Show HN: A game I've been working on for the last year is out today
itunes.apple.comCool game! I just set http://www.asteroids.com to redirect to your app store page for the next couple weeks.
While the gesture is noble, you may end up hurting him/her in the long run. If media start linking to your domain rather than to the appstore page, he'll have broken links and lost pagerank if/when you decide to do something else with the domain.
Having said that, what a great domain!
Plus if somehow Google thinks asteroids.com is a spammy domain (for whatever reason), it'll now be associated with his game.
Wow, if it's that simple, that is a great way to destroy a competitor's domain's reputation in Google, isn't it?
Unfortunately it's even easier than that to destroy a domain's "Google reputation." Go on fiverr and buy a ton of spammy links, direct them at your competitor. It runs about $5 per 100,000 links last time I checked. (I've never done it, but it's a common blackhat technique).
If there was Hacker News Gold, I would've give you some for that excellent gesture.
edit: typo
What a noble gesture. On an unrelated note, I have some domains parked of my own, and I realized this is a great way to use them - help drive traffic to apps. And perhaps if he makes enough money from the app, he'll buy the domain to make a landing page for it. Plus it's really great to see a domain thats not parked with those stupid ads.
I'm doing the same using this service. http://domains4good.org/
Now, developers.lv redirects to awesome page instead of doing nothing.
Wow, this is fantastic! I will definitely spread the word.
What a domain! You're a cool guy, guy.
Hah, that's a great idea. I just redirected comebackwithawarrant.com to the EFF as I'm not really doing anything with it.
Also - congrats to OP on the launch and all the post-launch attention. Must feel good :)
wow thanks!
props for helping the guy out.
Hey just in case you've not noticed... apple is linking to http://www.codeherdstudios.com/AsteroidSmash/ from the game description, which is 404ing on your site (should be http://www.codeherdstudios.com/AsteroidSmash.html)
Thanks for the heads up. I've added a redirect to the proper page!
Here's some critique of your presentation in the App Store:
- Why is there a pause symbol in the middle of every screenshot? - Terrible layout on the corner banners in the screenshot. Play head to head Against your friends!
[large top margin] Play with up [no leading between this line and the next] to 4 players on 1 ipad [no bottom margin]
- Random placement of text next to the circles in the 'How to Play' screen. Why aren't all of those lines of text centered above/below their circles? Be consistent.
And when I click the link to your website, hoping for maybe a video of the game in action, I get served nothing but "Cannot GET /AsteroidSmash/".
Wearing my "random browsing of app store hat" my reaction is "okay I'm moving on to another game".
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After finding the webpage for it and watching the video: Wow this thing looks confusing. I have absolutely no idea what's going on from the video. Blue things moving around in front of a blue background with no contrast of any kind, and four fingers rapidly tapping. And a couple of blocks of text that're close enough to being centered that they look amateurishly off-center.
EDIT: Nevermind. I just saw the second part of your comment where you said you watched the video.
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"Why is there a pause symbol in the middle of every screenshot?"
It looks like it is part of the gameplay. If you watch the video on his website, you can see the pause symbol right in the middle of the screen while gameplay is going on.
I really wish Apple would enforce that the screenshots had to be actually screenshots. The markings like in this one make it worse, but it seems like more and more popular games are just putting marketing images there and not bothering to include any game play.
They used to enforce that, but then relaxed the requirement a (year?) ago. Since then there's been a lot more marketing shots instead of screenshots showing up in app listings.
Tip:
If you haven't, every iOS/OS X developer should sign up as an iTunes affiliate http://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/ and use affiliate links. It is more or less transparent unlike other link wrappers. E.g. a link to the same app with my affiliate account will be https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/asteroid-smash/id730150968&a.... (no you don't have to click on it) There's just 2 additional values.
The key thing about this is you can use the campaign tag to track click throughs. It's not about the affiliate revenue.
Wow, this is truly a pro-tip. I had never considered it before. Thanks!
Plus, if someone buys something from iTunes/AppStore shortly after clicking your link, you end up getting 7% commission.
Fellow (mobile) game developer here, congrats on the launch! Can you tell us about the development cycle for this game? Were you alone, did it take a year full-time, etc? I'm curious.
I would be curious as well. What is your marketing plan? I also released a game a month ago after working on it for about a year, but soon realized that it is very tough to break through the noise on the app store and get your game noticed.
What has your experience been with this? I see that you are doing pay-up-front model. I'd be curious to get your sense of why you went with that as opposed to the freemium + IAP model.
I also released as a paid app initially, it almost seems as if there is an expectation that games should be free to try and then either progress via upgrades or IAPs.
