作者：Tyler York

发行日是游戏寿命中最重要的时刻。杰出发行计划能够带来稳固的最初用户，你可以凭此争取有利排名位置，最好的结果就是，通过入驻前25榜单（Top 25 List）获得自然流量。糟糕发行工作只会带给你带来惨淡前景，你需要在用户获取成本上投入更多，方能获得相同结果。对于没有成千上万用户获取预算的小型工作室和独立开发者来说，发行工作是成败关键。

那么要如何打造成功的发行计划？

杰出发行计划绝非偶然。它们是严密计划、等量营销、PR和工程技术的共同产物。漏洞及其他问题会破坏原本优秀的发行计划，但了解你的市场就能够避免这种情况。iOS和Android在处理曝光度上采取截然不同的策略。这是发行目标：促使游戏面向数百万用户。我们通过各种资源收集有关各平台发行工作的建议和技巧，包括来自Stanford GSB: Video Games邮件列表成员的看法，旨在协助你打造成功的发行计划。

pic 02 from gamasutra.com

这里的目标主要围绕曝光度。实现此目标的方式多种多样。

要着手计划游戏的发行工作，你需要了解具体情况。在曝光度方面，iOS和Android截然不同。

iOS平台的曝光度

关于iOS平台，要获得能够带来显著下载量的曝光度主要通过两种方式。

iOS的主要曝光度推动因素是Top 25榜单。你的目标是入驻这些榜单：它们是自然流量的有力推动因素，即便你只在Games > Strategy之类的子范畴中获得榜首位置。似乎只有下载量才能够推进这一榜单的排名位置。普遍看法是，挤进前10之列能够帮你获得维持榜单位置所需的50%下载量，而挤进前25则能够帮你获得30%的下载量。虽然这些是粗略数据，但这充分说明，光是置于榜单前列远远不够。

但在iOS平台获得曝光度的另一棘手但更具价值方式是，获得梦寐以求的苹果推荐。你也许会说，将此视作目标有些不切实际，但其带来的潜在回报令此目标变得物有所值。虽然获得推荐完全取决于苹果员工，但如下要点是确定的：

* 制作美观的游戏非常必要。

* 将游戏设置成免费下载模式能够有效提高你的获胜机会。

* 不要忘记，苹果并非出于施舍做出这些选择：他们的目标是赚钱。若他们觉得你的游戏会获得丰厚创收，那么你获得推荐的机会将显著提高。

* 最后，绑定苹果API（游戏邦注：如Game Center）能够带给你些许优势。

Android平台的曝光度

Android平台的曝光度则截然不同，反映出谷歌作为搜索公司的发展历史。和苹果一样，Google Play通过Top 25榜单和推荐位置带来众多自然获取用户，这些是发行计划的关键目标。但和苹果不同，在此众多变量共同决定Google Play市场的排名：

* 应用商店优化（ASO，和SEO类似）

* 日活跃用户计算（DAU）

* 点击安装率

* 卸载比率

这反映Android自然曝光度的第二个推动因素：搜索。你的目标是树立自己的品牌名气（如“愤怒的小鸟”），或是基于这类题材的普遍搜索词条优化应用的发行计划（如“物理益智游戏”）。下面就来谈谈各市场的具体发行技巧。

pic 03 from gamasutra.com

iOS的发行工作

你无法控制推荐位置，但你可以控制一点：你在Top 25榜单中的位置。在此唯一的关键要素是自然下载量，或付费下载量。你希望获得尽可能多的下载量，这通常是在头一周里（游戏邦注：如果不是发行后的头几天）。下面是协助你将发行影响最大化的若干技巧。

新闻媒体

通过提前进行些许准备工作，你可以让媒体评论你的游戏，给予你弥足珍贵的曝光度，这能够制造社交媒介话题，带来众多下载量。要让媒体评论你的游戏，你至少要在发行前2周联系他们。当和媒体人员谈及你的游戏时，务必事先做好准备工作。关于发送给推广渠道的邮件，下述要点能够提高你获得报道的机会：

