Inside Apple’s App Store

The App Store has changed the way we browse and buy games, possibly forever. At the moment, purchases are limited to the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the iPad, but that covers tens of millions of units, so the potential for a game to make big money (even when priced low) is substantial.  As a result, dozens of new games hit the Store each and every day, some good, some not so good – so how do you stand out from the rest in an increasingly crowded market?  We thought we’d speak to some of the people behind some of the App Store’s biggest games to find out.

You’d think that ensuring your game was as cheap as possible would be one way to get your game noticed, but when the majority of the games roll out onto the store either free of charge, or at the base 59 pence ($1) rate just doing that won’t really make that much of a difference unless you can make the effort to get your game noticed in the first day.  Paul Virapen, head of Big Pixel Studios (responsible for the Piyo Blocks series and Meow Meow Happy Fight) says that doing just that is a combination of an attractive icon and ensuring your game is unique enough to stand out.

“Make your game unique in some way,” he told TheSixthAxis. “If it’s an entirely new game concept or genre, then you’ve got a great starting point. If however it’s built on an existing game formula, ensure your game stands out from the rest somehow, and in a good way! A unique graphical style, a great storyline, high production values, etc. can all help.  App icons are also incredibly important, and something that some developers seem to overlook. If your game gets featured by Apple, then it will likely be listed on a page in iTunes with around 50 other apps surrounding it.”

“What is going to make someone click on yours as opposed to the other 49?” he asks.  DeadPanda’s Hayden Scott-Baron says that word of mouth is just as necessary.  “Word of mouth is the most important means of publicity with iPhone titles,” the creator of colourful puzzler TumbleDrop told us. People are now in the habit of mentioning the games they’re enjoying to their friends via Facebook, Twitter, or even just by passing their iPhone to friends when together. If a game is inexpensive and really fun then people are glad to share it with people they know.”

Jos Ruffell, Portfolio Manager at Flick Kick Football creators PikPok, suggests the size of the file itself is just as crucial.  “For a casual pick up & play App like Flick Kick Football, it’s vital for the game to be under 20mb. When we updated to a Universal App, adding support for native iPad resolution, we accidentally exceed the 20mb limit. Within a day we saw a drastic drop in sales position and volume. On patching the App back under 20mb, our sales shot straight up, and even surpassed the level we were at before the Universal update.”  Is it all about hitting that immediate, casual market, we ask?

“Yes, if you intend to price your App between $99c – $1.99,” says Jos, “then it must be under 20mb, to allow casual purchases and discoverability. As the content demands increase even at the lower level with Retina and Universal support appreciated by players, hopefully Apple will once again raise the limit.”  Tumbledrop’s Hayden agrees:  “If someone recommends a game it’s often desirable to buy it right there and then. However if they user doesn’t currently have access to WIFI then they’ll be disappointed that they’re unable to play the game. Many people will intend to buy the game later, but often will forget about it entirely.”

Ville Heijari, from Rovio, the guys behind runaway success Angry Birds, thinks developers and publishers should start small with regards to marketing, and work up.  “Build your success on small victories – target smaller local markets, where word of mouth and viral marketing can boost your app to #1 quickly,” he told TheSixthAxis.

“If you have a good application that will stick in a local market, it is far easier to make the case for having your app featured on larger markets.”

Of course, getting Apple to pick up your game for its various ‘featured’ sections is absolutely critical for giving your sales a quick-fire boost, especially for indie teams, and if you can tie in the promotion to a sale there’s even more potential.   Big Pixel’s Paul Virapen told us “as an indie developer on the App Store, getting featured by Apple can make a big difference to sales in the short term. If your game is relatively unknown or just released when it’s featured, it can be a great time to put it on sale. You are much more likely to get “impulse purchases” if it’s priced towards the lower end of the scale.”

And then there’s the issue of in-App purchases, and Secret Exit’s Jani Kahrama has some great thoughts on the subject.  “We changed Stair Dismount Universal from a $0.99 App to a free App in early September,” says the developer, “supported by OpenFeint’s Free Game of the Day promotional program. The reason to do this was to see if having a free game with paid IAP (in-App purchases) would change our long tail of sales.  Prior to the change, our game had gathered a user base of ~250 000 people with steady sales in the upper hundreds per day. Now, four weeks after the change, we have over 2.7M downloads, still getting ~10 000 new users every day.”

“In terms of gaining installs, the promotion together with the price change has been a huge success. When it comes to IAP however, the relative number of people who purchase additional content is rather small. But in absolute terms our situation has improved to the extent that Stair Dismount (which was largely a one-off project) is now receiving frequent updates to keep the momentum going. Our revenue has improved but it is too soon to say how the long tail will turn out. However, having an install-base of millions does give extra confidence when making new IAP.”

Jani also advises a little bit of caution with simply offering your product for free.  “When it comes to “free for a day” type of promotions, I would advise developers to approach them with a thought-out plan. There are concrete results to be had from such a promotion, but only with proper preparations on how to take advantage of the increase in visibility. Simply throwing your baby to the wolves and hoping for the best will not cut it.”

Matt Comi, the man behind the brilliant The Incident, concludes by saying early, pre-launch marketing is just as important. “I guess the most important marketing lesson I learnt with The Incident is the importance of early and regular promotion,” he said. “It’s very important to dedicate real effort to getting the word out and generating buzz. Talk about your game on forums, make YouTube videos, a Twitter account, email subscription list, and just generally get people interested. You want to get your game into the hands of as many reviewers as you can. Collect UDIDs and push out regular builds.”