Hello from a broke indie game developer

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ysatnaf

ysatnaf

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So here i am. 23 years old and broke as f@@@.
I left school to make games, that's what i wanted to do. didn't want to waste more time. didn't have money for college too!
I learned by my self 2 programming languages , how to use Photoshop, Illustrator , After Effects and after 4 years my first game was ready. published on the app store, got featured by apple in "new games we love" in europe and africa . Priced 0.99$ , with optional reward ads in it. A few people got really mad because of the ads, and their reviews destroyed all my efforts. made less than 500$ and now it's free, with 20 daily downloads.. ALL FROM CHINA, ALL BOTS stealing the game and republishing it on their portals. found one where my game has more than 60k downloads..

Now i'm about to publish a new one, i really believe in it...it's unique, fun and polished.. but i'm also very afraid to burn it.
It will be free, no doubt about that. I'm also saving all the money i can for some ads, i have like 300$ but with 1$ for install is almost pointless.
I have 270 followers on twitter... :(

What would you do ?
 
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I would suggest you the following:

1) Earn some money in order to invest it in your game for marketing activities: Mobile APP CPI Networks, Engaging followers on twitter, etc.

How to earn some money?
If you're really good programmer it will not be a problem for you.

You can find some job on Upwork, fiverr, freelancer and other platforms.

2) Ask for money from people:

- Kickstarter
- Patreon
- etc.

3) It is time to get a tan and get wasted!

Good luck!
 
You can pm me your game, if it's fun I can try it on my YT channel
 
Oh man! We should JV. I have some great ideas that I have no fricken time for.
 
Can't you program in some anti-piracy code? I do this often for my software. I could give you some suggestions if you tell me exactly what those people are doing. Just grabbing your APK and sharing it?
 
chigher said:
I would suggest you the following:

1) Earn some money in order to invest it in your game for marketing activities: Mobile APP CPI Networks, Engaging followers on twitter, etc.

How to earn some money?
If you're really good programmer it will not be a problem for you.

You can find some job on Upwork, fiverr, freelancer and other platforms.

2) Ask for money from people:

- Kickstarter
- Patreon
- etc.

3) It is time to get a tan and get wasted!

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advices! Currently I'm doing the first option, making sites for local business, selling animations, logos .
My programming skills are good, i can basically make almost any 2d game, but only for iOS. Never sold my game development skills though , i mean there are people on fiver selling it for 5$.. can't work a week on a game for 5$! While for the second option, you still need to market! And that's my problem, i have the products but missing the people! The third one is tempting. lol
 
I'm not marketing savvy but I've worked at two game companies before, what I learnt on how to make your product go viral: Get social shoutout.

Buy Instagram shoutout, Facebook ShoutOut, Twitter ShoutOut, either from a generic business (game news) or a social media persona (hot girls, guys). It's not very expensive if you negotiate, and their user trust them so you will get a lot of installs.
 
The Doctor said:
Can't you program in some anti-piracy code? I do this often for my software. I could give you some suggestions if you tell me exactly what those people are doing. Just grabbing your APK and sharing it?
Click to expand...
They simply cannot be stop. they have all kind of games on their portals. China is beyond copyright laws. Some of them just share the APK while others steal the assets and use them for reskins.
 
ysatnaf said:
While for the second option, you still need to market! And that's my problem, i have the products but missing the people! The third one is tempting. lol
Click to expand...

I'm all caught up now)
Anyway, I wish high ranking for your local websites and advanced sales for any game you code in the future!
 
vsat - when your replying to 2 people above you, would be better to reply to them in 1 post
u dont need 2 separate posts to reply to 2 people , is classed as post inflating

and chigher u really need to calm this down hitting intro section
so hard
 
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shephard said:
I'm not marketing savvy but I've worked at two game companies before, what I learnt on how to make your product go viral: Get social shoutout.

Buy Instagram shoutout, Facebook ShoutOut, Twitter ShoutOut, either from a generic business (game news) or a social media persona (hot girls, guys). It's not very expensive if you negotiate, and their user trust them so you will get a lot of installs.
Click to expand...
Interesting... do you think i could buy some shoutout with 300$ ? Currently my market strategy is Facebook ads.

chigher said:
I'm all caught up now)
Anyway, I wish high ranking for your local websites and advanced sales for any game you code in the future!
Click to expand...
Thanks man!

proxygo said:
vsat - when your replying to 2 people above you, would be better to reply to them in 1 post
u dont need 2 separate posts to reply to 2 people , is classed as post inflating

and chigher u really need to calm this down hitting intro section
so hard
Click to expand...
Sorry.
 
Good story bro. I want to help you out. Instagram is where you should be . Let me manage your instagram account for free. PM me if you are interested.
 
I would just slightly boost it artificially. After that send out some review copies to youtubers/gaming people get their feedback and exposure. Finally I would market that shit on the major social media platforms using ads/influencers.

Also an idea to get rid of the ads would be to integrate some kind of micro transactions in the game. :)
 
euhero said:
Good story bro. I want to help you out. Instagram is where you should be . Let me manage your instagram account for free. PM me if you are interested.
Click to expand...
You sir are a precious human being! I'll pm you when the forum rules will allow me. Anyway i didn't create an instagram account. If instagram brings back downloads, i will be more than happy to pay you something monthly !



himthecool21 said:
I would just slightly boost it artificially. After that send out some review copies to youtubers/gaming people get their feedback and exposure. Finally I would market that shit on the major social media platforms using ads/influencers.

Also an idea to get rid of the ads would be to integrate some kind of micro transactions in the game. :)
Click to expand...
Yes i alway put in-app purchases in my games, like remove ads, coin doubler and coin packs. With my previous game, i sent the press kit to all the gaming sites i found. got covered by appadvice and touch arcade.. while others like pocketgame asked for money. With "boost it artificially" you mean fake downloads?
 
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ysatnaf said:
You sir are a precious human being! I'll pm you when the forum rules will allow me. Anyway i didn't create an instagram account. If instagram brings back downloads, i will be more than happy to pay you something monthly !




Yes i alway put in-app purchases in my games, like remove ads, coin doubler and coin packs. With my previous game, i sent the press kit to all the gaming sites i found. got covered by appadvice and touch arcade.. while others like pocketgame asked for money. With "boost it artificially" you mean fake downloads?
Click to expand...
Yes some fake downloads/reviews but definitely don't over do it, do it just to gain some social proof.
 
Is ingame shop something you could do? Or like watch a video for a certain amount of time to earn gold exedra, I played a game egg Inc really addictive with adds that wasn't annoying, and it's 2d so check it out if you want some inspiration
 
himthecool21 said:
Yes some fake downloads/reviews but definitely don't over do it, do it just to gain some social proof.
Click to expand...
Ok. I've never done that... mainly because i don't want to end up on Apple Blacklist..and being featured is my biggest chance of success.
 
show adverts on the game to get a income I would....

a user has to watch a 60 sec clip to get to next level of the game or watch a 60 sec advert to play a game .

your get a income then ....
 
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