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Devs - Do forum posts help your download figures?

Chill Monster

Chill Monster

Newbie
Hi folks,

Just wondering if anyone is noticing any improvements on their download figures after posting to this forum. Across my 4 games I've had around 700 views which has equated to 12 downloads. That's about 1.7% of people viewing my post actually going on to download the game, which seems pretty low.

I'm guessing the forum is mainly developers who jump on, post about their game and then move on without trying the games that everyone else is posting. As developers shouldn't we all be making an effort to download everything that appears on here to support each others cause? Admittedly, I've only recently started doing this, but it takes seconds if the game isn't huge.

Get downloading devs, let's help each other out ;) My games are all here:

Chaos Influx: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chillmonster.chaosinflux
Geo Wiz: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chillmonster.geowiz
Finga Ninja: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chillmonster.finganinja
Alpha Blitz: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chillmonster.alphablitz
 
astroturfing
ˈastrəʊtəːfɪŋ/
noun
noun: astroturfing
  1. the deceptive practice of presenting an orchestrated marketing or public relations campaign in the guise of unsolicited comments from members of the public.
 
psionandy said:
astroturfing
ˈastrəʊtəːfɪŋ/
noun
noun: astroturfing
  1. the deceptive practice of presenting an orchestrated marketing or public relations campaign in the guise of unsolicited comments from members of the public.
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Never thought about it. It makes sense. And sometimes it's actually a good strategy. It's just marketing. In this app world you need it a lot, even if sometimes it is unpleasant.
 
Never heard of that phrase before, like it though. I wasn't suggesting giving fake ratings or reviews to each other, just showing an interest in each others work. I'm an indie dev with zero marketing budget so my only chance is to try and build some momentum through forums, I'm sure many others are in the same situation so why not give each other a small shove in the right direction.
 
Chill Monster said:
Never heard of that phrase before, like it though. I wasn't suggesting giving fake ratings or reviews to each other, just showing an interest in each others work. I'm an indie dev with zero marketing budget so my only chance is to try and build some momentum through forums, I'm sure many others are in the same situation so why not give each other a small shove in the right direction.
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Ahh... OK. apologies then . you're talking about something different than what I first thought you were.

As long as people are giving genuine reviews and feedback that's great. A five star app deserves a five star review, and a one star app deserves.....
 
Chill Monster, you are right. Sellers and buyers are only developers here. Real game players don't see these forums. My downlaod ratio is same as you.
 
Im not sure is it a good thing to just download apps from other devs and delete them right away after one launch. I feel that it will only harm, because by doing this we increase install\delete ratio and google will think that app is shitty. Could also lead to lower keyword ranking. The same problem as with incent traffic. So i would consider downloading someone's app only if i like it and wonna try or to provide some useful feedback for dev.
 
Frty said:
So i would consider downloading someone's app only if i like it and wonna try or to provide some useful feedback for dev.
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I agree with this. I'm not a developer, but I do enjoy the games a lot. It's similar to writing reviews for apps that aren't a genre I'm a fan of. I won't write a negative review because I didn't like the style of game.
 
I see what you're saying about downloading and instantly deleting apps being a bad thing so if you really don't like a genre then best not to bother. Really just trying to stir up some interest between devs for each others games in this forum as a large percentage of folks on here are developers and it feels like we're just plugging our own games and trotting off into the sunset, without looking at what everyone else is doing.
 
Chill Monster said:
I see what you're saying about downloading and instantly deleting apps being a bad thing so if you really don't like a genre then best not to bother. Really just trying to stir up some interest between devs for each others games in this forum as a large percentage of folks on here are developers and it feels like we're just plugging our own games and trotting off into the sunset, without looking at what everyone else is doing.
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The thing is that most likely app developers is not your target audience, and for them there is no point of checking. In my opinion the best time to get some useful feedback from other devs is when you have some prototype or during alpha\beta testing, this can help you to improve some stuff you was missing in your app. But after release devs should look for their target audience and if particular subforum only for devs probably its not a good place to promote. Just my 2 cents.
 
Frty said:
The thing is that most likely app developers is not your target audience, and for them there is no point of checking. In my opinion the best time to get some useful feedback from other devs is when you have some prototype or during alpha\beta testing, this can help you to improve some stuff you was missing in your app. But after release devs should look for their target audience and if particular subforum only for devs probably its not a good place to promote. Just my 2 cents.
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Yeah, you're right but it's a bit of a catch 22. If a dev posts their game to a gamers forum then it's usually moved to an announcements forum, which is generally full of devs :D I think Google should be more pro-active in supporting indie developers and set aside a page to showcase decent stuff from unknowns, I wonder how many potentially great games are lost because they are under the radar.
 
Chill Monster said:
If a dev posts their game to a gamers forum then it's usually moved to an announcements forum, which is generally full of devs :D
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Not here, though. ;)

AF has always been quite clear on this; App & Game Announcements is intended as a "shop window", so to speak. The original idea (hope?) was that ongoing feedback and/or support would be carried on in the Android Apps or Android Games sub-forums, fostering a sense of community.

Hopefully the new Forums for Android app will do more to encourage this interaction.
 
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