At this point, the major brunt of development is complete for A Dark Room is complete. Approximately six months earlier, the web version of ADR went viral. Twitter was filled with people references the website url. I used that as a starting point for my marketing efforts. And built from there.
I created the @ADarkRoomiOS Twitter handle and started tweeting in the persona of the game. The plan was to interact with anyone and everyone who ever tweeted about the web version of the game. Having a daily tweet from the game, showed that I wasn't just a random spam bot... that there was a real person behind these tweets. I did a Twitter search for "adarkroom" and began combing through all the tweets... replying to anyone who mentioned the game. Letting them know that there was an iOS version.
Postmortem
I'd say at a minimum, have a website for your game and a Twitter handle where people can reach you at. I created my website a bit late into the game and I'm sure I missed some opportunities to have a url that could have been shared with people. Here are some samples of good websites:
- http://amirrajan.net/games
- http://adarkroomios.com
- http://http://www.swordofxolan.com/
- http://www.robtopgames.com/
I used Jekyll hosted on GitHub. It's 100% free. So try to get something out (even if it's just a simple landing page with information on how to get in contact with you). Read the chapter: Tips on a Public Presence.
Day 164 - Nov 15, 2013: A Ray of Hope
I've spent 5 days putting up daily tweets about A Dark Room. Reached out to a few people on Twitter in the persona of the game. It was fun. I got a couple of laughs and some people actually interacted with me too. I liked building a relationship with the fans :-). Every single morning I'd wake up and check the downloads of A Dark Room for iOS. They were abysmal. Only 5 to 10 downloads a day. It's such a let down. Such a beautiful game... and no one was downloading it.
Then the ray of hope. Courtney Stanton (@q0rt) tweeted about the release of the game. This was a big deal given that it was the first tweet about the game from someone outside of Michael's and my development circles. Courtney also had large following on Twitter.
This tweet also represented a window into the indie game world. I started following this community more closely. Reports for downloads of the game take a full day to get published in iTunes Connect. Seeing this kind of tweet and not knowing the impact right away is nerve wracking.
Postmortem
My approach to tweeting was unique. I spoke in the persona of the game, it didn't come off as spammy. I searched for anyone that tweeted about the webversion of ADR and replied with tweets such as:
i consume a part of your soul every time you stoke the fire.
send the snarling beasts, kill all the villagers
she smiles...
I was lucky in this area primarily because there was already a "sales funnel" for me to leverage. Check out the following chapter for some tips: Finding Your Community.
Day 165 - Nov 16, 2013: A Rude Awakening
I woke up the next morning, awake, head throbbing, vision blurry. In a sleepy stupor, I logged into iTunes Connect and saw the number of downloads caused by Courtney's tweet. It spiked to 30. Thirty downloads... a tweet sent to over 3,000 people... and it led to only 30 downloads.
Postmortem
Here is a screenshot of my sales to date. Not that great, but it's a start.
Day 167 - Nov 18, 2013: Additional Notable Interactions
Using the @ADarkRoomiOS Twitter account, I interacted with Leigh Alexander (@leighalexander), an editor at Gamasutra and Kotaku, about a tweet she posted with regards to A Dark Room. Letting a number of people in the conversation know about the existence of the iOS version. There was no noticeable difference in downloads the next day. A meager 5 downloads on the 19th. I'm glad I was able to have a meaningful interaction with Leigh however.
Postmortem
It takes an immense amount of work creating this small connections. My relationship with Leigh Alexander was one of these concerted efforts as you'll see through this developer log. For more information about how to approach editors/reviewers read the chapter: How To Contact People That Can Help You
Day 170 - Nov 22, 2013: Pocket Gamers writes an Entry on A Dark Room
I added "search on Google for any mention of A Dark Room" to my routine. I came across this: Take a risk on iOS adventure game A Dark Room and you might have a new addiction. This review written by Chris Preistman (@CPriestman), is the first review of A Dark Room iOS that I had come across. How freaking cool is that? Unsolicited reviews are starting to come up. A spike to 30 downloads happened that day.
Postmortem
When you see an unsolicited review. Be sure to reach out to them in some way and let them know you noticed. Keep these contacts warm. You have no idea when one of these small connections could lead to something bigger.
I received an email from a random person this day. The game was listed in the Touch Arcade forums, and one of the members emailed me to get some details about the game (what the game was about, how long the game was, etc). I answered his questions immediately and was happy to hear that he loved the game and wrote about his experience on the Touch Arcade forums. Every week afterwards, I have emailed a promo code to Touch Arcade for an official review. I have yet to hear back from them.
Postmortem
The Touch Arcade forums are a great place to get some initial visibility to your game. Developers are allowed a single forum thread dedicated to their game. Be sure to keep a close eye on your forum thread and post updates about your game here to continue to get visibility.
Day 172 - Nov 24, 2013: The First One Star Review
The game up to this point has had 245 downloads over an 18 day period (that's 13 downloads a day). I had a few 5 star reviews from friends in the development community. But I received my first 1 star review:
What was a simple and elegant game should not have been messed with. I regret spending $2 on such a mess. Not only is the UI counter-intuitive and clumsy, but the mobile designer took far too much creative license in altering the original statistics and proportions put in place by Michael Townsend, original designer. Additionally, there is a bug that results in permanent thieves with no way to deter them, making the game essentially unplayable.
What do I do? I played through the game hundreds of times. Meticulously place every button, every interaction. There was no bug in the thieves, I checked 10 times to make sure (just impatience on the part of the player, and unlucky random number generation). One bad review offsets 100 good ones. To this day I feel the pains of this review. I see it as incredibly brutal. Empathy was something I've learned through my time as an independent developer. I understood how frustrating it is to pay for an app and get delivered "shit". So I apologized on this support page. I have no idea if blewis1234 will ever read anything on this page. But I hope at some point, he'll re-rate the game.
