How to get on the charts on iOS platform? 10 App Store Survival Guides

Obtaining App Store qualifications has never been difficult. Like other things, all it requires is patience. Apple's paperwork requirements for applicants have been much simpler than they were a few years ago. I even found that all the application process posts on the Internet are more or less outdated. For example, the step of faxing the tax agreement no longer requires you to actually send a signed document. All you have to do is look carefully at what Apple wants you to provide, follow the rules one by one, and once you have sufficient materials and pay the annual fee, you can usually get the qualification within two or three days.

1. Profit model

When does your game charge money? P2P (Pay-to-play), F2P+IAP for props, F2P+IAP for content unlocking, F2P+P2P dual versions, advertising? Or...purely free public welfare type? The P2P model is widely used in commercial or professional software fields. Nowadays, everyone seems to have reached a consensus on game apps that they are either free or dead. Unless the game is of very high quality and has received enough exposure before release, or you are already very famous, do not use the pure P2P model.

F2P+IAP for props is the most common method. Please note that all incentive designs in the game must be reasonable. In IAP, if the game designs two currencies, one is easy to drop (for example) gold coins, and the other is rare gems that need to be purchased, the gems can be exchanged for gold coins. In the process of purchasing gems with cash, the promotion can be promoted by the method of more purchases and more discounts. However, if the same more-for-more discounts are used to exchange gems for gold coins, this will encourage players to hoard gems instead of consuming them, which is obviously unscientific.

There is no best model, you should choose a profit model that suits your game. For games that distinguish between free and paid versions by function, F2P+content unlocking IAP and F2P+P2P dual versions are both feasible options. If the installation package of the full-featured version is not large, it is better to make it F2P+content unlocking IAP, because players do not need to download a new package for the complete content; if the package size becomes a barrier to entry for players, it is wiser to separate out a Lite/Free version.

The advertising displays officially provided by Apple are relatively quiet. Many third-party advertisements use despicable methods that are very easy to be clicked by mistake. Regardless of the reason, deceiving clicks will disgust players and is not worth promoting. If you want to know more about advertising methods, please google "Mobile Game Evil Guide" yourself.

2. Rules are rules

Apple has clear official descriptions of its recommendations and review requirements for App design. Please make sure you fully understand the iOS Human Interface Guidelines and the App Store Review Guidelines before submitting your app. If you encounter rejection or other difficulties, you can contact Apple staff through iTunes Connect at any time. Their response is very timely and you will get an answer within a day or two. If your application is rejected but you think it is a misjudgment by Apple, you can boldly negotiate with Apple to resolve the issue.

The review cycle for a new App is about 7 days, and the updated version is usually one or two days faster (taking 5 or 6 days). Rejected and resubmitted even faster, with results available in 2 or 3 days. But the review cycle has ranged from a few hours to two months. There is no need to urge Apple. It is useless to urge them. What you need is patience. Since it has been fully tested before submission and there are no problems, there is no need to worry.

3. Metadata

There are three metadata items that can be used as search indexes. In addition to game titles and keywords, publisher names will also be treated as indexes. Carefully consider these items of your App. All the links in this article are very important. Don’t distinguish these tasks as primary or secondary. The publisher name, title, keywords and description are the first step for you to get listed. Once confirmed, this data cannot be modified unless you submit a new version next time.

Title: Generally speaking, consumers do not like overly long titles, which to some extent will give players the impression that the product is a copycat. If players do not click on the App's description page, the second half of the overly long title will be truncated by Apple and replaced with an ellipsis. It is a question of whether to confidently leave your original name or go with a cheap name that is easier to keep.

Keywords: There is a 100-character limit. Use commas to separate keywords without spaces. Don't ignore the role of keywords and don't take it for granted. Before defining your own keywords, use tools such as Appannie to analyze which keywords successful works are using. Some keywords are very strange, but the experience of large manufacturers cannot be ignored, they just work. Then you need to find keywords that may be beneficial to your game and continue to iterate on this part in subsequent version updates.

App description: This is where you can write the most words, but unfortunately the system does not index it, and only the first three lines of the description will be displayed before the user clicks More. Take a look at the wording of popular works, they are all written by professional marketing teams. There are only two principles: highlight what is in your game, and don't falsely exaggerate what is not in your game.

