Hey all,

GrimReaper commented in another thread that my latest game was very polished and such ...

My confusion stems from the fact that the game has sold 11 copies so far. I was sure it would do much better than that and was pretty excited when I released it.

Now that I've picked my ego up off of the rocks and pieced my soul back together, I'm wondering if you guys can offer some feedback as to what's wrong?

Is it the game? The web site? Is it simply that I haven't advertised properly? Does the demo give away too much?

SETH's Puzzle Boxes (http://www.respawngames.com/sethspuzzleboxes/)

Any input is appreciated here.

Now, I know the game is somewhat short and replay value is limited. Those are the weaknesses I see, but still, I should have more than 11 sales...

I'm thinking of doing a "gold" edition that features more types of tiles (teleporters, jumpers, etc) that will make the puzzles more interesting and I can include maybe twice as many levels next time.

But looking at the current version ... anyone see the reason it doesn't sell?

Well, compared to my measly ONE sale in the first month, I'd say that you're rolling in cash... *grumble*

Not trying to hijack your thread here, I'll start my own eventually.. :)

EDIT: I tried your game about a week ago and I really enjoyed it! The concept was clever, and the graphics and music was very polished. I'm astonished that it hasn't sold more, it really deserves to...

Epic: I dont think you should add more tiles. Adding levels though would give you additional marketing fodder.

Have you spent an appropriate amount of time on marketing? How about submitting it for reviews for example? It would definetly do well.

grimreaper

You were expecting 11000? :D
Seriously,

Epic,

May I not to stop on details but...
Following by our experiense 11 sales is very good for VERY BEGINNING. Promissing to grow up to 50-60 sales per month (at least).

So, congrats with good start and good luck!

Sorry, I wasn't clear. This game has been available for months ... released March 5.

11 sales in 3 months disappoints me.

Or ... is that average? I seemed to do better than that with my first game, Bubble Bomb. That game has been out for over a year now and I've moved maybe 200 units so far.

Now, I consider that to be fairly dismal as well - but Bubble Bomb was a simple Bubblet clone, so I wasn't betting a lot on it. It was more of an experience gainer project so I could complete the process of shipping something from start to end.

I have an opportunity to market SETH through http://www.partytop.com/ ... anyone dealt with them? Is it worth my time?

Oops!

I though it was started not so far time ago... :(
I suppose I probably messed it up with your new site or something.

No, 11 sales per 3 months is really bad. At least for pinball. Even for our first Soccer ***** ;)

OK. My personal opinion. Don't think "WHERE to market" at all on current stage - too early with such results. Think what to change/add in game to make it ready to market. I'm not very useful in this part but professionals from here will help you better...

Good luck anyway :)

PS And with that Partytop.com. Do you have Alexa toolbar installed? With all their lists they have the same rank we had with our only one game on site. On the case if they ask too big money or percents...

Tried your game.. very well done!!

Did you have a look at Dexterity's deceloper articles? Also, I recommend you get David RM's Indie Game Developer Survival Guide. It has a lot of info on marketing and all the other factors to maximise conversion rates!

Speaking of which, whats your CR if I may ask?

Nemesis

CR is low. Very. I've had thousands upon thousands of downloads ... just no sales.


I had a few ideas for things to add to it eventually, including:

1) New types of tiles

2) More puzzles (naturally)

3) Release the level editing program so people can create their own. In fact, I would probably write an in-game editor to make things easier.

4) Some facility to load and play user built maps.

5) Have an online database of user puzzles so people can download other peoples puzzles from within the game and play them.

6) Wrap the EXE in something like eSellerate so the user doesn't have to go to a web page to buy the game. It just unlocks in place.

I think these things would allow me to release a version 2.0 and get a much better CR ...

Thoughts?

It's not as bad as you think actually! Keep marketing the game at every opportunity, get someone like GameTunnel to review it, consider companies like PopCap and Real.. every channel helps! Also consider affiliates with other indie ventures. I think you should dedicate at least 20% of your time to marketing!

Perhaps you should also expand your site a little.. add an FAQ, forum, about section etc.

Also, try varying the price e.g. $14.99 and market it as a special limited offer.

Also, create a special bundle with both of your games for, say $24.99.

Just a few ideas...

Well.. the most obvious, release new games so you have more bundling options and opportunty for cross and up selling.

GameTunnel did review it - I think they even liked it - I remember the game name.

