Publishing your first mobile game is by far most of the developers are eager to do. With the excitement, stress, and crazy little bugs you think where the heck came from comes a little hope of dazzling dollar sign eyes we look forward to the most! But come on, crash that little hope of being after the money, because trust me, your game won’t splash you with that even after a week you publish it–at least, not that easy.
Earlier in July, I came up with an experiment of developing my first mobile game and published it on Google Play. But what did my first-timer proud self think about recklessly uploading a game with minimal pre-production, planning, and marketing? I don’t know! But with that, came a big hard hit of lesson off my rookie developer soul.
Well, I learned to read (A LOT), and watched countless guides on how to make a successful mobile game, and here’s what my self-realizations about the ingredients that became my first game’s recipe for disaster:
- Do not listen to other devs advise (Come one, have your own taste. You’ve got to be you.)
- Do not plan before developing (Because plans are meant to be broken!)
- Do not care about marketing during the development (One step at a time, bro)
- Do not care about player retention. (Seriously, don’t be futuristic yet, everyone leaves).
- Expect players to come flocking and ad money flooding after launch. (The Internet is more than what we expect to.)
Here’s a Quick Meme How My Marketing Strategy Turned Out
Like any other average game developer, my marketing strategy is near to nonexistent (I admit!). The game has very simple mechanics: move to avoid balls and red dudes to get a high score without any levels or stages (See, I told you. Everyone is pretty good at escaping problems just like in real life!). This makes it difficult to make interesting posts on social media but if we spam enough that’ll do the trick right?
Other Reads: Make them hooked: Indie Game Design in Two Ways!
What I got From My “Efforts”
Statistically speaking (with no kidding), despite all the spamming posts on social media, the total number of acquired players is an outstanding 5. The lack of appealing content, even active posting on social media had yielded me to a terrible result that even you would not like to see. So if I were you, since you almost finished this blog, download it here:
What’s the moral of my story? The only thing that separates you from a little success and eternal doom is planning ahead and by planning, you have to consider marketing and player retention. Of course, consider the above as sarcasm, dude.
If you’re tired of spending your blood, sweat, and tears on your indie title only for it to get lost on the hundredths and thousands of games being uploaded daily on the google play, sign up on our mailing list below and we’ll teach you the golden rule of how to make a successful game.
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