Hi all,
Last year my buddy (Artist) and I (Programmer) released a game for Android using the Free to Play model. Lets just say it didn’t work out for us. We dropped a couple hundred dollar into promoting it using Tapjoy, not including the plugins, music, etc we paid for to develop it. We still, to this date, haven’t made $20. We planned after the Android release to set it up for iPhone/iPad and try again.
So over the last couple of months, in between having another child and both of us working the 9 - 5, we’ve spent our time upgrading GUI and adding more elements to the game including high score table, better storefront, and facebook/twitter interaction. Now we are ready to release it again. This time for iPhone/iPad and are planning to try selling it $1 with no ads and in-app purchasing.
I was wondering how other people have done using the either the free to play or paid downloads. How different are the 2 markets(Android vs Apple)? And what is the best way to get our app shown?
I looked into promoting through apple…about $500 a day with 5K minimum investment. Not something 2 guys can really afford. Has anyone dealt with promoting on Facebook? Are the paid review sites even worth it? I must have tried emailing 20 - 30 review sites that offered free reviews, but almost every single one of them sent us a response basically saying
“We currently have a large mailbox full of apps that want to be reviewed for free. If you would like to jump to the top of the pile, please send us a check. Otherwise you probably wont be reviewed. Sorry.”
Thanks!
-Paul