Okay, wait

You may have noticed it. I haven’t posted any link for RoBits yet.

I realized I have made no effort at all to market the game. Marketing is crucial actually, even though I really don’t like doing it. I want my games to speak for themselves, not talk others into playing it.

However, this is the world we live in. Definitely the Google Play store is flooded with games. How will my game keep afloat in the sea of content? I’ve decided to market Chocolate Pinecone and my app for about a month before finally releasing it.

It’s not like I can’t start on my new app yet ;-).

RoBits nearing release

Hey everyone!

After a lovely vacation in Sicily, I want to release Robits on Google Play. I waited until after my vacation because I know I would otherwise keep checking my phone for statistics.

Either tomorrow or friday the game will appear in the Store and I will post a link to it.

I’m really exited to see how it does on the market. I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much, because the market gets flooded with cool games.

We’ll see. As long as my friends can enjoy the game, I’ll be happy.

Preparations for the next project

It’s funny how your head floods you with new ideas when finishing a current project.

Since I started finishing up on RoBits I’ve had ideas for loads of new games. Of the few that really stuck, there was one that kept evolving and growing into a finished concept.

Ever since I’ve found some awesome 8-bit Simcity-like graphics, I’ve wanted to create a game taking part in a city simulation.
I’ve always really liked business games where you have to take the city into account.

One inspiration would definitly be Pizza connection 2. A game I played alot when I was younger. In this game, location was essential! Place your pizza restaurant near a subway exit and the place will be flooded with customers.

Anyway, I want to create a business game, but not one that focusses on the money. Ofcourse, businesses are mostly about making money, but after making enough, the game isn’t challenging anymore.

I want the player to be focussed on a bigger picture. Like fusing with another business, starting a sister company in a new franchise, expanding internationally, or simply trying to keep up with the competition for example.

I’m thinking about calling it: The Business Challenge.

The challenge would be whatever the game challenges you to do. Owning a specific company within a time period, or destroying a certain existing company within a time period for example.

I’ve written most of my idea here.

It’s gonna look something like this:

RoBits Finishing!

It’s been a while.

So I’ve been working on RoBits for quite a while. I’ve drawn loads of images, tested in-app purchasing and much, much more.

Finally it’s in the final stages of developing and testing and I hope to release it in Google Play around June.

I’m pretty confident most people will enjoy it. I would never release a game I myself wouldn’t enjoy.
However, I don’t like marketing. Don’t get me wrong, It’s essential for games to get downloads. But my passion lies with creating, not with promoting.

I’ve made a lazy attempt to create a Launchrock page and sending a  tweet about it. But because I don’t do marketing well, i doubt my 3 twitter followers will notice xD.

On release the game will consist of 100 levels spread out over 5 robots. The player will walk through a broken robot, fixing every component when finishing a puzzle.

I hope you guys will enjoy it!

PS:

Mail me if you want a promo code for activating an ad-free version. I’ll check if I have any left.

Baby’s Bubbles Released!

That’s right! It’s on Google Play!

Get it now right here!

For only a small price you can entertain and educate your little children easily!

Preparing for RoBits

RoBits!

That’ll be the name of the shocking puzzler I’ll be working on next. The general idea has been established and I’m planning to start making a puzzle editor for development purposes. Making puzzles is just so complicated, and having a little editor on my phone would be very handy. After all, I probably need to develop hundreds of puzzles, so why not make it a little easier for myself.

The baby app is coming along fine. It’s practically done and I only need to make a few images and a video for the Google Play Store page.

I’m really looking forward to seeing how the baby app turns out! If it’s interesting enough, I might post some of the financial stuff.

I’ve been trying to remake the puzzle graphics for RoBits and I think they turned out nicely. I’m no artist, so for the graphic designers out there it might be horrible, but I like them, and I think I’m going to use them in the game.

 

Here you can see some of the old ones versus the new ones.

Raised from the dead

My goodness has it been long!

