Social Session is Seeing Some Action in Saudi Arabia, Romania, and the UK

So, it's been an interesting month watching Social Sessions' activity.

All of a sudden, I got a huge spike in Romania, Saudi Arabia, and the UK. I went from averaging about 5 users per day (mostly in the USA), to averaging closer to 20, with most of that due to those three countries. And for whatever reason, the new users have been almost exclusively on Android.

I took the opportunity to localize into Arabic for the audience in Saudi Arabia (just the Play Store, not the game itself).

Unfortunately, I haven't been successful in holding onto players, and I definitely haven't managed to monetize much. Players drop off quick after the first level of the game, with only about 10% of players continuing after that.

So, of course, a very small percentage of players are even getting to the point where the game asks for an upgrade (in the last month, only 3 have reached it, and none have purchased).

Social Sessions also gives you the opportunity to watch an ad in exchange for a free hint on how to beat a level. This feature has not been widely used either.

So, as I said, it's been interesting. I seem to have tapped into a fountain of downloaders who don't really end up liking the game, almost immediate. I had a much more gradual dropoff of users, relatively, when I was only getting 5 or so downloads a day.

It's possible that there's something off-putting about the first level. Maybe it's so easy that players don't think the game is going to be challenging. Maybe they see the suggestion to watch an ad and flee. Maybe the pace is too slow. Or maybe because the tutorial that appears on level 1 isn't localized into anything but English, and so users just exit (although I tried to make it as self-explanatory as possible).

I'm not sure, so I'm putting some extra thought into it right now. If you've got any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment.

Tough Crowd

Boy, it's tough trying to market a game. It's funny, it really seems like the gamer community is much more eager to fund a game that is in development, but that may or may not ever see the light of day, than to support a game that already exists. A post that says "hey, here's the latest alpha version of my game, check it out!" will gain way more interest than "hey, I released my game last week, check it out!"

It's weird, but I think it comes down to a couple of things.

First, I think we have this mentality that if something comes out that's absolutely amazing, we'll hear about it. Our friends will tell us, or we'll hear about it on the top gaming news sites. And so if you're telling me about a game that's already out, well, it obviously isn't THAT good, or else I'd have heard about it already.

Second, I think is just a much deeper human trait: potential is more exciting than a concrete thing. The woman or dude that walks by on the street, you imagine, would bring you far more happiness than the spouse you have now, surely. In other words, if the game isn't out yet, then my imagination is the only limit to how good it MIGHT be. I can still dream. But if the game is done and released, well then the result is concrete. It might be good, but it's still only "this" good, and can't possibly live up to my imagination.

We don't want to stop and realize that we're setting ourselves up to never be content and never enjoy anything in the present.

This may be a self serving post, but I've had a lot of time to sit and think about this as I sit and watch very few people download my game that I spent 2 years making, and I ponder how in the world do I break into this market without being one of the blessed big-name studios...?

Anyway, try it out. I think you'll like it.

Android store page

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hestergames.socialsessions

goo.gl/jbvIsC

iOS store page

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/social-sessions-game/id1066662142

goo.gl/5fU503

New Art

I hope you've been challenged by Social Session's puzzles. For most people who have played it, their response is quite positive. But here's the problem: the number of people who judge the book by its cover and never download the game is staggering. Only about 15% of people who view the game's app store page actually download the game. This is pretty low. And also, the number one critique I've gotten from people (that aren't my friends) is that it just looks bad.

Now, I'm not offended by this at all. I know I'm not an artist. I kind of thought the art would be okay because it's "simple", but in this case, simple just translated into "amateur" or "rushed" or "incomplete". And I'm understanding now, more and more, how important good art is for a game to be successful. It's like the sign on the front of your store. No one's gonna come into see what you offer if it looks bad on the outside, even if what's inside is great.

And I can't hold it against anyone, because, each of us is faced with a decision of which games to play, and when you have thousands of options at any given time, you have to judge a book by its cover. You just can't play them all and give a fair judgement. Unfortunately.

So, if you've played, thanks for looking past the "simple" art. But for all the others, I'm going to be looking into either purchasing some stock art, or getting someone to freelance some art for me.

Of course, the problem is that I don't really have a budget for it. I've spent several hundred dollars just getting the game done, and haven't made more than about 10 bucks on the game so far (it's a freemium game). It's hard to justify spending anything more on it. But I'll see if I can find something that's a lot of bang for buck.