Postmortem
One star reviews are inevitable. Try not to let it get to you. Eventually you'll get used to a few bad reviews here and there (at times many).
The good news is that every time you do a new release of your game old reviews get archived. The review system is very important to indie developers. Read the following chapter for deep insight on techniques for getting your game reviewed: The Review System's Ins and Outs
Day 174 - Nov 26, 2013: Game Back Story, an Apology, and a Post to Hacker News
I updated the support page for A Dark Room to include some back story. The name of the section is "A letter to the fans of A Dark Room" (near the top). I posted this entry on Hacker News and reddit.com/r/incremental_games to see if it would generate some interest. Again, I ended up hoping against all hope that enough people on Hacker News would remember the "Minimal Text Adventure" and show some love. It didn't happen. The response I got on Reddit was a bit better. I got quite a few kind words, which helped heal the wounds of my first one star review. The next morning, because of the post to Reddit, the game downloads spiked to 27 downloads.
Postmortem
Holiday weeks are absolutely wonderful. They are times when your game (all apps for that matter) will get a natural spike. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Spring Break, July 4th, Memorial Day.. pretty much all holidays have this side effect. Do not run sales during these time periods. There are your best days for a good amount of revenue.
The download spike I saw probably wasn't because of the post to Hacker News or Reddit. It was probably because it was the day before Thanksgiving.
Cassandra Khaw (@casskhaw), an editor at USGamer, tweets about A Dark Room on iOS. Again because of an interaction from @ADarkRoomiOS. I'm getting more involved in the indie gamer community. Courtney, Leigh, and Cassandra are all people that @ADarkRoomiOS (and by extension I) follow. That day the downloads spiked to 45. The largest single day download for A Dark Room iOS. The download trend didn't last. Every time I think the download trend will hold, it doesn't.
I also came across a video review Chris Charlton (@reasonjp) did on the iOS version of the game. It was an incredible review, and it truly made my day. These small wins help me get through each disappointment in the number of downloads.
Postmortem
Again, Any time an editor/reviewer gives you an unsolicited review. Immediately email them and thank them. Any time you do a non-trivial update, send an email to them letting them know. Keep these relationships warm how ever small of a reach that person has. As a one-man/two man shop. Even a small conversion in sales is worth it. Your main goal during this time period is to show these people (everyone) that you a genuine person who loves the craft. That's the edge you have against all the AAA companies out there. Because they won't go through this effort.
With regards to Cassandra Khaw, she doesn't have an iPhone, but believe me I'm going to reach out to here as soon as the Android version is released.
Day 188 - Dec 10, 2013: Blind Gamers Are Playing A Dark Room
Blind gamers reached out to @ADarkRoomiOS: Orinks (a member of AppleVis.com) and Aaron (a member of AudioGames.net). I was in complete utter shock that blind people were trying to play A Dark Room. I sent out a promise to them that I'd make the game fully accessible. I fired up RubyMotion and started researching what it would take to make A Dark Room fully playable via VoiceOver.
Postmortem
This is another small community I ended up being known in. Every little bit helps. Ever word of mouth recommendation will get more people playing your game. It's unlikely that you'll ever get a viral smash hit. What you want to shoot for is a sustainable small number of downloads. To this day, I'm 100% positive that AppleVis users recommend my games to their friends and family. Simply because I took the time to understand how they were playing the game, and enhanced ADR to be playable via VoiceOver.
Day 194 - Dec 16, 2013: Cara Ellison (@Carachan1)
Cara Ellison, a writer for a number of online gaming website, mentioned that she was considering A Dark Room for her 2013 Game of the Year list. I reached out to her hoping she would have some kind words to write about the iOS version. She said she'd give the game a shot! I emailed her a promo code that day. Can't say this enough, these moments are hard to put in words. It's a chance for all the hard work Michael and I have put into the game to possibly pay off. For A Dark Room to finally make it into the lime lite.
Postmortem
Leigh Alexander and Cara Ellison are my champions. They help me out and recommend my games because I went above and beyond to make sure they are in the know. Additionally I make a conscious effort to retweet their articles and promotions on @ADarkRoomiOS's Twitter. You want to empower those that empower you.
Day 195 - Dec 17, 2013: Indie Mega Booth Does A Podcast on A Dark Room
Another "search on Google everyday" result: Indie Mega Booth did a full length podcast on A Dark Room. It's hard to believe 4 people can talk so long about such a small game (it was awesome too). Just wonderful to hear different interpretations of the story. They mentioned that the iOS version of the game exists too. Yet again, hoping against all odds that the mention of the game would spur more downloads. I took the time to thank Indie Mega Booth for doing the podcast and personally thanked Maddy Myers (@samusclone) on Twitter.... such an awesome Twitter handle by the way.
Postmortem
At this point it finally sunk in that A Dark Room won't be an overnight smash hit. After so many forms of media coverage, and A Dark Rooms sales continue to be lukewarm.
Here's the graph so far:
Day 196 - Dec 18, 2013: Maddy Myers (@samusclone)
Maddy Myers was part of the discussion on the Indie Mega Booth podcast. She's an editor for Paste Magazine. Another important voice in the gaming community. Every person I've interacted with thus far is trying to be heard. Everyone in the gaming community (whether they are an independent game developer or writer) is struggling in some form. And all I can say is that I'll do what I can to make sure those people who have supported A Dark Room, have my support in turn.
Day 199 - Dec 22, 2013: Someone Stopped Playing Because of Slaves
The first public comment about the slaves in the mobile version was posted on Michael's blog. My biggest fear is the vengeful 1 star review. I already had one... I didn't want another:
I am hoping someone can help. I started to play through and had carted wood to the point the population becomes slaves. I then had thieves and it was taking so long to stop them that I thought you were supposed to stop carting wood before your population became slaves. So I reset. I left the cart alone even though it had a “!” Next to it. I now have the entire map uncovered, I have been to every location and have used the jewel. I have the space ship but I have no option to upgrade it even though I have 40 alien alloy. Is this a bug because I ignored the cart for so long or am I missing something. Very frustrating as I will NOT be replaying to get to this point.
