March 3, 2017 at 08:041,500,000 installations in 3 months - Tap Tap Builder development history
Good afternoon! I am an indie developer and author of Tap Tap Builder. In this short article, I will share my experience and tell you how a small game makes its way into the big world.
I’ll briefly talk about the development, because I already wrote about it in the previous article “Optimizing the game on Unity and dev story Tap Tap Builder” . Tap Tap Builder is a simple city builder with clicker elements. We have one person in the development team, it's me. The game is written on the Unity engine and the C # language. The development of the prototype took 3 months, and the game was first shown at GamesJamKanobu 2016. The game fell into a selection of interesting projects, where it was noticed by the publisher Herocraft. A month later, Tap Tap Builder went to softlaunch (Google Play Russia), and another six months later a world release took place. The total development time was about 1 year.
I am 100% satisfied with the collaboration with Herocraft, without them nothing would have happened. I had a chance to work with very qualified producers - Sergey Kopov and Sergey Manucharyan. Game development is constantly headed in the right direction. Feedback was tracked for all tasks, analytics and communication with players were actively used. In addition, I express special thanks to the entire QA Herocraft department for their help with testing!
Useful contacts are essential in promoting games. That is why large publishers have the opportunity to get featured in game stores. Of course, the game must meet many criteria in order for the store to put it on its display window. And it is communication with store representatives that allows you to determine the conditions necessary for this. For example, Google asked us to bring all of their gaming services to the main screen. They were also asked to perform localization in the main languages (DE, FR, IT, ES), in addition to EN / RU. Apple wants to see big content updates, especially tied to different events (for Christmas, for example). Alas, without a publisher one would only have to guess what stores would be of interest to.
We had featured on the App Store and Google Play. At this time, the game should get as many settings as possible in order to “stake out” a place in the category of games. For example, in the App Store it turned out about 300,000 installations during phishing, and in Google Play - about 600,000.
The average score of the game at all sites is 4.5 points, which is considered a very high score. In addition, the sites themselves spoke well about the game and are ready to help the project in the future. To a large extent, this was influenced by the fact that the target audience of the game was very wide. Tap Tap Builder is played by girls of 6 years old and boys of 40 years old.
The easiest way to promote is reaching a new audience. Now I am working on a browser version of the game (WebGL, HTML5) for the social networks Facebook and Vkontakte. There are plans to publish on popular gaming platforms with games for browsers. Steam is also in the pipeline. At the same time, I am releasing content updates and expanding social functions. So there is enough work.
Further I will tell you some funny facts that greatly influenced the success of the game.
The game icon is what the potential player sees first. It is for her that the player makes the decision - go and download the game, or scroll through.
At the very beginning, I had a rather simple icon with a city cut out of a banner. The publisher very often chooses the icon himself, and then I did not resist. In many games, the icon has the face of the character, with which many players, in theory, should associate themselves. 4 characters were painted. Boy and girl, since the game is focused largely on children's audiences. There was a sexy blonde, but there were no curvaceous. Although this trick really works in many other games. And finally, there was a brutal man-builder, from whom no one expected anything special.
Firstly, I showed the icons to the players in the VKontakte group. By that time, there were already several thousand players in it. Secondly, we launched AB testing on Google Play to determine which icon is more effective. Both experiments gave the same result - the brutal man unexpectedly became the face of the game for us. My explanation is simple - even a little girl who plays a construction simulator imagines herself a hefty uncle in a helmet.
Chatting with players is the easiest way to find out what they want. This allows you to correctly prioritize the development. Of course, there will be a wide variety of suggestions and complaints. Someone wants his lunapark, and someone wants cats and dogs. Definitely, you don’t need to immediately run and implement what the players ask you to. I communicate with players on social networks, and there are separate topics where you can leave feedback, suggestions or report an error.
Then I select the most significant offers and offer the players themselves to determine what needs to be added to the game in the first place. For example, I did a simple Google-based survey of a form in which 200 people participated. This gave answers to the most important questions that were before me at that moment. By the way, for participating in the survey, players received cookies to make everyone happy.
In our game, users can exchange coupons with each other in which there are loans, resources and other things. For example, I go into the post office building and choose that I want to send a parcel with 1000 concrete to the player with the index 12,600. The game takes 1000 concrete from me and gives out a coupon, for example GMR6T. I can tell this coupon to the player with the city index of 12600. If he enters it in the post office, he will receive 1000 concrete. Simple, original, and does not require a network connection.
In our groups on social networks, we publish random coupons every day. This simple way attracts new players to groups and creates activity in them. Well, players get a new topic for communication every day, because comments are open. Under the cut, they exchange coupons, ask and answer questions. Someone even tried to sell some kind of junk, but got a ban.
Of course, everyone is interested in numbers. At the time of writing, the game has more than 1,500,000 installations: 1,000,000 on Google Play and more than 500,000 on the App Store. Unfortunately, I can’t disclose the total income. Income distribution: 45% on the App Store, 15% on Google Play, 40% on both platforms (UnityAds + Chartboost).
As always, I will be happy to chat with you in the comments, so ask questions! Thank you for your attention and good luck in the development!
