cocos2d for iPhone

And it's OUT!

Climbing the charts due to a combination of keeping Super Search 60 users informed, AppZing, PlayHaven and advertising everywhere I could afford :)

Bought advertising at quite a lot of "smaller" sites that I tend to frequent regularly. Notably: http://freeappcalendar.com, http://greatappaday.com, http://appaddict.net, http://appsmile.com. There's a lot of new websites that do great coverage of games but may not have the traffic of their bigger brothers.

I'm also doing cheaper campaigns at http://toucharcade.com, http://appshopper.com and http://slidetoplay.com

Funnily enough I've been getting amazing results from redirecting all my customers from Super Search 60 to Doodle Find. Although Super Search 60 may not have "exploded" I've built a great game and have slowly build up a dedicated base of players over the world. Getting all of them to download Doodle Find on Day 1+2+3 has allowed me to get to #1 Game in Singapore with other countries doing well also.

I really wish there was more "burst" advertising available. Most sites offer slots for 30 days whereas what we really need is 3-5 days of heavy traffic.

PlayHaven is in beta and is featured in Zombie Farm has been good so far. They're a good cross promotional library that's getting their back end together. Once they allow people to roll over impressions from one game to promote another I think they'll have the no 1 cross promotional system.

Really though, I feel that if your game doesn't chart those first days, there's almost no point writing it in the first place (other than the satisfaction of making a game), so for me Advertising as much as I can afford is a no brainer. ie. Take the money I've produced from my first game and roll it into the second.

I'm really proud of Doodle Find, and would love it if the board can download, take a look and let me know what you think!

And thanks for your help though the board Codemattic. Many Cocos2D problems have been solved by reading your helpful suggestions.

also if Apple features you, that might be a good time to also do an advertising blitz, even if you lose money initially, if you can push yourself on any of the top lists then you may get some longevity.

"And thanks for your help though the board Codemattic. Many Cocos2D problems have been solved by reading your helpful suggestions. "

thats really terrific to hear, thank you.

I'm still beginning in the app marketing and always good to read some feedback as yours!

About going from paid to free; I read that most of people does not recommand to make your app free for some days. Anyway, I tested it and goes from 5 downloads a day to 3000 a day (6800 download in 4 days)! Then go back to an average of 10-15 a day- so better that at the beginning but I was doing no marketing at all (no mail, no ads, nothing!) Anyway I needed to do the test with my first little app, I also love to think that it creates a user base for future apps (as your user base helps you to boost download for your new game) ...

One other thing I wanted to mention is the AppZing promotional library. It caught me attention when I downloaded "Find The Differences" and saw an advert for AppZing within the description. They mentioned that they had used AppZing to promote their application to the top of the app store. This fascinated me so I've implemented that system into my game also (You'll see it each time you start the game).
It's a really clever system and looks like it's going to be great at getting exposure for your apps.
If you're interested in dipping your toes into the world of cross promotion definitely take a look at implementing PlayHaven and AppZing.
Zombie Farm also uses PlayHaven and I'm sure those guys have praise for it also!

Hooray! This weekend Apple featured Doodle Find in "New And Noteworthy" in Australia, the UK and a number of other countries! Sadly however, did not make the list in the US. Ah well - there's always next week.

Doodle Find has been #1 game in Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau.
It's currently #3 game in Australia. #8 game in the UK and Top 50 and Top 100 in many other countries!

I'm happy for you! Hope that things continue like this for you...
thanks for the cross promotion tip, I will think about it

Now I continue with my strategy questions if you do not mind:
If I understand well you rely on advertising for you revenues since your game is free, and on people that will buy Super search Pro (that they will find thanks to your free games).
Or is your goal more long term and your goal is simply to build a user base so that you will be able to sell your future games more efficiently ?

I'm currently thinking about the strategy for my next app, and I think I'm gonna use "free + in app purchase". if it's free and there is some quality you can go to the charts, then if people love your software they do in app purchase. Of course, all apps cannot use in app purchase, but look at Mega-Jump, apparently new characters in-app purchases works pretty well...
As you said, if nobody knows you, the only solution is perhaps to go free (except if you have a fantastic app?)

If I was to start over from scratch, I'd probably start it as a paid game with in-app purchase extensions, then drop the price of the main game to free, and then keep it that way. This is simply for twitter visibility. There's a lot of sites set up, that lots of people are subscribed to, that will announce to all their users that a game has dropped from paid to free. "Always free" games, just seem to disappear.

I think it's a bit rough that I can make a game like Doodle Find and not have any of these kinds of sites feature it. Like I said earlier I've had to work very hard to get the word out that this is a game worth playing. It's charted very well in a lot of countries, but I still don't have the visibility in the USA. It would do very well there if it managed to crack the Top 100 apps, but it just didn't seem to take there. If I'd started on paid, then dropped to free "a la" Mega Jump I'd be looking at an across the board #1 hit.

However, I wanted to be nice to my existing customer base and release a free sequel to Super Search 60.

I hope the situation improves and that great games are covered and promoted properly :)

Cute game klicktock :)

Just updated Doodle Find with V0.99.4-rc2.
Added support for iPad and the iPhone 4 retina display!