I realize this post is getting old now but I want to attempt to provide some more information that may be useful to people working on new games.
Several of you have asked about how sales have gone for Bear on a Wire. To put it short, they haven't been great but we definitely made a couple mistakes which hurt our sales. In my opinion, the market is very hit or miss. You pretty much get one shot to blow up when your app releases or you sink into the abyss. This point was a little different in the beginning and during the initial release of Bear on a Wire though, because each update pushed the app back into the "New" section, giving it another shot at success.
When we initially released Bear on a Wire, we saw respectable numbers but nothing great. A couple weeks after the paid version we released a free version (Bear on a Wire - Free Ride) which just barley missed the top 100. It bumped the paid version up a little but not as much as we had hoped - one of our mistakes was that the original free version may have been too feature limited, not giving people enough of a feel for the game to want to buy it.
After correcting the mistake of having a too limited free version, our plan was to submit an update for the free and paid version at the same time, we figured that having them both in the New section of the store at them same time would give us our best shot at cracking the top 100 and then hopefully moving up from there.
Unfortunately, that plan did not work. The update to the free version, which was most important in my opinion, got declined due to inappropriate keywords. I immediately changed them and resubmitted. Two weeks later, it got declined again. This time it's due to being a "feature limited version." I had thought that was the point of a free version and didn't realize at the time that they were rejecting apps for that reason. So, I fixed the screen they had an issue with and resubmitted. Another two weeks passed and it got declined again. This time it was because somehow I had activated keywords for a UK English version and it still had the words they had an issue with in the first decline. By this time I was just very frustrated with the whole approval process and to top it off, during those last two weeks is when they made the change that no longer allowed updates to appear in the New section.
My experience with this first game was a little disappointing in that I never got to test some of the sales strategies I would have liked too and as a result I have the feeling that there was unexplored potential for success. However, it was definitely worth doing and I would do it again if in the same position.
I also would still like to add more features to the game or build a new one based off of Bear on a Wire that addresses the problems that people have pointed out. For example, the main problem with the game in my opinion is that it is too hard at first and not approachable for people who are not familiar with fast-paced action games. Some people have suggested slowing down the overall pace of the game or, like thesmileman above, adding some kind of slow motion feature. I think this is a great idea and I am going to start thinking about how best to add it in, I think the game still has some life left in it.
Also, for anyone who has not tried Bear on a Wire, the free version (Bear on a Wire - Free Ride) has been updated with more levels and tricks since my last post and I would still love to hear any feedback on how to make it better!