Development
I’ll briefly talk about the development, because I already wrote about it in the previous article “Optimizing the game on Unity and dev story Tap Tap Builder” . Tap Tap Builder is a simple city builder with clicker elements. We have one person in the development team, it's me. The game is written on the Unity engine and the C # language. The development of the prototype took 3 months, and the game was first shown at GamesJamKanobu 2016. The game fell into a selection of interesting projects, where it was noticed by the publisher Herocraft. A month later, Tap Tap Builder went to softlaunch (Google Play Russia), and another six months later a world release took place. The total development time was about 1 year.
Work with the publisher
I am 100% satisfied with the collaboration with Herocraft, without them nothing would have happened. I had a chance to work with very qualified producers - Sergey Kopov and Sergey Manucharyan. Game development is constantly headed in the right direction. Feedback was tracked for all tasks, analytics and communication with players were actively used. In addition, I express special thanks to the entire QA Herocraft department for their help with testing!
Fichering
Useful contacts are essential in promoting games. That is why large publishers have the opportunity to get featured in game stores. Of course, the game must meet many criteria in order for the store to put it on its display window. And it is communication with store representatives that allows you to determine the conditions necessary for this. For example, Google asked us to bring all of their gaming services to the main screen. They were also asked to perform localization in the main languages (DE, FR, IT, ES), in addition to EN / RU. Apple wants to see big content updates, especially tied to different events (for Christmas, for example). Alas, without a publisher one would only have to guess what stores would be of interest to.
We had featured on the App Store and Google Play. At this time, the game should get as many settings as possible in order to “stake out” a place in the category of games. For example, in the App Store it turned out about 300,000 installations during phishing, and in Google Play - about 600,000.
Game rating
The average score of the game at all sites is 4.5 points, which is considered a very high score. In addition, the sites themselves spoke well about the game and are ready to help the project in the future. To a large extent, this was influenced by the fact that the target audience of the game was very wide. Tap Tap Builder is played by girls of 6 years old and boys of 40 years old.
Future plans
The easiest way to promote is reaching a new audience. Now I am working on a browser version of the game (WebGL, HTML5) for the social networks Facebook and Vkontakte. There are plans to publish on popular gaming platforms with games for browsers. Steam is also in the pipeline. At the same time, I am releasing content updates and expanding social functions. So there is enough work.
Interesting Facts
Further I will tell you some funny facts that greatly influenced the success of the game.
Game icon
The game icon is what the potential player sees first. It is for her that the player makes the decision - go and download the game, or scroll through.
At the very beginning, I had a rather simple icon with a city cut out of a banner. The publisher very often chooses the icon himself, and then I did not resist. In many games, the icon has the face of the character, with which many players, in theory, should associate themselves. 4 characters were painted. Boy and girl, since the game is focused largely on children's audiences. There was a sexy blonde, but there were no curvaceous. Although this trick really works in many other games. And finally, there was a brutal man-builder, from whom no one expected anything special.
Firstly, I showed the icons to the players in the VKontakte group. By that time, there were already several thousand players in it. Secondly, we launched AB testing on Google Play to determine which icon is more effective. Both experiments gave the same result - the brutal man unexpectedly became the face of the game for us. My explanation is simple - even a little girl who plays a construction simulator imagines herself a hefty uncle in a helmet.
Communication with players
Chatting with players is the easiest way to find out what they want. This allows you to correctly prioritize the development. Of course, there will be a wide variety of suggestions and complaints. Someone wants his lunapark, and someone wants cats and dogs. Definitely, you don’t need to immediately run and implement what the players ask you to. I communicate with players on social networks, and there are separate topics where you can leave feedback, suggestions or report an error.
Then I select the most significant offers and offer the players themselves to determine what needs to be added to the game in the first place. For example, I did a simple Google-based survey of a form in which 200 people participated. This gave answers to the most important questions that were before me at that moment. By the way, for participating in the survey, players received cookies to make everyone happy.
Coupons
In our game, users can exchange coupons with each other in which there are loans, resources and other things. For example, I go into the post office building and choose that I want to send a parcel with 1000 concrete to the player with the index 12,600. The game takes 1000 concrete from me and gives out a coupon, for example GMR6T. I can tell this coupon to the player with the city index of 12600. If he enters it in the post office, he will receive 1000 concrete. Simple, original, and does not require a network connection.
In our groups on social networks, we publish random coupons every day. This simple way attracts new players to groups and creates activity in them. Well, players get a new topic for communication every day, because comments are open. Under the cut, they exchange coupons, ask and answer questions. Someone even tried to sell some kind of junk, but got a ban.
The main question is the numbers
Of course, everyone is interested in numbers. At the time of writing, the game has more than 1,500,000 installations: 1,000,000 on Google Play and more than 500,000 on the App Store. Unfortunately, I can’t disclose the total income. Income distribution: 45% on the App Store, 15% on Google Play, 40% on both platforms (UnityAds + Chartboost).
Advice
- Read the right books! For example, Eric Rhys - BUSINESS FROM ZERO. Like many of you, I do not like reading books. I’m already reading this for the third month) Nevertheless, for myself I find this activity very useful.
- Connect with the community and make connections. Listen to the opinions of respected people.
- Replay all the best games in the category in which you are going to work. Make a list of the advantages and disadvantages of each of them. Spend some time analyzing the information.
- And the last, but most important thing - believe in yourself and move towards the goal!
Conclusion
As always, I will be happy to chat with you in the comments, so ask questions! Thank you for your attention and good luck in the development!
