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Ask HN: Any marketing advice for a recently released iPhone game?

7 points by evanmoran ↗ HN
My company Prophetic Sky just released an iPhone game called Spires. Like most of us hackers we are much better at making products then marketing them. Here is what we have so far:

Trailer: http://bit.ly/spirestrailer iTunes: http://bit.ly/getspires Website: http://www.propheticsky.com

Any thoughts on the trailer? Any suggestions for next steps?

The game has a pretty involved story with voice acting. Any ideas you have for marketing would be really appreciated!

6 comments

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brianwillis
Maybe buy some self-serve ads on Reddit? They're a relatively cheap form of promotion, and they've got a tech savvy community there.
uxp
Get a half dozen iTunes codes and post them in the Reddit thread as well. In my opinion, promoted ads on Reddit usually are plagued by Ad hating downvoters. Offering something for free breaks the "I'm just here to make money" barrier, and after all the codes get redeemed, you'll get a bit better return on sales of people who want to see what the game is like but were late to the thread so they'll end up buying it. If the game is good, they'll help get the word out.
evanmoran
These are really good ideas. Look for free reddit codes shortly=).

Does anyone else have ideas?

Shooter
Repurpose your blog posts into a series of articles and submit them to other iOS and gaming blogs. Write more about the creation of the game, including tech tips for other developers, design choices, what you learned, etc. Try to actually be informative, and not just focus on pimping your specific game or your company. Try to generalize to a broad audience... [Game developers tend to buy lots of games, and they also often write/review for the more mainstream media. Ideally, you'll get some good PR and make more sales - and, at worst, your networking will pay off in the future.]

I'm not a gamer at all, but I do read a few blogs about the gaming market and iOS development. I've actually purchased games (that I never actually play) just based on interviews and wanting to support people that have taught me something. Just this week, for example, I bought three games from one publisher (Mika Mobile) based on a couple of blog entries I had read on an iOS games blog. I gave the games to my wife, but it was learning a new technique from one of the developers that prompted me to make the purchases.

benologist
Port it to Flash - Flash games can do millions of plays, the larger ones I track do 10s of millions. If it's in Unity then publish a web version of it and get it up on Kongregate.com, and see if you can't get it on some other big arcade portals too.

If you go with Flash or a web version in Unity drop me an email, your game looks awesome and I can introduce you to a lot of the right people.

Another thing you might keep in mind is if you really, really suck at it let someone else handle it for you - I know Addicting Games (MTV / Viacom) have a service for that, and there's sure to be others.

solipsist
prMac (http://prmac.com/) is a must have for any iOS developer. They do a great job of publishing your press releases and getting them picked up by blogs or newspapers. Their customer service is also the best I've experienced. You can even get them to write a professional press release for you and send it to an extended number of publications, all for a low price.

Technology, hacker, or iPhone blogs are also a great place to notify about your app. Use Got O.A.T.S.? (http://www.gotoats.org/) to find the blogs that have the best ethics and will never do paid-for-reviews. Make sure to send each of the blogs listed on that page a friendly email with photos, video, promo codes, and a description of your app. Only a small percentage will review it, so don't be afraid to write to dozens of blogs.

Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and other social sites are also good marketing tools. Make good use of them.

Hope this information helps! Good luck!