After a half year of focusing on my personal life, I have continued working on the baby app again.
With all the new energy and perspective I gained, working on the project went crazy. In 2 months time I’m almost finished with the app and I’m already planning ahead for the puzzler I told you guys about.

The baby app is going to be called “Baby’s Bubbles”  and is going to be available on Android only.
I’m really interested in how the app will be received, especially because the business model is completely different from my first app. I figured a baby app shouldn’t have banners or any other type of commercials in it, so I want it to be a paid app.
If all goes well I plan to release the app next month.

Furthermore Princess Rescue Run has done fine all this time. Fine for what it was anyway. The number of users has stayed about the same all this time (about 40 – 50). It has had about 250 downloads and has earned me a total of €6.54.

I am proud of what it is, even though there is a lot of room for improvement. It has potential of becoming a very interesting and fun game if I would implement all my ideas, but I simply have bigger ideas for other types of games, so I’ll leave Princess Rescue Run as it is.

For now, I’ll keep on finding and spending time on finishing the baby app.

I’ll keep you guys posted!
For now, here’s an icon I made for the app.

A ‘not that updating’ update

Hey guys.

So it has been a few days since my last post and I wanted to give this blog some new content. I haven’t really been working on my baby app project for a little while now, I’m just too busy doing other things. 

I have, however, been thinking about giving you guys a bit more info about my upcoming puzzler!

 

Roblocks: Shocking Puzzles will probably be the name of this game.

I want this to be a block sliding puzzler in which the player must provide a electrical supply for each robot block. The challenge lies within decoding the proper placing of all blocks, so every robot part has an electrical feed.

I’ll make this with Unity, since I don’t have any experience with any other engines…
I eventually do want to expand my knowledge with different engines, but I first want to have enough experience with Unity.

So far for the update.

Stay posted!

Pinecone out. 

Overview Princess Rescue Run since release

Hey everyone!

I promised to post a overview about the “success” of Princess Rescue Run since its release, so here it is!

First off the total installs I got since July 25th are 61.

These people live in the following countries:

Of these installs only 35 persons still have the app on their phone.
32 of these persons live in the Netherlands, 2 live in the United States and 1 lives in Thailand.

The revenue I collected is about 60 or 70 eurocents, so I wouldn’t really call it mentionable.

 

So far for the overview.
I am somewhat bummed about the numbers since I’m assuming most of the installs from the Netherlands are friends and friends of friends. So the “real” discoverers are with very few.

If you take into account all the hours I’ve spent on marketing my app on the internet, one can clearly conclude that all that time has been pretty much wasted.

However, I’m not a quitter. And I strive to keep seeing the positive side of things.

I have, for instance, learned alot about marketing an app and I’ve created a lot of possibilities for marketing my future apps. I’ve learned that marketing your app should be something you start doing at the beginning of your project, not at the end. 
For example, while marketing Princess Rescue Run I’ve created a Twitter, GameJolt and Launchrock account.
These accounts will definitely be of use for marketing my future apps.
I also started thinking about making and posting videos about my app on youtube.

All in all I am determined to keep developing apps, and I believe that as my app repertoire expands, their popularity will too.

So far for the update.

Pinecone out.

Update on the baby app and further thoughts

Hi everyone!

So here’s an update. I have had little time for the baby app since the last update. I have had the chance to program some pretty essential code and have the feeling mostly animation code is left to do. 

I also set up a google merchant account which is needed for selling your app in the play store, so I’m all set!

I have also put a bit of thought in my next project. I found these graphics a long while ago and really wanted to make a puzzle game with it. I already have a concept in mind and have actually drawn some puzzles already, so stay posted for more info on that.

Furthermore I would love to post something about the statistics of my last released game Princess Rescue Run, so that new developers can get a realistic view on the possible, immediate “success” their app could have. However, I won’t just yet. For a better view I decided to wait till the game has been on the market for a complete month, so if you’re interested in that kind of stuff, wait for my post on August 25th.

So far for the update.

Stay crisp.

Pinecone out.