Red Wasp Desig
Lurker
Hi all. Just stopped by to let you know about our new indie game...
-
After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.
- Thread starter Red Wasp Desig
- Start date
I've moved this to the applications announcements forum so folks looking for new apps can find it.
I see you come over from the iOS market. You should include a free demo for Android version, and here are why:
When you designed for iOS, you know your game would work for basically all iOS devices (iPhone and iPad.) You did not have to deal with the compatibility issue. It is not quite the same with Android.
Fragmentation is a serious problem on Android, and it is becoming worse. You game may work on one Android device but not the others. Google Play is supposed to let users know if an app is compatible with their devices, but Google Play is not always correct. (Google Play had told me a few apps would work on my phone... but later turned out they would not.) The only way to find out if your game would work on a device is for a user to test your game on his device himself.
To make matter worse, Google Play only allows a 15-minute window for a user to get a refund after he pay for an app. Sometimes, it takes more than 15 minutes for the user just to download and set up the app. (Battles for Wesnoth and Mass Effect Infiltrator come to mind.) Which means the buyer would not have a chance to get a refund if he finds out the app does not even work on his device.
That means a lot of users would be wary of paying for your games without having a chance to test it on their device first to make sure your game works. If users pay for your game and then find out it does not work properly, they will keep bugging and demanding you to fix the problem. That will take away all your time, just to make sure you games would work on every single Android devices.
So what you want to do is to have a free trial version, to let users try out your game and make sure it works before they pay for it. On iOS, you could get away without giving a free trial version. On Android, you really can't. If users can't try your game to make sure it works on their devices, they probably won't take the risk to pay for it.
When you designed for iOS, you know your game would work for basically all iOS devices (iPhone and iPad.) You did not have to deal with the compatibility issue. It is not quite the same with Android.
Fragmentation is a serious problem on Android, and it is becoming worse. You game may work on one Android device but not the others. Google Play is supposed to let users know if an app is compatible with their devices, but Google Play is not always correct. (Google Play had told me a few apps would work on my phone... but later turned out they would not.) The only way to find out if your game would work on a device is for a user to test your game on his device himself.
To make matter worse, Google Play only allows a 15-minute window for a user to get a refund after he pay for an app. Sometimes, it takes more than 15 minutes for the user just to download and set up the app. (Battles for Wesnoth and Mass Effect Infiltrator come to mind.) Which means the buyer would not have a chance to get a refund if he finds out the app does not even work on his device.
That means a lot of users would be wary of paying for your games without having a chance to test it on their device first to make sure your game works. If users pay for your game and then find out it does not work properly, they will keep bugging and demanding you to fix the problem. That will take away all your time, just to make sure you games would work on every single Android devices.
So what you want to do is to have a free trial version, to let users try out your game and make sure it works before they pay for it. On iOS, you could get away without giving a free trial version. On Android, you really can't. If users can't try your game to make sure it works on their devices, they probably won't take the risk to pay for it.
Red Wasp Desig
Lurker
Hi ktchong,
Thanks for the information - all very good points. We're looking at a demo at the moment. However we did to a reasonable range of testing on a number of devices so I hope we've covered a wide swathe - but your point still stands and I'll share it with the dev team.
Thanks
Tomas
Thanks for the information - all very good points. We're looking at a demo at the moment. However we did to a reasonable range of testing on a number of devices so I hope we've covered a wide swathe - but your point still stands and I'll share it with the dev team.
Thanks
Tomas