Blotty Pots - Chain Reaction
Monkey Archive Forums/Monkey Projects/Blotty Pots - Chain Reaction
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| Hi all, after some fighting with Monkey and several platforms I'm very proud to show you my first finished Monkey project: Blotty Pots It's a turn based strategy game where you fill pots and try to conquer all of them. If one pot is full it will overflow into the neighbor ones which often leads to nice chain reactions. Some screenshots:      Playable demo (here in the app section) and links to all markets (well Android, iPhone and Windows Phone) will follow! There will be a free version with ads (Admob) and a full version without ads. I'd like to share all my stats (downloads, sales, Admob income). This might be interesting for some of you, especially as I do this for all three platforms. I haven't seen such comparisons yet, so this might lead to some surprises. ;) We'll see! Playable demo: Blotty Pots Lite Android Market: Lite version: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.cobblecrowd.blottypotslite Full version (0,99€): https://market.android.com/details?id=com.cobblecrowd.blottypots iPhone Appstore: Lite version: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blotty-pots-lite/id483547456 Full version (0,79€): http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blotty-pots/id483523341 Windows Phone Marketplace: Lite version: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/c554fbb4-dded-4e3e-9410-b0663047ac51 Full version (0,99€): http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/9fad3131-2e4d-41fb-871e-55cf930e13bf |
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| Congratulations for the release. And I am very curious about your stats you have planned to release. |
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| Thanks! I've added a link to a playable demo. |
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| The graphics are well done. Especially the ones in the menu. Do you rent your artist:-) ? |
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| It's a very talented woman I work with. :) |
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| Alright. It's in the Android market already. :) Lite version: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.cobblecrowd.blottypotslite Full version (0,99€): https://market.android.com/details?id=com.cobblecrowd.blottypots Next will be iPhone and Windows Phone but their reviews may take some time... |
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| Yeah, very impressed. Lovely artwork and nice interface. I managed to win a game but wasn't quite sure how! :) |
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| Thanks! :) Alright, after day 1 I have so far 49 downloads of the lite version and 2 sales. Hehe. Not that bad for the beginning. Admob shows 286 impressions with a revenue of incredible $0.04! YAY! Windows Phone and iPhone versions are submitted and are being reviewed. |
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| 49 downloads of the lite version and 2 sales Thats 4%. Very good. I've checked several lite und full versions of games yesterday, and the ratio was somewheree between 1-5%. |
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| Well ok, It's a bit early to rate those numbers. But what's most interesting to me is, that one of the sales comes from Japan, the other from Denmark. LOL. |
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| Ok, I worked on the AI in level hard and it should play better now. Updates have been submitted to all markets. The HTML5 version is up to date as well. NEWS: The windows version got approved. YAY! (But unfortunately it still has a small bug and the weaker AI, have to wait for the approval of the update) Lite version: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/c554fbb4-dded-4e3e-9410-b0663047ac51 Full version (0,99€): http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/9fad3131-2e4d-41fb-871e-55cf930e13bf Statistics so far for Android: Free version: 72 installations, 46 active Paid version: 4 installations, 3 active Admob Android: Revenue: $0.54 Requests: 477 eCPM: $1.15 Fill rate: 99.16% RPM: $1.14 |
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| I love it, I think you have a real winner here!!! However... and it's a small "however", but the "Yeah!" guy after I win didn't feel right. Cheapened the experience for me a bit. I was expecting trumpets to sound, or cheering maybe, but I'm not sure who that was talking to me :) Otherwise, on my Galaxy Tab 7", the Lite version is really fun. |
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| Thanks! I've submitted a bugfix right now, the AI level selection did not work correctly so you could end up in the easy mode even though you've selected the hard one. lol |
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| Very cool. "Yeah" is indeed a bit dry. I love the background on the menus that is continuing on the whole set of screens and the crossing of the options with a chalk-like sound. |
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| Alright, thanks! Will see if I find something better than this YEAH. ;) I've updated the HTML5 demo as well. Should work better now regarding the AI. |
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| Interesting notes about reviews. The Windows market clientele seems to be "special". http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/c554fbb4-dded-4e3e-9410-b0663047ac51 I mean I know that in the Android market you usually rate something as crap with 1-2 stars, rate it as good with 4-5 stars or don't rate it anyway. But a 2-3 rating with a comment "Good not my kind of game", I mean WTF? LOL Secondly, I still have no reports for the Windows market. Seems to be delayed due to whatever reasons... Statistics so far for Android: Free version: 77 installations, 49 active Paid version: 7 installations, 5 active Admob Android: Revenue: $0.68 Requests: 663 eCPM: $1.03 Fill rate: 99.40% RPM: $1.03 |
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| I bought the full version, and I didn't notice the problem with "Hard" because I'm struggling with "Medium", ha :) Thanks for the update. I'll probably buy it for my iPhone once it's on iOS too because I don't always have my Android with me when I need a quick puzzle game to play. Did you have to jump through any hoops to create the version you submitted to the iOS App Store? I read in another thread you have to create a special armv6 target or something... or were you able to just do everything from XCode once you created the iOS build in Monkey? |
