Topics

1

Paid Work / Cheap Advertising for Stencylers with @Apps_and_Game

« on: June 20, 2015, 12:17:55 pm »

Heya guys, im here to share some news with you all.
I started working with a Marketing Company a month ago, and one of their branches does marketing services for Apps and Games developers, specially for Indies... They have a big community in Instagram with over 20.000 users, being one of the biggest Apps Page on Instagram, their page is called @Apps_and_Game.

I proposed to my Boss to do a special offer to Stencyl developers since im from this community and so on, I've found it usefull and could be useful for you guys as well, to shoutout about your games and projects... but more important than that, to do it CHEAPLY.



From my personal point of view as a Game Developer, I've found this Advertising option incredibly good for us around here, specially for mobile developers.... why?

-Instagram is a Mobile Social Network... This means if the user is checking the @Apps_and_Game page, and reading about your game, they are doing it through their mobile devices, and if they like your App they will directly download it since they have the device on hand! Its a different effect than getting the advertising while surfing on their PCs.... People are more likely to jump to the Appstores and get the app they just saw in the palm of their hands, even if its awesome or kinda good since there is no need of a big effort.

- Instagram is a combination of Visual and Textual Advertising (since you publish pictures and images) but also text and information can be added, so its a quick method to catch attention of any kind of public.... and you can even ask to publish videos of your app!

- Followers are from your niche.... This means that if you like a page on instagram, you click to "Follow that page", that way the 20k+ community they have on @Apps_and_Game are all people that are APP HUNGRY, they want to receive news about...well, apps and games to install them right away

- But the most important... Its economical dude.  When i was in my pursuit to advertise my game i found tough options, coming from 50$ to up to 500$ to get a featuring,  which is a hard investment when you are starting on this business, but this guys have friendly prices for developers, and much more with the nice discounts i proposed for our community, being as low as 5$ for publishing and talking once about your Product, and you can repeat it as many times as you might need, adapting your strategy to your budget since they show different prices and offers.

Their Instagram profile is: https://instagram.com/apps_and_game/

Feel free to contact them that way, or you can also get in touch with me, so i can propose your project to the Social Community Manager in charge of their App's Branch.

Hope this info is useful for you guys,  ill also keep you informed around here the following weeks!

2

Ask a Question / App Store Optimization [ASO] Share your experiences!

« on: May 24, 2015, 01:54:28 pm »

As many of you might know, App Store Optimization is a serie of techniques recommended to be applied in order to improve the visibility of your games/apps in the respective mobile stores.

For most of indie dev around, the techniques of ASO seems to be like the holy grial these days, some people claim to have mastered it, while others just give a try.

I decided to make this thread so we can all fight together as a great community, sharing our experiences with ASO, tips and tricks, and actions that have worked for  us.

From my side,  i use ASO tools like AppRankCorner and AppMind to look for usefull keywords, their relevance and other app's KW as well.... But its a tough job since PlayStore and AppStore prove to work differently!

Feel free to share your ASO experiences!

3

Ask a Question / Mr Jump jumping behaviour method?

« on: May 19, 2015, 06:04:47 pm »

Heya everyone, I've been wondering which would be the proper method to develop a jumping behaviour similar to the one that the game "Mr. Jump" has.... The actor jumps higher or lower depending on how long you press the screen or so on, but of course with a limit of heigh, meaning you will not touch the highest part of the screen.

Ive came tom work with a jumping method which basically does the jumping job, using force/pushing blocks, but the problem is that its not very accurate, sometimes the actor can jump too hard, or too low, the player doesn't really have control over the intensity.

Any ideas?

4

Ask a Question / In App Purchases Promo Codes?

« on: April 07, 2015, 04:48:39 am »

Heya guys, I've been wondering if there is a way to setup promo codes for in app purchases for iOS and Android Games... i tried googling a bit but it wasn't very accurate, some sites say its possible while others say its not.

Any ideas?

5

Ask a Question / Doubt about mobile resolution including Iphone 6

« on: January 12, 2015, 04:43:29 am »

Heya guys, im on the way to export to iOS, but I've found a big doubt about the resolutions topic, now that iphones 6,6+ are around.

1- Which are the best practices to deal with resolutions if you are working with the same game for different phones/tablets?
2- Whats the proper resolution tu draw backgrounds nowdays, to make it work fine with most devices?

I currently do backgrounds on a scale of 1280x1920 and set them as 4x, but I've found that apple requires full screen.... so when using scale to fit (full screen) it does the job on I6 BUT it fills the screen on the bottom with something else that looks similar to my current background... but you know, it doesn't looks as well as it was the original image...


So what do you guys think? which are the best practices nowadays?

Thanks

6

Resolved Questions / (SOLVED) How to make radius light effects for background?

« on: January 04, 2015, 06:51:36 pm »

Hi guys, im needing a hand to get over an effect for background.
Ive had a light effect for my app's background that rotated constantly,  look at this:



The problem is that i made it as a HUGE actor composed by all this light rays, that rotated itself, nothing impressive but used to do the job.... The problem is that i found out that it affected so negatively the performance and speed of the game...

