作者：Christian Henschel

随着游戏行业中争夺玩家的竞争越发激烈，开发者越来越有必要确保游戏发行后不会默默地消失。

在过去一个月，超过74%的苹果应用商店的游戏是“僵尸应用”，也就是说，在约31.35万款游戏中大约有23万款不要说排名，甚至可能连下载量都没有。

这远远超过全球应用64%的僵尸率。

游戏的用户寿命往往更短，且用户忠实度更低。

竞争这么激烈，所以赶紧看看下面提高成功率的技巧吧！

your-app-here(from edsappfactory.com)

1、应用本身要强大

游戏本身正真强大了，就什么也打不倒它了，这才是长期成功的保障。

对此，我不想深入细节，但不要忘了使用免费工具如Apptrace来查看市场和你的竞争对手的情况。

Apptrace还提供应用的感性分析技术，比如通过研究所有以英语为语言的苹果应用商店评论，计算应用的致瘾程度是多少……

好消息是，应用越致瘾，所需的市场营销工作就越少。

2、内置追踪SDK

在游戏面市以前，必须内置追踪SDK。

通过内置追踪SDK，你可以计算付费玩家转化率、得知游戏安装后的表现。你最好提前内置追踪SDK，特别是因为游戏发布的平台是苹果应用商店（游戏邦注：以免再次经历审批流程）。

我始终推荐使用开源SDK。你不仅可以测试它，还可以知道你在用它做什么，这样你就能减少应用面市后崩溃的可能性。

如果你打算营销应用，但不确定要使用什么渠道，那么就要确保你选择的追踪SDK整合了重要的广告网络如YOC、Millennial Media、Tapjoy、Trademob、Madvertise和Facebook等（以免日后头疼和节省测试时间）。

3、有效的营销打头阵

如果要做，那就好好做。如果游戏不能以本身素质的强大战胜成千上万的其他同类游戏，那么就需要认真的准备营销工作了。

聪明的独立游戏开发者如果理解如何使用分析法来优化自己的营销活动和节省预算，战胜大公司也并非不可能。

在开发上每多花一美元（英镑或欧元），营销上都至少要翻一番。我的建议是，不要把所有钱放在开发上，因为那么做的风险是：因为你的营销工作没法做好，所以你那款划时代的游戏永无出头之日。

许多开发者在发布新应用时经常犯的另一个错误是，先看看情况再开展营销活动。

营销工作第一天就要开始做，特别是对于iOS应用，因为苹果应用商店的排名是根据之前的3-5天的平均下载量以及这段时间的增量来计算的。

如果在第一天下载量大，那么争取靠前排名的成本就有可能更低且速度更快。这意味着更有机会通过自然渠道开发玩家。

时机就是金钱——结合相关的全球或当地事件来安排发布活动。

一旦你的游戏发布，你就可以通过营销活动来寻找什么来源、创意和策略最适用于你的游戏。

4、尊重玩家隐私

在游戏行业中，质量控制是件难事。

自5月1日起，苹果不再接受使用侵犯隐私的UDID追踪技术的新应用或更新。苹果浏览器Safari“触发器”追踪技术也被禁止了。

iOS 6操作系统对于苹果的隐私安全IDFA（广告识别符）是必须的，一些业内公司认为iOS 6的用户不足，但这不是真的。

我们最近分析了上百万次应用安装，发现超过93%的设备使用iOS 6操作系统。随着行业越来越关注手机隐私和最近新欧盟立法正在协商中，开发者没有理由再掩耳盗铃了。

5、计划是关键

好好制定计划。

包括产品优化方案、发布计划、营销和表现监控策略等，确保你的游戏长盛不衰。（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）

Adeven’s 5 top tips to ensure your game flies at launch

by Christian Henschel

With competition for app users alarmingly high in the gaming industry, it’s more important than ever to make sure your game doesn’t crash and burn into oblivion after being released.

Over 74 percent of App Store games in the past month were ‘zombie apps’, meaning that roughly 230,000 apps of a total of around 313,500 games didn’t rank and were probably not downloaded (didn’t even get off the ground!).

This is much higher than the global zombie rate of 64 percent of apps.

Games also tend to have a shorter user lifetime and low user loyalty.

Competition is tough, so check out these tips to improve your chances of success.

1. Build an awesome app

Nothing beats a great game and this is what will guarantee long-term success.

I won’t go into details here, but don’t forget to use free tools like apptrace to check out the market and your competitors.

Apptrace also covers sentiment analysis by studying all English App Store reviews and calculating how addictive the apps are, if reviews are positive, comments about the app being ‘crashy’ or just plain bad..

The good news is that more addictive apps need less marketing support to fly.

2. Work out what stats you need

A tracking SDK needs to be built into your game before it goes to market.

It provides the conversion and post-install analytics that will tell you how your game is performing and it’s better to think about this before rather than later, especially when dealing with the App Store (save on going through the approval process again).

I always recommend using open source SDKs. Not only can you test it but you also know what you are dealing with so you can reduce the chance of your app crashing once it is launched into the market.

If you are going to be marketing your app but aren’t sure about every single network you will be using, make sure that you choose a tracking SDK that is integrated with key advertising networks such as YOC, Millennial Media, Tapjoy, Trademob, madvertise etc and also Facebook (saves on future headaches and reduces testing time).

3. Start day one with effective marketing

Whatever you do, do it properly. If a game can’t out-manoeuvre the thousands of other games in the same sub-category through sheer awesomeness, then there will need to be some serious marketing.

Smart indie game developers can get ahead of big companies just through understanding how to use analytics to optimise their marketing campaign and save big bucks.

For every dollar (pound or euro) spent on development, at least twice as much should be spent on marketing. My advice is not to put your whole budget into development, because you may have built the most incredible game that ever existed, but no one will see it unless you market it well.

Many developers also make the mistake of releasing a new app, seeing how it goes and then start a marketing campaign when nothing happens.

Marketing needs to hit hard from day, one especially in iOS because an App Store ranking is based on the average downloads from the previous three to five days and the momentum during this period.

If a lot of downloads are generated in the first day, then there is a one off chance of getting a cheaper, more effective App Store ranking. This means a better chance of securing more organic users.

Timing is also important – think about planning a launch with a relevant global or local event.

Once your game is launched you can use marketing campaign ‘flights’ to discover what sources, creative and strategies work best for your game.

4. Avoid headaches! Respect user privacy

Quality control is tight in the gaming industry.

As of 1 May, Apple longer accepts new apps or updates that use privacy violating UDID tracking technology. Safari ‘flip-flop’ tracking technology is also being rejected.

The iOS 6 operating system is essential for Apple’s privacy safe Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) and some companies in the industry have argued that not enough people are on iOS 6. This is simply not true.

We recently analysed a million app installs and found that over 93 percent of devices were operating on iOS 6. With the increasing international industry focus on mobile privacy and new EU legislation currently being debated, there is no excuse for developers to put their heads in the sand.

5. Planning is the key

Make your flight plan.

Include product optimisation, launch planning, and ongoing marketing and performance monitoring to make sure your game takes off.(source:pocketgamer)