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| Thanks benmc! :) I just took tons of screenshots on my Mac to make a good step by step guide. If you know what to do it's rather straight forward. You have to build for both targets (so architecture must be set to armv6 AND armv7) but surprisingly that was the default in OS Lion but NOT in Snow Leopard... Well oh well... |
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| Good morning all! The first stats from Windows market are there, they are always a week behind. And there's a surprise, 18 sales, that's more than for Android where I have 7 now. Looks like one should not underestimate the power of Windows. LOL Statistics so far for Android: Free version: 90 installations, 50 active Paid version: 7 installations, 5 active Admob Android: Revenue: $0.75 Requests: 791 eCPM: $0.96 Fill rate: 99.49% RPM: $0.95 CTR: 1.14% Statistics so far for Windows 7 Phone: Free version: 1 (?? can't believe that) Paid version: 18 The iPhone version still waits for review... Oh that sucks! :D Oh and I've discovered I great tracking site. Forget AppFigures, check that out: http://www.distimo.com You can track everything there, all 3 markets, Admobs and so on! |
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| Ok, the Windows Phone numbers have been updated. Now it shows 1399(!) downloads for the free version. WTF?! |
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| Nice WP numbers, I really need release my game on Windows Marketplace too :) |
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| Finally the iPhone version got approved, YAY! http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blotty-pots/id483523341 BUT... the lite version got rejected, lol. Reason: We found that your app appears to be a pre-release, test, or trial version with a very limited feature set. Apps that are in beta form, or that are for demonstration or trial purposes only, are not appropriate for the App Store and are not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines. When the user launches the app an taps on either 'One Player' or 'Two Player' modes we see messaging for 'Full Version' availability. Please refer to the attached screenshot/s for more information. It would be appropriate to remove any references to "demo", "trial", "beta", or "test" in your application description and release notes, and from within the app; and to complete, remove, or fully configure any partially implemented features. Now that's rather interesting. I didn't know that this isn't allowed... Well ok, they even reject apps if you disable buttons, did you know that? So functions which are not available should NOT be displayed... |
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| Incredible good news! Apple has our game now in their New&Noteworthy section, at least in the following countries: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Malta, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia JACKPOT! :D |
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| Statistics so far for Android: Free version: 101 installations, 56 active Paid version: 8 installations, 6 active Admob Android: Revenue: $0.88 Requests: 1,061 eCPM: $0.84 Fill rate: 99.62% RPM: $0.83 CTR: 1.14% Statistics so far for Windows 7 Phone: Free version: 1,780 Paid version: 18 Statistics so far for iPhone: Free version: still in review Paid version: 8 |
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| Ok, time for some enhanced stats and graphs. Windows Phone 7 (click on the images to enlarge them)   Android    iPhone Still too early to show some graphs. 8 Sales, 7 from Germany, 1 USA. |
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| Time for an update. Yesterday I had a promo where the paid iPhone version was featured in the AppventCalendar. Saturday evening I set it to free (around 8PM GMT/UTC) which lead to 158 downloads. And then sunday came: 1700 WOW! If that has an impact regarding the sales we'll see the next days. Otherwise the Windows Phone 7 version is still the burner and on the Android front there is no much movement. Statistics so far for Android: In store since: 25-Nov-2011 Free version: 114 installations, 66 active Paid version: 9 installations, 8 active Revenue so far: $8 Admob Android: Revenue: $0.94 Requests: 1,266 eCPM: $0.75 Fill rate: 99.68% RPM: $0.75 CTR: 1.11% Statistics so far for Windows 7 Phone: In store since: 29-Nov-2011 Free version: 2,170 Paid version: 24 Revenue so far: $18 Statistics so far for iPhone: In store since: 06-Dec-2011 Free version: still in review Paid to free promo: 1,858 Paid version: 10 Revenue so far: $6 Overall revenue so far: $32 Admob revenue so far: $0.94 |
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| Very interesting to follow these stats. Congrats on the placements! |
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| I'm curious if the "free" promotion did anything at all. From everything I've heard, being free for a day just gets all the bargain hunters, but the next day just returns to normal. I'm definitely going to check out Windows Phone however, that looks rather promising. |
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| Finally Apple approved the lite version, phew: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blotty-pots-lite/id483547456 The ranking has been improved as well!  |
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| Update! The lite version for iPhone got finally approved. :) So I can now start to show Admob for Android as well. For Windows Phone I will likely integrate the Microsoft solution (their own ad service) In short: The Android version looks dead. Windows is still the best and iPhone catches up! Statistics so far for Android: In store since: 25-Nov-2011 Free version: 123 installations, 62 active Paid version: 9 installations, 8 active Revenue so far: $8 Admob Android: Revenue: $1.14 Requests: 1,457 eCPM: $0.78 Fill rate: 99.73% CTR: 1.10% Statistics so far for Windows 7 Phone: In store since: 29-Nov-2011 Free version: 2,323 Paid version: 27 Revenue so far: $20 Statistics so far for iPhone: Full version in store since: 06-Dec-2011 Lite version in store since: 12-Dec-2011 Free version: 123 Paid to free promo: 2,002 Paid version: 18 Revenue so far: $12 Admob iPhone: Revenue: $0.36 Requests: 177 eCPM: $2.42 Fill rate: 84.18% CTR: 7.38% Overall revenue so far: $40 Admob revenue so far: $1.50 |
