Did [Diablo 3] Take the Apple recommendation why or is it defeated?

Transferred from: http://www.gamelook.com.cn/2015/12/238390

The success rate for novice developers and startups seems to be getting lower, so that some time ago even European and American developers put forward the idea of ' indie game Doomsday '. Someone once said that in the game industry, just having a good game is not enough, you also need good marketing marketing. But is there a high success rate for experienced developers or marketing? The answer is probably not necessarily. As a creative industry, the success or failure of the game depends not only on the people who do the game, but more importantly whether the players need to, whether your game satisfies the player's real needs, the game industry is not certain of the uncertainty is that the only constant is change, other people's success experience is only a specific game or team, There is no universal rule of successful game creation that we can use.

Jake Sones, a veteran developer who worked in 13, in Diablo 3, Ricky and jingle, and endless quests, said in his blog that although he did a good game, got the Apple recommendation, and put in a marketing budget, the first hand tour still failed. He said in the summary, although the income has not been able to recover costs, but this year's hand-tour research and development learned that the past many years are not comparable, the following see Gamelook compiled blog:

First, introduce the background of this blog's writing

I have been a professional game designer for more than 13 years, and I have been involved in the development of the endless Tasks (EverQuest) series, the Ratchet & Clank series, the Resistance (Resistance) series, and the Diablo 3 project. Interested can also see my full resume (). List these not to brag, just to prove that I have been involved in a lot of good game project development, I can feel comfortable to say that they are a good game planning, however, want to make a game success, only these are not enough.

Last year, I thought it was time to play the game alone and set up my own studio. I didn't choose to raise money because I thought my project was very small, and I used my savings to complete research and development, so that I could really play my own game without worrying about loans or investors. At the time, it was felt that in an ideal situation, the sales revenue of the game would be worth the money invested, and in the perfect case it would be profitable. But for the time being, both of these situations seem impossible.

Before we begin to talk about specifics, I would like to say that fortunately I did, because in the past year, I have learned more than most of my previous career. In addition, I feel a sense of accomplishment in my ability to independently complete the development and release of a game.

The game itself

The game itself needs some language to explain, which may be part of the reason for its failure (not clear enough). The game itself is a satire on the status of the App Store. The reason I did this was because I was betting with a friend that the difference between the two of us was, ' Can you make a good game by fusing the gameplay of today's App store's popular game? ’。 I think if I want to prove it, I'm going to add zombies, triple elimination and tower defense to the game, which is just a stupid challenge at first. But after a quick prototype, I found it was still interesting, and the last game I made was really part of the gameplay of Plants vs. Zombies and candy Legends. I decided not to adopt the latter monetization model, which may be one of the reasons I haven't made any money yet, and that's why I created the Zombie Match Defense.

Game Acceptance

Green squares: More than 70% of praise

The green squares in the picture are one of the things I am most proud of, and seeing that my own completed game gets such a high rating is actually something I didn't think of before. But the tragedy is that, as of the time of blogging, the Metacritic score was lowered by 1%, and the rate is expected to eventually be 70-80%. Of course, there are 100% of the comments, there are 50%, so, fortunately, the total score forecast at about 75%.

In the App Store rating, 29 out of 27 people gave five stars.

The game also won the Pocket Gamer Big Indie Pitch Award

Overall, "Zombie Match Defense" is a shot of the game, it is not a revolutionary meaning or change the experience of people's hands, but at least a good game, in my opinion, it is worth the price of $1.99.

From the sales chart, it is very well-suited to the normal income trend of the hand, a lot of people at the beginning of the purchase, and then quickly lowered, until 0. In my case, however, it is very unfortunate that the game's revenue peaks-the day it was released-were only $676. Just 2 weeks later, "Zombie Match Defense" earned $1979 in revenue, which is disproportionately proportional to the amount of research and development I spent in the past year.