Thanks for reading! #SocialSessionsGame

Marketing Social Sessions

Well, Social Sessions is now officially published. I'm no longer a game developer, I'm a marketer. ...nope nope nope, that's not true at all. I hate marketing. It goes back to the summer I tried to sell Kirby vacuum cleaners. TRIED. Never again. But for now, I don't want my development efforts to be wasted and not shared with the world, so alas, I will market however I can.

I started posting about my game to the community on Reddit. Some forums are hostile toward people "self-promoting" their own apps, and others are welcoming to it. Either way, that avenue quickly becomes exhausted. I sent about 150 emails in the last few days (no bulk email tools, just copy/pasting and changing names and email addresses by hand) to sites that review mobile games.

Wouldn't it be fun if there was a market for "local" indie games, the way there's a market for "local" music? Just go down and hang out at your local Cafe or bar and set up your game and let people walk up and play it with their friends. That would be cool. Someone needs to make that happen. Especially in a city like mine, Austin, where there are enough indie developers to warrant it.

Anyway, I've also been trying to use Twitter to spread the word. It's all a little disheartening. I really just want to make fun games, and let people discover them on their own... but I know that there are probably thousands of games out there that I WOULD like if I only KNEW about them... so that lets me know that I need to try as hard as possible to let people know about my game. The goal is to be "loud" enough to get the word to those who will actually enjoy my game, while not being so loud that I annoy everyone else.

Anyway, if you're reading this and you're one of those people that I'm trying to target (lovers of puzzle games, indie games, challenging games), go download Social Sessions on your phone today!

Live on iOS!

Social Sessions is now live on iOS and Android! Grab it! Play it! Enjoy it!

       

Social Sessions Promo Video

Moving toward first update since launch

Well, I've been getting a lot of great feedback from people coming out of the woodwork to help. This is greatly appreciated.

The first update that's going to come out of this is not anything that affects gameplay, but it'll give the game a little more character. I spent last night and tonight creating a system of speech bubbles that will appear in 3 different situations during a level: you've encouraged someone, you've discouraged someone, or you've taken too long to make a move and they're getting bored.

I've attempted to craft these to be at least a little bit humorous, and also attempted to balance the random values so they don't pop up so often to be annoying and repetitive.

Speaking of repetitive, the one thing I have left to do before I push this update out, is create a long list of these funny, short little quotes to avoid repetition, and keep the game fresh. Here are a few examples, for your reading pleasure:

When encouraging a patient:

• "Worth every penny"
• "You're just saying that"
• "Am I your favorite?"

When discouraging a patient:

• "Why am I paying you for this?"
• "It's all meaningless"
• "Maybe I don't get your humor"

When you're taking too long:

• "Should I go and come back?"
• "Are we still on the clock?"
• "I think I just fell asleep"

I hope this helps with keeping the game interesting (and maybe a little less frustrating on those harder levels). In case anyone is reading this... thanks for reading! 

48 hours after launch

Today wasn't quite as exciting as the day before, but then again I didn't spend all day posting about my app today like I did yesterday. I can, at least, celebrate the milestone of my first in-app purchase! I'm pretty sure it was a friend of mine, but I don't know who. Thanks to you, whoever you are!

Google shows that I have a total of 41 installs. And 8 ratings, with an average of 4.9 reviews (again, mostly from friends). I'm happy about the installs. Google shows your number of installs in increments. From 5 to 9 installs, it shows that you have "5" installs. From 10 to 49 installs, it shows that you have "10" installs. I'm excited about passing 50, because "50" is going to look a lot more credible than "10", even though I really have a lot more than 10.

I've been doing a lot more thinking about the feedback I'm getting. Multiple people have suggested I come up with ways of making the meta game more interesting, and adding some more "flavour" to the game. I'm considering adding in a little system where comment bubbles pop up over people's heads during a level with an excited or depressing comment when you do an action. I think I agree that it'll add a little something extra to the game. I'll have to channel my inner Strong Sad and come up with some depressingly hilarious comments to pop up occasionally.

