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Hiive工作室创始人总结App Store市场营销失败原因

发布时间:2011-04-15 11:43:28 Tags:,,

iPhone游戏《Creatures & Castles》的下载量并不理想,其开发者Hiive工作室联合创始人Andrew和Stephanie Rollings原先也只是希望该游戏创造足够的下载量,以便开发自己的下一款新游戏,但事实却证明独立开发者在App Store的不利处境超出了他们的预期。

他们在媒体采访中分享了对App Store市场营销策略的看法,认为该平台的运营法则仅适用于实力雄厚的竞争者,App Store并非所有开发者均可角逐的战场。他们同时还提出了App Store应该改进服务的相关建议,以及对其他平台盗版现象的看法。以下是游戏邦编译的访谈内容:

《Creatures & Castles》自去年11月在App Store发布以来,目前实现了多少次下载量?

Andrew Rollings:截止1月23日,总共只有300次。其中大约20次是通过促销码实现的下载量。

游戏发布后的下载量追踪情况如何?

它登陆App Store的第一天,实现了45次下载量的小高峰,我认为这里因为它出现在“最新游戏”列表上,所以才有这种成绩,后面还跟进了五六条积极的用户评论。过后就只有两三次实现了10至15次的下载小高峰,

而且这还是我们通过多种论坛积极推广的结果。现在一般每天下载量只有两三次。

在这个过程中,我发现了一些有意思的情况。其一是在网上搜索这款游戏的名称,结果会发现许多链接导向的是盗版游戏;其二是在圣诞期间发布游戏实在是个错误。

Creatures & Castles downloads

Creatures & Castles downloads

你们做了哪些推广?

我骨子里就只是一个开发者,对推广和营销方面的事情不是很在行。我尝试了一切常规的方法,比如发布新闻通稿、YouTube视频、Facebook页面和Twitter信息,而且还推出了促销码。

从网上看到许多人都认为谷歌广告并不能刺激下载量,所以我就没有采用这种方法。

据称这个领域的一个经验法则就是“营销投入要比开发成本多两倍”,但实际上没有多少独立开发者具备这种财力。从理论上来讲,如果我在市场营销上投入了8000至1万美元,我可能就会收回成本,但事实上我错了,我根本无法承受这样一笔钱的亏损。

在游戏发布前,你预期的下载量是多少?

根据iOS移动设备的用户基数,以及我自己的调查情况,我原本希望它的每天下载量会在60至100次左右。如果不算上我编写应用代码投入的时间,这款游戏的开发成本大概是4000美元——主要用于制作美工和音乐。

我原来想应该很容易就能实现6000次下载量,以便实现收支平衡。但是我甚至估计会获得6万次下载量——即使是这个数量也不过是微不足道的市场份额而已。

你认为《愤怒的小鸟》和《糖果小怪物》为何能在App Store轻易实现数百万次的下载量?

这真是个好问题。撇开游戏质量不谈——当然它们都是很棒的游戏,我知道这两者都投入了大笔的市场营销费用。有个业内的朋友告诉我,《糖果小怪物》仅在北美地区的市场营销投入就达到了1万美元。

问题的关键在于,你必须在App Store形成一个积极的反馈循环。也就是说,要推动下载量,你得保证当任何一个潜在用户打开App Store时,首先映入眼帘的就是你的游戏——许多游戏的曝光率就是从这里来的。

这就意味着,你得在“最新游戏”或者“热门游戏”版块中占有一席之地,或者进入前25强的各类应用榜单,这样游戏就可能获得足够的曝光率,实现源源不断的下载量。

还有另一种选择,那就是获得苹果的认可和推荐。但每时每刻都有这么多应用提交给苹果审核,所以这种概率非常之低。

你认为曝光率是最主要的问题?

没错。App Store充斥着大量盗版和山寨应用,我是希望苹果遵守自己当初的诺言,坚决将这些盗版产品清理出户。我发现有些公司甚至想方设法让自己的名称与品牌产品挂钩,以便借助后者的影响力获得成功。

最近就看到有一家名为Angry Doodle LLC的公司出现在“doodle”这个字段的搜索条目中。有些人可能会认为这是一种精明的营销策略,但我却认为这是一种欺骗性的行为。

你自己去App Store看看,搜索下“愤怒的小鸟”这个字段,把搜索结果往下拉就会看到大量意图与之沾边的内容或者产品。苹果本来就该杜绝这种现象,更何况这种关键词垃圾信息也已经违反了App Store的相关条款。

苹果应该如何改进,才能更好地服务独立开发商呢?

