[GAME] BULBS! « cocos2d for iPhone

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[GAME] BULBS!

(42 posts) (15 voices)

Started 1 year ago by mattWoodage
Latest reply from letmeknow

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mattWoodage
Member

Hi. I'm an independent developer and my first iPhone game is now for sale on the App Store. It's called BULBS! and it's a simple puzzle game for anyone that likes brain teasers and logic games.

You have to slide circuit-board components around to complete the circuit and light the required number of bulbs.

- 75 Levels
- Retina Graphics
- No adverts

I started learning COCOA and COCOS2D about 12 months ago. I come from a flash/actionscript and web development background and COCOS2D was a fantastic bridge for me to get into iOS coding. Thanks so much to all who contribute to it.

I designed and developed the game myself and now I need to learn how to promote it

If you'd like to check out BULBS! please visit

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bulbs/id434644944

or

http://www.bulbsgame.com/

And here are a few promo codes for the first to find them:

A473PR6TPKHX
MN3RTFH7A9NN
P9XLHPX9AY79
EJ9NMPR3EKK9
HXAYLFRXMRPH

Thanks very much to all in the COCOS2D community. All feedback gratefully received. There are a couple of bugs so an update isn't too far off!

matt

Posted 1 year ago #
cocoBavan
Member

HolyMoly! :D I had this same idea. But, not to be developed in the near future. :D
Congrats and really happy to see this. You will definitely do good in app store. Cheers.

Posted 1 year ago #
Paul
Member

The graphics look really good and professional. You also have a clean UI. Great Job!

Posted 1 year ago #
leocck
Member

It seems very polished, congrats!

Posted 1 year ago #
mattWoodage
Member

Thanks for great comments guys. I forgot to mention that I included Google Analytics in BULBS and I anonymously monitor when users have started the app and started, failed or completed levels. It also records their solution as a simple string. This will help me learn which levels people are finding difficult and spending longest on, and how far people progress into the game. Do people actually play the training levels? Doing it from the very start means that *if* the game is successful, i'll be able to add features to the website such as showing people's solutions or finding the best solution.

Posted 1 year ago #
rkretzschmar
Member

Very very clever game!!! Great graphics! I wish you all the best with the App Store!!

Posted 1 year ago #
cocoBavan
Member

your ranks are going down man, I think you should reduce the price to get the rank up. Once it sunk, it is very hard to get it back. Do something. It is a very good game and people should know about it. Now app store is not the same battle field as what train yard had. Change strategies in a week time or two. Good luck.

Posted 1 year ago #
mattWoodage
Member

BULBS! Play with electricity!

A FREE version of BULBS! is now available for those that missed the promo codes or anyone else interested.

BULBS! for beginners is FREE and has 30 levels:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bulbs/id438488745

BULBS! - the full version - now has 85 levels!:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bulbs/id434644944

Posted 1 year ago #
MisterX
Member

Out of curiosity, why does this game require iOS 4.0? I have iOS 3.2 on my iPad1 for development purposes so I can't play your game. Though I may go ahead and upgrade it, as I would think by now most iPad1 owners are no longer running 3.2

That interesting new game, "House of Mice", surprisingly only requires iOS 3.0..

Posted 1 year ago #
mattWoodage
Member

Only because I didn't have a 3.x device to test with and I was worried there might be memory leaks. I looked up the number of devices with iOS 4+ and it was well over 90%. Sorry. I might do it later. Unfortunately 90% of my users are unpaid cracked users so it's not worth working further on it - but it's still early days

Posted 11 months ago #
vogueestylee
Member

hi mattWoodage, nice game, but if I may ask:

1) where did you looked up the number of devices using iOS4plus?
2)Unfortunately 90% of my users are unpaid cracked users so it's not worth working further on it - where do you see number of cracked app users? in itunes connect or where? I just waiting for register in appstore so I dont know these things right now..

and .. good luck with game :)

Posted 11 months ago #
cocos
Member

Unfortunately 90% of my users are unpaid cracked users so it's not worth working further on it

Sure it is annoying. But every successful game have been cracked. Do not get discourage...
I like your game.