* 联系他们：告知评论者，你读过且很欣赏他们对于类似游戏的报道。

* 获得他们的关注：告诉他们你的游戏的独特之处。

* 亲自碰面：如果你们位于同座城市，和他们碰面，向他们呈现演示内容。

* 做好销售工作：说明为什么你的游戏非常适合他们的用户。

* 达成协议：赠送他们促销代码，让他们提前访问你的游戏，询问他们是否有兴趣评论你的游戏。

* 协商限制条件：因此他们的评论会在游戏上线时发布。这能够推动流量。

* 不要羞于付费：由于提交的游戏数量很多，很多高质量的评论网站都会开始就推进游戏排名收费。若你能够负担。不妨这么做。

扩大活动范围

接着，你需要在发行前几周制造游戏的相关话题。确保告知你的Twitter和Facebook粉丝，一款新游戏即将问世。着手发送预告片截图，甚至是Youtube预告视频：小规模内容方便粉丝分享，是游戏的绝佳“电梯游说”机会。

待到发行日期到来时，你社交空间中的所有成员都需要了解相关情况。当天不妨将此多次发布在你的Twitter消息栏中。将此公布在你的Facebook页面，付费向所有粉丝推广游戏。同粉丝谈论游戏，让他们跟进任何漏洞或问题。务必向下载游戏且进行评论的粉丝表示感谢。最后，借助合适的朋友和家人，让他们给予游戏5颗星评级。这需要耗费一整天时间，但能够促进社交媒介传播，提高下载量，还有可能获得众多的5颗星评级。这对于成功发行活动来说至关重要。

付费获取

若你想要寻找额外的推动因素，且有一定的资金，不妨考虑在发行头一周购买流量，或者甚至是在发行当天。这需要提前进行计划，费用通常是0.5-1.5美元/每次安装，但这能够带给你额外优势，协助你挤进Top 25榜单。决定购买哪种付费广告是个大问题，解释此问题需要花费较长篇幅，但下面有几个要点：

* 每日免费应用推荐网站和应用能够在1天里带给你众多曝光度，成本一次性计收。非常适合在发行当日进行。

* 来自手机广告供应商的大型广告活动能够向你出售无限量的下载量，但成本相对较高，有最低预算标准。若你打算借助这些人士，那么就把事情做大，在发行头一周里进行。

* 自助式旗帜广告最货真价实，但通常只在若干优化周期之后。最适合用于维持榜单位置。

Android的发行工作

坦白讲，上述“iOS发行工作”版块的内容也适用于Android平台。两个平台在发行方面存在许多相似之处，但记住，我们在Android有不同的目标实现方式。在iOS平台，我们的目标是获得尽可能多的下载量，且持续推进。而在Android平台，获得少量高质量下载更有利（他们通常不会卸载内容）。下面我们就根据上述策略论述若干主要不同之处。

新闻媒体

这基本和之前一样，但除普遍的“游戏和应用”媒体外，你多半会想要追踪Android博客网站。相比iOS用户，Android用户对于博客作者投以更多关注，这些领域的显著牵引力能够带来丰厚回馈。要得到他们的关注，你可以利用上面提到的类似媒体技巧，但我建议你不要这么注重销量。这些人士通常比公司更独立，所以不妨将他们看作Android粉丝，而不是商务人士。

扩大活动范围

和联系密切的Android博客社区一样，Android在论坛和Google Groups享有稳固的在线社区。务必确保在游戏发行前和这些社区建立联系：在制作游戏时征求他们的反馈意见和看法。当游戏准备发行时，除上面提到的扩大活动范围外，和这些社区共享内容将让你从中获得有力支持。

付费广告

和iOS不同，在发行作品时开展庞大的付费广告活动在Android平台通常事与愿违。Android平台的目标是，找到多半不会卸载你游戏的高质量用户，因此你在付费广告方面的最佳举措是，开展小型活动，在扩大范围前优化用户群体。这与在发行时引起巨大轰动不同，你应该通过付费广告在长期范围内维持或提高你的排名。携手大型广告供应商或采用自助广告服务模式的长期活动是最适合实现此目标的两种方式。

