cocos2d for iPhone

A fast, easy to use, free, and community supported 2D game engine

1. 

   SciFiDad
   Member

   Anyone else highly concerned that the subcategories are missing in the iTunes app store now? That was the primary way people found my stuff before, especially being in a niche market. Being lumped in with all games makes visibility zero.

   I realize this could be temporary while Apple makes updates, but I have a bad feeling it is not temporary. I think they intend to help the big developers out by making the indie stuff less visible. If it stays this way, only the top apps will ever be noticed, and it puts more importance on the stuff that Apple decides to feature. It all lines up with catering to larger devs, and also explains why they added keywords to apps...so they can tell indie devs that people can still find you by searching for keywords.

   Am I worried over nothing, or does this mark the beginning of the end for indie devs for the iPhone?

   Posted 2 years ago #
2. 

   magnateinteractive
   Member

   I don't think you're alone in thinking this or that you're worried over nothing, I noticed the same shortly after poking around the new App Store. I wrote up a blog post on it here: http://codehinting.com/archive/bad_for_indie_game_developers_itunes_9_and_the_new_app_store/

   Posted 2 years ago #
3. 

   pabloruiz55
   Member

   Hi! i searched around and it seems it is not gone... go into itunes and press control/command + B and a list of categories appear, there under games, subcategories appear ;) clicking on any will bring the old pages...

   Now in 6 months browsing the appstore i never knew this, i just learned this command after searching around... i don't think many people know this either.

   Posted 2 years ago #
4. 

   jd
   Member

   I am releasing today. I wonder if I should do $1.99 instead of $.99 to get higher gross on launch date to stay near top. Can I change the price while the game is in review without it affecting approval date?

   The app store teams seems to shoot by the hip with some of the ideas they have.

   Posted 2 years ago #
5. 

   malphigian
   Member

   Apparently (this is second hand) there was a study done by one of the ad networks, and around 90% of the sales happen on the device. The subcategories do still exist there, which is good news.

   Posted 2 years ago #
6. 

   Codemattic
   Moderator

   @malphigian I saw the same article. A little shocking if its true. Just shows how fast people are moving from their PCs and laptops to their mobile devices. I do think it makes it even harder to get noticed tho.

   Posted 2 years ago #
7. 

   cublah
   Member

   I have noticed a drop in sales of about 25% over the last 2 days, now that could be due to other things but its probably no coincidence

   Posted 2 years ago #
8. 

   pabloruiz55
   Member

   It looks like subcategories are back.
   int itunes 9, inside games, to the right at the bottom, there is a menu "more games" that lists all the possible subcategories.

   Posted 2 years ago #
9. 

   rx82
   Member

   yeah it looks like subcategories are back and each "category" now has its storefront back. before it just dumped you into a list of the most recently released games.

   Posted 2 years ago #
10. 

    SciFiDad
    Member

    Yeah that's good that it's back, but I will say it is a LOT more buried than it was before. In iTunes 8, when you clicked "app store", you immediately were presented with the categories, and then subcategories, on the left nav, above the fold. Now they are below the fold, down in the lower right, and only after you click the tiny arrow next to "app store" and choose a category. Hasn't seemed to affect sales too much yet, so keeping fingers crossed.

    Posted 2 years ago #

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