Chartboost Chart - Week 6 (hmm...missed week 5 this time!)

Here is this week's Chartboost dashboard.  I have found that while waiting for development to complete, it is hard to maintain a focus on posting!

Finally, the new release is imminent.  Let's see how it goes.  Tidies up a lot of niggling little things and adds some nice (and needed) functionality.

As the app was new, with little marketing (I didn't really want to!), it has started to die down.  Let's hope with this new release it will be a little more engaging.

Here are this week's stats from the Stores:

Play Store
Install count (this week): 25 / 54
Ratings: 4.55 / 11

App Store
Install count (as at this week): 262
Reviews: 1

Stats are down a little this period.  Let's see what the new version can do?

The journey continues...

AG

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Funny the things you don't realise!!

We were getting close to the next release, and I was going through it with the team when I realised...things were getting more complex...it was, all of a sudden, no longer simply a pig balancing game, but there was a little more to it, and a lot more to come!

We needed instructions!  In hindsight it was obvious.  In reality, it should have been one of the first mandatory parts of the game build. Doh!

So, working through it, we decided that we needed to launch HELP on first run and include a HELP button.  We needed to explain that, if you wanted to complete on the High Score table, that you needed to log in.  We needed to be able to switch accounts...we needed to help people understand that you had to tap the screen, not tilt the device.

It was all obvious to us...but not to many others!

It looks like a another small delay - but a critical one!

The journey continues...

AG

Chartboost Chart - Week 4 (sorry! I missed week 3)

Here is this week's Chartboost dashboard.  Sorry I missed last week...other "real world" stuff got in the road.

Still no new release, for reasons that you'll see in a future post.

We seem to have established a kind of heart beat now.  It isn't awesome, but the trend is kind of steady.

I think I'll also include stats in these posts too.  It will be useful to see what happens over time:

Play Store
Install count (this week): 30 / 51
Ratings: 4.55 / 11

App Store
Install count (as at this week): 241
Reviews: 1

The journey continues...

AG

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Using the App Store for monitoring Apps

Like I promised, here is the App store follow up on yesterday's post.  I guess, given the extensive nature of Apps on i-devices, I was pretty keen to see what this one had to offer.

I am still disappointed.

I can only imagine that this has to do with my personal experience in using it.  Using it after the Play store just feels a little chunky and clunky.  Nonetheless, let me continue!

The opening screen has just been updated by Apple, and I have to say, I preferred it the way it was...but anyway, this is what I get to see now:

I really only use the first two buttons here, "My Apps" and "Sales and Trends".

Clicking on My Apps brings up the list of apps that you have and you can then select the one you want to know more about.

Once you have navigated your way through to your app, you are presented with the following screen:

This seems to be the only place I can get access to Review data, but still no install counts.  Clicking on Reviews will show this:

I don't know if this gets any better...but this seems pretty ordinary!

So, looking for my install count takes me back to the high-level dashboard.  From here, I now select Sales and Trends and I am presented by the following window:

So this is pretty good.  The data is similar to the Play store data. Is it useful?  I think it probably is, but haven't been able to determine how to use it effectively.

Can anyone help?  Is this really as basic as it seems?

Certainly, the data is OK, but is it enough to be useful?

Well, for me, the jury is still out.  I dislike the fact that reporting is jumping all over place, and it takes sooo many clicks to do anything.

I am not impressed with being logged out if you have been idle for a while either.  I'm just glad I saved my password :)

So, from my perspective, the Play Store, while far from perfect, was the pick for either of these Stores.  That said, if you are selling an app, see what you have is in mind.  Perhaps, based on your needs, your conclusion is very different to me with my needs.

So there you have it.  I hope you found this helpful, and by all means, please comment below!

The Journey Continues.

AG

App and Play Store Stats - Are they helpful?

One thing I really do like is data.  Stats tell me a story, and they help me make decisions.

Sometimes stats can be a little misleading, sometimes, the data you have isn't the whole picture and that can mean the wrong decision can be made as the missing parts of the puzzle could change everything.

When releasing an app, I like to know how it is going.  How many installs? on what days? any reviews?

All of this data can help make decisions on the effectiveness of changes made to your app, or your marketing strategy. So for me, this is an important part of the App and Play Stores - and both let me down a bit.

