Game Dev Podcast - The RisingHigh Extended Tea Break - Game Development Advice for Game Developers - 008: Game Trailers - 7 reasons why every Game Developer should add a preview video to your Appstore page – and the one reason you probably shouldn’t.

008: Game Trailers - 7 reasons why every Game Developer should add a preview video to your Appstore page – and the one reason you probably shouldn’t.

03/27/18 • 38 min

Game Dev Podcast - The RisingHigh Extended Tea Break - Game Development Advice for Game Developers

In today's show, we answered Podcast listener Brad's question on should we add a Game Trailer to our Appstore product page. With this in mind, we put together our Top 7 reasons for adding an App Preview on the Appstore and the 1 reason why you shouldn't. Generally speaking, adding a game trailer, or App Preview Video, to your Appstore Store pages is a positive move. Although screenshots allow you to showcase your games best moments, there's really no substitute for seeing the game in action and watching a demo first hand. Motion is hard to convey in the static of the screenshots, and for this reason alone it's worth it. Your Appstore page is essentially your shop window and what all your hard work has been about. You've spent weeks or months creating your masterpiece, so don't fall at the last hurdle, grit through the final stages and put that video together. If your game deserves more than 1 video, then it's certainly worth doing we'd day, but there's no need to feel compelled to fill space just for the sake of it. Highlights, Quick Wins & Takeaways: 1. Apple allows us to add 3 App Previews, we should use them. 2. Conversion Rates are believed to be between 15 - 30% increased with games with App Previews. 3. You can show all the best and exciting parts of your game, explosions and effects. 4. Showcase your games personality and the actual speed of the gameplay. 5. The use of Music set the overall tone of your game. 6. You can add additional marketing messages and calls to actions. 7. You'll need a video for your game regardless, so you might as well! Bonus! If your game is so simple or is in essence not at all visually compelling, we highly recommend not including an App Store Preview Video in your store listing. It could well be that a poorly executed video may hurt your downloads. Links mentioned in this Episode: Best Fiends App Preview Video Creation Software Camtasia iMovie Screenflow ( Mac ) Courses Create an Appstore Preview Like A Boss! Course Included Free inside the RisingHighAcademy Membership.

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007: Surprise and Wonder - 10 ways Game Developers can add Surprise and Wonder to your games.

In this episode, we compiled our Top 10 ways to add Surprise and Wonder moments into your games to create emotional reactions from your players. We all want our players to fall in love with our games, but what elements are you actually creating within your game to delight them? Are you making them smile? Are you making them jump out of their skin? Are you creating instances of "Wow?". Here's our Top 10 key elements you can think about implementing to really hook them in and secure your games icon stays front and centre on their devices. Highlights, Quick Wins & Takeaways: 1. Scale of Environment. 2. Secret places / Bonus Levels. 3. Unexpected Rewards / End of level celebrations. 4. Special and or Secret Characters or Worlds. 5. Change in Game Mechanics. 6. Invoking Emotions including - Panic / Joy / Anticipation / Excitement. 7. Adding the Wow Factor - Creating Awe and adding Character Reactions. 8. Change in Music and Sounds ( Atmosphere ). 9. Introducing Power ups / Bonus Coins or Levels. 10. Unlocking Achievements. Links mentioned in this Episode: Jetpack Joyride Dragonlings

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009: Mobile Game Publishers - 5 reasons why your goal should be to sign a mobile publishing deal with the first 10 games you build.

This week we discuss the plans and goals any Indie Game Developer should follow when making games for the mobile platforms. Be it the Apple App Store, GooglePlay or Amazon, our advice is always the same whether you're an absolute beginner or have been making games for a while, head for that Publishing Deal.

There's a multitude of benefits for teaming up with an established mobile game publisher when launching your titles, the most arguably is traffic. Without a solid User Acquisition ( UA ) strategy in place it's going to be a struggle to drive downloads to your game and to get noticed.

Any Publisher worth their salt already have a vast, daily active network of players within their existing portfolio to cross promote and market your game to, this is vital especially on launch day. They'll also have solid connections within the industry especially with the platforms themselves.

They can get your game in front of the people who make the decisions on the games that will be featured on any given week on the stores ( Thursday is the main refresh and launch day ) and often have contacts in the press to get that all important exposure. They bring experience you can learn from as for the most part know what will, and will not work.

You'll also typically earn more money from your mobile game. With downloads comes increased revenue and it's also not uncommon for the Mobile Publishers to have special deals with the Ad Networks to ensure the highest eCPM possible for the ads that show. Although you are sacrificing a decent percentage of the total revenue of the game ( usually it's a 50 / 50 Split ( after any UA costs ) you'll still earn way more due to the downloads achieved.

It's a win / win situation and we strongly believe that you should be striving to build a game and sign a publisher deal within your first 10 games if you're serious about building games in the mobile space.

Highlights, Quick Wins & Takeaways:

1. It sets your standards high right out the gate - Average generally won't make the cut.

2. Forces You to do your market research to increase your chances of building games the publishers want.

3. Publishers usually have great relationships with the Platform Feature Teams ( Apple App Store, GooglePlay, Amazon ).

4. They have Traffic and can drive downloads - An established cross promotion network of players to market your game.

5. You’ll typically Earn more - A smaller slice of a much larger pie generally works out better.
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