Can't say much about making it more appealing to me, though, because MOST small puzzle games aren't very appealing to me. :)

@EpicBoy,

The papytop website is ranked 818,254 by Alexa; which is about the same as my web site. In fact, my weekly Alexa averages are much better than Papytop. I don't think their site has anywhere near enough traffic to enter into any type of exclusive arrangement.

You may want to change from Share-it to RegNow; and offer a 20 - 30 percent commision. That would likley get you picked up by all kinds of sites.

Also, I would probably add more puzzled; 40 puzzles is not enough.

Lastly, not sure why; but you game doesn't seem to draw as many downloads as other games (well at least on my site)?


@BitBoy,

I would change your website; people are basically lazy and are just as likley to leave as click a link. If they go to your site you need to have as much information on the main page as possible (make sure it is clear). Don't be afraid of the vertical scrolls bar and add more images to the main page. Remember, that main page is could be your only chance to sell your game.

Originally posted by papillon
GameTunnel did review it - they even liked it

Oh, that's the problem really! :) Ask them to write something bad - that helps. ;)

OK. No offenses! I'm kidding! ONLY!

The following is from the Game Tunnel review:

"SETH's Puzzle Boxes is a great puzzle game that is very well put together from start to finish. Honestly the only thing that kept me from giving it a 9 is that the game is a bit short. Most players will be able to finish it off in a little less than an hour on their first time through."

I would say that is likley your problem with you conversion rate; the game is not only to short but it is way to easy. You should download Dweep, it is a great game and it is fairly challenging in places. The demo really makes you want to keep playing the game.

I'm curious about the affiliates stuff.

How do you go about gaining affiliates? I actually have a RegNow account, I've just never hooked it up for use.

Is it just footwork and talking to people, or can you put up a flag that says your willing to talk or what?

Originally posted by EpicBoy
I'm curious about the affiliates stuff.

How do you go about gaining affiliates? I actually have a RegNow account, I've just never hooked it up for use.

Is it just footwork and talking to people, or can you put up a flag that says your willing to talk or what?

If you were selling through RegNow; people see your game was a being sold through RegNow by looking at the buy me now button on your site. They can then request to act as an Affiliate though the RegNow website. You have the ability to auto accept everyone; or review the sites asking for affiliate status one at a time.

Human naturing being what it is; people will tend to feature games they can make money of before they will feature a game without an affiliate status.

That said, you said you had thousands of downloads so I would probably make the game more difficult and add 60 levels.

PS: In the Game Tunnel review your game is listed at $14.95; and if you can really finish it in an hour your should probably lower the price and then raise it again when you get the new levels?

Okay, I hope this doesn't come off as harsh, but I'm going to try to go through the reasons why *I* didn't buy SETH's Puzzle Boxes. Please take this with a grain of salt, as it's my own personal opinions. I apologize in advance if I seem somewhat mean at points - but this is definitely stuff that I think will help you improve the game.

Okay, first of all, it's a neat, original concept, and I love the integration of a story into a puzzle game, too! Very polished: it looks professional, sounds professional, and plays professional. Unfortunately, here comes the bad stuff...

First of all, as I'm playing it, I'm thinking "This is a cute game. I might pick it up for ten bucks." Then, on the nag screen o' features, I see that there are only 27 (I think, I may remember incorrectly) more levels. Well, considering that I blew through the dozen or so demo levels in around ten minutes, I think to myself, "Pbbth. Sorry, I'm not paying ten bucks for thirty minutes of entertainment." The harsh part is that I'm assuming here that the game is priced at half of the $19.99 it's listed at on your website, and I *still* have decided not to buy it. At $19.99, I can come here and buy Fitznik 2, getting more levels and more variety.

The levels are quick and easy. This is good in some respects, since it makes for an easygoing, fun, non-frustrating game experience. On the other hand, there didn't seem to be much of a challenge at all, at least in the demo levels. I can't imagine not blowing through this game in my first play-through, and with level-based puzzle games having such low replay value, I personally don't look at that as a good thing.