So im wondering, would you know how to do the same with any other ways? Like using HUDs, drawing or whatever, which impacts easier on the app performance?

Thanks in advance

7

iPhone / iPad / Android / Parkour Cat v. 2.0+ [iOS and Android]

« on: January 03, 2015, 03:06:21 pm »

Android - iOS

Im happy to share with you my fellow stencyllers the launch of my first game for mobile. Thanks to all that have been there helping with issues or giving advices.
If you find any issues or have any ideas of what could be improved it will be strongly appreciated!

ABOUT: PARKOUR CAT
Parkour Cat is a Cartoonish Mobile Game where you will play as an adventurer Cat that .... well... Does Parkour! It will be running between roofs and gaining more and more speed by time!
Make sure not to fall from that height, the floor is really far away and not all the cats born with 9 lives with them!

The mechanics and controls are very simple, just tap on screen to Jump or Double Jump on the air, calculate the correct moment to jump in order to fall correctly in the next structure!

EXTRAS
At the end of your run you will be rewarded with Golden CatCoins depending on the amount of points earned!
You will be able to purchase new Cats, different colours and styles... As well as more lives to keep your run and save you from mistakes!
Practice hard and you will be able to appear inside our WorldWide Highscore Table!

IndieGameMag Review:
http://indiegamemag.com/igm-forum-finds-speedily-jump-through-the-city-as-parkour-cat/

AppPicker Review:
http://www.apppicker.com/reviews/24269/parkour-cat-app-review-crazy-cat-fun

8

Chit-Chat / Have you ever dealed with ITIN numbers for taxes?

« on: January 01, 2015, 09:17:02 am »

as topic says, im needing to do the paper work to get ITIN,  not been US american in order to be able to get Apple and Android payments to my US bank acc.

Can you share your experiences and any tips?

9

Ask a Question / Ads Services Doubt

« on: December 16, 2014, 04:24:09 pm »

Hi guys, im working on an iOS and Android game, its almost done and the last step is adding the needed Ad Extension, but there are several of them around there and i still have some doubts about them.

Would you mind sharing some information about it?
Which ad service is better for mobiles at the moment and why.... and any other information useful before joining this ad world by first time would be greatly appreciated as well hehe.

Thanks in advance everyone !!

10

Chit-Chat / App Revenue Split Percents Question

« on: November 20, 2014, 05:56:07 pm »

Heya guys, im writing this topic to ask you if you could share your experience setting up the percent shares with your teams.

Ive been thinking about making a developing team with some friends, but i have doubts about whats the correct way to set up the earnings percents for each position fairly.

For example we could have a team template like this:
# Person in charge of developing, taking the game app developing, website, etc
# Artists, for the game in fact and the images for the site etc
# Marketing guy
# Music and effects guy

In my personal case, i do all of the topics, but its just a lot of work for one person... id still do, but sharing this responsibilities too. I do also include capital such as for the mac, stencyl licence, and stores licences.

What do you guys think?
Any help or ideas is strongly appreciated, thanks in advance!

11

Chit-Chat / Apple appstore game selling average earnings?

« on: May 04, 2014, 08:15:56 am »

Good morning mates! I apologize in advance as i know that this is the kind question that most ppl dont like to answer for provacity or so hehe....  But ive been very curious about it to know an stimate  and average  profits  of a published game on the appstore before jumping there myself!

If you could share your experienced and so on, would really really appreicate it!
My main plan is to publish a game for free but with ads, and maybe also ingame sells...

Thanks for all the info you could share in advance!

12

Old Questions (from 1.x/2.x) / Any way to test on device without purchasing developer license yet?

« on: July 05, 2013, 09:48:25 am »

Hi guys, ive been wondering if there is anyways to start testing on my iPad/ipod without purchasing the developer licence yet, i dont want to loose half year of a year developer licence inside my testings and so on.... so would like if any of you knew a way to avoid this, and only pay for the licence when i feel ready to publish my game!

Ive found some guides by google but would like to know if any of u could share any method u have tested.

13

Resolved Questions / Transfer my Game work from Windows to Mac? (SOLVED)

« on: June 11, 2013, 05:08:02 pm »

Hi guys, i was finally able to get a mac air for my own to work my games, but now im wondering how can i import the current game i was working on my PC? i have already saved the game folder on my external hard drive but dont have any idea where do i have to save it at my mac, please help!

14

Suggestion Archives / @Joe Make stencylpedia possible to be downloaded as pdf please

« on: June 11, 2013, 09:12:37 am »

As the topic says, please make it possible to be fully downloadable as pdf so we can read and study even when no connection!

15

Old Questions (from 1.x/2.x) / Music, sounds for games Royalties?

« on: June 11, 2013, 08:44:34 am »

Hi guys, my doubt is the following.  Ive been wanting to use an old play station 1 game background musics i liked on my own game, i already found the music files at google but ive been having doubts if apple would give me problems when checking my app because those soundtracks were not made by me and were actually used by a real old game (not very famous though)

Also the same question for using a soundtrack i like of the Lords Of The Rings movie.

Does anybody knows?

Thanks in advance