My App Downloads and Statistics

The whole purpose of this blog, beside of show case my app’s is to be transparent about my struggles and results of being an full time indie developer.  I’m on my own feet’s since  almost 6 months now and would not be able to live from the income, so far. Actually this month my founding will end and I will have to survive of my savings.
Never than less this will not make me stop. It’s an awesome time with big up’s and down’s which make me feel alive and gaining a lot of experience. Also a lot of awesome people start getting in in contact with me and seek for collaberations. So I’m just starting.

Let’s look at the total period downloads, which are fantastic 1500 Downloads!
Screen Shot 2014-05-21 at 22.57.50

Obviously Sha Cat which I marketed the most is on the top of this list but right below follows Bumpy Ball, which had not marketing at all and was build within 3 days. Which is pretty insightful.

Let’s look about the strong peak points regarding downloads ( excluded The Sha Man, to weak and far off):
Screen Shot 2014-05-21 at 22.57.28
The first hill around 23. April is created by Sha Cat and the one around 10. May by Bumpy Ball.

As you see even without marketing Bumpy ball had a twice time stronger launch effect as Sha Cat.
So I wondered, why?

I figured three things there:
Name -It’s a very catchy Name and it starts with a „B“ and as another designer just told me the „New“ List on iTunes is listed alphabetical. Very big point for future titles.
Time –  Saturday, the weekend day boosts the initial downloads much higher than any week day.
Simplicity – Not only the gameplay but more important the Art is simple. By not making it specific and keeping it more generic it scares less people from downloading it. It becomes a digital „Cheeseburger“.

Lindsey Stirling my music muse of tonight

Ok time to work on some new levels, story progression and new talents for the Cat Lady.
This work night has just started! ( I prefer to work at night)
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Today I’m totally into Lindsey Stirling, I’m playing here some songs back and forth right now.
Such an inspiring, passionated and energy driven person she is.

Lindsey Stirling and Peter Hollens – Skyrim

 

16 hours of work ahead. What ever, music on and go.

Apple does not accept app’s from developers which do not support their older model, the iPhone 4.
Unfortunately they decided to change the screen ratio, so your left with either stretching your game or repositioning your interface elements.
(the black bar solution is not longer accepted)

It makes sense to support the device since a lot of people still use the 640*960 screen ratio generation.
But for developer it means basically go through your whole app once more and get sure everything sit’s correctly and is not cut off or stretched.

For the iPhone 4 optimizations I roughly estimated 16 hours of work ahead. 🙂 What ever, music turned on and go.
ResolutionAdapation Sha Cat

Please give Sha Cat a thumb up on this page

I currently invest 50 dollars for some pre-marketing on a site over 30 days.
There is a rating system for users. You get more attention when you get more thumps up.

If you can spare a few seconds and give me a thumb up this would be nice.
So I may get profitable in the end and can continue riding the rainbow of happiness.

http://www.preapps.com/new-iphone-apps/sha-cat/1214

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Sha Cat – Name registered on iTunes

Just protected the app name of my next #game! Sha cat!
From this point on you get 180 days to deliver your binary file (your game file) to Apple.
If you don’t deliver the binary within this time frame you lose the app name and others can use it but for you the name opportunity is gone. I plan to release the app around April 2014 so there is no real pressure on me through this limitation.
Screen Shot 2014-01-15 at 17.08.33