Michael was able to get the email address for the person who left the comment. And I emailed him immediately to tell him how to beat the game. I also gave him a hint on how to unlock the alternate ending where his villagers wouldn't become slaves. He was happy to receive the email and I felt like I dodged a bullet.
Postmortem
Be responsive to players that you can reach. Email/tweet them if you can find their info online. If someone emails you, reply to them fast, even if it's to say "Hey, I got your email and will reply in full as soon I get the chance." This shows that you care (which you genuinely should).
Day 204 - Dec 27, 2013: A Dark Room, 2013 GOTY Lists, and Zoe Quinn
I was holding my breath for this day. A number of online gaming websites posted their 2013 Games of the Year. A Dark Room (the web and mobile version) made three lists: Maddy Myers', Zoe Quinn's and Cara Ellison's.
Additionally A Dark Room was the inspiration for a work of art by Elizabeth Simins (@ElizSimins). She was listed as one of the top 10 works The Bygon Bureau.
This all happened in one day. I felt like I had won the lottery. Surely, this is A Dark Room's moment. These three GOTY entries probably reached 10's of thousands of gamers.
This was also the first time I heard about Depression Quest by Zoe Quinn. I know she was feeling the same thing I was. We were two indie game developers, trying to create things that have meaning for us. And we both made 2013 Game of the Year lists.
I played Depression Quest all the way through. It was an experience... that's the best way to describe it. I'm glad there are games coming out that connect emotionally with the player... that are more than guns and eye candy. I reached out to Zoe and let her know that the blind community are always in need for video games, and to spend some time in making her game accessible.
I waited till the next day. I woke up in the morning and checked the downloads... there were 54. It's the highest thus far... but that was all the downloads that were generated... soul crushing I tell you.
Postmortem
In retrospect, the spike I got in downloads was probably because it was during Christmas week. Here is a graph of sales:
Day 205 - Dec 28, 2013: Elizabeth Simins (@ElizSimins)
After seeing her art work on Bygon Bureau, I reached out to Elizabeth and asked if I could put her piece on A Dark Room's support page. She said yes :-) Another bit of good news to keep my spirits up. Thank you Elizabeth, I'm forever grateful that you allowed me to showcase your work here (it's at the top of this page). Her work also led me to discover Patreon. I'm amazed at how technology has given a means for artists to showcase their works (and potentially make a living off of them). Removing the middle man and making it easy for artists to promote their own works is a big deal.
Postmortem
Patreon is another means of how I support those that support me. It's such a simple token of support to give to things they care about. There are creative minds out there that want to make a living with what they enjoy doing. Contributing to their Patreon is a means for you to do that.
First check comes in. The grand totals for the month of November:
- Revenue: $478.27
- Downloads: 403
- Reviews: 5 five-star reviews, 1 one-star review
- RPG Rank: 567th at its low point, 27th at its height
- Overall Rank: 1,479th for two days (metrics below the 1500th placement aren't kept in AppAnnie)
Postmortem
Honestly, if your game can make more than $10 in the first month, it's a massive success. It means that at least a few people are downloading your game. Getting over $400 in the first month is absolutely ridiculous given that the life time median for most games in $400. I can only attribute this first month's success to releasing during the holiday season and the web version of A Dark Room. My third game, A Noble Circle has a more realistic first month sales. If you can get even that with your first game, consider it a success and celebrate. Here is graph of A Noble Circle's first month's sales next to A Dark Room's.
Day 212 - Jan 4, 2014: The Accessible Version of A Dark Room Is Released
I worked through the holidays to get the accessible version of A Dark Room completed. It spent about 5 days in the approval process and then finally released on the 4th. I let Orinks and Aaron know about the updates and they subsequently let their respective communities know. The downloads spiked to about 40 downloads for the next two days. I really didn't care about the downloads this time around. I wanted to do the right thing. Given the accessibility updates and the recent media coverage for A Dark Room, I changed the App Store description too:
Awake. Head throbbing. Vision blurry.
An unforgettable journey that starts small and slowly becomes much, much, more. Uncover the secrets of A Dark Room. Come light the fire.
100% accessible and playable via VoiceOver.
Awards and Recognition:
Paste Magazine, Maddy Myers: Top 20 Indie Games of 2013
Giant Bomb, Zoe Quinn: Top 10 Games of 2013
Giant Bomb, Cara Eillison: Top 10 Games of 2013 (honorable mention)
Postmortem
For a deep dive on how to present your game in the App Store read the chapter: Tips for Creating an App Page in the App Store
Day 213 - Jan 5, 2014: Changes in Routine
The iOS version of the game is solid. I still get a little antsy releasing updates and brace for insta-crashes on my iPad Air. It hasn't happened again though. With a little bit of breathing room, I started working through Land of Lisp and started studying Clojure. I also started doing screencasts on NodeJS development (my Coding Out Loud screencasts). @ADarkRoomiOS's Twitter remained active. I kept interacting with fans. It was a great way to relax and joke around with the community.
I also started work on a "spiritual" sequel to A Dark Room. Lots of HTML5 canvas work and AngularJS. Nodekick (the NodeJS game that Team Us built for Node Knockout 2013) also got cleaned up.
I finally started to get used to the number of downloads for the game. I accepted them for what they were. But I still meticulously observed impact to the number and correlated them to what I did online.
Postmortem
This would be one of the happiest times in my life. I shipped a freaking game. Don't down play the time after a solid release, relish in these small wins. Celebrate. Be happy with what you've accomplished.
