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How do you decide what games to try?

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danjayh

Lurker
About a month ago, my brother and I put our first android game on the market (it's a freebie called Aqua Balls). We've seen our new downloads rate dwindle to < 10 downloads/day, even with 34/35 five star reviews (one four star). I find this to be incredibly frustrating considering the amount of work we put into polishing it (and from the analytics, it looks like most people who download it actually like it enough to play it), so I came here to ask: of the games on your device, how did you decide what you were going to get?

It seems to me that all of the really popular games beg people to post their score to their facebook wall, "like" the game page, etc. usually in exchange for some sort of in-game reward. I really don't like that idea, but barring anything better, I'm thinking of trying it. Does anybody have any other suggestions?
 
I usually just go on the recommendations of others, very rarely do I find myself browsing the play store looking for a game to play. If a friend is really addicted to a certain game, and it sounds like fun I'll download it and play it.

I don't really keep playing games, I usually just play them once or twice, get addicted for 2-3 days then I move on to the next game.

And if it makes you feel any better, I never interact with my facebook account for in game rewards, it's pointless to me and it's just plain annoying. Not to mention I'd hate to post messages on friends wall advertising a product when I haven't directly done it myself.
 
I'll check Play on a daily basis to see what titles are put on the "Featured" page and look at ones that seem interesting. I browse the entire games section probably every other week to see what titles may have been released and not featured.

You're game does look polished, but not the kind of thing I'm into. I like racing, sports, action, FPS and RPG. Occasionally I'll get into some puzzle games similar to yours, but it's not something you'll see me playing often. When it comes to games and movies, I never read what critics have to say about the actual gameplay/story line, as I generally like alot more games than most. However, I will read the reviews, particularly for Android games, for functionality. I do this more often after getting a new device as alot of games don't get updated right away and tend not to work. Aside from that, if the game looks good to me, I'll give it a try regardless of how much other people like it or not.

There is one exceptiom though. If it's IAP I won't play it, even if it has the potential of being my favorite game ever. If I can't pay for the entire game up front, I won't even give it a chance. One reason behind this is because you generally lose everything you buy through IAPs if you get a new device, or something like that.

It really depends on the person. I'm not sure exactly what the requirements are to get on the featured games list, but I'm sure your downloads would go up significanlty if it got on there.
 
I never go searching Play for anything. I usually come across things here at AF, Phandroid, or other Android news sites. I read a lot of the Application Announcements - Android Forums here and if I see something I like, I give it a try. I also do the Amazon FAOTD for trialware, especially if it is a genre that I'm new to. If I like it, I go buy it in the Play store.
 
Well, I look primarily for games that are in my preferred genres (RPG, ARPG, Roguelike, occasionally turn based strategy/tactics). Initially I scoured Google Play, but now that I've seen most of what's already there, I spend more time watching for new releases on sites like Droidgamers or Android Police.

One of the first things I look for is something that, in my mind, is an actual game--you know, you pay a set price (if any), and then you own the whole game. Any mention of "social" or "Facebook" or "friend codes", MMO (or any other on-line requirement), or any other IAP red flag, and I turn away and look for something else. Of course, I also don't have a Facebook account and was not entertained for long by Angry Birds, so I probably belong to a fairly small niche demographic.

Specifically in regards to your game: It looks like exactly the kind of game that appeals to the larger demographic (that I don't belong to) of casual mobile gamers, and I see that it has positive reviews (awesome reviews, BTW--"The longer you press on your balls the bigger they grow!" hahahh). Those things are in your favor! What's NOT in your favor is that, while you're targeting the largest mobile demographic, so is everyone else. The market is pretty saturated with casual cutesy character puzzle games that are (to quote one of your reviewers) "great for bathroom gaming."

To make it worse, you're all competing with Angry Birds, which it seems your target demographic has accepted as the king of Android games. You know, newbie Android phone owner goes to his buddy and says, "Hey what game do I get?" "Angry Birds." That's hard to overcome.

Finally, there's the question of how someone would even discover your game. Even if I liked puzzle games, I probably wouldn't be searching the terms "aqua" or "balls" in Google Play. A search of puzzle games didn't turn it up (at least not in a reasonable amount of time--I'm not sure how much longer I would have had to keep scrolling down). I tried searching it on the sites I watch for new releases, and couldn't find any mention of it. This is the part where I wish I had some practical suggestions for you, but I'm not much of a marketer.
 
For me it's quite simple. I just browse the top games in a category on the play store and when I find one with 50+ five star ratings I'll have a look at the summary and screenshots and then maybe try it out if I like the look of it.
 
1. Search for a genre I'm interested in at the moment
2. Read reviews
3. Make sure there are no issues with my device compatibility (crashing, bugs, not full screen, etc)
4. See if there is a similar game for cheaper (yours is free so you're in luck)
5. Compare the size of the file for storage limit purposes
 
Aqua balls is really nicely polished and I wouldn't be surprised if it took off in the future. Sometimes these things just take time. I've tried advertising on Admob, and while I certainly got more downloads, it wasn't worth it for a free game with ads, so I wouldn't recommend it.

As for how I find games, usually I'll check out what people talk about on the forums.
 
I also avoid anything that uses FB, IAP, leaving reviews for bonuses, etc...

some ppl love that FB stuff... not me though lol
 
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