In order to achieve another spike in sales, I made a promotion for the game on Halloween, but only for one day I wanted to see if the promotion could bring any change. From a revenue point of view, this has not worked, and the sales figures in the chart may be more likely to explain the problem:

The Blue line is actually the same as in, except that the blue line above is revenue, and the blue line below is sold, the second peak sells more, twice times the previous one, but the price is half the previous one. The Green line represents the App Store view, and it suddenly grew because the game was launched in the second postmenstrual to get the App Store homepage recommendation (zombie game). That's another reason I'm really excited, which means that Apple's editorial team still endorses the game, and I know it has the potential to perform better.

Apple's recommendations brought more attention, but unfortunately, random player browsing did not translate into sales revenue.

This picture is actually the same as above, but this time I have unified the figures in the figure, the blue sales figures and the number of green views measured units are consistent, so the second blue sales growth has become very less obvious.

Market Marketing

In the marketing of this game, I have made some attempts, some are very standard practice, and some are not. In addition to the listed below, I also sent a lot of mail and promotional code, really is very much. And I am active on Twitter and a few hands-on forums, and here's what we're looking for:

Before the game is released

In the days before the game was released, I went to a number of exhibitions, including GDC, E3 and Pocket gamer, and every time I contacted as many media as I knew, I tried to show the game. Some of the major sites have given you the opportunity to report on games, including TouchArcade, Cult of Mac, and Pocket Gamer. In the Pocket Gamer Connect conference, I also showed this game and took part in the Big Indie pitch contest, finally got the first place, which also shows that "Zombie Match Defense" is a game to get shot. I think it's a waste of money to buy a table, because its main role is to introduce me to more people and try to sell it to me, but that doesn't apply to my game.

Reddit AMAs

Reddit AMA has the potential to gain a lot of attention and may also be widely disseminated. I'm lucky, because this game still has some users to like, I also try to maximize the effect. On the day of the game release, I posted a post, received some questions and was very happy to interact with the community. Unfortunately, I don't think it's a dime of the game's sales.

Facebook Ads

When I ask other developers, Facebook ads are used the most, so I also bought ads on this platform, I think it's best to put in a little bit of a try. My target audience is the 23-40-year-old iphone player, and has previously focused on candy legends or Plants vs. Zombies. The ad showed 2,815 people, but did not bring a single installation. This conversion rate didn't surprise me, but I was disappointed that I used $50 to push it to such a person, because even if someone really bought my game and invested $50 for $1.99, it was not worth it, so I didn't do Facebook ads anymore.

The Pocket Gamer takeover promotion

The Pocket Gamer takeover in fact won the Big Indie Pitch Award, in addition to the promotion of the iphone area, there are banners in other places, which are and get the zombie game recommended the same day things, So I'm not sure how much of this exposure is going to work, I can say that unless the tracking data of itunes Connect is wrong, the ads on the Pocket gamer are almost no one clicked on, especially when the Adblock ad appears, all the banner ads are gone, But on the site's background is still visible, just can't click. If not buried in the iphone area but appear on the homepage will not be different? I don't know, but I don't think it's going to be a big change at least.

Guerrilla-style Marketing

Guerrilla marketing is actually interesting, and I've submitted the game to a number of activities, including IndieCade, although not selected, but I'm still going to participate and show it in these events. This is very easy to do, because after all, the portability of the hand is very high, but I decided to use special props to get more attention, I made an arcade set, and put an ipad inside, loaded my game, can be interested in the experience of people, in this activity, I got a lot of people's attention, TouchArcade and Chartboost have even been exposed.

Marketing costs

The cost of marketing actually grew fast, and after attending many exhibitions, including print signatures, t-shirts, emoticons, props, business cards, fee submissions, and logos and promotional films, I spent about $4800, which was not included in my spending on research and development during these fairs, so My current income does not even earn the promotion fee to return.

What's the problem?

Game name is not attractive

The game's name is a flop, so far, several reporters have told me this, they are very direct, some things to say in person, and some are mentioned in the article. But I named the game "Zombie Match Defense" There are two layers of meaning: its name and play basically consistent, you know by name you are playing what game, and the name and game core concept of the same, the three elements are added to the name, another layer is to help optimize the aeo/ Aso effect, if your game contains these three aspects, then it is easier for players to search.