Day 218 - Jan 10, 2014: Tweets Sent to 6k People
A notable individual in the iOS community @ScottStevenson mentioned A Dark Room. I replied with a few humorous tweets:
"Just so you know. I consume a part of your soul every time you stoke the fire. #nomnomnom"
"Just cause you followed me doesn't mean I'll give you anything back."
I got some retweets because of these interactions :-). Downloads spiked to 40 for a couple of days. Thank you for the support Scott.
Postmortem
Have fun with what you tweet. I could have tweeted: "Hi! There is now a mobile version of A Dark Room. Check it out at: blah blah blah". That wouldn't have gotten the retweets that this exchange got.
Your Twitter handle is a means for you to connect with fans and share content with them that they would find interesting. Tweet about your game, but also tweet about other games/shared interests. I made the mistake early on and only tweeted about A Dark Room. Now, the tweets that @ADarkRoomiOS sends out covers a broader list of interests (mobile gaming, art, indie development, etc).
Day 223 - Jan 15, 2014: Tweets Sent to 18k People
A notable individual in the game community @RobertAshley interacted with @ADarkRoomiOS too. I sent Robert to this page and told him about how both Michael and I were the sole developers of the game. Robert was kind enough to craft a tweet telling his followers about the web and mobile version of the game. Downloads spiked again to 40 downloads for a couple of days.
Postmortem
I think this was a genuine spike correlated to a tweet. It wasn't within a holiday week and I wasn't being featured by Apple (obviously). I would say each one thousand followers will get you a download... so if someone with 10k followers tweeted about your game, you can expect around ten downloads.
Day 224 - Jan 16, 2014: Pocket Tactics and Owen Faraday
Another wonderful interaction for @ADarkRoomiOS. This time, a random follower mentioned @ADarkRoomiOS and @PocketTactics in the same tweet... letting the iOS publication know about the game. I took this opportunity to email Owen Faraday (editor of Pocket Tactics).
I asked if Pocket Tactics would like to do a review on A Dark Room. Owen replied and I sent over a promo code (yay!).
On Feb 4th, Owen emailed with the word: "Amazing". I hope to see a review show up soon on Pocket Tactics. I try to be diligent in following up with Owen... without being annoying. It's hard to find a good balance between the two. A review hasn't gone up yet... but after another release of the game I'll be sure to follow up with Owen. I hope he doesn't take offense to my persistence.
Postmortem
This is me pouncing again on an interaction. Stay vigilant with your own interactions, they can pan out to be something more!
Again, for a deeper dive, read: How To Contact People That Can Help You
Day 227 - Jan 19, 2014: Apple Vis Promo Code Give Away
The blog post I wrote about accessibility received some buzz in the blind community. The AppleVis editorial team reached out to me. They wanted to run a promo code giveaway. I sent them 10 promo codes and they did something really unique. Instead of just giving them away, they asked individuals to go read the blog post I did on making the game accessible to the blind, and about the making of the game. They had to mention something from the write ups to get a promo code. It was a great idea, and I saw a lot of nice things said about the game.
Downloads spiked to 50 during the contest period. I'm burning through my promo codes, but they are generating results.
Postmortem
I've included the blog entry under the chapter: Raising Awareness, The Blind Use iPhones
Also by doing this promo code giveaway, I saw how to do promo codes the right way and the wrong way. There is so much causality here:
-
If I didn't eat that Jack in the Box the night before, I probably wouldn't have been pooping and reading Hacker News.
-
If I didn't see the Hacker News link to A Dark Room while pooping, I probably wouldn't have ever seen it.
-
If I wasn't on a sabbatical, I probably wouldn't have bothered with the idea of a port, knowing I didn't have any time outside of work.
-
If I played the web version all the way through, I probably wouldn't have attempted to port the game over.
-
If Michael didn't release it as open source, I probably wouldn't have contacted him.
-
If RubyMotion wasn't around, I probably would still be trying to code the thing in ObjectiveC and XCode, breaking my computer in the process.
-
If I didn't build a game using buttons and labels, it wouldn't have had some default voice over support.
-
If I didn't add "text based journey" to the initial app description, a blind gamer would have never found the game.
-
If I didn't have a Twitter handle for the game, the blind gamer wouldn't have been able to reach out to me as easily.
-
If I didn't go back and fix ADR to be playable by voice over, I would have lost a connection with a close knit community.
-
If I didn't write a blog entry about raising awareness for the blind, the AppleVis editorial team wouldn't have reached out.
-
If the editorial team didn't reach out, I'd be giving promo codes away in a suboptimal way, making poor connections with the communities I want to be a part of.
Day 234 - Jan 26, 2014: Promo Code Give Away on Touch Arcade
I took Apple Vis' idea and gave away 20 promo codes across two separate contests at Touch Arcade. The interactions I had with the fans (old and new) was great. A lot kind words and genuine support.
The downloads for the last four days of January stayed at a steady 40.
Postmortem
Here is a graph of January. More related info on how to do promo code give aways in: Finding Your Community
The second check comes in. The grand totals for the month of December:
- Revenue: $943.00
- Downloads: 698
- Reviews: 3 five-star reviews
- RPG Rank: 201st at its low point, 33rd at its height
- Overall Rank: 1428th at its low point, 486th at its height (fell below the 1500 cut off for only 3 days)
Postmortem
Again, looking back. Almost one thousand dollars. Think about it. You're an indie developer, hopefully with some sort of full time job while you're trying to make a passion into a career. Suddenly, you've added twelve thousand dollars a year to your bottom line.
If I realized this back then, I would have done the smart thing and started working on the Android version (even if I'd have to write the damn thing in Java... RubyMotion now supports cross platform development, so I'm doing that now... in 2016... T_T).
As soon as I get the Android release out (hopefully before the year 2045), I'll add a chapter about revenue numbers. From what I've heard, premium apps bring in a fraction of the revenue they bring in on iOS.