首先,App Store应该执行更严格的控制措施。他们在审核应用产品时,其实可以添加一个“质量打分”评价,也就是说,苹果员工在审核应用程序时,可以为其贴上一个“苹果分值”的官方评价标签。

App Store可以单独划分出一个版块来执行这种做法,这样也可能刺激开发者创建高质量的内容。如果App Store的准入门槛是10个中挑5个的话,那就有可能将90%的山寨应用拒之门外。

是否考虑过将《Creatures & Castles》投放到其他平台?

有这种想法,但对时间、资金等方面有所担心。我听说Android和Windows Phone 7平台盗版现象非常猖獗,觉得广告赞助模式可能比较可行。我在这方面没啥经验,所以想先尝试在App Store推出一个广告赞助版本。

至于其他平台我也已经制定了一个计划,之前是使用Monotouch编写这款游戏的iPhone版本,现在会用C#编写投放Android和WP7平台的版本,所以这种移植的工作应该不会像重新编写代码一样繁琐复杂。

最后,这个计划总会涉及时间和资金的问题。我之前的“快速致富”的计划落空了,现在也不知道是否还有时间应付其他充满盗版的手机平台。除此之外,不同设备的平台分裂性问题也是不容忽视的考虑因素。

这次不成功的经历是否会让你放弃开发iOS应用?

说实话,我还是很享受开发iOS应用的过程。我很高兴自己不需要使用Objective C创建内容,但如果我实现了原来的“快速致富”计划,应该就不难采用Objective C开发应用。

严肃地讲,我确实做了大量的分析工作,在动手前也和许多开发者交流了经验,但结果发现我还是误判了市场形势。

我还是打算为iOS平台开发应用。下一步会首先推出含另外64个关卡的《Creatures & Castles》,并提供免费下载服务,在其中添加一些新的怪物和玩法机制。如果下载量上升的话,我还会再增加一些含额外关卡,以埃及、Transylvanian、希腊和民俗文化为主题的内容包。

每个内容包的开发成本大约3000美元,所以我得实现几千次的下载量才能收回成本——-可能会在其中添加内置付费功能或者提供免费下载。

另外我还有另一个不同主题的游戏创意,现在已经画出了它的设计草图,至于能不能将出开发出来,还得取决于《Creatures & Castles》是否成功。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

Creatures & Castles developer Hiive on why the App Store is no get rich quick scheme

Little over a month after the launch of their first iPhone title, the story Hiive co-creators Andrew and Stephanie Rollings (pictured) have to tell is one that could be recounted several thousand times over.

By their own admission, Creatures & Castles was never intended to match the sales of the App Store’s biggest hits.

Even at this early stage, however, the Rollings have gained a new perspective on the marketplace they entered with modest hopes of generating enough downloads to make the release of further games financially viable.

In Andrew Rollings’ view, fundamental parts of the App Store simply don’t work for anyone but the big boys.

From the apps that make it onto the marketplace, to the way they’re sold, the App Store may already be too big to adequately manage the experience for consumers and developers alike.

We caught up with Andrew to ask what steps he’d like to see Apple take in the coming months and years, and whether rival formats might actually offer a more stable environment for the independent development scene.

PocketGamer: How many downloads has Creatures & Castles amassed since it launched on the App Store in December?

Andrew Rollings: As of January 23, exactly 300. Approximately 20 of those were via promo code.

How have downloads tracked since launch?

The first day it was on the App Store, there was a spike of 45 downloads, which I attribute it to being in the ‘new’ list, followed by about five or six fairly positive reviews. Since then there have been two or three spikes of 10 to 15 downloads, which have directly corresponded to my promotional efforts on various forums. Typically, two or three copies are downloaded per day.

There are two things that I have found interesting. One is that doing a search for my app name Creatures & Castles turns up more links to pirated copies of the game than anything else, and the second is that with hindsight, launching at Christmas may have been a mistake.

What promotion have you done?

Well, I’m a developer at heart. Promotion and marketing do not come easily to me. I’ve gone through all of the standard approaches; press releases, YouTube videos, a Facebook page and a Twitter feed, as well as giving out promo codes.

Everything I’ve read online seems to indicate that Google adverts have absolutely no effect on sales, so I didn’t bother with that.

It seems that the general rule of thumb is ‘be prepared to spend double the development cost on marketing’. Well, there aren’t many indie developers who have that kind of money. Theoretically, if I spent $8,000 to 10,000 on marketing then I could probably make it back in sales, but – in case I was wrong – that is not money I could afford to lose.

