General iOS Marketing questions

Unity Engine
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1

Hey guys,

I work as part of a small indie team and we’ve recently started looking into developing for the iPhone. There are quite a few game development companies in the area that we keep in touch with, and we’ve recently began asking them about advice/suggestions on how to tackle the iOS market.

Our biggest concern has been that most of the developers we’ve spoken with agree that the Apple market is rather flooded at the moment, and it seems that, unless your game sees widespread success and great marketing, most games will become lost in the sea of software rather quickly. Unless a game has solid marketing or just a huge following, it seems unlikely to see a decent return in profits. However, that’s just me speculating, and I’ll be the first to admit I have little knowledge about the Apple market and marketing tactics towards it.

I’ve seen other topics on the same subject (like this one here), which have helped shed some light on the subject. I know the classic phrase “You have to spend money to make money” applies to the same situation, but how likely is it to compete against big name companies (like Zynga) without a huge investment in marketing? In the thread I reference just a second ago, this marketing site was brought up by a fellow user who mentioned he had recently used this company for marketing.

Looking at the packages provided, I’d be uneasy (at least initially) going with anything above the basic package at $399. We’re on a pretty tight budget at the moment, and anything above that would be a pretty big risk for us. Can anyone attest to these types of marketing packages? Are they well worth the pricing, or do you feel a good game will market itself with some support?

What are your thoughts fellow developers? If anyone has any insight, experience or advice on this subject, it would be great to hear!

Thanks.

2

This hits the nail on the head.

Our biggest concern has been that most of the developers we’ve spoken with agree that the Apple market is rather flooded at the moment, and it seems that, unless your game sees widespread success and great marketing, most games will become lost in the sea of software rather quickly. Unless a game has solid marketing or just a huge following, it seems unlikely to see a decent return in profits. However, that’s just me speculating, and I’ll be the first to admit I have little knowledge about the Apple market and marketing tactics towards it.

TBH i’d say your better off developing a PC/MAC game in Unity and partnering with steam and maybe do a port to iPhone after.

3

Thanks for the feedback, Aaron.

We’re actually targeting Steam with our upcoming project. I hadn’t thought too much about porting to the iPhone/iPad after releasing to Steam, though that does sound like a great way to get some free marketing potential in for the Apple market since the product should be more well known at that point. We’re shying away from the Apple market at the moment due to the upstart costs for us, but we’re trying to get as much information as possible to see if it’s worth investing the time/money into developing for the apple marketplace.