Day 241 - Feb 2, 2014: Another Person Stopped Playing Because of Slaves
So a bit of background about the iOS version and its ending game sequence. The starship represents the end of the game. It is only unlocked once you've progressed far enough in the storyline. If a player avoids storyline progression, they are effectively stuck, and can't complete the game. The villagers turning into slaves leaves another person in this stuck state.
Here is a part of the email that was sent to me:
Also I would like to mention that I liked this game until I found out I was getting screwed over. I am playing it on an iPhone 4. Just hoping you guys can fix this before a flood of unhappy folks come by and take your stars down a notch. And no I haven't rated your game because I am not the vengeful type. Video games are hard to make and it seems you put a lot of effort into this. I am sending you screenshots of my game.
The player was kind enough to include screenshots of his current game. I didn't need to look (but I did anyways). He stopped progressing the storyline... Here is what I wrote back:
Every time you gather wood the storyline progresses toward the end. There is an alternate ending too. Some people are sad with how the storyline progresses. The alternative approach to playing the game (though much harder) leads to a happier ending. Let me know if you have any other questions. And I love hearing from fans. So don't hesitate to reach out. And thanks for the detailed screenshots :-)
He replied with:
Mmm. I see now. Lol I was trying not to further my slave owner persona. You know if you made a instruction manual and just mentioned a few things, I'm sure this app will be an even better hit. (Example I thought the carbine shot bullets not battery's, because there is a actual rifle named the carbine. I think its ww2 era). I think anyone who played the older call of duties would make this mistake: Thanks for your help. Say, if I could rack your brain, do I not need to build huts to get the new ending, or could I build huts but just not gather wood?
And a happy ending:
Hey thanks! I sure will. I left a positive review in the App Store. I found this game on reddit. I highly recommend creating a user account and posting something like "great iOS game, free downloads for the first 5 commenters". In the description write please leave review and comment for download. Those people usually will help generate your sales. I found a post about this game in r/gaming. Good luck and thank you for answering my emails. I really thought the game was busted. Lol
I ended up putting a more assertive message about gathering wood to progress the storyline within the game. In version 1.4, when you stoke the fire (and there is a storyline element that needs to be dealt with). You get a small message "need to gather wood, the forest beckons". This will hopefully help guide future gamers.
Postmortem
See what I mean with being responsive to emails? It helps. Also, incorporate feedback and make your games better if you see a recurring pattern.
I'm burning through my promo codes at this point. The Apple Vis approach to giving away promo codes leads to a much deeper connection with the fans of the game. It's meaningful and I enjoy having all the good conversations. I ran a couple of promo code giveaways on Reddit.
Downloads spiked to 40 those days.
Postmortem
More related info on how to do promo code give aways in: Finding Your Community
I was down to my last 15 codes. I reached out to Cara Ellison on Twitter about getting A Dark Room in front of people that may write about it. Being the awesome person she is, she replied. I sent over 6 promo codes. The frustrating thing about promo codes is that I don't know if they've been redeemed. I know Cara is extremely busy, and she probably gets many, many emails from people trying to pitch her games. I'm just glad that I have someone that can advocate for me. She continues to be a ray of hope for A Dark Room. Unsolicited mentions of the game and always responds to my emails. Thank you... thank you Cara.
Postmortem
At this point, I was out of ideas with regards to promotion. I spent a lot of time giving away promo codes. It is an immense amount of work to do promo code giveaways correctly (Finding Your Community chapter). I emailed Cara, Leigh, and Brandon emails like the following:
Subject: Need advice... I'm the indie dev that built A Dark Room for iOS
Body: I built a game called A Dark Room, for iOS. It was inspired/ported from a web version built my Michael Townsend, another indie developer (with permission and royalty payments). The game has gained some popularity. Posting on forums, facilitating giveaways, and blogging about A Dark Room is exhausting... but, my efforts have gotten some results. The game is ranked in the top 10, on the iTunes App Store, under the RPG category (took 3 months to get there).
I just don't know what to do now... I'm down to my last 10 promo codes and I've exhausted all of the connections I have through community, friends, and family. I've tried reaching out to a number of online review sites, but haven't received any responses.
I found you on Twitter (Kotaku follows you) and then I saw that you're the chairman of the Indie Game Festival. So I decided to throw a Hail Mary. I have a promo code for you if you want to try the mobile version of the game out (iPhone/iOS 7). Just reply with anything, and I'll send it over.
I'm sure you've heard this story many time before.... but I really do feel that A Dark Room is something amazing. It just needs some time in the limelight.
Thanks for reading, Amir
Day 250 - Feb 11, 2014: A Hail Mary to Brandon Boyer
I'm getting more cautious at this point (I'm down to 9 codes). I'm scouring Twitter for connections... people to reach out to... people that may respond. @Kotaku follows only 41 people and is followed by over three hundred thousand. It looks like the people Kotaku is following is fairly exclusive.
There were two people on this list that I had hopes would respond: Leigh Alexander (@leighalexander) and Brandon Boyer (@brandonnn). Both had a large number of followers and (based on their profiles) are receptive to indie developers. Brandon Boyer and Cara Ellison follow each other. Leigh Alexander (someone I've interacted with before) and Maddy Myers follow each other.... is this borderline stalking? ... XD
I end up emailing Brandon Boyer. I tried not to send him a wall of text (it happened anyways). But Brandon replied after a few days (yay!). I sent over a promo code. Now I just have to wait T_T.
Day 251 - Feb 12, 2014: Appcessible Podcast
Around this same time Jonathan Mosen reached out to me. He is another individual from the blind community and came across the blog entry I did on adding accessibility enhancements to A Dark Room. He wanted to have me on a new podcast he was launching for the blind community. I said yes (of course), here is a link to the podcast.
