Hi all, apologies for the lack of posts lately. Work has just been so busy. Recently I’ve received a few emails asking how my lite version has gone and if sales have improved, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to post how Goin Nutty has gone & what I’ve learnt along the way! The full version of Goin Nutty has a total of 444 sales and the lite version 911 downloads. What I’ve learnt from creating Goin Nutty is the importance of great gameplay accompanied with nice graphics. It seems graphics are important initially to get a few downloads and then the importance of good gameplay comes into it. If you have fun, addictive gameplay people will spread the word about your game themselves. Word of mouth seems to be one of the most powerful ways to promote your app so if I were to make Goin Nutty again ….I think I would put more attention into how the game plays, than into my designs and illustrations!

Hope that helps all you indie gamemakers out there!

- Mark

If your looking for a great simple game for inspiration.. you’d struggle to find one better for the iPhone than Angry Birds. Its cheap price, simple gameplay (which appeals to casual gamers and hardcore gamers) and huge amounts of levels make Angry Birds a great game model for you to reference!

http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/Rovio+news/news.asp?c=21540

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2010/05/still_here_the_teenage_app_tyc.html

Just thought i’d post some stats on Goin Nutty in case anyones interested:

So far I’ve had 400 downloads of Goin Nutty. During the time it was featured in the New & Noteworthy section i had between 40-60 downloads a day.
Since then, downloads dropped to about 5 a day and now theyre at 1 every couple of days.

I haven’t been putting much time in to promoting it and one thing I thought i’d try is making a lite version.

So i spent about an hour the other day modifying Goin Nutty to just the 3rd level. I have just submitted it to the app store and am waiting on approval.
I also put in a button to ‘buy the full version’.

I’ll keep you posted on how the lite version affects sales.

-Mark

I’m very proud to announce Goin Nutty has been featured in the New & Noteworthy section in the US app store under the games category!
Thanks to everyone who offered their support, opinions and reviews.

Goin Nutty:
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/goin-nutty/id355245823?mt=8

Woohoo FINALLY Goin Nutty has made it up on the app store. After 7 months of working on it outside of my fulltime job – Goin Nutty has been fully approved and is up on the app store here:
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/goin-nutty/id355245823?mt=8

You can also view some more info here:
http://www.goinnutty.com

Thanks to everyone for all there support and interest!

A very handy article from Smashing Magazine:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/03/03/how-to-market-your-mobile-app/