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In this Discussion
In App Purchase Strategy
hgvyas123
Guru
Hi Guys
from what i heard is about 10-12 % of people are likely to buy iap from our game but for me this number is very very very low may be it is around 0.X or 0.0X % see very small so far from appstore my game Aaron the viking Runner is downloaded almost 5000 times and i have got 11 iap only (all from the us
) which is very bad so i wanted to know what i have done wrong.
it is also live in android market but so far almost no downloads so i cant talk about that
some of the things i wanted to try are :-
1) lock the game with few levels say only snow mode and lock jungle mode,dirt mode and endless mode and offer iap for 1 or 2 $ to unlock the whole game
2) offer iap to remove ads $1
3) give magnet for the $1
4) give all of the above at the $2
5) increase the number of coins or star to purchase any other characters or life for life i am also thinking to increase price after each purchase of life
6) give added functionality of checkpoint user have to purchase checkpoint additionally so that if his game over and he has still not cleared his level then he can use 1 chk point and game will start from the same place where his game had over
plz suggest me what to do or any other suggestion is also welcome. i dont want to take this decision myself as i am pretty bad in this.
from what i heard is about 10-12 % of people are likely to buy iap from our game but for me this number is very very very low may be it is around 0.X or 0.0X % see very small so far from appstore my game Aaron the viking Runner is downloaded almost 5000 times and i have got 11 iap only (all from the us
) which is very bad so i wanted to know what i have done wrong.it is also live in android market but so far almost no downloads so i cant talk about that
some of the things i wanted to try are :-
1) lock the game with few levels say only snow mode and lock jungle mode,dirt mode and endless mode and offer iap for 1 or 2 $ to unlock the whole game
2) offer iap to remove ads $1
3) give magnet for the $1
4) give all of the above at the $2
5) increase the number of coins or star to purchase any other characters or life for life i am also thinking to increase price after each purchase of life
6) give added functionality of checkpoint user have to purchase checkpoint additionally so that if his game over and he has still not cleared his level then he can use 1 chk point and game will start from the same place where his game had over
plz suggest me what to do or any other suggestion is also welcome. i dont want to take this decision myself as i am pretty bad in this.
Comments
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=My+name+is+Originality
i personally dont want to purchase any downloads or ads it will just increase my budget. it is always good to have 100 downloads for free instead of 4000 downloads for which i had paid around 1000$ it will just increase my cost of the game 0.25 per install.
about the 5k downloads apple is very good in starting on the first day i had got around 1200 downloads which is decreased to around 600 on second day and currently it is 200 a day.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=My+name+is+Originality
one discussion is in our forum see this
http://www.giderosmobile.com/forum/discussion/1496/coming-soon-cerberus-the-puppy#Item_21
i had also read few more but they are in different forum or in blogs so dont want to find them but even we consider 1-5 as good conversion rate i am too much behind.
Like I said in my previous post, it has to be compelling for them to purchase. Even then you're only going to get to something like 5%. A few things I note from your app:
1. The first thing you see is an ad in the top left corner.
2. The second thing you see if a 'Top Apps/Offers of the Day.
3. The ads in the game are actually pretty obtrusive.
4. All all those 3 above leave me with a 'spammy' first impression. Are you after ad revenue or IAP revenue?
5. The menu page doesn't have the title of the game, nothing moves. It's just really static. It's not engaging.
6. Your game over screen has nothing apart from two icons on it - there's no feedback on how you did.
7. The world navigation is glitchy swiping left and right. You need to swipe from the gaps inbetween the options - it's frustrating.
8. On IAP, there's no real impulse created in the player to buy. From what I can tell (and it's not explained at all) I buy stars (or collect them in game) to buy different characters or hearts? But there's no indication of how much those things cost though, nor how much each pack of stars cost to buy. I don't know how many I need to collect to unlock one of the other characters. You need to make it obvious, you need to give people a reason to buy and you're not doing that currently. It's also all under a menu button called 'Options' - shouldn't it be Shop or something like that? Also does buying coins get rid of the ads? If not, why not? If it does, then tell people!
9. And the big thing you have to ask yourself is, there are a lot of endless runners in the app store - what will make people spend money on yours in comparison to the competition? Is it as polished, is it as fun? Does it stand out?
Fundamentally you have to give people a reason to buy, you have to engage them and you also have to explain it to them, explaining the value proposition to them. Hold their hands.
Likes: Scouser, Mells, phongtt
Likes: gorkem
When I'll release my next app, will have to make some snarky comment about it being best in the world, just so you can come along and dissect it pixel by pixel
Likes: fxone
This should help a lot of members create a more polished app and give their buyers / players a more rewarding experience.