Game icons and screenshots: These are the most important metadata. In fact, most players decide whether to download your stuff based on images rather than text. Do your best to put out cool pictures. iPhone screenshots come in two sizes: long and short. The iPad version has an additional size, with a maximum of 5 screenshots per resolution. They are not required to be original game screenshots. Adding text, NPC-like narrators, face-to-face confrontations between the protagonist and the enemy, and combining multiple screenshots into one are all common layouts. The focus is on the first one, which is the cover image of the App, so that players can see it without clicking on the App page.

If there is IAP in the game, a separate screenshot is required for each IAP (the interface where the system dialog box pops up asking whether to purchase the system). This screenshot will not be put in the store and is only used for review. If it contains Non-consumable IAP, a Restore Purchases button must be made for review.

4. Promotion

Getting on the App Store homepage or staying at the top of the charts are the only two ways to make big money. What you need is always exposure. Teams with sufficient budgets can spend some time on advertising. In addition to advertising, there are many cheap and effective marketing methods, such as adding unique advertisements to other apps to promote their new products. This requires you to have many apps.

Uploading YouTube videos can drive a lot of downloads. Videos can help players understand your game better than pictures. Simply posting on forums may not necessarily have good results, but you should not miss the opportunity to expose your game on major websites. Try to add dynamic screenshots and videos to the post. It is recommended that you set up your developer social network account and development blog, and update some development progress, new ideas, and recent promotional activities from time to time, so that players feel that you are a team that is continuously improving, listen to their voices, and even make them feel that they are involved in the production of the game. This is also a long-term business. Selling games is also selling services. You're right, you need patience.

5. How players discover the app

Before the emergence of Angry Birds, no one knew why one should use flightless birds to hit green pigs, or what fun there was in doing so. But it made the list, and everyone came to download it. This type of app without obvious real-world reference is called a general app. Your focus should be on finding a way to get it on the list. Another part of the market-segmented apps either have real-world references (such as tennis, football, and basketball games) or existing game references (such as copycats, or micro-innovations). Market-segmented games may have a smaller audience, but are more targeted and have higher player loyalty. In addition to squeezing to the front of the list, you should focus on highlighting the highlights that the target audience is interested in.

6. Incentives

What players want is a good game, and the definition of a good game is simple: an interesting game. For more on the psychology of “fun” please refer to the bibliography provided in the summary. In a word: A blacksmith must be strong himself. Designing interesting things is the basic skill of being a game developer. Of course, players like rewards and don’t like punishment. Post-level draws and daily rewards are very useful techniques. Regarding the anti-cheating of daily rewards, developers do not need to set up their own servers. There are public time synchronization servers on the Internet. Search for Network Time Protocol for specific synchronization methods.

Player reviews are a strong indicator of a new app’s climb up the charts, and showing off and sharing are effective ways to spread the word about your game through players. Players are lazy, but they also like to get benefits. Commenting, sharing and sending gifts are simple and easy-to-use techniques. Most apps do not (or do not have the authority to) verify whether the user has actually completed this process after clicking on comment or share. We can fully trust that users are still motivated in this regard. If you help them to pop up to the corresponding page, they will not hesitate to spend half a minute to write a few words. If your game is exciting or bad, you will get comments, unless your game is mediocre and there is no point in complaining about it. Evaluation is still the main way to obtain feedback information, including when conducting preliminary research on competing products, it is important to read the reviews of their products.

7. Schedule

For games with specific themes, choosing the right time slot will have a positive impact on the game. For example, releasing a football game before June 2014 is definitely the best time to release it this year, because the World Cup will be on the 12th. Halloween and Christmas are also good times to release festive versions for promotion. It should be noted that Apple will be on holiday during the Christmas holiday, and there will be a few dozen days of freezing the rankings. Your App's ranking before Apple goes on holiday will remain there for several dozen days. This is why big companies are rushing to use all means to grab a favorable position before Christmas.

