Unknown Soldier
Member
Since you are seeding the free ad-supported version, sounds to me like you're only increasing your ad revenues.
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After one day my Android game has had more customers from bittorrent than Google
- Thread starter The Friendly Monster
- Start date
Mechanized
Member
It's the free version of the app to boot. lol
The Friendly Monster
Member
Interesting, in a way it makes sense, Google can prevent the casual customer from seeing terrible games and apps and thus leave them with a better experience. The downside of course would be that small guys have a tough time "breaking through" and the market stagnates.
Shoot me a pm. My buddy is an editor for a smaller android site, and he will gladly review. This early in the game, an exposure will help.
fluffydelusions
Member
Basically. Also, another thing you can do is post to some Android forums which usually have some sort "Beta test" forum. Also XDA development forum is massive and you can usually get tons of people to test your app. Look at the view count of the thread on my most recent app...tons of traffic through there...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1528923
Haunted
Member
well they didnt download it from The Legitimate Customer Bay if you know what i mean
NemesisPrime
Banned
Is this a cynical attempt to have us download your game?
The Friendly Monster
Member
Nah it's a devious attempt, you are the one being cynical.
Barack Lesnar
Banned
As an outside observer, the Android market just seems like a clusterfuck of fail. This thread and the one yesterday or day before in the OT about iOs/Android tells me enough.
OP I'd have loved to see your experiment if you added "FULL GAME" to the name or something. While some people seem to belabor the fact that these people aren't technically pirates they certainly don't know that. It seems they were trolling Pirate Pay for stuff to pirate which is fairly disgusting. The OP's idea is pretty solid, any actual players will feed his ad revenue, using Pirate Bay as more of a distribution platform.
It seems like TPB is a good way to distribute your creative works. You are not the first one to discover this, but perhaps the first one in regards to software. I'm pretty sure that plenty of movies, books and music has already been successfully released there.
Congratulations =)
If i know what you mean, then yes they did.
Congratulations =)
If i know what you mean, then yes they did.
The Friendly Monster
Member
Well it is not explicitly clear that they are downloading the free version. The file is called "TotalPoolFree.apk" but the link is to the paid version on the store. It would probably have been more meaningful if I'd not been confusing one way or the other.
I suspect that most people who've downloaded it are expecting some sort of cracked apk, given the other torrents you find in that section. But that is just speculation.
GotEmRunnin
Member
either way it got me to download it. The free version that is. I'm mildy pleased and may consider getting the paid version. I do have a question though. Am I required to give you one those totally unbiased 5 star reviews like DL, Neil, and Martin did?
Boogalogist
Member
Not sure what this is about...but you got me to download it!
The Friendly Monster
Member
I have no idea what you're talking about!
I'm surprised no one has commented in the torrent negatively actually.
Rollo Lawson
Banned
android has very little to do with that conversation
GotEmRunnin
Member
as pool games go, it's actually quite fluid. Good job friend.
What's the total prize pool?
That's an interesting question. The torrent didn't *claim* to be the full paid version - but did the downloaders assume it was purely by virtue of where they got it from?
Attempted piracy is - of course - no crime, but it raises interesting questions about the motivation of the downloader.
The Friendly Monster
Member
Of Lotto Australia?
I don't know...if only I had an app for that, I'll just search Google Play for "total pool", that should find it...bingo! Wait why is this shitty pool game showing up?
On which note, I do have to agree with you that it probably ought to prioritise searching titles over searching description text. Can you get yours to show up higher by tweaking some of the search options?
downloading to try now, not liked any of the android pool games yet (although not tried virtual pool)
both android and ios markets, its all about being noticed, shouldve called the game "Tits feat. Pool" and you would be a millionaire
edit: liking it alot, alot the AA makes no difference on a 4.2" qhd screen lol
both android and ios markets, its all about being noticed, shouldve called the game "Tits feat. Pool" and you would be a millionaire
edit: liking it alot, alot the AA makes no difference on a 4.2" qhd screen lol
The Friendly Monster
Member
You have to restart the game from cold (force close or reboot) for the AA to be active. That should be clearer.
I think you may be taking things a little far. You can't just wish away all of the extremely successful games that are out there.
ah ha, thanks, should probably mention that in the game
will play it more when i get home, my fingers are too big for precise aiming tho lolThey're probably not on The Pirate Bay to download things legally.
The Friendly Monster
Member
Cheers, looking at this now.
The Friendly Monster
Member
I don't believe that I did.
Yep, horrible practice. Especially when you look at why Android was developed in the first place and with what intentions -_-
Fox_Mulder
Rockefellers. Skull and Bones. Microsoft. Al Qaeda. A Cabal of Bankers. The melting point of steel. What do these things have in common? Wake up sheeple, the landfill wasn't even REAL!
Android is the land of piracy in Italy.
htc sensation xe running 2.3.4 btw, if that helps
People in this thread suck at reading. Neat experiment, OP.