How have downloads so far compared with the expectations you had pre-launch?

Given the large number of iDevices available, and based on what I had researched, I had hoped to see sales of between 60 and a hundred copies per day. If one doesn’t include the value of the time I spent writing the software, then the cost of development was approximately $4,000 – for art assets and music.

I had expected it to be fairly easy to sell about 6,000 copies, which would have been enough to breakeven. However, I had estimated that I could sell about 60,000 copies – which is still a tiny percentage of the world market.

Why do you think titles like Angry Birds and Cut the Rope have been able to shift millions on the App Store?

Well, that’s a very good question. Ignoring the quality – as they are both excellent games – I know that each of those games had a significant marketing spend. A friend in the industry assures me that Cut the Rope had a $10,000 marketing spend in North America alone.

The problem with the App Store as it is currently set up is that it it’s a positive feedback loop. That is, in order to sell you have to be visible on one of the first screens a potential purchaser sees when they open the App Store on their device – this is how the majority of people find their games.

This means that you need to be visible on the ‘new’ or ‘what’s hot’ tabs, or otherwise in the top 25 lists of each application category. Therefore, games that are selling well self-perpetuate their sales, as they are always visible to the potential purchaser.

The only other option is the lottery of being featured by Apple. Given the quantity of apps submitted at any given time, there’s generally not much chance of that.

Is visibility the main issue then?

Yes, I believe it is. The amount of absolutely crap shovelware on the App Store is getting ridiculous. I’d like to see Apple follow through on its earlier promise to keep the crap out. It’s even got to the stage where companies are being incorporated named after successful franchises in an attempt to capitalise on their success.

Just recently I saw a company called Angry Doodle LLC appear in the search results for ‘doodle’. Some may call this clever marketing, I call it intellectually dishonest.

You can see this for yourself. Go to the App Store and do a search on the words ‘Angry Birds’. Scroll down the list a bit and you’ll see some examples. This is the kind of crap that Apple should be preventing, not to mention the fact that keyword spamming is in violation of the terms and conditions.

What could Apple do to better accommodate indie studios?

For a start, it could implement more stringent controls on what gets into the App Store. Seeing as it implements a review process for apps, why not add a ‘quality score’ to this? That is, have the Apple employees review the software internally and provide an official ‘Apple Score Out Of Ten’.

If this was then made visible in the App Store, maybe as a separate tab, it would provide additional incentive for developers to produce higher quality software. If the threshold for App Store entry was a fairly generous five out of ten, then that would probably eliminate 90 percent of the crap that’s out there.

Have you considered taking Creatures & Castles to any other platforms?

Yes, I have. It’s down to time and money and trepidation. I’ve heard some horror stories about piracy and low sales on Android and Windows  Phone 7, implying that an ad-supported model is the way to go. I’ve not had any experience of that, so I’ll try a test run with an ad-supported version of Creatures & Castles on the App Store.

As for other platforms, I made a strategic and, at the time, risky decision to write Creatures & Castles using Monotouch – an implementation of C# for the iPhone. Versions of C# are available (or soon to be available) for both Android and WP7, so the conversion will not be as onerous as a complete rewrite would be.

In the end, it’s going to come down to time and money. Seeing as my ‘get rich quick’ Creatures & Castles cunning plan didn’t work out, I don’t know if I’ll have the time to support the additional markets given the aforementioned piracy problems. The number of different devices and the fragmentation thereof is also a cause for concern.

Has your experience so far put you off working on iOS again?

For the most part, I actually enjoyed the process of developing on iOS. I’m glad that I didn’t have to do it in Objective C, but it would have been a lot easier if my (admittedly tongue-in-cheek) ‘get rich quick’ plan had paid off.

In all seriousness, I did a fair amount of analysis and talking to existing developers before I started out, but it seems that I misjudged the market somewhat.

Still, I do intend to keep developing on iOS, as it’s a fun platform to work on. First on the plate is an additional 64 levels for Creatures & Castles, provided as a free download and introducing some new creatures and play mechanics. If sales pick up, there will be additional level packs based around Egyptian, Transylvanian, Greek and Folklore themes.

In terms of cost, each pack costs around $3,000 to develop, so I’ll need to shift another few thousand copies of the game to make them viable – either as an in-app purchase or a free download.

I also have an idea for a second game based around a different theme. I have a rough design sketched out on paper, but again, it will be contingent on the success of Creatures & Castles.(source:pocketgamer


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