总结

无论你是在iOS、Android，还是Facebook或网页平台发行内容，提前思考发行计划能够让你获得其他竞争对手所没有的突出优势，希望本文的内容能够对你有所帮助。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Maximizing your launch on iOS and Android

by Tyler York

Launch is one of the most important moments in your game’s life. A good launch can lead to a strong initial audience that you can leverage for ranks and, in the best case scenario, organic traffic from reaching a Top 25 list. A bad launch leaves you with only the grim prospect that you will need to sink more money into your game in the form of user acquisition spend to see the same results. For small studios and indies without tens of thousands to spend on user acquisition, launch can literally make or break your game.

So how do you craft a successful launch?

Good launches don’t happen by accident. They are the result of rigorous planning, equal parts marketing, PR, and engineering. Bugs and other issues will kill an otherwise good launch, but so will not understanding your market. iOS and Android are very different in how they handle discovery. And that’s the goal of launch: getting your game into a position where it can be discovered by millions. We’ve gathered tips and tricks regarding launch on each platform from many sources, including knowledge from members of the Stanford GSB: Video Games mailing list, to help you make your next launch a success.

The Goal is Discoverability. How you get there is different.

To start planning your game’s launch, you need a lay of the land. iOS and Android are very different when it comes to discoverability.

Discoverability on iOS

For iOS, there are two main ways to get the kind of discovery that drives significant downloads.

The main driver of discovery on iOS is the Top 25 List. Your goal is to get on these lists: they are extremely powerful drivers of organic traffic, even if you only nab a top spot on a subcategory like Games > Strategy. Only download numbers seem to contribute to ranking in this list. Colloquial wisdom states that being in the Top 10 will net you about 50% of the downloads you need to maintain your position on the list, and being in the Top 25 will net you about 30%. While these are rough numbers, they show that simply being on a Top list alone is not enough.

However, an elusive but more valuable way to get discovered on iOS is to get a coveted Feature spot from Apple. You might say that it isn’t realistic to make this a goal, but the potential payoff makes building this goal into your launch worthwhile. While getting Featured is entirely determined by the whims of Apple’s staff, the following is certain:

* Making a beautiful game is required.

* Having your game be free to download significantly improves your chances.

* Don’t forget, Apple doesn’t make these picks for charity: their goal is to make money. If they think your game will monetize well, that will improve your chances.

* Lastly, integrating Apple APIs such as Game Center give you a slight edge as well.

Discoverability on Android

Android discoverability is quite different, and reflects Google’s history as a search company. Like Apple, Google Play drives a lot of organic acquisition through Top 25 lists and Featured placement, and these are a key goal of Launch. However, unlike Apple, a combination of variables determine ranking in the Google Play marketplace:

* App store optimization (ASO, not unlike SEO)

* Daily active user count (DAUs)

* Click-to-install rate

* Uninstall rate

This reflects the second major driver of organic discoverability on Android: search. Your goal is to either establish a strong brand name that you can own (ie “Angry Birds”), or optimize your app’s launch around commonly used search terms in the genre (ie “physics puzzle game”). Let’s jump into the specific launch tactics you should use for each marketplace.

Launching on iOS

You can’t control Featured placement, but you can control one thing: your placement in the Top 25 lists. The only thing that matters for this is downloads, either organic or paid. You want the biggest spike of downloads possible and that’s usually within the first week if not the first few days of launch. Here’s a number of tactics that you can use to maximize your big launch bump.

Press

By doing some prep work ahead of time, you can get press to review your game, giving you valuable exposure that can lead to social media buzz and significant downloads. To get press to review your game, you should contact them at least two weeks before launch. When approaching press about your game, make sure to do your homework. In your email to the outlet, you want to do the following to maximize your chances of a story:

* Connect with them: Show the reviewer that you read and enjoyed their coverage of similar games.

* Get their attention: Tell them what is unique about your game.

* Meet in-person: If you are in the same city, meet with them in-person to give them a demo.