Postmortem
This is a testament to being present in small communities. Out of no where I received a request to be interviewed on a podcast. If you ever get a request like this. Say yes and do it. Don't be picky. At this stage it is always worth your time.
Day 252 - Feb 13, 2014: Price Dropped on Game to $0.99 (50% off Sale)
A Dark Room is now hovering near the top 10 under the RPG Category. I didn't want the ranking to drop. I'm down to 6 promo codes, I have a pending release, but haven't pushed it yet. So I dropped the price of A Dark Room by 50% ($0.99).
I tweeted about it. A bunch of people tweeted about it. Pocket Tactics wrote up a short piece on the game being half off. There was an unsolicited Reddit post on the price drop. There was an unsolicited post on Touch Arcade. I woke up the next day I look at the downloads. They spiked to 351 in one day.
Postmortem
Here's another graph of sales at this time periods.
A Dark Room in now number 8 in the App Store under the RPG category. Downloads have dropped to 100 after the initial spike from the previous day. I didn't want it to lose steam. I wondered if I could set A Dark Room to free for two days. Would it reset my app rank? The app dropped to number 11 the next day. It was dropping again.... that evening I made the app free... for two days.
Postmortem
Making the game free was a mistake. Don't change the price of your app as it climbs, change the price of your app as it falls. I shouldn't have made it free because ADR was climbing (not falling).
Also, can you believe that A Dark Room can barely stay in the top 25 in the RPG category these days? A viral smash hit with over 2.5 million downloads can't keep a consistent rank in a niche subcategory.
A deep dive into pricing changes is in the chapter: How to Price Your App.
Day 254 - Feb 15, 2014: A Dark Room Is Free For Two Days
A number of unsolicited posts went up again about the app being free... over the weekend, A Dark Room got ~8,900 downloads and ~10 new five-star reviews. But it lost it's rank entirely in the App Store. The app went back to its $0.99 price. It took a couple of days, but made it's way back to the ranking list. A Dark Room now hovers around 30 in the RPG Rankings. To this day I still wonder if it was a mistake to make the app free for two days.
Postmortem
In general, free games get ten times as many downloads as paid games.
Day 260 - Feb 21, 2014: A Hail Mary to Leigh Alexander
I reached out to Leigh via email... and let her know via Twitter that I sent her an email :-D. After a few days, she replied back with some interview questions for me and Michael! Hopefully a publication by Leigh will bring some visibility to A Dark Room.
Postmortem
My first interaction with Leigh was back on day 167 (that's over 3 months ago). Some of these connections (especially with high profile individuals) take a large amount of time to cultivate. If you aren't going to be genuine with them, you'll get filed away under all the other people that "pitch" their games.
Day 263 - Feb 24, 2014: Reaching Out to RubyMotion
I Talked to Karthik Hariharan about the viability of releasing A Dark Room's source (with an e-book). Trying to think of additional ways to generate income off of this IP. The game isn't making large amounts of money in the App Store. Every time the game gets a "huge" spike in downloads, it tapers off quickly. I keep thinking to myself "this trend will hold, this trend will hold." But it hasn't done so yet. Karthik also recommended that I reach out to the RubyMotion team and that Laruent Sansoetti is a nice guy and may be able to offer some advice.
I sent an email to the RubyMotion team telling them about the success the game had so far. It was incredible getting a response back so quickly from Laurent and then a tweet that reached a number of developers.
Postmortem
Two years later and I'm finally writing the book... better late than never I guess.
Day 266 - Feb 27, 2013: Another Release of A Dark Room, The Review Me Button
There is always a side effect to releasing a new version of the app to the App Store. The first side effect: you lose all the reviews for the current version of the App (only ratings for the current version of the app show up in preview screens, the user can go and see the reviews of the previous versions, but it's not immediately obvious). The second side effect: you get more promo codes.
A Dark Room's current version has 56 five-star reviews, 1 one-star review, and 1 four-star review. The app ranking was already shot to hell (relative to where it was before), because of the two day price change to free. So I figured this would be a good time to do an update. I added the "you better go gather wood" notification to help the player through the slavery period. I made more accessibility enhancements to the game to make it a little bit easier for the blind to navigate the Dusty Path. And I added a "review me" button to the game. The app is currently in the App Store's review process. I'll update this log as soon as I get the results/side effects from making these changes.
Postmortem
Holy crap. Adding a review button to your game is important. Read the chapter: The Review System's Ins and Outs.
Day 270 - Mar 3, 2014: 12k Lines of RubyMotion
A lot is still up in the air at this point. Version 1.4 is waiting for release. I've permanently dropped the price of A Dark Room to $0.99 (I don't know the long term effects of this). I'm hoping that Owen from Pocket Tactics shows some love to A Dark Room on his website. I'm hoping that Leigh publishes the interview questions. I'm hoping that Brandon gets back to me about his thoughts on the game and with any help he can provide. I'm hoping the RubyMotion team likes the slides I've sent them and that I'll get some visibility with them too. I'm hoping that my first presentation at a Ruby user group goes well. I'm hoping the new review button generates more reviews. Lots of hope... few answers at this point.
Postmortem
Pricing the app at $0.99 works well for A Dark Room. More info in the chapter: How to Price Your App.
Day 271 - Mar 4, 2014: The Review Button in A Dark Room
The pending release to A Dark Room hit the App Store. As expected all the reviews from the previous version get removed from the "current" release. The app at this point is ranked 32 under the RPG Category. With zero reviews for the current release. I knew this was a risk going in, but with it, I got 100 more promo codes.
Outside of more accessibility enhancements, and a bit more storyline elements; the most important part of this release was the review button I added. The review button shows up after the player has beaten the game. I decided to only show it at this point, because I know that the player has experienced the story in its entirety at least once.
That day I received 20 reviews. A small success to be celebrated. I'm hoping to have an influx of reviews every few days given how long it takes to beat the game... I'll probably be disappointed... but we'll see.