Although I used to call it "Plays later" in the early stages of game development, I felt that the 28 figure was of no significance and that there were some other things after the game was delayed. Just like "Plants vs. Zombies" was originally called "Lawn of the Dead", I also used a more written explanation.

In fact, people can't remember the name of the game, especially the order of the last two words. In addition, Zombie Match defense These three words cannot express the special place of this game, do not arouse people's curiosity. Is it too late to change the name? Will it be different if I change my name? What kind of name is right for this type of game? I'm not really sure.

Monetization approach

Originally I wanted to use monetization as a factor of differentiation, I would like to pay the way with a lot of casual games free download + endless IAP mode, Apple also launched a "buy, endless play" on the No-IAP game recommended, I mistakenly think most players will be interested.

In fact, only a handful of people would be interested. Most of the hand players think that since they can download hundreds of free games, why pay to download a piece that has never been heard? To make the payment model sustainable, you can either sell a certain amount of money, but it will require you to invest more energy (viral spread) than you would otherwise, you can only change the monetization model. I am currently considering adjusting the pricing structure of the Android version, and if it is final and free, I promise I will not use the other three-elimination games, such as time-to- sell or life-buying .

Amount of game content

In terms of content, if compared to other games is crazy, "Plants vs. Zombies" has 5 years of content accumulation and additional game mode, it was initially 9.99 no, but currently reduced to 99 cents. And my game needs to be compared with this kind of game. Three games also have almost endless levels appear, mainly because some of the core play in changing the layout of the time will give the player a different feeling, which is not used in my game (also more regrettable).
Although I also agree that this game should also have more content, but I think it is not fair to compare it with the release of the game for many years, because after all, "Zombies Match Defense" This game's lifetime payment limit is only $1.99, there is no additional charge. If the game becomes sustainable, I plan to launch more content and be willing to add more updates to the game. But now the performance of the game makes me feel that putting more content is unwise. If I can do it again, I hope to find a bigger difference in the beginning, not just the enemy and the weapon type, after all, some areas of differentiation can help the game to add more elements, reduce the level of repetition .

What's the right thing?

To make friends.

I did this game with my friends, the art of the game, the animation, the music and the sound effects were made by friends, all of which they helped me for free, and I promised to share them after the game was profitable (marketing cost reimbursement), thanks to Dave Peixoto, Obadiah Brownbeach and Ben Kaplan's efforts, the game's appearance and sound effects are good, but unfortunately, in the short term there is no way to give them financial feedback, but I heart to thank them.

In the process of doing this game, I also made a lot of new friends, some through face, and some through Twitter, I also thank them for my help. Maybe sometimes it's just a conversation I need to hear, and sometimes it might be an unexpected help. The indie game community is very good, and I also recommend that you communicate with them as early as possible and often.

Learned the knowledge

My experience with this project is immeasurable, whether it is in the development of professional knowledge or personal experience, this in my personal programming skills is more obvious, in the process, I have made great progress, and I am very happy with the newly learned skills. The completion of this project also gave me more confidence, because at first some things are not certain, I am now familiar with the way of doing things that do not follow other people's plans, I know how to avoid their bad habits, to form a good habit. I know that I am not a lonely creature, but that I need to communicate with people often, and I have to apologize to my girlfriend, because in the process many times it ignores her feelings.

The next plan

I think there are other ways I haven't done enough, like the host and YouTube video host, but I don't have a wide network. In addition, the game has some bugs to solve, although it is very small, but I want to buy the game players do not get a bad experience, so I will solve this problem.

I am also ready to do Android version. If these efforts do not make sales better, I will look for other ways of earning money, such as I am very good at washing dishes (joking).
I sincerely hope that these can provide some help to the developers who are engaged in the research and development of the hand tour, thank you for your time.

Did [Diablo 3] Take the Apple recommendation why or is it defeated?