ClockworkApps

December.  What the?  How did that happen.  Man the year has just flown by.

I have been slightly distracted with my new game.  Forsaken.  It is nearly ready.  I have been keeping it under raps.  It is much more compreshensive than the two test apps.

It is a physics building game.  With a focus on 3D.  Should be out early January.

It has been a long long time since the last update.  Time has flown as they say.

I just got and read the new 37signals book "ReWork".  Wow.  These guys really have some good ideas and they have a unique ability to communicate it as well.  I have used their basecamp software for a remote project and it was wonderful.  

I am going to implement some of their advice here and so this blog entry and lots more.  I am thinking about their teaching idea and I am planning to write up a few tutorials on some of the more basic things I use and have worked for me.  I am also going to put together a list of things and decisions that I have made and the reasons for them.  

In the rework style, this is a two way street as by helping others you help yourself (in that they start to build my audience).  And also feedback and opinions can be very helpful in learning new things.

Watch this space.

Well I finally gave up on the idea of doing inapp payment for removing the ads.  It was just too complicated.  To do it properly I had to do a bunch of things that included having a server that would manage who had paid and not.  This would allow people, who had deleted the app and later reinstalled it, to keep the Ad-free/payment status in the app.  Just too much hassle for this app.

So welcome to the SOSGamePrem.  Exactly the same as TheSOSGame but without the ads.  It is much simpler to do.  Try out TheSOSGame and then if you like it and don't want the ads then get SOSGamePrem.  I won't be diverging them functionality wise.  They will aways have the same functionality but the free version will be ad supported.

I am currently working on the first "real" app.  I have decided to go to the "killer" app and forget (for now) about the other interim ideas I had been having.  TheSOSGame was always just a test app so I could learn the store and the process.  I has taught me heaps and now I am better prepared.

Lesson 1: It is hard to get notice.  I realised that the App Store was big but getting noticed is a real art.  I somehow managed it in Turkey and shot to the top (at the peak TheSOSGame was 1st for Free Family Games, 2nd for Free Board Games, 3rd for Free Games and 4th for Free Apps).  Very moderate success in Greece (25th for Free Family and Free Board) and I was bouncing around in Canada at 70-80 mark for Free Board Games.

Lesson 2: Fame is self reenforcing.  The more popular you are in the app store the more noticed you get and thus the more popular you are and on and on.  The Turkey store has had several thousand downloads where as other stores have been very small.  

Lesson 3: Not all stores are equal.  The Big 8 Stores are big.  The US store is the key.  Success in the US store is make or break.  But it is probably the hardest store to be successful.  You need a super big volume to get in the Top 100 for your category.  If you get this far you have a good chance but frankly not many get there.

Lesson 4: Discounted Apps mean early success.  I had a lot of trouble understanding why developers would release their apps at discount.  Launch specials etc.  Why?  You don't get much money and you devalue your app at the same time.  Discounting a paid app to free was just crazy!!!  But given Lesson 3 it all makes sense.  You make your money on the climb up the Top 100.  Not in getting into the Top 100.  So make it cheap or free and get it in the Top 100 and then go back to full price and hope you funnel up the Top 100 and rake it in.

Lesson 5: Nobody likes free Apps.  Well review wise they don't.  The App review process is broken.  Most people only review an app when they delete it.  When you have a free app then lots of people download it.  And then lots of people who don't like it then delete it and thus rate it badly.  Very very few people rate an app when they are not deleting it.  People don't tend to delete paid apps.  They have already spent their money, deleting the app is throwing the money away.

Lesson 6: Success = Killer App.  You cannot realistically survive in the app store doing medioca apps.  There are too many apps out there.  Frankly you are just going to get drowned in the noise of the shitty spam apps and the other medioca apps.  You need to go for the killer app as soon as possible.  I had planned on an incrementally improving apps that would be more and more sopisticated and I could learn as I go.  But I don't think there is much point in doing that.  Most of the apps aren't going to get noticed and thus not make it worth my time.  So I have a killer app idea and I am going to work on that and once it is ready... go for it.  It will be so much easier for Apple, Reviewers and even mainstream media to get onboard with my app if it is seriously good!!