The third check comes in. The grand totals for the month of January:
- Revenue: $1,320.00
- Downloads: 986
- Reviews: 11 five-star reviews, another one-star review
- RPG Rank: 154th at its low point, 25th at its height
- Overall Rank: 1469th at its low point, 432th at its height (stayed in the top 1500 Games for the entire month)
The one star review made me smile a little bit. You can't please everyone:
its crap ★
its a white screen those other ratings are rigged the game is junk
I knew that the first part of the game was slow to "reveal itself". The web version takes 125 seconds for the builder to finally wake up and open up the rest of the game. In the mobile version, this time was dropped down to 45 seconds (specifically to avoid this kind of review). I added a few "keep going" messages in the mobile version that start revealing themselves 17 seconds into the game. Looks like neither of these carrots kept Byrce68's attention long enough. It sucks... but what can you do but smile and move on.
A message to the reviewer: I'm sorry that I wasn't able to keep your attention, but none of the review are fake... all 20 of them (the grand total at the time this review was written) are genuine, through and through.
Postmortem
I use App Annie to keep an eye on rankings and download splits across countries. iTunes graphs could learn a lot from App Annie.
Day 273 - Mar 6, 2014: Leigh Alexander Publishes Her Interview on Gamasutra
Leigh, thank you for this. Thank you for taking the time to interview Michael and me. Thank you for skillfully writing about the journey we've had so far.
Here is the write up Leigh Alexander did on A Dark Room: A Dark Room's unique journey from the web to iOS. It's an amazing read. Gamasutra has 100k followers... it was tweeted by their official Twitter handle. Additionally, the article was shared ~25 times on Twitter and got 15 likes on Facebook.
At this point, I have a better expectations of the impact these kind of publications have on the number of downloads (it's small, but every little bit helps keep me going). The downloads for the day spiked to 68 (a little over double my $0.99-price averages for the month). The drop off is fairly quick for this kind of media coverage (given the historical data I have now... I'll report back after a few days have passed). Regardless, thank you Leigh Alexander. Thank you for this small win I can celebrate.
Day 274 - Mar 8, 2014: Two Days After the Gamasutra Publication
Leigh's article stayed on Gamasutra's Top Articles for two days.
On March 6th, Leigh tweeted about it to 34k Twitter followers. Gamasutra tweeted about it to their 100k followers.
On March 7th, Leigh tweeted about the article a second time.
The game's download spiked to ~100 downloads for each day. Its rank went from number 24 (in the RPG category), to number 16. All these changes were in line with my expectations. I wanted to keep the momentum going, so I decided to spend the next 4 days promoting the game on Reddit, Twitter, and Touch Arcade.
Day 278 - Mar 12, 2014: Four Days of Promotion
I posted this write up on /r/IndieGaming and /r/GameDev. To share what I've been through so far.. and yes, to help with visibility... two birds with one stone, right? The posts gained popularity and I had a number of good conversations, specifically about the viability of the Android market (tl;dr; it doesn't look promising).
I did another promo code giveaway on Touch Arcade. But nobody (not a single person), asked for a promo code. That was incredibly surprising. I'm not sure if it was timing or if the people on Touch Arcade just didn't care to get a copy. I let the thread die off. That will be the last time I post on Touch Arcade.
The reception or Reddit was much better. I received a number of good comments and support on /r/iOSGaming and /r/AppHookup. Thirty codes were given away and the downloads for three days stayed at around 80. Being active on Reddit and making sure to reply quickly to conversations took up a couple of hours every day. A Dark Room's App Store ranking (again, under the RPG section), continued to hover around 15.
Good things came out of the the Reddit posts. I had a number of incredibly candid posts about the game and the development logs. Many people empathized and gave words of encouragement. Some didn't. Have I mentioned how important tact and empathy are?
One notable conversation convinced me to try porting the game to iPad. I decided to time box the port to iPad. Surprisingly, I wrapped it up in a few days. I'm play testing the game now... on an iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPad 3, iPad Air, and iPad 2... T_T.
Given that an iPad version was going to be released, I decided to give away 50 more codes, but this time on Twitter (you lose any codes you don't use within a release). I posted the codes and tweeted about it. Cassandra Khaw (Editor at USGamers), Maddy Myers (Editor at Paste Magazine), Laruent Sansoetti (Founder of HipByte and RubyMotion), and Pocket Tactics (ie Owen Faraday) retweeted this promotion to their followers (~13k followers combined). All the codes were claimed. Given the downloads for that day, it didn't seem like they were all redeemed however. There was no spike in sales either. My downloads (and revenue) is flatlining now.
Postmortem
Here I end up trying to combine an editorial release, and promo code giveaways to keep A Dark Room's rank high. Coincidentally, all this is happening around Spring Break, which was also helping downloads.
Day 279 - Mar 13, 2014: Back in the Top 10, iPad Release
I woke up this morning. Awake, head throbbing, vision blurry ;-). Checked my app rank... A Dark Room made it into the top 10 RPGs... and finally cracked the top 200 in the overall Games category. Back to testing the iPad/Universal version of the game.
Postmortem
Build universal apps from the beginning. A little over 10% of my sales comes from iPad downloads. Unfortunately, iPhone and iPad rankings are completely independent. Also, you have no chance in hell getting featured by Apple if you don't make apps that run on all of their devices in their native resolutions. See the chapter: Pitching to Apple.
For the past two days, A Dark Room has gotten ~200 downloads. I haven't done any recent marketing of the game to result in that kind of spike. True, the game made it into the top 10 spot a couple of days ago... but I didn't experience this kind of spike the last time it was there.
The only thing I can think of was that the web version of the game got 1000+ upvotes in an AskReddit thread: Reddit, what is a fun webgame I can sink a lot of time into?. Michael mentioned that there was also an iOS version of the game within the thread comments... I still don't think it could have such an impact given that the comment was buried way way down in the post. Maybe it did... I have no idea.