* Make the sale: Explain why your game is a great fit for their audience.

* Close the deal: Give them a promo code to access your game early and ask them if they would be interested in reviewing your game.

* Negotiate embargoes: So that their reviews post when your game is live. This will help drive traffic.

* Don’t be ashamed to pay: Due to the high number of games being submitted, a number of high quality review sites have started asking for payment to put your game at the “top of the heap”. If you can afford it, do it.

Outreach

Next, you need to start building buzz about your game in the weeks leading up to launch. Be sure to give your Twitter followers and Facebook fans a heads-up that a new game is coming soon (if you don’t have social profiles for your company, now would be a good time to start them). Start sending out teaser screenshots and maybe even a Youtube trailer: this bite-sized content is easy for your fans to share and serves as a great elevator pitch for your game.

Once launch day hits, everyone in your small social corner of the world needs to know about it. Post it on your Twitter feed multiple times over the course of the day. Post it on your Facebook Page and pay to Promote the story to all of your followers. Engage in conversations with your fans about the game, and keep them abreast of any bugs or problems. Be sure to thank any fan that says they downloaded the game or reviewed it. Lastly, reach out to applicable friends and family and ask them to rate and review the game with 5 stars. This will take the whole day, but the result is a big boost to your social media buzz, your downloads, and hopefully a good bunch of 5 star ratings. This is crucial for a successful launch.

Paid acquisition

If you’re looking for a little extra boost and have money to spend, consider buying traffic within the first week of your launch, or even for launch day itself. This needs to be set up in advance and typically will cost between $0.50 and $1.50 per install, but this boost can give you the extra edge you need to break the Top 25 list. Deciding which paid advertising to buy is such a big question that we’d need a whole nother blog post to explain it fully, but here’s the cliff notes:

* Free-app-a-day websites and apps will generate a lot of exposure for you for one day for a lump sum fee. Good for use on launch day.

* Large ad campaigns from mobile ad providers will sell you as many downloads as you can buy, but they will be relatively expensive and require a minimum budget. If you’re going to go with these guys, go big and do it within the first week of launch.

* Self-serve banner advertising will often give you the most bang for your buck, but only after a couple optimization cycles. Best for maintaining position in the charts.

Launching on Android

Let’s be honest, the “Launching for iOS” section above could cover launching on Android just as well. There’s a lot between the two platforms that are similar when it comes to launch, but remember that we do have slightly different ways of achieving our goals on Android. On iOS, the goal is to get as many downloads as possible and push, push, push. With Android, you’re actually better off getting fewer, higher quality downloads that won’t uninstall (while still aiming to get as many of those as possible). Let’s examine some of the key differences from the above strategy.

Press

This is largely the same as before, but in addition to generic “games and apps” press, you want to go after the Android blog network. Android users pay significantly more attention to their cadre of bloggers than iOS users, and significant traction in these circles can pay off handsomely. To get their attention, you can use the same press tactics as mentioned above, but I would recommend being even less sales-y. These guys are often more indie than corporate, and so treat them like a fellow Android fan rather than a business person.

Outreach

Like the close-knit Android blog community, Android has strong communities online in forums and Google Groups. Be sure to build a relationship with these communities before your game launches: solicit their feedback and ideas as you build your game. When your game is ready to launch, sharing it with these communities in addition to the outreached mentioned above will give you a big boost of support.

Paid Advertising

Unlike iOS, doing a big paid advertising push to accompany your launch can backfire on Android. The goal with Android is to find high-quality users that will be less likely to uninstall your game, so your best bet with paid advertising is to start the campaigns small and optimize them before scaling them. Instead of trying to generate a big bump at launch, you should use paid advertising to maintain or increase your ranking over the long term. A long-term campaign with large ad providers or self-serve ad services are the two avenues that are most aligned with this goal.

Conclusion

Whether you’re launching on iOS, Android, Facebook or web, thinking about launch ahead of time will give you a key advantage over competitors, and hopefully this guide has helped you do just that.（Source：gamasutra）