Calling All Disheartened Developers!

News & General Discussion
1

Hi, I’m making an iOS game (with Unity!) about how ridiculously hard it is to get noticed in the world of apps nowadays. In my game, you basically have to battle flappy bird clones and one-star reviews. More screenshots and more details here.

The part that will be of most interest to you is that I have a scrolling background of the icons of apps that have fallen by the wayside. Some of them are my own apps, some of them are fake apps. But I thought it’d be fun to open it up to other developers like me who are very proud of their games but never (or barely) got noticed.

So the quick breakdown:

The good:

Your app gets some free exposure!

The unfortunate:

Per what I’ve heard about Apple’s Review Guidelines, I don’t think I can actually link to your app from my game. However, I will have a link to my website that will list all of the other developers’ apps displayed in my background.

Furthermore, there’s a chance my game gets flat-out rejected because I’m displaying apps other than my own. I hope that’s not the case, but it could happen, especially in light of the fact that…

The risk:

My game is making fun of Apple. They may hate me (and, by association, you!) for poking fun at them.

So…

If you’re still interested, here’s what I’d need from you if you’d like to be included in my game’s background:

  1. Your App Icon
    -Format: .png
    -Size: 512x512 (I’ll shrink it down for the various different sprite sheets for the different devices)
    -Prerounded, if possible: (Like how it’d look on an actual iOS device) I’d prefer this just to make my job go a little faster.

  2. Your App Title
    -This may get truncated if it’s too long and doesn’t fit in my graphic

  3. Your App Price
    -Hopefully it’s free thru–> 2.99 so that I don’t have to make more art, haha!

  4. Your/Your Company’s Name
    -I’ll display this on my website next to your app in the list of Other Developers’ Games featured in my background

Feel free to email me. Please mention “Icon for BG” in the subject. Or you can just post it on this forum if you’d like. By posting/email me this information, you agree that you own the artwork and are cool with me sticking it in my game as part of the background.

I have no idea how many (if any) of you will be interested in this. I’ll be doing a “first come, first serve” approach since I don’t have unlimited texture space. For now, if you have developed multiple games, I’ll limit you to just one of your apps. But if hardly anyone is interested in doing this, I’ll accept multiple app icons from the same person.

Thanks for your time! By the way, I wish I could promise you that my game will become wildly popular and that your app will in turn receive tons of exposure. But we all know that’s unlikely, so this is mostly for fun.

2 Likes
2

I would say, you have the wrong audience. People who play games are mostly not game developers.

3

Oh, sorry, is there a better sub forum for this? Should this go under “Game Design” instead?

4

No thats not what I mean. Your game targets people who develop games, which isn’t a lot of game PLAYERS… so likely it will die the same death as the many other games.

5

You could try making an app bundle sell like 100 game for buck and give everyone a penny for every sale

Ok max ten per bundle

6

@imaginaryhuman_1 : Oh, yes, I see. Yeah, this is mostly for fun. It may not be a large audience, but I thought other devs might appreciate it and find it funny.

I’ve pretty much concluded that any game I’d make nowadays would be dead on arrival anyways, so this is like my swan song.

2 Likes
7

Climby Charts: Buried Alive in the App Heap for iOS is now available for download!

There’s also an Android version.

I believe one of the developers who joined in found me via this forum. Thus, I just wanted to let you know how the scrolling background is set up:

  1. There are 15 different apps in the background, the order of which is randomized every new game.
  2. After you climb 15 ranks, the background repeats itself in the exact same order.

Thus, if you don’t see your app right away, don’t worry. Climb 10 ranks or so, and I’m sure you’ll spot it.

Thanks again for letting me use your app icon/info! Enjoy.

8

This does at least have a bit of uniqueness to it. On a vaguely tangential note, I once started a prototype twin-stick shooter where the concept was that you played as a moderator protecting a forum from spambots.

2 Likes
9

@angrypenguin - Hahaha, how far did you get in designing that game?

10

About three nights. Not far. It was one of many ideas, and it wasn’t one that stuck.

11

@ThumbSnail I actually think this was a pretty cool idea. Nice work.

12

@SteveJ - Thank you kindly!

13

I tried the android version. It kind of lost me after two or three tries, but funny idea. Needs to quit the game if I hit the back key.

14

it’s an interesting idea. I think non-developer users also get bothered by all the clones. But as this a minigame idea base on a small joke, don’t make the scale of project too big. Also you need better art.

15

That’s mobile gaming for you. All about quantity over quality.

As for your app:
I wouldn’t be afraid of Apple hating you since they have no feelings; Just soul-simulators running on money. :wink:

Oh, and you need to be careful with logos and brand-names. This could come back to bite you in the ass.

16

@SunnyChow - Yeah, I kept the game and the development pretty simple. As for better art… that’s about the extent of my art skills unfortunately!

@TheSniperFan - All the BG icons are either artwork I’ve created or that other developers have given me permission to use. As for brand names, hopefully flappy birds isn’t really a brand… If it is, uh oh. But then hopefully they’ll go after all the clones, too! And then in the end, I think that would be a win for us all!