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Publishing games in the Play Store / App store - Let's share what we learn

DavidBVal

4 Dimension Games
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Hey folks. Some of you have already heard about my personal project for the last couple of years. Well, it is out. If you have an Android and want to check out, click here.

Here's a gameplay trailer:



This is a workshop thread, because I want to share my experience of publishing and selling on google play store with other RPG developers. feel free to ask anything here. Of course I am no "authority", but I've done a few dumb things and wasted a lot of time wondering how X worked or if Y would be a good idea.

EK from a development perspective, in a nutshell

  • Isometric, action-RPG, in an open world. Story and dialogue heavy. C&Cs. Combat is diablolike; but world structure, quests, etc is more like Morrowind or Baldur's Gate 1.
  • Java project, based on LibGDX libraries. While I wasn't a Java expert when I started, I chose this because it is lightweight, free, opensource and it would allow me to write once, then release on Android/iOS/Windows/Mac/Linux. The game engine is almost finished, and is (almost) independent from the game data, with nothing hardcoded; in other words, I could just change the game files and make another game with it, without (for the most part) touching the code.
  • Since April 2014, I've spent over 2,600 hours on this.
  • I have no artists, but I have either used open assets(full credits here), or purchased 3D models and worked them into sprites (even modeled /drawn a few myself, lol).
  • The early access beta has around 60 areas, 36 hand-made quests, 60 "semi-procedural" quests, over 100 dialogues. That is roughly 45% of what the 1.0 version will have. I give myself 3-4 months to do that (there's also some development to do, but nothing engine-changing)

I am really happy with how the game release is turning out. After 12 days, it is ranked #19 in "top new RPGs", #312 in "Top RPGs". 3K downloads, rates are very positive, and yes, it is selling. I will still wake up early and go to the office every morning, but I am getting some cash out of my hobby, writing adventures and encounters for thousands of people, and getting crazy praise in the proccess, so HELL YES, I am satisfied. VERRY.


The Battlefield: Play Store RPG category

I'll use a metaphor. It is a turbulent sea of liquid shit. You think I mean "this is codex everything is shit"-Shit? No, I mean "pregnant pony wedding surgery simulator" kind of games that, for some reason, fill about 40% of the RPG listings. There is no enforcement from google as to "What is an RPG", so currently my game is ranked right below "Mall shopping fashion store", and a few positions above, you see "high School pranks" and other crap. The actual RPGs are mostly asian MMO, only a few are actual single player RPGs.

From what I gather, your game will be labeled 30 days as "new", so you better make sure to be ranked among the top, because other top charts are much harder to access. By the time you're out, you better have a decent number of downloads and a good rating, so you end up in a decent position in the "Top RPG" chart, and Google has data to index you as a recommended download under other titles. It may be a good idea to invest a bit in Adwords because of this. but FIND A COUPON. Sometimes there are 100 bucks adwords coupons for new accounts only, so make sure NOT to create the adwords account ahead of time.

As I mentioned adwords: the clicks you get from adwords are not good clicks regarding purchases. My conversion rate from a normal install (i.e, percentage of people that buys) is way, way worse if the click comes from an ad.

Most of your downloads will come from the organic search in the play store. This works much like web google search; they index your store entry, and extract keywords from it. But no, you can't specify keywords. And careful with trademarks, even with the proper disclaimer: I once tried to sneak one and got an ugly warning email.

So just like with a website, what makes your webpage come out higher in searches is being linked. this means, internet links to your play store page, like the one I posted in the first paragraph. Unfortunately, forum links don't count much. You want blogs, articles, reviews.


You need to know what's going on

Information is power, so don't plan to release a game, ever, without building in some analytics. You can actually use Google Analytics API, or, like I did, build your own tool and system based on http calls and a serverside small logging system. You absolutely NEED to know what the players are doing, because PEOPLE DON'T REPORT BUGS, they just uninstall and, maybe, give you a one star rating. A very small fraction of them will be nice enough to tell you why your game sucks.

And yes, in android there is a small "report" button when there is a crash, and you get a nice stacktrace in the Developer Console telling you the exception and even the line number. But people don't click it. And even if they do, it will probably not be enough to know "nullpointer exception in Player.takeitem()". You need to know where the player was to fix that.

This is useful not only for bugs. Some things obvious for you as developer, look very different for players. I have an uber-reward at the end of a hidden dungeon that people didn't even see, even if it was, I believed, in plain sight in the final room. People thought it was just scenery. It is also very valuable for balancing classes, or enemies.

Oh, and to detect exploits. It's so funny to see guys finding a script error that allows to repeat a quest turn-in, and then spend four hours doing it.

In sum, if you have a complex RPG in the making, you NEED some kind of remote analytics built in, so plan accordingly.

Enough babble for one day, more as I have time.

Other guys in the play store, post here, let's make a stand together against the pregnancy SIMS and other shit!
 