Let have a quick look at each of them (the way I use them, anyway).  There might be some stuff that I have missed, and I always appreciate feedback if you have any!

I'll start with the Play Store as that is where I first launched Save My Bacon.

Play Store

When you first log into the Play Store and go to your app list, you get a screen like this:

If this is legible (or can be expanded) you'll see the summary line for apps.  Here I have had the game installed 46 times and quite a few people have uninstalled it.  It just isn't sticky...and I know that (we're getting there).  There are 11 ratings, with an average rating of 4.55. Not too bad.

One thing that I was a little disappointed about is that the Installs stats only seem to update once per day.  I realise this is probably fine for most people, but hey, this is my first game app...I'm impatient!

The good news is that the ratings seem to be visible once they are posted.  Now that I am happy with as it let's me respond quickly - and people like that.

Next, let's see what those ratings are.  A quick click on the Ratings, and we have the following (foul language warning ahead!):

From here you can see the detail of what has been rated and any comments the user chose to leave.

This is a powerful section as you can get some insight into why people are rating your app the way that they do.  Looks like someone HATES ads!  BTW - Anyone can comment and say pretty much anything...be prepared.

Finally, the summary stats.  These are mostly around devices, with some Android version stuff thrown in.  I don't find this particularly useful, but my app is simple...perhaps if it was more complex, this would be pure gold.

I find the Play Store pretty useful.  It would be nice if the Ratings were simply a pop-up instead of taking you away from the screen, and the navigation isn't quite smooth, but in reality, this is a pretty effective couple of screens that I use daily.

So far, a couple of weeks in, and limited marketing until the start of the "Sticky" releases, we have progressed.  I'm learning my way around the tools to see what each can do, and hopefully will be prepared to use what I have learned once we start to hit marketing in full swing.

You know, there is a part of me that wants to start NOW - "Get it out there" so to speak, but the other part of me says "you don't want people to write it off first time without giving it a chance".  So I am in a bit of a quandary.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll show you around the App Store interface as I know it.

...the journey continues!

AG

Making it Sticky - Part 3

It has been an interesting week.  A lot of what I have shared about making our app more sticky has been history that occurred prior to today.  I was very happy with where we were at, and I was just waiting for the next version to be completed.

But then, after speaking with the team I was asked, "what achievements do you want?"

Achievements? Oh, here is me thinking our 3 great new initiatives would be perfect and now we are talking about achievements?

Well, of course, on reflection, it was obvious - we needed some Achievements...

So, just what are achievements?  In app game play, this is where you earn a 'badge' or a label that is related to an achievement, and in this instance, it was all about scores.  Get so many points in a single game, or so many cumulative points, etc. and you get a certain achievement.

Again, it is off to the brain's trust - the kids - to come up with a great ideas.  It wasn't long until we had everything from the "Amateur Chef" through to the "Big Bacon Theory"!  There are a heap of score based Achievements now ready to roll.

Soon, we'll start other Achievements based on events, like having 3 pigs at once, but for now, they are limited to score based only.

One thing that I noticed was that I was starting to generate documents all over the place.  I really needed to start to put some decent processes in place.  I created a spreadsheet with a few tabs - one for the Shop, one for Achievements...and I am guessing there will be more coming soon...

I think, if we do it right, we are on the right track to make this app considerably more sticky than it is right now - and then the marketing will start in earnest.  I'm still just trying to construct the right approach to it.  When we do start, I want to make sure the product has a great chance to succeed.

I hope you like where we are headed with this!

...as usual, any suggestions, please feel free to comment.

The journey continues!

AG

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Bugger...the Impact of Changes

One of the ongoing challenges with any kind of development is always the changes...whether they are changes that you request, or changes that are forced on you, the only thing constant is change.

I have described a number of changes that we are looking to introduce, but this time, this one was thrust on us.

We use the Unity3D engine for coding.  With the new release of iOS8, Unity was also upgraded.  This has caused some issues with our current code base.

Oh well...need to work through them - Unity is easily the best platform we use to develop in and making the tweaks required is a small price to pay for such an awesome development tool.

Despite the bumps along the way...

...the journey continues...

AG