Hey everyone! sorry its been so long since i updated this blog. i've been trying to do a weekly developers blog and a lot of times i don't have enough to say to justify updating two blogs a week! but i figured i'd stop by and let you know how things are going and whats going on over here at WSS.
so last week we did a big reveal week on Facebook. we revealed some characters, some videos and the names. (if you'd like more details head over to our Facebook or check out our developers diary blog i don't want you guys to have to read the same ol same twice!)
so that blogs got more to do with the game design bits of what we are doing here. i thought this one i might go into a little bit of details about the other side of stuff.
FIRST OFF Facebook. Facebook is not our strong suit. we've been rocking the Facebook page for about a year now, maybe more. and we've reached 70ish likes. while thats better than none its not nearly the numbers we'd like to have. we've also done some Facebook advertising which reached about 8,000 people and cost us about 20 bucks. while that might SOUND great in reality Facebook counts you "reaching" someone as your tiny little ad being displayed on their Facebook page while they look at what the really care about (which is to day who took a food snapshot from that favorite restaurant of yours and if that girl(or boy) you are hardcore crushing on has changed her (or his) relationship status to "its complicated".) In the real world it got us 41 photo clicks, 3 post likes, 1 comment (a truly moving comment of "Skeet Skeet Skeet....") and 1 share. so not NEARLY as awesome as 8000 people. so now we have to decide is Facebook advertising worth the money. IF we knew for a fact that every person who clicked on the photo went and bought a game then maybe. after all thats 41 bucks. but we don't. so as of right now the "Is It Worth it" question is hard to answer, right now i'd go with a medium-rare Maybe.
SECOND! twitter. everything i've read so far about how to get your indie company out in front of people talked about the same general things. Facebook, Blog, Website and Twitter.
Check, check, check and...checkish. i've made the Facebook, obviously i've made the blog(if i hadnt you wouldn't currently be on the edge of your seat.) and i've made the website(altho is REALLY needs to be updated). i've also made a twitter. BUT twitter is hard for me. i never know what to say. Facebook isn't to hard because i can be as long or as short as i want to be. twitter says i can ONLY be so long. suddenly every character is a precious commodity. do i use & or and. 2, two,to,or too. AND #! what if i miss use a HASHTAG!!! my children to this day still call me old because i said "Or Not" instead of "Or Nah" (something i still am not sure i understand )and while my children are diabolical geniuses the internet makes them look like kittens! i don't want my company to be forever known as that company who thought the Hashtag was the number sign!...sorry that got away from me there..
THIRD! i've been told by a fellow game designer (whose way more successful than me, so I'm not going to give you his blog info because you'll never read my blog again...and i need you...) that how he gets his games out in front of people is he follows really popular online game bloggers, and every time they post something he leaves a comment. this way he builds up a relationship with the blogger and when it comes time to release his game he strikes! asking if this blogger(who now considers him a friend) will review his game. thus reaching this HUGE audience that someone else has already done the work of tracking down and collecting... this is on my todo list...
FORTH AND FINALLY!! Profits and sells. Pull Skeet Shooting Free has sold about 1.5k copies, not to shabby but also not great by any means. i make money through this one via ads. i'm currently using Chartboost but not sure I'm gonna stay that way and heres why. first its incredibly invasive. it pops up with an ad that takes up the full screen. something people are not a big fan of and secondly i've currently made about 35 dollars from advertising with chartboost. (which if you do the math thats about 2 pennies per copy sold. )now I'm not saying this is their fault at all! simply that I'm not having much luck with their service. i've heard tales of people who make TONS of money of Chartboost. I'm just not one of them. from Pull! Skeet Shooting (Paid) and both copies of The Pale One I pulled in about 250 this month. Not bad but also not good. ESPECIALLY since about 200 of that came within the first few days and now its dropped to the point of me making about 1-7 dollars a day. which is awful. NOW I'm also not paying for any in game advertising service like chart boost (i get paid to show other peoples ad's i don't pay to have my ads shown in theirs) which is something you HAVE to do to make sure your game stays out in front of people(When you first launch your game it appears on all kinds of new games charts and such so people can find your app quickly and easily without knowing that they wanted it. but once that app leaves that list only people who are looking for your game or games like it can find your game ). but i simply can't afford the 100 a day price tag. we've got plans in place to keep this new game out in front of people for much longer. but more on that later. i think i've rambled on long enough.
As Always please leave us a comment below and let us know how you think we are doing or even suggestions on how to get our game out there in front of more people or questions on how we do what we do. If you haven't yet please stop by our Facebook page and send us a like.
Thanks