There appears to be little to no variety in the game - it's a series of one-screen mazes, with a ball, a goal, and a couple of sliders to make things difficult, on a watery background. Here's the thing - I know now, from one of your website's screenshots and the GameTunnel review, that there are levels with multiple balls/goals, and varying backgrounds (with effects). But after playing the demo, I had absolutely no clue that those features existed - they're not even listed with the other features on your "Buy Now" screen! There may be other tiles to help and hinder me, besides the sliders. There may even be multi-screen levels, for all I know. But I have absolutely no way of knowing that. If you don't tell me what I'm missing out on, I'm going to assume that the rest of the game is just like the demo. Give me some full-screen, nice looking screenshots, even if they're pulled from the individually most graphically impressive or unique parts of the game. Give me a features list with things like "many new exciting worlds" for the multiple backgrounds, or "unique objects that could help or hinder your progress" or whatnot, to show me that there are more tiles. Show me screenshots in the background while Selena and SETH are trying to convince me to buy the full version (nice touch on the dialogue, by the way). Short Version: Show me why I should keep playing your game. If you don't show me, I won't know.

Basically, add more levels and add more variety. If there IS more variety, then tell me more about the full version so I know about it. I'm not going to run out and buy this because of a level editor - I'm going to buy it because it's a good game that keeps my interest.

Not harsh at all, and I thank you for the honest eval.

I'm definitely going to fix the game up and re-release it under a different title or whatever. People seem to think the concept is good and they enjoy the characters/story ... it's just that it's too short and too easy.

I'm going to add some more tiles to make it more interesting and definitely up the difficulty/number of puzzles.

And just a quick note ... you should get a sense for the multiple balls and such on later boards as you can play one level from each of the higher realms. Just not in story mode ... if you play match mode, it will let you into those other levels.

Match Mode and Time Trial appear to be locked in the demo version, althought I can reach the multiple-ball levels in Practice Mode.

I do have to say, though, that the sample levels from the other realms are *much* more interesting than the sample Story Mode levels! I particularly liked the background effects in the "Combustion" level!

In all honesty, if the end of demo's Story Mode told me that I could sample more levels in the Practice Mode, I'd be more likely to try those levels, and therefore, more interested in buying the game. After having just now played those sample levels in the other realms, I'm back at my "I'd buy it for ten bucks" original opinion. Give me some more levels (Maybe 60 or 80 total? Maybe even 100, if you could pull it off and keep the price at $20) and a couple more tiles (I like the transporter idea!), maybe a couple more backgrounds, and you've got yourself a customer right here!

On another note, have you noticed Bubble Bomb sales going up since the release of SETH? I probably wouldn't have tried Bubble Bomb if SETH's Puzzle Boxes hadn't drawn me to the website. Despite the fact that I don't consider myself a casual gamer, I somehow found Bubble Bomb quite tempting, after playing it a couple of times!

Yeah, it's just a bad demo all around. I'll definitely fix that in the re-release.

And yes, I did notice a spike in Bubble Bomb sales after SETH came out. Heh.

I had a chance to talk to Alexei Pajitnov not too long ago and HE believes puzzle games should use ambiguous themes and game pieces in order to appeal to the widest possible audiences. I'm not sure that I agree with his position, but after playing your game I could see where the very specific theme might turn off some people. Senior gamers, for example, might not appreciate the cute anime-style characters and stories. And if someone was looking for a "quick puzzle game" they might be put off by having to go through screen after screen of dialogue. (I know that the story part is "skippable".) Naturally, you have to weigh these things against potential sales INCREASES due to their inclusion.

(NOTE: I think the story and anime-style are excellent hooks for your game, and help make it unique. I mentioned those things only because I'm trying to offer some suggestions about why your game isn't selling better...)

I played Seth's Puzzle Boxes for a few minutes and I agree with the others that it is very polished and well done! I was disappointed, however, by one significant aspect of the main mechanic. Your entire game has beautiful, smooth graphics and effects -- except for the most important part... the rotation of the "board". Based on your description in the tutorial I assumed that I would be able to freely and smoothly rotate the game board. Instead, it rotates a fixed 90 degrees. That might still be okay, but the rotation is rather jerky and sometimes it seems to overrotate and then SNAP back to the proper angle, which was sort of jarring. It just felt kind of clunky to me, and it was particularly conspicuous because it contrasted with the professional quality everywhere else. Not sure if that's impacting your sales at all, but I thought I should mention it.

Good luck with things! I hope your game starts selling a bit better...

Thanks for the input!

A note about the rotation ... it sort of has to be in fixed 90 degree turns since part of the core game mechanic is trying to solve the puzzles in the fewest number of moves possible. To count "moves" I have to rotate in fixed increments.

And the snapping/jarring issue ... I discovered a major bug in my timing code the other day that would explain that in SETH. When the re-release comes out, the rotation should be buttery smooth.