As you guys know, I have been giving you my game views for a long time now. But I think it is time to move on from game reporting, to game making. That does not mean I stop blogging. I am going to start a new blog, a developer diary of sorts to help out new developers in their issues about making games for mobile platforms. And my perspective is that of a complete rookie. The link for my new blog will be posted soon. Till then, don't stop visiting!
Friday, 14 February 2014
Will Xbox One ever catch up?
This is the question every game industry analyst is asking. With the PS4's enormous success, it seems to have taken over Xbox's home ground, USA! Recent reports show that PS4 may be outselling XB1 even in USA. So now it is quite clear that if this continues, developers are going to give the Japanese console priority, what with XB1 being a pain to develop for due to it's eSRAM. Will Titanfall's promise of 1080p help Microsoft in covering up the huge gap it has in terms of hardware sales? Only time will tell. But my gut instinct tells me that solely Titanfall is not going to change anything. According to me, Xbox One needs a price cut if it hopes to ever catch up with the PS4. But I think it extreme to already predict the doom of the console, and frankly, the industry is overreacting. So all the Xbox fans(myself included for Kinect), do not lose hope since even the PS3 came out of such a hole after launching a whole year after the 360. Live long, and keep gaming!
Thursday, 13 February 2014
The Flappy Bird Analysis
How does a game like Flappy Bird reach the coveted top spot in bot the App Store and the Play Store? That is the question I wish to answer today. There are a couple of points that may have increased the popularity of Flappy Bird. They are as follows:
1. It is rumored that Nguyen, the creator of Flappy Bird, used bots to increase the initial popularity of Flappy Bird. He used bots to play and review the game which increased its ranking.
2. The App Store considers a range of parameters in ranking an app. They are: Number of downloads, rate of reviews, rating and time spent by users on that app. Flappy Bird was an extremely addictive game, which had a very strategically placed "Rate" button. This caused a greater amount of people to review it in a very short time span. This was because the "Rate" button was positioned very close to the "Play Again" button, which caused many to hit it accidentally.
3. The game was addictive enough that people played it for long time periods.
These are the facts. This is why Flappy Bird was such a runaway hit without any marketing whatsoever. At the peak of it's success, the creator was getting around $50,000 per day through advertising revenue. But the creator, overwhelmed by it's success, has taken the app down, saying "it's too much for me". I think a lesson can be learned from this. Apps can succeed based on very clever marketing. So all the potential developers, get out there and start developing. The Flappy Bird Saga has indeed been spectacularly surprising. Let's hope indie games keep getting as much attention in the future.
1. It is rumored that Nguyen, the creator of Flappy Bird, used bots to increase the initial popularity of Flappy Bird. He used bots to play and review the game which increased its ranking.
2. The App Store considers a range of parameters in ranking an app. They are: Number of downloads, rate of reviews, rating and time spent by users on that app. Flappy Bird was an extremely addictive game, which had a very strategically placed "Rate" button. This caused a greater amount of people to review it in a very short time span. This was because the "Rate" button was positioned very close to the "Play Again" button, which caused many to hit it accidentally.
3. The game was addictive enough that people played it for long time periods.
These are the facts. This is why Flappy Bird was such a runaway hit without any marketing whatsoever. At the peak of it's success, the creator was getting around $50,000 per day through advertising revenue. But the creator, overwhelmed by it's success, has taken the app down, saying "it's too much for me". I think a lesson can be learned from this. Apps can succeed based on very clever marketing. So all the potential developers, get out there and start developing. The Flappy Bird Saga has indeed been spectacularly surprising. Let's hope indie games keep getting as much attention in the future.
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