously, will promote your app on some category (Noid was on New & Notheworthy category). It's really a mistery, how Apple select this app, but definitly, improve your sales.
5. Do a lite version, sometime after app release (about a month). That will give you visibility of your app again. This lite version must have a clear button (BUY), which link you with to the paid version of application. Normally the conversion rate is about 2% to 5%, which means each 100 people who download your lite application, about 2 to 5 will buy the paid version.
6. Create twitter, myspace, facebook, etc to promote your application, some people will follow you, and some companies too, so you can get in touch with them. (twitter preferred).
7. Google Adword, Banner, ads... Normally dont work very well, i mean your cost will probably be superior to sales.
8. Its obvious but... Do more applications!, if you can have some applications selling at the same time, you improve your benefits.
9. Try to avoid 0.99$ 'technique', cause you never could drop this price and people loves 'on sales', on some interesting dates (like christmas), which improve your sales.
10. Have luck, its, of course, an important factor too.
This above methods and some luck, give you a decent of downloads daily for sure.
I think hard work is about 80% and luck is about 20%.
Now, i am almost finish my second game which will be available first week of december.
I wish you work and luck!
King Regards, fjsantos.
Fjsantos
Some VERY good advice, thank you. Some of it I am already busy with, other bits I will definitely start working on. :good:
By the way your game looks awesome, did you make reasonable sales with it, or was it below expectation??
Hi there,
I think they are more or less reasonable by now.
In about 23 days that is in appstore, i sold about 550 copies
But honestly, my expects were a little higher, although i dont complain!
Thanks for your comment, your game seems cool too!
King regards, fjsantos.
fj - how many did you sell? So far I solt 12 (twelve) versions of Wumbo :s
Hi Gernot,
I have sold about 550 copies so far,
It's extrange that you have only sold so few, because i try Wumbo, and i think its a solid and very enjoyable product.
Did you promote your application in any place? Did you select corrects / good keywords to help to find your application thorugh AppStore? (a bit of SEO Work here). Did you start any campain of any type?
King Regards, fjsantos.
I wrote to some review sites, but none wanted to bother testing. Wait - yesterday I bought ad space on appgirlreviews.com and suddenly they posted a review.
Did you advertise?
I have regularly read that paying for adverts is a waste of money. Posting to forums and keeping in touch apparently is the biggest advert for any application up for sale.
Mike R
There are adverticement firms that specialize in this, they hire young people that talk to other youth in chatpages, facebook, twitter and so on. And they certainly don't tell anyone they are working for an adverticement firm :-) At least we have plenty of those here in Sweden, not sure about other countries?
Interesting. Not heard of those. Then again I have a big enough family that should cover the earth with verbal and facebook etc adverts. :) Oh the joys of huge families. ahem.
Mike R
Moru - do you have any links for that?
It is a pity that we did not have our own web site where we could do our own reviews. :booze: ;) ;) ;)
Hi,
I use google adwords for a week for advertising. My campaign was very clear, GameType, Style and price, with url to buy directly. I segmented for age (i found that man between 24 to 36 was perfect age for buying), country (only USA), and the campaign was exclusive for mobile devices (iphone mainly).
Adwords sells mainly clicks (about 5 - 9 clicks is 1 €), so my cost during this week was 5€ for day.
My statics was about 200 impressions 1 click.
But i couldn't find any significant improve on sales compared with rest of days (well, maybe 2 or 3 sales more each day), so campaign balance was negative.
I didn't try any advertising, in general lines i read that don't improve sales generally.
My other 'campaigns' was, as mentioned before, in forums, mainly, twitter, facebook, myspace and youtube channel and video.
I felt lucky when Apple decided to featured my game in new and noteworthy section, and it boost my sales without doubt!
About reviews, i get the same as you and other indie developers who haven't a name in market, only silence... Others, wants money in exchange of a review, and only a few did it for free.
It's interesting what Moru talks about, any information on that?
Can i suggest a place, here in forums, for developers exclusively, to share ideas, experience, and 'tricks' of iphone market?