Posted 11 months ago #
abitofcode
Moderator

Unfortunately 90% of my users are unpaid cracked users so it's not worth working further on it

Over a 100 million iOS devices out there and even if the 90% figure was sustained you'd still be a multi millionaire from the 10% if you got it onto every device. The reality is you will get a lump of people who find the cracked version at the beginning, this figure doesn't tend to increase much unless your game becomes popular. If your game is popular you don't have anything to worry about anyway.

Don't stress about the pirates, they are the minority and will probably only fire your game up once anyway, treat them as mobile billboards. It's money you don't have to save on pay per click advertising and banners. The easiest way to reduce the 90% piracy rate is to sell more games.

Posted 11 months ago #
mattWoodage
Member

I didn't study the statistics on iOS4+ much but the article I read was looking at users of BUMP. This article has the details. My game should easily run on iOS3 so I should put the effort in to make it work.

I can see cracked users because I embedded Google Analytics and also calls to my own server into BULBS. These calls register events in BULBS! including 'started for first time', 'started', 'completed level'. The number recorded for 'started for first time' should match the number Apple say have been bought. On 25th May, the day the crack becamse available, my own stats say 1791 sales, Apple's say 33.

I want to be open about how many sales I got in my app because many developers don't publish their stats. Its helpful to other developers. I will probably put the stats on the blog at http://www.bulbsgame.com/blog soon but here they are for anyone reading this:

PAID VERSION (Bulbs!) availabe for 28 days: (priced at 99c)
385 sales (Top 5 markets: USA, Denmark, UK, Australia, Canada)

FREE VERSION (Bulbs! For Beginners) only available for the last 7 days:
2361 sales (Top 5 markets: USA, Taiwan, Germany, China, UK)

These are Apple's sales stats up to and including yesterday.

I have not heavily promoted the game but I emailed 15 or so app review sites a few weeks back. One review site wrote a review 8 days ago. The rest didn't reply.

I was hoping for a quick win of course but the app is now available and if sales trickle in and occasionally it gets picked up and reviewed, then I'm sure in the long term it will have been worth it.

I will definitely do a second update at some point. Possibly adding more functionality. I will also build a press release pack and contact as many publishers as I can. And even with slow sales I will probably develop another game.

Thanks for the encouragement guys. The cracking of the app was just something that I wasn't expecting and it threw me. Plus I spent two days excitedly refreshing my own statistic counters seeing BULBS selling at over 100 an hour thinking I'd hit the big time - and has justified and paid for my macbook air - before seeing the actual sales report from Apple!

Posted 11 months ago #
Dragyn
Member

I want to correct a misconception. One sale does NOT equal one device. One sold copy can be installed on multiple devices legally, as long as they are synced to the same iTunes account. I have some paid apps synced to 4 devices right now. So by comparing device runs to sales, my legal installs would be counted as 1 legal, 3 pirated, though that's not the case.

Not to say you don't have cracked users (?), but the number of cracked copies might be overstated, since a high number of legal users have at least 2 devices on their account.

Okay, I'm just jealous because my game hasn't been cracked. (Yours looks awesome, BTW.)

Posted 11 months ago #
mattWoodage
Member

That's true. But on average for every sale I have recorded 15 installs. Over time that ratio will decrease hopefully.

Posted 11 months ago #
fideliusx
Member

@mattWoodage
Hi Matt. Just installed it now on my 2nd Gen iOS 4.1 iPod, but it crashed while still in the splash screen. Anything missed ?

Posted 11 months ago #
mattWoodage
Member

Hi Matt. Just installed it now on my 2nd Gen iOS 4.1 iPod, but it crashed while still in the splash screen. Anything missed ?

fideliusx - Sorry about that. This is the first time i've heard of it crashing. I've seen it working on the same device. Do you have the free version or the full version? Does it happen every time? Could you please try it after turning the ipod off and on again?