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ERYFKRAD

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Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
:salute: Good stuff men, thanks.
Also-
pregnant pony wedding surgery simulator
tumblr_inline_nlq9d9nHzP1s6h2s8_1280.jpg
 

DavidBVal

4 Dimension Games
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You think I am kidding... Straight out of the top RPG category I have the honor to share with. they are a few positions above me, but if I work hard, I may one day surpass these masterpieces:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.woofie.pony.pregnancy

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.plum.foot.surgery

Whole list:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/category/GAME_ROLE_PLAYING/collection/topselling_free

Basically they're ad-traps for little girls. that's why adwords clicks are so useless and never sell shit, probably, and they're not worth your money once you're not using coupons.

Despite the dismal assortment of such horrors, it is still a marketplace with millions of "normal" people that have to dig through the shit.
 

DavidBVal

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Um... was this moved out of the Workshop for any particular reason, mods?

Most of my text is about the Play Store, targeted at developers and useless for mere mortals.

I'd make an "announcement" for players very differently, but it's okay I guess.
 
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Jaesun

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Sorry that was me, just figured you would want a thread about your released game, then I saw it was more a workshop thead. Carry on (and gratz).
 

DavidBVal

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It's fine Jaesun, but I'll make a more appropiate announcement when I have a PC version ready and I'm closer to v. 1.0.
 

DavidBVal

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More things to share about my Play Store adventure.


About uninstall ratio


One of the things that shocked me the most was how people was uninstalling my game massively. Over half of them would uninstall, which made me paranoid regarding incompatibilities, unreported crashes, or my game being shit. My "curent users" is around 45% of my "total downloads", and that drove me crazy. But apparently, that's the normal thing with the play store:

main-qimg-f3edff241c74e11b8636c7bf1273560a

Single player games sit around 41% user retention, and absolutely nothing averages over 55%, so I'm doing okay. Taking into account it's a very hard and unforgiving game, I am surprised, really. So, now you know what to expect.


Pirates and cracked versions

On the third day it was up, it was pirated and cheated. I know thanks to my built-in analytics, and honestly, I could make their game crash pretty easily but I've better things to worry about. Eventually I will encrypt everything, blacklist pirate users and swoop them all away, but right now this is a 0.6 beta of a non-competitive, single player, story based RPG, so who cares. Their number isn't significative, and it happens mostly in countries that won't buy a lot anyways.
 

slowdive

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Similar experience myself. The other thing with RPGs, once people finish playing them, they uninstall them...biggest uninstall rate happens after an update gets pushed out and people remember that they have that still installed, and they uninstall.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/554lawjftdsvvrr/Screenshot_2016-01-05-13-27-02.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rx8is4rfujsu6vq/Screenshot_2016-01-05-13-27-14.png?dl=0

When I do a Google search for my apps, the first couple of pages are links to pirate sites. Welcome to the world of android and apks. I don't make any money off my apps so I don't care. My paid apps net me roughly an equivalent pay of 25 cents an hour, haha...I do it because I enjoy it and have always wanted to make a game since my c64 basic days (I have a good stable day job as an electrical engineer, so I'm not trying to make a game that appeals to the masses to make money...just making that type of game that I want to play).
 
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DavidBVal

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Link to your play store apps!

Well, I care about the money. It will allow me to buy more 3D assets without my wife throwing me out of the house.
 

slowdive

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Haha, yeah, I ran my Kickstarter back in Dec. 2012 just to make the wife happy (same reason I have paid apps, but I don't tell her how poorly they are generating income any more, they did much better initially) so she wouldn't complain so much while I "wasted" countless hours "coding" (I use quotes because I'm not a programmer and a very poor imposter of a programmer at that) a silly game. :P

https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Bree+Arts,+LLC
 
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DavidBVal

4 Dimension Games
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Oh Hearkenwold! I have it installed but have to play it seriously yet. I haven't touched a game in months even on PC, Underrail, KoTC and the new Original Sin still sitting there... developing sucks time badly.

I bet our wives would greatly enjoy a talk together hahaha

At what point did they started to tag you as recommended/similar to other games, and did that mean a rise in downloads? Was it 30 days after publishing?
 
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slowdive

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Yeah, Dorateen used a lot of art from a frua archives site: http://frua.corhub.com/
Using FRUA art for the free modules probably won't be an issue, but if any of the artist send us a c&d email, we will remove their art. For my paid apps, I created all the art on my Note 3 with SketchBook Pro, so the art isn't as cool as the FRUA stuff :P Plus, going forward, I'm leaning towards just doing everything as free since it is so much easier than paid and the paid apps don't pay :)
 

slowdive

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At what point did they started to tag you as recommended/similar to other games, and did that mean a rise in downloads? Was it 30 days after publishing?
I don't think it was that long, maybe after a couple weeks (maybe 3). My first app, The Raventhal, initially was tagged on the BG:EE page as one of the top three similar to BG:EE, haha funny. That seemed to result in lots of downloads and exposure. I think it all has to do with the use of keywords in your description and the time frame that tagged similar apps entered the store.

file.php
 
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DavidBVal

4 Dimension Games
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BG and FF, nice company you got in there... men, if I achieve that, I'll make a print and frame it. :D

Plus, going forward, I'm leaning towards just doing everything as free since it is so much easier than paid and the paid apps don't pay :)

You should. My own experience so far is good, I decided to NEVER put ads in EK, and to release about 20-25% of content for free, the rest requires a single purchase to be fully unlocked. 70% of people that buys, does it in the first 20-30 minutes. The rest of buyers decide to register when they hit the "paywall", that is, between 3 and 5 hours of gameplay currently. I'd like to add more free content, and will, but I want the people that pay to get significatively more content for their money.
 