8. First release area, limited free promotion

If the initial version of the game is a preliminary exploratory version, the first launch area should consider two factors:

English-speaking countries, with income levels close to North America and Europe, ensuring overlap with the game’s target user group;

The number of users is small, so if there is a problem with the game, not too many potential players will be lost.

Therefore, new games are generally launched first in Canada or New Zealand, both of which are English-speaking countries with a certain number of players. The former is chosen because the Canadian market is most similar to the United States, with unified player habits, tastes, and currency; the latter is chosen because New Zealand is the first English-speaking country west of the International Date Line, and is the first English-speaking country to play your game. New Zealand has almost become a conventional guinea pig in the IT industry.

Setting a higher initial launch price for the game can also limit the number of users, helping to prevent a large number of players from leaving due to bugs and defects in the early stages of the game. There are now a large number of platforms that offer limited-time free games, and millions of players will know about your promotion after you lower the price. P2P games are suitable for price reduction promotions. For games that rely on IAP for profit, limited free games are not a good strategy, because players who wait for free games are more likely to be looking for bargains. Don't expect this wave of players to increase your revenue. Game marketing should put its greatest efforts at the moment of release in the target regional market. Use all possible means and don't be too tired. High-priced first release + limited free release is equivalent to giving up the opportunity to make a big push when the App is released. If the game falls to the bottom of the list, it is basically difficult to revive it.

Oh, and unless you are meeting a very tight deadline, don't put a game on the shelves with defects that affect the user experience without sufficient testing. That is extremely irresponsible. How you treat the market is how the market will respond to you.

9. What to do if you don’t make money

There is no doubt that before facing the review of players, you will receive a lot of obstructions from people who are not players. Some people are happy to define you and what you do, and say in a tone of concern for the country and the people that you are degenerate and have no ambition. At this time, you must make them feel that you have been enlightened by their words and wish to become a Buddha right away. In short, it is their words that prevent you from making a mistake, and they feel happy, and then they shut up. I was very curious why someone who was not your parent or teacher would whisper these things in your ear, and it reminded me of conspiracy theories.

Data like App Annie is a good helper for preliminary research. I don’t know what making money from the App Store means to you, a dream? For me, this is the most realistic goal that cannot be more realistic. As for reality, I cannot predict anything. I can only keep trying, falling, getting up, falling again, getting up again, and falling again, slowly growing through hard work, or never getting up again. Ironically, the people who tell you your game won't sell are the same people who will copy your game if it becomes a success. They are not good at using their imagination. Should we be surprised to see them rely too heavily on numbers to make predictions?

10. Go outdoors more often

What Faker said a few days ago was right. Don't just look at a business as a business in itself. When you live, you must first have a long-term vision of what kind of life you want to achieve. Look at the business in the context of your life as a whole. Apart from the gains and losses of money, can it bring you happiness and allow you to get closer to your vision? If you don't like playing games, if you don't like making games, if you are not happy making games, then you have definitely taken the wrong path.

Don't keep your butt pinned to a chair all day just because there are endless demands to be met and endless feedback to be corrected. Go exercise outdoors more often. People who say they don't have time to exercise are not serious and diligent workaholics. People who say such things are either lazy or have problems with time management. How can you succeed if you are lazy and don't know how to manage your time? In addition to patience, you also need to be prepared for a long battle.

Summarize

Nowadays, people who develop mobile games are all very excited. To outsiders or newcomers who have just entered this field, this is normal, because mobile games have been portrayed by the media as a synonym for low investment, high returns and high money-making. If you have experienced the difficulties of publishing a game, you must know how hard it is to survive. In my opinion, those who make mobile games are either crazy or insane.

The App Store is what economists once thought was the ideal business model with low inventory and small-volume business directly facing millions of customers. But blind optimism is very dangerous. If you do a simple calculation like multiplying the base number by the percentage, you can understand how many people will download your game after it is placed on the shelf where tens of millions of people have the possibility of seeing it, how many people will play past the first level, and how many people will spend money to play it. Well, you also need to take into account the time factor and calculate how many days it can stay on the list before being submerged in the ocean of apps. Does your game have what it takes to stand out and stay in the spotlight for a while? Please enjoy the cruelty of reality, in which your creativity will become either cruel or cool.