Posted 11 months ago #
abitofcode
Moderator

;)

Get the Video Plugins

Posted 11 months ago #
fideliusx
Member

It's the free version. Yes, I have tried to reboot my iPod as well, but still to no avail.

Posted 11 months ago #
antoine anim
Member

hi mattwoodage

congrat for your app, i was sadly surprise by the stat you provide from the sale u get, "PAID VERSION (Bulbs!) availabe for 28 days: (priced at 99c)
385 sales (Top 5 markets: USA, Denmark, UK, Australia, Canada)", u can be top 5 in us and got less than 400 sale!!!! it s a big slap in the face, where is the 10 000 buck a day apple promise when reaching such rank?

anyway wish you good luck with your app.

antoine

Posted 11 months ago #
fideliusx
Member

I don't think that's what he meant. He meant his game is ranked higher in those 5 markets compared to other countries, not at the 5th rank. If he was at US 5th rank, 385 sales should be what he get in less than a couple hours a day ;)

Posted 11 months ago #
Birkemose
Moderator

Why do I keep saying BLUBS?
I would have called it Bulbz ... the kids love that shit.

Posted 11 months ago #
MisterX
Member

Mattwoodage - Thanks for posting your stats!

I was told by a developer, who has 7 apps on the store, to expect a minimum of $5 a day earned (your profit) on a .99 cent app, if your app is half decent. That would work out to $150 every 30 days, or about 214 purchases every 30 days. This same developer is averaging about a $900 income per month, cumulatively off his 7 apps. In his case, none of the apps are games.. Four are utility apps and three are entertainment (one of which is kind of a semi-game, music app).

Based upon that information, your already above his "estimated" minimum with your 385 sales in 28 days..

Posted 11 months ago #
mattWoodage
Member

Thanks for all the comments.

fideliusx - i'm sorry it's not working for you. please can you try deleting it and installing it again. i don't know what else to suggest. except don't buy the full version.

abitofcode - Moss is my god.

antoine anim - yes those are just the countries that have given me the most sales. i am not in any country's top 100 at the minute. I think the free version got into top 10 for Denmark for a few days. i need to do more international promotion!

Birkemose - Maybe BULBZ would have been more popular with all the BRATZ out there! Oh well.

MisterX - I have achieved 385 sales in month 1. But now sales have dropped to about 3 a day. So the average for year one will be less than 50 per month unless the odd promotion here and there pays off. But that won't happen unless I make it happen.

I wonder if there are too many games making it too difficult to get noticed? But then surely games have a wider market than apps?

I wanted something that was good in it's own right rather than a copy of something else or something that feeds off other apps (such as angry birds level guides). I have made something that I personally would like to play. But my only reason for making this was to profit from it - and i've created something that is not popularist but has a reasonably narrow target market. I just hoped that narrow market would still be tens of thousands globally. I didn't want to spend the same amount of time 'selling' as it did coding. But maybe that was naive.

I'm being impatient. I need to wait a few more months. And only then decide whether to work on it more.

Making it half price for a weekend now and then will be a reason to email all the reviewers again.

Do people think it's priced too high - it's $1.99 / £1.12 at present. From what I've read - making it half price (99c) will NOT double the number of sales - and it didn't seem to when i reduced the price before the update a week back.

Posted 11 months ago #
cocos
Member

Firstly, congratulations on being open regarding your sales! Few developers are...

Second, personally, I believe that your finical result is well above the average. You app probably makes more than 90-95% of other apps.

Many apps (even good ones) go down to 0 in a few days and than never sell again!

Remember the only winner is always the House. You pay for license, hardware and add months of free work for the House in exchange for a chance of striking big… Well, simply a chance. Shrinking chance. Modern day slavery… You work because of a dream…

With 500 000 games it is extremely difficult to get noticed.