Robert Jarzebina

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this game is gay




just kiddng congrats David for releasing it
 

DavidBVal

4 Dimension Games
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"This item is not available in your country " :(

really? well, I've marked all countries as available, but some are grayed out and can't be selected. China, Cuba and Irán. I guess you're a true persian after all :(

this game is gay

gayness is in the eye of the beholder.

thanks men


While I'm at it, a bit of an update.

Both daily downloads and purchases are going up; not skyrocketing, but definitely going up. And still EK hasn't been indexed as "similar", which I hope will give me another boost in downloads.

One thing that has definitely improved a lot is the reviews and ratings. There's a lot you can do to avoid 1 star ratings, starting by replying to them with all of your niceness and good will, fix every issue you can and update often, and if it's about an incompatibility with certain device, making sure to mark it as incompatible in the console. For instance, I'm having trouble with the american carrier version of Galaxy S3; the specs are good enough, but it crashes often. Sounds like some issue with the memory, so until I have a way to test it and sort it out, I marked it as incompatible. I ironed out a few bugs that caused crashes in the early released versions, and in the end, this is how ratings have evolved:

ZBxnC.jpg


However, I really doubt rating has a lot of weight in google algorithms, because there's plenty of 3.8 star crappy apps very high in the charts. I think, downloads are everything. Maybe income is a factor too.
 

DavidBVal

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really? well, I've marked all countries as available, but some are grayed out and can't be selected. China, Cuba and Irán. I guess you're a true persian after all
Found a way to purchase! Making a Gmail account using VPN and then use a gift card for buying the game.
Game looks really cool :incline:

Thanks man. That's a beer I'll drink to your health. :positive:
 

DavidBVal

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Today I learned something new, and found a useful tool.

I was under the impression that Google Play "Top Charts" were universal. I.E, if my game was ranked #17 in Top New RPGs, that would be the case for every android device worldwide browsing that chart.

Well, I was wrong. the charts are based on local data. Which explains the sudden bumps and why certain day, russians, or filipinos, begin downloading the game in large numbers; it entered the top chart in that country, or even was featured.

The thing is, you can't easily browse other countries' top charts to see your progress, and if you're not in USA, you're missing the charts that really matter. Well, you could use IP proxies and different browser sessions, but I found an easier way to track your progress:

https://www.appannie.com

I just created a free account, and that allows me to see graphs of my progress (or even more interesting... my competitors' progress!)

And just to add an entry to the war journal: progress is excellent. Downloads are around 5K, with an increasing pace. Purchases are decent, more than what I expected. Reception is very good. Still early to draw conclusions, but at the very least I already consider this a success, and well worth the two years of madness.
 

zwanzig_zwoelf

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I pinged my old pal yesterday about your game, since he knows a few russkie game journos and owes me a few favors.
Doubt that your game will attract a lot of attention among them (not because it's bad or has this homemade vibe, but because there are tons of haters among them), but hopefully some of them will give it a try.

Personally, I'm too lazy to set up a Google Play account and shit, so I'm going to wait for a PC version (it's planned, right?).
 

DavidBVal

4 Dimension Games
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I pinged my old pal yesterday about your game, since he knows a few russkie game journos and owes me a few favors.
Doubt that your game will attract a lot of attention among them (not because it's bad or has this homemade vibe, but because there are tons of haters among them), but hopefully some of them will give it a try.

Personally, I'm too lazy to set up a Google Play account and shit, so I'm going to wait for a PC version (it's planned, right?).

Thanks man, every link helps.

I'm getting lots of downloads from Russia, and even... orders. Yes, russians are spending money on it, would you believe.

Still, in terms of paying, there is no people like the wonderful kwas. One in seven downloads ends up being a purchase from that blessed land which I love with all my heart. go USA!
:kwafuckyeah: :kwanzania: :mrpresident:

EDIT: A breakdown per country
BmiLK.jpg



there will be a PC port yeah.
 
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DavidBVal

4 Dimension Games
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Updated my icon. I wanted one that,

A) looked different from others
B) looked nice
C) gave some actual info about what kind of game it is.

Came up with this:

CQhZA.jpg


On the Play Store white background, it is an hexagonal shape which stands out, as verything else is square with round edges (and a few circles). The dark palette also is very different from the colorful majority. And the graphics are actual game sprites. I am satisfied!

My kids composed and recorded a small piece, for the Town Hall menus. You can listen to it here

Extremely hard work as of late, lots of small fixes to work on, little time to actually advance with development. Oh well.
 

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