The game was all developed in my spare time. Mostly through staying up really late after work.
This was the first time I've gone out and tried marketing one of my games, and I've learned a ton.
The number one thing I would recommend is to get eyes on the project as early as possible. I'd hit up TIGSource and start posting a dev log as soon as you can. Be sure to take it out to local events, and definitely start showing other game developers.
The game took a lot longer to make than I was originally planning for, and a lot of that was due to some design decisions that I struggled with. However when I took it out and started showing some local developers they had tons of ideas to help contribute, and actually helped me through the problems that I had been stuck on.
As for the pay model, The whole reason I made this game is because I love to make games. I don't think there was really any strategy behind the monetization. I just put it out there for a couple of bucks. Honestly I expected this to come out and maybe a few people play it, and then I'd be onto my next one; to me that was totally cool.
Actually this morning I had posted a thread on touch arcade and I got 1 response about how a mom had played the game with her daughter and they both had fun. Really if all the game amounts to is that, I'd be happy.
So far though I've been pretty humbled by the response, and all I can say is thanks!
If your only goal is to have people play it and have fun, you should make it free but have In-App Purchases.
Many more people will end up downloading your game, and it may spread better that way (since it's multiplayer).
Now the question is how do you make money with IAP? Maybe keep some awesome game modes locked? Unlock them by getting enough coins (e.g., 100K). You can do this by playing enough, by sharing the app with friends on FB/Twitter, or by purchasing coins through IAP.
Good luck!
On the App Store: I wished Apple allowed to upload demo videos of the apps, games could really benefit from such medium. Screenshots sometimes aren't the best way to communicate/sell software.
This gives you a pretty good idea of how it looks (video on page) : http://www.codeherdstudios.com/AsteroidSmash.html
I haven't used App Store in awhile and appreciate the ability to view videos on the apps in the Google Play store
Looks good. I'm wondering why you highlight "Only on iOS" as a specific thing on the screenshots?
its not official but apple will dick you over on a number of things if you ship on other platforms. most specifically the highly valuable 'being featured early on the app store'. from what i've heard they have a secret internal policy of checking to see if you shipped on android before doing that...
one of their submission rules is not to mention other platforms in metadata - i'd also take that as a hint that "we like exclusives" - my interpretation of that is that you can't say "also available on Android" - for example.
this is not fresh news either, a quick google on the subject reveals a long history of people moaning about this particular problem... if you are shipping a game and do your homework then you will know this.
Moves is currently featuring on the app store and has a very successful Android app. There are often cross-platform apps that are featured. I'd be interested to see valid sources for your claims - they could very easily be by people who are annoyed their app wasn't featured.
well, there are exceptions its true. and really, if an app is very good and already successful then they will feature it - the problem is that the success of an app can depend on early features. angry birds will be featured because its already successful - if they don't feature it something is obviously amiss.
i don't really have any great concrete sources i'm afraid, its not documented and aside from the web articles i assume you already easily found with google from my prior comment, it comes from hearsay at the pub from talking to other gamedevs and from at least one meeting with apple employees where everything discussed was NDA although i'm sure i can say that such a meeting took place. although the idea that they suggested not shipping on android for at least a few weeks after launch on ios shouldn't be too far fetched...
the fact that not mentioning other platforms in metadata is a submission requirement is a very strong hint too. its an unreasonable request however you cut it.
i despise legal gagging of this kind - i consider it thoroughly despicable and cowardly - only necessary when you know you are in the wrong and don't want anyone to find out, or are deluded into thinking that your corporate secret isn't better off in the wild where it can benefit all of humanity - i.e that you are more important than everyone else and somehow deserve a reward for acquiring knowledge or keeping secrets.
there is also a bit of 'i am going to ship something in the near future'. i've already said more than enough to do damage to myself here. :)
as i hinted at in my initial response this 'idea' is easy to uncover if you do the usual research anyone would do before shipping. (google)
EDIT: okay so not sure how i forgot this because /i worked there/ but when apple ran their 'stargazing app' promotions about a year ago they only featured ios exclusive apps - they also were regularly featuring starwalk aside from that promotion (which is ios exclusive). the app i worked on 'star chart' was not featured - it has been featured recently because it early adopted the iOS 7 UI style - but before that it got missed despite outranking most of those other apps and being a higher quality product more consistent with apple's design guidelines and ethos. now i don't think that necessarily the app was worthy of feature, but a lot of much less polished or worthy apps got a lot of screenspace on the store and the only thing they had in common was not having shipped on other platforms. as much as i dislike those guys for their disgusting attitude towards customers and employees - frankly they deserved better treatment than they got from apple in that regard. not being featured is fine, but featuring vastly inferior competitiors because they are exclusive is utterly despicable.