You should write this up as a guide on how to make IAP pay. =D>
Doh!! Ninja'd again
Website: http://www.castlegateinteractive.com
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Castlegate+Interactive
@ar2rsawseen - Bring it on, more than happy to offer constructive help on apps. My moopfiness makes me honest
@Scouser - I would write a guide but as I've never released an app with IAP, and this is based purely on what I believe makes a good app and what's made me make IAP purchases in the past, I'm not sure I'm qualified
Also (surprisingly - at least to me) is that consumable IAP's seem to perform much better than permanent ones, so a bag of 50 coins that will allow 50 plays seems to be preferred over a single purchase that will unlock the game for ever ????
Lastly - I've always been of the opinion that if I made a game that accepted IAP then one option would simply be the purchase of a smiley face badge that was displayed in the corner of the title screen that simply said "I support indie games" or something like that, something simple that was just a way to make the player feel good about their purchase.
Although at the end of the day, nothing makes a game better than making a better game, polish every part till it gleams and leave no byte unchecked (especially the ones with bugs in them). One thing I've noticed a lot recently is the very poor standard of English (I know it's not everyone's first language) that is used on App descriptions and on ingame text, these are bits of polish that a LOT of people seem to miss - and if English isn't your first language imagine how you'd think if you looked at an App description that was localised into your first language and it read like it had been written by a 7 year old, would it make you want to download the app???
Just my $0.02
Likes: moopf, Mells
#MakeABetterGame! "Never give up, Never NEVER give up!" - Winston Churchill
Start here : 10 articles about numbers you should have read during 2012
And what they tell you about the mobile games business
IAP
- “We’re expecting the game to sustain its revenues through in-app purchases,”
- 47% of mobile game IAP revenue comes from $10-$20 transactions
Look at the top IAP for those popular games :Read more : Top grossing iOS game CSR Racing is generating $12 million per month
- The Simpsons : TappedOut
- Smurfs' Village
User Acquisition Not always.I think you are missing the most important information here : your Revenue per user.
It all depends on your revenue per user. For example if you make $3 per user through IAP/Ads (because your game is addictive AND your IAP strategy adds value to the game AND/OR you display Ads with a good CPI - Revenue Per Install in that case) then you can pay up to $2.90 if you want.
Then buy in volume (find an investor, show him your numbers, split the results), it's all benefits.
$3 is unlikely (believe me you wouldn't be here on the forums with us but partying somewhere) but you get the point.
That's why I think you should focus on increasing your revenue per user first (that means the people that already play your game found more reasons to like it so you have to make it easy for them to send you feedback) then scale (play with the price of your app, put it free for a day so it get caught by AppGoneFree, AppShopper, etc, reward the player with free in-game currency).
Once you have some cash + a stable Rev per user, find ad networks where you can buy installs for a lower price than your Rev per user if you want.
Ads
If you want to monetize through Ads, study apps that generate a lot through it :
Fruit Ninja making more than $400,000 a month from ads
But paid version remains the bigger player
If you focus on ads, go for volume. Don't try to niche your game, and don't be afraid to be a little bit invasive (fullscreen Ad at the opening of the game) if you are providing a game that is worth a download and that you provide for free.
Don't be too invasive or they won't play the game again, but don't be shy if Ads revenue is what you are aiming for.
In-game currency
I believe that having a well-thought in-game currency system is a key to profit.
Likes: hgvyas123, hosamred, phongtt
Likes: fxone
http://www.vickiwenderlich.com/2013/01/roundup-11-games-made-with-free-art/
Likes: fxone
#MakeABetterGame! "Never give up, Never NEVER give up!" - Winston Churchill
@techdojo
yup i had submitted contact form for that after all i had used some graphics( statue, ships etc) from that site
#MakeABetterGame! "Never give up, Never NEVER give up!" - Winston Churchill
As the game is free I'd think about adding a simple iAP that just does nothing more than display a "smiley" badge on the front screen that says "I support indie developers", give the person a reason to buy and make it easy for them to do so. You can even add an "nag" box that asks people if they like the game to consider supporting you. Make it personal, emphasis the fact your a single developer and appeal to your customers.
Likes: hgvyas123
#MakeABetterGame! "Never give up, Never NEVER give up!" - Winston Churchill
The trend is (for both iOS and Android market) is free apps unfortunately and only a few % of people would pay to upgrade. But if they want free, the only way to make money for us is ads.
Another thing I saw is keeping it free but rewarding people by removing ads if they install other free apps - I heard some developers are doing very well using this strategy, but you app should be popular enough.
Likes: hgvyas123