Also. This dev blog was linked to in the following newsletters (I received emails and tweets from a couple of readers): RubyMotion Dispatch and TapFame's Newsletter. Again, I don't think that such a spike could come from these distributions (I may be wrong).
Regardless, it didn't last. A Dark Room's rank is back down to number 10 (/le sigh). The iPad update is in the App Store review process, and will hopefully be released to the public next week (and hopefully without that dreaded first day crash I experienced and still can't explain). Perhaps the combined downloads from iPhone and iPad will bring up the ranking again. From what I hear, getting into the top 5 in your category is a big deal... and from the looks of it you have to be bringing in over 200 downloads for a solid week to break into that spot number 5 (in the RPG category... no telling what you have to be bringing in to get a top spot in another category).
All I can really do is wait. I'm out of promo codes. I have no control over App Store ranking. Any amount of engagement I try to have on Twitter won't bring in numbers like what happened in the last two days. So I guess I'll geek out on something else for a while, and take a break for the next few days :-).
Day 284 - Mar 18, 2014: The Spike is Over. iPad Version Release
The unexplained spike is over. Downloads are coming back down to "normal" levels. This morning I received an email that the iPad version of the game is ready for sale. Of course, with every new release, I get a new set of promo codes, and all the reviews get "archived" (wiped out frankly, frustrating). From March 4th to today. A Dark Room received 85 reviews. One of them was a 4-star review, one of them was a 1-star review, the rest were 5-stars. The game was getting an average of 6 reviews a day.
With the release of the iPad version. A Dark Room will now be searchable on all devices with default search filters. I'm also hoping that the combined download numbers between iPhone and iPad will help bring A Dark Room's ranking back up (which is currently hovering around #17). The game did not crash when I installed it on my iDevices. This was a huge relief for me, and possibly something I can put behind me now... I'd be lying if I said I slept well these past few nights.
Day 285 - Mar 19, 2014: Mystery of the Week Long Spike Solved
Last week there was a spike in A Dark Room's download numbers that I couldn't explain. Kevin Wade of OrgSync figured it out. It was because of Spring Break. A bunch of people with time on their hands came to the App Store and bought the game. A Dark Room's rank didn't increase in the App Store with this large week long spike in downloads, because every game was experiencing a similar spike.
This is also the first day after the iPad release. Downloads are back to normal levels (a little over 100 a day). I didn't expect a big spike because of the iPad release. The game still needs to make it through the iPad ranking system (the iPhone rankings list is different than the iPad rankings list). From historical data, it looks like A Dark Room can make it into the top 20 in about a week. We'll see if my prediction holds true.
Also, the first day after a release is always frustrating. When you push out a new release, you don't lose your rank in the app store, but you do lose all the reviews. So there sits A Dark Room, ranked #17 in the App Store, zero reviews, one boring screenshot, who will buy that? Thankfully, the trusty review button in the game pulled through again. I got twelve 5-star, and one 4-star review yesterday.
Postmortem
Here is a graph of the time around spring break.
Spring Break (and the spike that came with it) was over... A Dark Room's ranking was falling. Part of this fall was related to the new release of the game (I think). This game has a huge risk every time a new version releases: previous reviews of the game get archived, which makes people, who've never experienced the game, hesitant in buying it. I was lucky to get twelve 5-star reviews the first day of the v1.5 release... it didn't look like it was enough to convince people to buy a game with only one screenshot, and a vague description. By the 19th, A Dark Room had 18 five-star reviews, but its rank had fallen to 28th in the RPG section.
At this point I decided that the game could benefit from a little bit of publicity, so I made the app free for two days. I've done this once before, the difference this time was A Dark Room was now equipped with a well placed review button. It was worth the risk of losing my app rank if it meant I could get a good surge of reviews.
For the 20th and 21st the app was free. I posted the announcement to Touch Arcade, reddit/r/iOSGaming, reddit/r/AppHookup, and Twitter. As expected, the game got a lot of love on all fronts. The "App discount" syndications also published that the app went free.
The combined downloads for the next two days was 13,997. The last time I did this, I received ~9,000 downloads. So it seems that these numbers weren't a fluke at all. This is actually the amount of downloads "top rated" free apps get on a daily basis.
The game (depending on how addicted the player gets), can be completed in 3 hours, or up to 3 days of casual play. So now it was just a matter of waiting to see if the review button was doing its job. I waited two days before drawing any conclusions.
Here is the download history for time the app went free (with a couple days before and after):
- Mar 18th: 161
- Mar 19th: 124
- Mar 20th: 4,654
- Mar 21st: 9,343
- Mar 22nd: 221
- Mar 23rd: 187
Again, I wasn't surprised that the downloads went back to their regular numbers after the sale was over. But, during that time period, A Dark Room received an additional 112 5-star reviews, one 1-star review, and one 2-star review. It seems like players either "get" the game or they don't... thankfully, the ratio is well in A Dark Room's favor. Also, it seems that even with the well placed review button, the conversion rate for reviews is about 1%... geez.
On the 18th, A Dark Room's iPhone and iPad RPG ranks were 28 and 71 respectively (and falling). The rankings were reset during the time period when the app was free (a risk I was well aware of). Today, A Dark Room's iPhone and iPad ranks are 16 and 40 respectively (and rising... so far). I'd say the two day sale was a success.
Postmortem
If you have a review conversion rate above 3%. That's pretty freaking amazing. Currently, A Noble Circle is my only app that is commanding 3%+ conversion rate. I give some in depth information in review techniques in: The Review System's Ins and Outs.
Hold on to Your Butts
This concludes the first part of my developer logs (before A Dark Room) went viral across 5 countries. Hope your ready for the next part of this ride.