Quote from: codegit on 2009-Nov-17
It is a pity that we did not have our own web site where we could do our own reviews. :booze: ;) ;) ;)
Should we start one?
Quote from: Kitty Hello on 2009-Nov-17
Quote from: codegit on 2009-Nov-17
It is a pity that we did not have our own web site where we could do our own reviews. :booze: ;) ;) ;)
Should we start one?
Yes. Then we dont have to beg for reviews. =D
Good Point here!
How about admob.com and plusplus.com? 8)
I thought a good way of promoting an iphone game is give away a free pc/mac/linux/wiz version
and have a button link that takes you to the itunes store.
Or, well, a lite version of the same game for iPhone, which has a buy link to AppStore for fullversion (and better if you manage this buy link using bit.ly).
King Regards, fjsantos.
The problem is that no matter what you give, LITE, FREE etc. If people DO NOT know about the EXISTENCE of the app they will simply not download it. That is why it is so important to get a review. Unfortunately, most people that download a game first look for reviews and THEN make a decision. This is my opinion, the review sites are almost acting like a filter to the thousands of games that are available. (This filtering is VERY important to gamers as they simply cannot search through all the thousands of games that are available) So it is very easy for good games to get buried and crap games to sell. I suspect that if you pay for advertising you will get a review, otherwise you are shafted. The impulsive buying trend that happened in the early days of the iPhone has gone. The user is now totally spoilt for choice and will hunt around before spending his $0.99c (LOL) The solution, somehow is to be able to control your own reviews so that gamers get to know about good games that are not obscured by the crap that sometimes appear on the review sites, simply because those developers have big budgets to advertise. I think if gamers were guaranteed that the reviews are honest and not influenced by money they would be more that happy to accept the reviews. =D
I do read the reviws on the app store, and I tend to ignore all the 5* ones, because they might be fake. Especially the 1* ratings offer valuable information. Sometimes they complain about stuff where you say "who cares", but sometimes it's like "Whow good to know, I won't buy".
Quote from: Kitty Hello on 2009-Nov-17
Quote from: codegit on 2009-Nov-17
It is a pity that we did not have our own web site where we could do our own reviews. :booze: ;) ;) ;)
Should we start one?
That is a very interesting idea...
Quote from: Hatonastick on 2009-Nov-18
Quote from: Kitty Hello on 2009-Nov-17
Quote from: codegit on 2009-Nov-17
It is a pity that we did not have our own web site where we could do our own reviews. :booze: ;) ;) ;)
Should we start one?
That is a very interesting idea...
Yes, then its developers in charge of their own destiny. At the moment it's greedy marketing men deciding the fate of our games.
:rtfm:
Here is an example of what I am talking about. I just received this reply from one of the "Reviewers"
"Thank you for submitting your application for review.
We have a very extensive backlog in our review queue and we unfortunately cannot review every app we receive. We do recommend you checking out our affordable advertising options for your app, for as little as $199/month:"
It is quite obvious from this reply that if I pay for advertising of $199 they will give me a review. This is actually blackmail. :rant:
I only wish we can take the power away from these people. :rtfm:
Well, there is a lot of apps to be reviewed, ofcourse someone sees a way of making money just as you see a way of making money :-)
Quote from: Moru on 2009-Nov-18
Well, there is a lot of apps to be reviewed, ofcourse someone sees a way of making money just as you see a way of making money :-)
I agree, everybody is just trying to make a buck and that is how the world works. But my point is that the market is going to be dominated once again by the big players. The iPhone arena was still one of the few places an indie could make some money. This is now slowly going away. (My opinion only) :(
So, what do you think? A BLOG software or what should we use?
I think blog software would most probably work. It also should be able to hook up with twitter, myspace and facebook. This is a tall order but it might just give Indie guys a chance at this market. Gernot, do you agree with what is being said from your experience with Wumbo?? ALSO, I know how we can attract people/gamers to the site. ;) ;) ;) ;)