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View Full Version : Getting the word out...


radiance
2004.11.29, 12:09 AM
Hi all,

As you may be aware I released a game recently, aquadot!red, and I'm looking for more ideas on how to spread the word to more mac game players. So far I've submitted to some of the obvious places (Apple, VersionTracker, MacUpdate and MacGameFiles). That's been fairly successful. Especially Apple as even though I only submitted it there on Wednesday it's already the source of more than half my downloads.

Here's some other sites I looked at:

http://mac.tucows.com/ Ha ha ha. Very funny. So I go though the submission process only to be told at the end that I'm 1506 in line and estimated time until submission is processed: 44 days. Of course, for $50 they'll process it within one day. There's also an option for unlimited first class software submissions for a year for only $2000. A review only costs $249. Ha ha ha. Makes download.com seem reasonable...

http://download.com/ Anywhere from $79 a year to $99 dollars a month. Some games seem to get a lot of downloads here but still I'm suspicious. I may have to try it just out of curiosity.

http://www.macgamer.com/ I originally decided against posting here since they mostly seem to focus on big title games. They do have a shareware section review section, but not too much seems to happen there. Yesterday though I noticed that aquadot!red made their top download list for a while. Turns out they're affiliated with MacUpdate. I should contact them.

http://www.macgamesandmore.com/ Looks interesting. I think they pick up games on their own though.

http://www.playmacgames.com/ Submitted here but in retrospect I realize that it may only be for contest entries from idevgames and createmacgames.org. And perhaps I don't post here at idevgames enough ;) Ah well.

http://www.gamedb.com/ssps/0/0 The Mac game database. They don't seem to want outside submissions yet.

And these I'm not really sure about...

http://www.info-mac.org
http://macshareware.net
http://itprodownloads.com
http://macosarchives.com


As well I looked at announcing to various mac news sites. InsideMacGames posted a story for me as well as a Swedish site (courtesy a beta tester). I also sent to MacCentral but their game coverage seems pretty sparse lately, and I contacted radio show The Gamesome Mac, but I probably won't find out until Monday if I get mentioned. Other mac news sites don't seem to cover games much, or at least they don't cover smaller game releases such as mine.

And of course, how can I forget, I'm looking for sites that review mac games. The three I just mentioned above do reviews, and I'm looking into http://macteens.com/, but beyond that mac shareware reviews seem few and far between.

So here finally is the question... anyone have anything sites of interest to add? Places to submit software, report game releases, look for reviews? I'm seriously thinking about starting to write some articles about my experiences with creating, releasing, selling and marketing a shareware game and I'm thinking that one such article could detail many of the places and ways to go about letting people know about your game so they can try it, play it, love it and buy it :)

Anyone still reading? Phew!

::ken::

DaFalcon
2004.11.29, 01:14 AM
I'm not sure if it is just a Safari thing, but when I clicked the "shop" link on your site I got a blank page. Same happens when I follow the link from your help & info folder. You won't get any registrations if everyone has that same experience!!

This is Biz 101, so here is a Biz 101 truism: Don't release (or seriously promote) the product until it is able to be sold!! How many gamers are out there who now know aquadot!red as the game that you can't buy even if you wanted to?? Creating a buzz is one thing, but having a "shop" or "buy now" link that doesn't work attached to an apparently "finished" game is a recipe for a sales disaster.

Danlab
2004.11.29, 03:53 AM
i added you game on PlayMacGames ;)
http://playmacgames.com/index.php?rub=games&type=oldschool

radiance
2004.11.29, 06:28 AM
I'm not sure if it is just a Safari thing, but when I clicked the "shop" link on your site I got a blank page. Same happens when I follow the link from your help & info folder. You won't get any registrations if everyone has that same experience!!
!!! Thanks for pointing that out! Pardon me while I try to refrain from swearing :blink: I'm positive that was working just a day or two ago! Guess that's why suddenly have only been getting sales from my integrated eseller. What a good way to look unprofessional, eh?

This is Biz 101, so here is a Biz 101 truism: Don't release (or seriously promote) the product until it is able to be sold!! How many gamers are out there who now know aquadot!red as the game that you can't buy even if you wanted to?? Creating a buzz is one thing, but having a "shop" or "buy now" link that doesn't work attached to an apparently "finished" game is a recipe for a sales disaster.
I'll say!

radiance
2004.11.29, 06:31 AM
i added you game on PlayMacGames ;)
http://playmacgames.com/index.php?rub=games&type=oldschool
Thanks! :wow: :wow: :wow: :sneaky:

Max
2004.11.29, 09:37 AM
http://mac.tucows.com/
Nice web site. Very popular. Too bad there is no download counter.
http://download.com/
Don't pay the $80. Not worth it. But I must admit - lots of people visit the site.
http://www.gamedb.com/ssps/0/0
Very odd game site. It works in strange ways. And it doesn't care about small games.

radiance
2004.11.29, 07:54 PM
Nice web site. Very popular. Too bad there is no download counter.One interesting thing I didn't realize about the download counters on VersionTracker and MacUpdate... they don't just count clicking on the "download now" button as a download, but they also count redirecting you to your site as a download. I actually only have about 220 downloads directly from VersionTracker for the latest version of aquadot!red, while they say I have about 350.

Of course, I don't know how many people were directed to my site and subsequently downloaded directly from there though. Plus I don't know for sure how many completed downloads I get since I'm basing the 220 number on the bytes downloaded. Possibly 350 people started to download and 130 cancelled right away.

So much meaningless information :)

Max
2004.11.29, 08:11 PM
Are you using MacUpdate's new Developer Tools? You get download history, comment manager, custom polls and RSS feed. It's useful and it's free.

Red Marble Game
2004.12.09, 12:00 PM
From what I hear, TuCows and download.com are really not worth it -- the money goes down the tubes. It may depend on what genre of game you're developing, but I just don't think casual gamers visit those sites looking for games. MacUpdate is a much better choice, and VersionTracker.

Max
2004.12.09, 01:07 PM
From what I hear, TuCows and download.com are really not worth it -- the money goes down the tubes. It may depend on what genre of game you're developing, but I just don't think casual gamers visit those sites looking for games. MacUpdate is a much better choice, and VersionTracker.

Are you kidding? Download.com is the most popular web site! But I'll never pay the $80. This the download stats of one of my games:

Download.com - 128,133
Version Tracker - 35,526
MacUpdate - 29,327
MacGameFiles - 9,026

BTW, did I mention Download.com is listing AND hosting my games for free? :cool:

aarku
2004.12.09, 07:01 PM
Are you kidding? Download.com is the most popular web site! But I'll never pay the $80. This the download stats of one of my games:

Download.com - 128,133
Version Tracker - 35,526
MacUpdate - 29,327
MacGameFiles - 9,026

BTW, did I mention Download.com is listing AND hosting my games for free? :cool:

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that since download.com is hosting and providing statistics for your game, it wouldn't be unheard of in this world for someone working there to severely pad those numbers to help convince other people to fork over the $80. This is pure speculation. All I am saying is that we should all take these figures with a degree of skepticism.

-Jon

willThimbleby
2004.12.12, 05:30 PM
FYI, I just stumbled on this -- some might find it interesting.

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/business/features/marketing101_1/