Another thing that's been suggested, and that I've been thinking a lot about, are alternate ways for people to continue the game besides just a single upgrade purchase option. For example, the ability to watch ads to keep playing, or earn a resource that would allow you to unlock further levels. I actually like this idea. Because, really, all its doing is giving players more options. Instead of being totally locked out of more levels for those that don't want to pay, they still have the option to purchase and continue playing unobstructed, but this way they would have other options as well. I need to think more on this, though. My goal is for the best player experience, and NOT for maximum profits. I hate to see someone genuinely interested in the game, and then just drop it because they won't (or can't) pay for the upgrade. It's heart breaking. I want to give those people a chance to keep playing one way or another.

Hope you're enjoying the game!

24 hours after Android launch

So here I am. Nothing has exploded. 24 hours after launch. Life actually does just keep going.

I've had a slow-but-steady flow of installs throughout the day. Anywhere from 1 to 3 downloads per hour.

(If you're wondering, I'm using Game Analytics for metrics tracking. I'll post more about them later)

This download rate was actually pretty encouraging, as I hadn't exactly pulled out all the stops with trying to market myself. I basically blasted on Facebook, and to everyone at work, and on this blog, and on a few applicable subreddits. But other than that, I hadn't sent my app into any app review sites or anything like that. Partially, I want to see how it does, and if anything might need to be changed... and then also publish on iOS. Once I do that, I'll be blasting as hard as I can for sure!

I had a few people give me criticisms and advice, both of which were valuable. One person said they almost didn't download my game because of how horrible my icon was. I was honestly a little embarrassed. I was going for simplicity, but when I really thought about it, it did look pretty out of place in the app icon world. I spent some time tonight making an upgraded version. I wouldn't call myself an artist really, but I try.

There, that looks a little more appy.

Other advice related to adding some more interesting meta game, and adding ads in there somewhere. I'm on the fence about the ads thing. I don't want to annoy players, but... then again... most players will never cough up even a couple of dollars for an in-app purchase, and yet they're able to enjoy much of the game for free. It would be nice if I could benefit slightly from their enjoyment, while finding a way to do some very minimally intrusive monetization. I don't know. We'll see what happens.

I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking about how to advertise my app most effectively. Obviously, I don't want to pester everyone on places like Reddit (I may have done some of that today), but it's hard to find appropriate venues. I wonder if anyone has ever just gone out and stood on a physical street corner and told people about their game. Hmm... could be fun.

Anyway, I'm excited and anxious to see how downloads progress, and anxious to start working on getting on iOS.

My Facebook Post

Just thought I'd share what I posted on my Facebook, in case anyone is interested:

2 years ago, I had an idea for a game. In order to bring that idea to life, I learned programming and game development in Unity. Last month, I formed a company, Hester Games LLC, and today I launched my first mobile game on the Google Play Store.

But this isn't really a success story. Not yet. 20,000 apps are released every single month. Most of those are "zombie apps". No, it's not an app about zombies, it's an app that almost no one has ever played. If no one spreads the word, no one will find it or play it. I've spent at least a thousand hours, and hundreds of dollars from my own wallet to make it happen. I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but sometimes knowing how much time someone put into something helps you realize how important it might be to them that you at least give it a try.

Last year, many of you tried my game in a web browser, and I'm grateful for your participation. It was a great learning experience. The game was rough at that time, and I've spent the last year bringing it up to a better, more polished experience, so I hope you'll give it another go.

I'd love it if you'd download it and give it a try, but more importantly, share it with anyone you think might like it. The game is free to download, and offers 28 out of the 120 levels for free before asking for an upgrade, but playing it and sharing the link is honestly the most important thing right now.

Right now, it's only available for Android (phone or tablet), but I'll be sure to update when I release my iOS version, hopefully before Christmas!

Social Sessions is LIVE

Here's that thing I made:

I had to go out for a little while after publishing the game, so I held off on making any announcements to social media until I got back.

My plan now is to spread the word via:
- My own social media accounts
- Posts to Reddit, and things like that
- Messages to app reviewers to see if they'd like to give the game a try

The idea is to get it in front of as many people as possible (obviously). From what I've seen in user testing, over half of people who actually give the game a chance (as in, actually play it), find them selves sucked in and not wanting to put it down for at least 15 minutes on the first session. I know that the game isn't for everyone (for example, my wife won't play it because she hates puzzle games), so my goal is to cast the net as wide as possible.

I do wonder if publishing on Android and then iOS later will end up hurting me. My fear is that I make a big announcement to everyone I know, and the half that don't have an Android device hear me and are interested, but can't play it. Then, by the time I get it on iOS, they're not as excited about the idea because it's not new any more. I hope that's not the case.