> its not official but apple will dick you over on a number of things if you ship on other platforms. most specifically the highly valuable 'being featured early on the app store'. from what i've heard they have a secret internal policy of checking to see if you shipped on android before doing that...
That sounds like bullshit.
i can offer no concrete evidence, but the impression i get from within the gamedev community is that this is generally accepted to be the case.
there are ample hints that this is fits with Apple's philosophy for the app store. the fact that they forbid you from mentioning if you are on other platforms being the most easily verified.
if you are ever lucky enough to meet with some of the Apple guys to discuss how to help your app on the store then you might be able to find out for yourself whether this is bullshit or not.
At a guess:
Many iOS developers have a severe case of blinders on and don't communicate on their websites that their software is iOS only, ever. This does not only affect games, but also productivity software. The end result of that is that in the best case, a person gets to really like a product after having spent time on the marketing copy and when trying to figure out how to buy it for their platform find that they can't and end up despising the company. In the worst case the company uses some intermediary to sell the software, like humblebundle, which means the person can end up paying for the software, only to be told that they can only get an itunes version.
I don't know if that's the reason they do it, but in either case i applaud them for it.
It's also a sign to fans of the Apple aesthetic that it's more "Apple-y" than cross-platform products. See Tapbots vs Evernote for an example. For people that value that aesthetic, "iOS only" is a positive signal.
In the App Store, I've seen the "only on iOS" category, maybe he wants to get in there.
Ah ok, this makes sense. I thought it was strange to highlight it as the developer didn't appear to be receiving any benefit from doing so (as opposed to "Only on Xbox" games getting special treatment from Microsoft).
Because true iOS connoisseurs like to know that the developer didn't sell out and support those other platforms.
Congrats - releasing is definitely something to be proud of!
Not sure if you want feedback but IMO - the text banners on screenshots feel a bit too low quality and detract from the actual screenshots. Always hard to get this perfect though!
Main site (link in the description is not working): http://www.codeherdstudios.com/AsteroidSmash.html
Just bought it and played a round by myself (wife promised to play a game with me later). Seems simple, but fun. I can immediately see it would be even more fun with 3 or 4 players rather than 2.
I haven't deeply explored the game yet, but having an AI and the possibility of unlocking additional weapons/upgrades would be exciting. Also, I'd love to have online multiplayer or team play (me and a friend could get online and play against another two-player team).
I love the fact that it's not a 'I am alone, let me play' game. Apps that encourages people play on the same device are a lot better than any others !!
Haven't had a chance to play yet–BUT it looks great and I'm excited to try it later today. Multi-player, single-screen iPad apps are a favorite for me and the kids. For the record, our favorite such apps are: Stratosphere, King of Opera, Achtung, and Raiding Company.
I'll report back later tonight.
You need to post a thread on the Touch Arcade forums & also let Eli Hodapp and company know about it. Exposure on TA is a great way to get noticed and get good feedback.
Edit: found an existing thread for your game, though it would really help if you posted in the release thread to let everyone know your story and that you're actively soliciting feedback. http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=209686
I really like your 8-Bit graphics approach! But I am a little bit disappointed, that you did not include Bootstrap somewhere.
Looks great! I'm also building a multiplayer-on-the-same-device iOS game, but I plan on adding a single player mode too. Are you not worried about being multiplayer only? I'd be afraid to cut a large portion of the impulse purchases this way (I won't buy it unless there is someone who can try it with me right now).
Really cool game! One quick question before I enthusiastically throw you my money: It the music 8 bit too (like in the video)? :)
Yup! Actually I also released the soundtrack for free/pay what you want here
http://codeherdstudios.bandcamp.com/album/asteroid-smash-ost
Looks great. Reminds me a bit of Space Team. I'm loving all these new collaborative games coming out.
Nice, concise and direct description. Great choice of graphics and screenshots too! Really nice work
Congratulations on the launch! Putting a product out there takes chutzpah. Cheers! :)
This is actually the first app for iPad that has actually made me want one.
The music reminded me of Gyruss, one of my all time favorites... :)
well done. finishing and shipping a game is no small achievement.
It's not available for iPhone :( any reason for that?
Seeing how the game accepts up to 4 players total, I'm guessing the screen factor played a role.
I would guess the screen size is too small for 4 people to play at once.
Would be cool to have a 2 player or 1 player option for iPhone in the future though.
Good luck! Let us know when the android version is out :)
Do you not know how to take a screenshot on an ipad?
This would make for a great port to the OUYA.
would you report revenue. I always wonder how much people are making from these games. Of course if you don't mind.
Kudos to you for completing your game !