Curious, how many of these extremely successful games are Android exclusive or at least started off on Android? As an iOS user, I've never heard of any big Android games that I can't get yet. I guess what I'm wondering: are there any home grown super success stories on Android? Or is it just that super successful iOS games obviously do alright on Android (because I've heard of a few games that are successful like that)?
I'm an iOS developer and the Android marketplace is reserved for "if I have the time/money, I'll consider it"
Curious, how many of these extremely successful games are Android exclusive or at least started off on Android? As an iOS user, I've never heard of any big Android games that I can't get yet. I guess what I'm wondering: are there any home grown super success stories on Android? Or is it just that super successful iOS games obviously do alright on Android (because I've heard of a few games that are successful like that)?
I'm an iOS developer and the Android marketplace is reserved for "if I have the time/money, I'll consider it"
TouchMyBox
Member
Well I just downloaded your app, so add +1 to that.
GreggTheGrimReaper
Member
I love your avatar!
The Friendly Monster
Member
Will do, I only get updates daily so can't check at the moment, the torrent has certainly slowed though.
Cheers, it was my assets not being in sync between my free and paid projects, I've submitted a fix to the store so that should update within half an hour.
Anyone with the torrent already has an outdated version with 3 nasty bugs.
That's totally true, it's hard to find a hit Android game isn't a hit on iOS. Android gaming is certainly a joke compared to iOS but to say it's dead is daft. A lot of people are making a lot of money on the platform.
You need to have launch strategies for your game.
Creating a community before the launch, setting up twitter and Facebook for your game, joining indie game communities to put up news.
Can't put it on the store and hope it sells/gets downloaded.
Also, not sure if your game is F2P. If you make your game trial unlock, you can get double exposure in the free section and the paid section.
Creating a community before the launch, setting up twitter and Facebook for your game, joining indie game communities to put up news.
Can't put it on the store and hope it sells/gets downloaded.
Also, not sure if your game is F2P. If you make your game trial unlock, you can get double exposure in the free section and the paid section.
The Friendly Monster
Member
Aye well I'm hoping actually that most people will come to my game by searching for "pool" and downloading the game with the highest rating, I think it's a bit of a slower burn than trying to make something with brand recognition. Being sat on page 12 when you search isn't doing me any favours in that regard at the moment. I'm also working heavily on the game in the next few weeks from user feedback. I'm already writing code for playing vs. an ai.
In other news it turns out I didn't even add my torrent to the right section on The Pirate Bay, I put it in applications instead of games. I'll try re adding an updated less buggy version there.
The Faceless Master
Member
you also have to consider that some people check torrent sites for apps and games just so they can grab them and be the first to rehost them for their warez forums and websites.
wondermega
Member
interesting method and I wouldn't have thought of doing this - will keep in mind for future releases
The OP seems to understand this, but other would-be devs should realize that simply making anything and publishing to the market is in no way a guarantee of any decent number of downloads. You have to really put just as much creativity and hard work into marketing and promotion as you've put into coding, asset creation, and testing - at the very least! Even if you make something rather cool, it's up against so much other product that the odds it will ever get seen will always be dramatically against you, unless you've got some good connection/strong marketing dollars/etc
The OP seems to understand this, but other would-be devs should realize that simply making anything and publishing to the market is in no way a guarantee of any decent number of downloads. You have to really put just as much creativity and hard work into marketing and promotion as you've put into coding, asset creation, and testing - at the very least! Even if you make something rather cool, it's up against so much other product that the odds it will ever get seen will always be dramatically against you, unless you've got some good connection/strong marketing dollars/etc
The Friendly Monster
Member
Yup, you can only charge in certain (about 50) markets. You have granular control over every single country the app/game can be downloaded in. By default, and in this case, it is available everywhere.
POWERSPHERE
Banned
Let's be honest, the others weren't efforts. Let's make this thread "Gaf marketing 101'
Yeah. Posting the game on a torrent site seems stupid. But making another thread about the shit hot game Total Pool on yet another game site is just good business.
I look forward to numerous new threads updating us on the status of Total Pool.
The Friendly Monster
Member
Android piracy watch.
So maybe I wasn't surprised to find out that the torrent would do better than the play store, this however takes me aback slightly:
The top search on Google for my app and company name takes you to a website which has a cracked apk for the paid version of my game for download right there.
There's a couple of things that I find genuinely surprising here:
- my game isn't big or popular, yet someone has still spent the time and money to purchase it, decompile it, add some shitty toast for their site and share it around
- the first hit on Google is for this site rather than a legitimate link to buy it
So maybe I wasn't surprised to find out that the torrent would do better than the play store, this however takes me aback slightly:
The top search on Google for my app and company name takes you to a website which has a cracked apk for the paid version of my game for download right there.
There's a couple of things that I find genuinely surprising here:
- my game isn't big or popular, yet someone has still spent the time and money to purchase it, decompile it, add some shitty toast for their site and share it around
- the first hit on Google is for this site rather than a legitimate link to buy it