Thanks for keeping up. If you're reading this, then the most important things you can do to help me is to give the game a try, leave me a rating, and share it with anyone you know that might like this kind of game.

Commemorating Me Hitting the "Publish" Button

It takes a little while to sync with the Google Play Store, but I just wanted to commemorate me hitting the "Publish" button on Hester Games' first title: Social Sessions

I have a slew of things to do once it's live to let people know "I exist!", but for now I will wait.

Localization, Clear Save Game, and Offline Play

I ran into a couple of things that I'm trying to slip in at the 11th hour (still trying to make my personally-imposed Sunday night deadline!).

First of all, I decided that I had enough friends from around the world, that I could probably localize my Google Play game description and summary into a couple of languages. I don't know what the pay-off for this is going to be, but it doesn't cost me anything to ask a few favors, and I hope it'll convince a few people to try my game. I imagine that if I was a non-English speaker, then I'd be at least more interested in trying out a game whose description I could understand. I'm not doing any localization of the game itself, though. That would be a much bigger task. My languages so far are English, Spanish, and Korean. I'm waiting on someone to see if they'll translate it into Japanese for me. I lived and taught English in South Korea for 3 years before getting into game development, so that helped me build relationships with people all over the world.

The other thing is a "clear save data" feature. I mean, this is a puzzle game, and you can always go back and replay earlier levels. I was resisting adding this because I didn't want someone to accidentally hit this button and then email me angrily wanting me to restore their data. Hopefully that won't happen, but I've decided it's worth throwing this in. I can imagine scenarios where maybe someone's spouse or kid wants to try the game on the same account, and wants to clear all progress so they have a fresh experience. So I'm gonna throw that in this weekend.

The third thing is offline play. Obviously, this isn't a game that requires the internet (except for the cloud save feature), but someone actually tried playing the game yesterday completely offline. Turns out that every time they completed a level, the Google Play Store login dialog appeared and asked them to try to log in, and then would of course fail because they were offline. Every time. So, I see now that I need to remember if the game doesn't log in on game start, and then not ever try to connect again that session.

Any changes this close to launch are dangerous, I know that all too well. Especially since these two changes affect save data. Dangerous stuff. I'm gonna try to get this done and over to my testers to get as much coverage as possible on it before Sunday.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Game Play sneak peek!

Hester Games... The Beginning!

Horray! Hester Games, LLC, exists, and is a real and legally verifiable entity! :D

This is exciting to me, but maybe not to you. What should be exciting to you is that I'm going to be making games you will hopefully find creative, compelling, and awesome!

Social Sessions (Hester Games' first game that will be released in the coming weeks on the Google Play Store, and soon after that on Apple's App Store) started a few years ago when I started to teach myself Unity game development and C# programming. Suddenly, my imagination came alive with ideas of what I could make! Social Sessions took form slowly, and went through several iterations. At first it was just an idea that I found intriguing, and surprisingly, hadn't seen anything else quite like it.

The puzzles were challenging, for sure. That was what I liked, but that was the main hurdle: getting people to grok the puzzles right away. Playing that balancing game between challenging and fun. Lots of people threw up their hands and said "I just don't get it!" So, with that in mind, I worked hard to give useful tips to the player along the way, and chose a progression of levels that would slowly introduce players to the more difficult concepts. Eventually I began to see that spark of determination in people's eyes when they really got it and were self-motivated enough to buckle down and solve the puzzles (and even try to get a 3-star rating on all the puzzles!).

I've spent the last 2 years developing this mostly in solitude, but I hope to connect with the community of gamers who might be interested in this or my future games, from now on.

I'll post more about Social Sessions more specifically (video soon!), and also keep you updated during and after launch, but for now, here's a rough draft of the Play Store description:

Be the therapist you always knew you could be and try to make all your patients happy by manipulating their feelings and relationships!
Social Sessions is a group-therapy-themed game that will seriously challenge your puzzle-solving abilities. Make your way through the calendar as you right the wrongs in each group of dysfunctional relationships. Push yourself to perfection by figuring out how to solve each session in the most efficient way.
Then, just when you start finding your groove, you'll be challenged by four new special level types, introduced each new week in your therapist's calendar.

 Leave a comment if this sounds like something you'd like to play!