The User Interface that I used for TheSOSGame was very reflective of how you would play the game on paper.  You would choose your spot and make sure you were happy with it.  Write down your S or O and then once you lifted your pen from the paper that was it.  Not going back.   So in my iPhone implementation I tried to emulate that with the concept of locking your select in.  Until you locked it in then you where free to change your mind but once you locked it in that was that.

But I started to realise that this made for an unnecessary extra step in my game.  You didn't need to lock it in.  We had an unnecessary step that was potentially (and really) a cause of confusion.  So with version 1.2 it will be gone.  This has meant a redesign in the UI that means you now:  1. Select your square to rotate, then you end your Turn. 2. If you can stroke then you do it and the selections you make will be automatically locked in for you.  I hope that simplifies things.

Turkey is still going crazy we are now 4th most popular free Game and the 8th most popular free app.  I know it doesn't mean much in the scheme of things as Turkey is such a small Store.  But it is great to get a idea of how the chimney effect works (i.e. once you get high enough in a section you shoot straight up due to the momentum of your rank (which only increases as you go up)).

One thing I noticed with people playing the game was that they seemed to struggle initially with the rotating of the squares to reveal an S or an O.  So I made a little User Interface change to make this a little easier to do. And then I released it to the App Store.  It was submitted on the 28 Dec and was in Review on the 2 Jan and then accepted on 2 Jan (an hour or so later).

In the busy busy market place it is hard to get noticed.  TheSOSGame appeared in the Australian top 100 Free Board Games for a bit and then fell out (got up to 89).  But I seem to have struck a cord with the Turkish market and am current the 6th most popular Free Board Game (and 5th Most Popular free family game).  No idea why Turkey is working for me (also Greece is doing ok).  But it is interesting to see what happens when you get in a top 100 and stay there.  There is a positive feedback loop where you ranking seems to drive more users your way which then drives your ranking higher.  The problem seems to be just getting in the top 100 in the first place.  If you can get in and it sticks... then you can propel your way up quite quickly.  The size of the Store seems to be a big factor for me.  The Australian store is one of the "so called Big 8" and thus is harder to keep in but the Turkish store (I am guessing) is smaller and easier to progress.  Also sitting at number 70-73 in the Canadian App Store for free Board games.  (Love MajicRank for determining ranking across the world)

With the release of the 1.1 version, you get put back in the recently released list and thus get a little bump in customers.  I had a look at my app and it was way way down on the list.  There where literally dozens and dozens of the spam apps in the list... (of the Peg and Reversii variety plus lots of other new ones.)  Apple has to take a stand on this as it is just bloating the store.  I have another idea about restricting the spam apps.  You could have a limit on the number of apps a single developer can have.  Or limit the number of new or updated apps per month ... anything to stop the flood!!!!

My game has hit the store and it is doing ok by my standards.  This was always just a test app for me, learning about the pros and cons of the process.  

One of the things I had heard about and seems to be bearing out is the Rating system for apps.  When you delete apps you get a opportunity to rate them.  For many users this is the only time they rate an app.  Normally when you are deleting an app, you don't want it for some reason and usually you don't like it.  So consequently you give it a 1 or 2 star rating.

This seems to be happening for TheSOSGame.  Given the statistics I am seeing people are playing it but only a couple of people are rating it and those ones are the people that don't like it.

I am not sure why Apple give you the opportunity to rate an app when you delete it.  This will obviously going to skew the result to the negative.  

So what can we do for the next app so balance this out.

1. I have seen some apps that have the option to rate the app inside the app (linking to the store I guess).

2. Prompt the player at the end of the game to give it a rating (this might be a bit too in your face.. and might get you rejected).

3. Use social network to provide an alternative review system (like open feint or plus+)

4. Just take your lumps and rely on third party reviews to bring them in and hope people start doing some positive reviews.

I really thing Apple need to remove the review option when the app is deleted.  I creates a more level playing ground.  If people want to review it (good or bad) they should all follow the same process (go to the App Store and review it)