mysteries of the market: snood

[Najdorf]

3,027,821 downloads on download.com,

http://www.download.com/Snood/3000-2111_4-10403359.html?tag=pop

In the top 10 game downloads for 253 weeks (5 years!!!)

Just understand how he made it and you'll get rich...

[MarkJ]

The thing that blows my mind is that this guy's Puzzle Bobble clone has been such a success, that his name and characters were licenced by a publisher for a Game Boy Advance version (http://gameboy.ign.com/articles/166/166505p1.html). I mean, it just looks sloppy (http://horiuchi.akira.ne.jp/img/snood-m.jpg).

But it just goes to show that you don't need great graphics or an original idea to be a success. From Snood's Wikipedia entry:
Jupiter Media Metrix did a study in 2001 to find the most played games and Snood placed ninth with 1.5 million unique users. This is most notable because most of the games on the list were those that came with various versions of Windows (such as the top ranked game, Solitaire, with 46.7 million users).

Anyway, this is all from someone who has a shameless clone (http://www.sloppydisk.com/descender/) of his own :).

[Najdorf]

Or take a game like Betty's Beer Bar. Ok, it's a decent -3 stars- game, search google for it. You'll find 25000 pges about it. It uses the trick of having it sold by tons of affiliates. And somehow it got also listed on yahoo.com and aol.com

I estimate he can get 50k downloads per month.

Now if you can get this exposure with a game like that, you really know your buisness.

[Leisure Suit Lurie]

Snood is an ugly piece of filth. Frozen Bubble is a much better Bust A Move clone.

Aside from being a rip off, the graphics are so busy I can't tell the pieces apart sometimes.

[funkboy]

it just looks sloppy (http://horiuchi.akira.ne.jp/img/snood-m.jpg).
...
Anyway, this is all from someone who has a shameless clone (http://www.sloppydisk.com/descender/) of his own :).

But yours looks *good!*

That Snood, holy cow, it looks horrendous... that is *not* a screenshot from 1995? Amazing.

What are the sales figures for this game? Or is it just a popular download?

I need to try this game, but I heard it had spyware in it. True?

I think if we inspect this game we may find some lessons to be learned... in fact, I think lessons learned from this would make a great article.

[Najdorf]

I played it a few years ago on mac os 9, didnt have spyware (dunno now), was actually pretty fun.

But, if you figure some lesson from snood, if I were you I would not tell it around much ;)

[PowerMacX]

I think that the lesson to learn is: People at Download.com download whatever has the highest download count. That's it. Conversion rate? I'm guessing very low!



Edit: Have you noticed how if you repeat a word long enough, it loses all meaning? Download.com... download... download count... O.o

[codemattic]

Snood is fugly. But he was at the right place at the right time and more power to him. Those days are over tho - you cant release a Snood-level quality game and get many registrations.

He did distribute Snood with spyware for a bit - on Windows only.

He just released a "Feeding Frenzy" clone - which is also pretty ugly - I dont think it went anywhere.

Carlos's wife is into Snood so it does have its fans!

[MattDiamond]

Everyone I know who bought it got it after a word-of-mouth recommendation (usually playing it on someone else's computer.) In addition, none of them had played the original game. So from my unscientific, very small sample size I'd say the lesson is:

- Good gameplay can get good word of mouth
- If you sell a clone, penetrate to a different audience than the original

This does not answer the question that others have been wrestling with, namely how to get the original large number of people to play it. I think it did come out at a unique time, when graphics could be simpler. Many of those downloads are people loading the latest version onto their latest machine, and their kids' machines.

Lots of levels of difficulty. Accessible to all ages. That is not to be underestimated.

[radiance]

An interesting article I came across a while back:

The Dude Behind Snood (http://www.newsobserver.com/lifestyles/story/2069054p-8453459c.html)

[LaRue]

I have been "addicted" to snood for years sadly.
I realize it is a damn crappy game, but there is just something about clearing the puzzles but then there is the frustration it makes when it keeps on giving you the wrong piece :mad:
Thankfully it lives only on my PC so I can get a hold of it when I am home (which is not often) so I am not too distracted by it.

[Carlos Camacho]

>Carlos's wife is into Snood so it does have its fans!
Indeed she is. I think people who don't get its appeal, or wonder at its success can't see beyond those nasty sprites.

[Jesse Abram]

Those snood pieces always kind of scared me. Like, I enjoy the game, but the look like something that would be in my nightmares.

[Leisure Suit Lurie]

>Carlos's wife is into Snood so it does have its fans!
Indeed she is. I think people who don't get its appeal, or wonder at its success can't see beyond those nasty sprites.

Or they played the originals, which were better done.

[Carlos Camacho]

>Like, I enjoy the game, but the look like something that would be in my nightmares.
If you register, you can enter your own levels of sprites, for example the heads of forum members.

Snood has two sounds, which I think VERY much add to the gameplay. One is the boing sound when you launch a head, and the other is when the heads fall down, a kind of swoosh sound. Those sounds are very effective IMHO.

Someone mentioned that "people always download what is in the top-10 list." And thus, a cycle begins.

Maybe we should make a new thread, but if you were to make your own "download.com" or "versiontracker.com", how would you keep that from happening, outside of not having a top-ten list. What works best for gamer AND developer?

Cheers,

[blobbo]

I've been trying out http://www.last.fm/ to give me music reccomendations based on what I already listen to and I think it's pretty neat. Maybe something like that for games would work.

Or a flickr style tagging system for downloads? That would be neat.

[cybermonk]

I was thinking the exact same thing when visiting http://www.pandora.com recently!
And with the current stream of clones, creating an algorythm to find related games wouldn't even be that hard :D

[vgsmart]

I actually work, in some way I can't disclose, with the Snood people. I can say that the game sells, still, and sells well.

The marketing was more of "right place, right time" than anything else :) Sadly, there were not super-secret techniques we can all use and copy that came from it!

-Joe Lieberman
Owner, VGSmart Marketing

W: www.vgmsart.com
Indie Game Marketing Book/Blog: vgsmart.blogspot.com

[AlStaffieri]

>Someone mentioned that "people always download what is in the top-10 list." And thus, a cycle begins.

Maybe we should make a new thread, but if you were to make your own "download.com" or "versiontracker.com", how would you keep that from happening, outside of not having a top-ten list. What works best for gamer AND developer?

Have a top 10 rated list that includes the highest rated games that have been released in the last few months.

Al Staffieri Jr
AlStaff@aol.com
http://www.macgamemaker.com