Regarding the price. If Apple would allow it the price of majority of apps would soon drop to 1 cent. It is insane market and mentality.

My suggestion in your case is as follows. Drop it to 1 dollar for half of the puzzles. To get the other half someone has to pay another dollar in IAP.

Last thing. The game is good. Great graphics and so on. But maybe you can benefit from what I do not like:

A) I really need a reset button! Going out and in of the puzzle just to reset the puzzle annoys me.
B) I do not like the fact that if I slide the empty layer without any components my slider counter is decreased. Why? This is empty move should not count at all.
A) & B) can be easily corrected without much programming efforts but can have a huge impact on my and other players comfort level :)

Good luck, do not get discourage and do not abandon hope...

Posted 11 months ago #
mattWoodage
Member

Thanks cocos. I agree with you on your 2 suggestions to improve the game and I will try to add them both in the next update. And I hope to add more levels and perhaps more component types. I'm a perfectionist and if existing customers don't like certain things about BULBS I want to remedy that. But from a business perspective - it would be a waste of my time having pocketed less than 300 USD at present

My suggestion in your case is as follows. Drop it to 1 dollar for half of the puzzles. To get the other half someone has to pay another dollar in IAP.

I can't remove levels from the app obviously - but you think if I add more levels to the paid version I should then make them only accessible after IAP?

Should I add IAP to the FREE VERSION? Does IAP make a big difference - do people like it? I am really put off by the apps that I have installed for FREE only to have them bombard me with IAP requests. It feels a bit sneaky to me.

Posted 11 months ago #
cocos
Member

you think if I add more levels to the paid version I should then make them only accessible after IAP?

Yes, this is what I think. If the price of the app is too high not too many people will buy it regardless of number of puzzles. If you plan to add more puzzles make it available via IAP.

"Should I add IAP to the FREE VERSION?" - Yes, it is my strong suggestion. It gives you automatically extra exposure.

"Does IAP make a big difference - do people like it?"

Freemium model become more and more acceptable and popular. People try for free and if they like it they buy it.

I am really put off by the apps that I have installed for FREE only to have them bombard me with IAP requests. It feels a bit sneaky to me.

I agree, if someone is aggressive I just delete the app. But you do not have to bombard user with anything. Just mark some levels as available for purchase. And leave decision to the user. See good example: http://itunes.apple.com/mg/app/lumi/id411288768?mt=8

From pure business point of view, making a living from selling apps is a very risky decision. The business model, which Apple created, works:
1) Always 100% for Apple
2) 'Sometimes' for some "'lucky'" developers

Sadly, there is absolutely NO guarantee that given app will pay back for your investment, time and efforts.

Posted 11 months ago #
mattWoodage
Member

BULBS! is now FREE for a limited time.

COCOS2d people - get it now before I put the price back to US 1.99 !

Do anyone have any experience / advice about FREE promotions?

BULBS! is currently being promoted by a Chinese website - http://www.iapps.im/
And also a US site - http://thefreeappreport.com - have picked up on this and it's currently on the front page of their APP and will be on their website soon.

It's been FREE for 24 hours so far. 4500 people have installed it since it went FREE. (More than 10 times as many that have legitimately bought it for a price in the last month)

If I put the price back up now, a few people might still buy it having seen it advertised for free. Most will not. If I put the price back up, I will disappear from the free charts - although i'm only in the top 50 for strategy and puzzle. I'm not even reaching top 100 for games in all countries but 3.

Am I impatient? What benefits of remaining FREE are there besides possible further publicity - that I can't see?

The best strategy I can think of is to write at the top of this app's description that this version is now HALF PRICE (US 99c) but that a FREE version is still available - my always free version - BULBS! for beginners (see above)

thanks

Posted 11 months ago #
letmeknow
Member

45xx download can not be considered as many. Some paid to free games got 100,xxx -> 1,xxx,xxx downloads in a week.

Sometimes you can use that number to estimate the real demand.

Posted 11 months ago #

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