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| interesting.. In short: The Android version looks dead. Windows is still the best and iPhone catches up! Is Windows popular due to the limited number of apps so far on their market? |
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| Rich, I think so. They have 1.5% market share but still have the most downloads there AND the worst reviews. LOL. |
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| When I first put my apps on Android, the Market was really weak, they had just recently made it possible to sell apps. Our sales started to fall when the Market became saturated. However, for me personally, I found the key to having a successful game is its ability to come up in a search. My puzzle games were by far the hardest to get noticed because I failed to give them a proper theme. They were just puzzles. What I mean is, I don't think anybody is searching for tiles, squares, or spinning tiles (in the case of my puzzle game). Is anyone searching for paint cans, or blots? I had a bubble popping game that was not getting any downloads. I then added a sports theme, a pets theme, and some others, and could market it as having basketball, football, baseball, kittens and puppies in it, and I started coming up in a lot of searches and my free downloads went up. Plus, it was completely legitimate because I took the time to add those themes to the game. I just happened to come up in sports and pets searches now because of the work I put in. I don't know if this kind of thing still works since the Market is so saturated now. My experiment worked over a year ago. Just thinking out loud. |
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| i did something similiar with a couple of free apps i uploaded and got many more downloads on android than your blotty pots Even though blotty pots is much better than my attempts.Its all down to a good name and icon.You cant really go far wrong if you put the word jewel in a puzzle game.I think your game deserves many more downloads on android. Also i luv reading your stats ive just invested in a windows phone as that market looks very interesting. |
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| Thanks guys, these are very helpful hints. I will launch an update within the next days with an improved AI and will change the keywords then. You're right the name and keywords are essential, I made to less effort into this yet. |
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| Hi, How did you get the stats table above? Thanks Paul |
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| Don't overuse keywords, it could be considered keyword spam and maybe even get you removed from the markets / app stores. All I did was thoroughly describe my application, and I happened to have a lot of things in it that were keyword friendly for searches. For example, when the Android Market finally allowed 4000 characters in the description, I wrote about a paragraph or more about each game mode in my game, trying to cover every possible way it could be played. Just note that each Market or App Store has a terms of service and content policy, and they may have rules regarding keywords and such that you still must follow. |
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| @dooz: You mean the ranking? It's from AppAnnie. @benmc: Yep, thought about this as well. Today there will be a press release launch via PRMac and I will expand the description. Thanks for that! :) |
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| New description is there. :) |
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| Update again. Press release for iPhone went out yesterday via PRMac: http://prmac.com/release-id-35720.htm Now as I have Admob running in iPhone as well there are new stats for this as well. eCPM is much better until now but this might change of course. Fill rate is worse. Windows is still leading the field with 28 sales, followed by iPhone with 21 sales and Android with 10. Well I've changed the description a lot and think this might help a bit. The main problem is to be found in the market! Statistics so far for Android: In store since: 25-Nov-2011 Free version: 134 installations, 62 active Paid version: 10 installations, 6 active Revenue so far: $8 Admob Android: Revenue: $1.30 Requests: 1,576 eCPM: $0.83 Fill rate: 99.75% CTR: 1.21% Statistics so far for Windows 7 Phone: In store since: 29-Nov-2011 Free version: 2,436 Paid version: 28 Revenue so far: $22 Statistics so far for iPhone: Full version in store since: 06-Dec-2011 Lite version in store since: 12-Dec-2011 Free version: 155 Paid to free promo: 2,002 Paid version: 21 Revenue so far: $12 Admob iPhone: Revenue: $0.97 Requests: 286 eCPM: $4.12 Fill rate: 82.52% CTR: 9.75% Revenue so far: $45 Admob revenue so far: $2.28 |
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| Is it just me or are these numbers astoundingly dismal? What does that equal out to, 25 cents an hour for the work you put in? 50 cents? Of course this will continue over time but for how long? If you're looking at $400 or so for the life of the product that is still extremely depressing. How much marketing did you do on this product? Is it in the portals? All in all, wow... :( Actually I guess that's not too terrible considering it's your first month, you probably didn't do much marketing and the name doesn't communicate anything about the product... |
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| Yes, it's a bit disappointing! I did not much marketing except PrMac. 2012 has come. Happy new year to all! Here comes an update again. Android moved a bit for the free version, Windows still leading but iPhone's catching up. Admob for iPhone works surprisingly well and I've added ads for Windows Phone! Statistics so far for Android: In store since: 25-Nov-2011 Free version: 184 installations, 91 active Paid version: 10 installations, 7 active Revenue so far: $8 Admob Android: Revenue: $1.53 Requests: 2,344 eCPM: $0.66 Fill rate: 99.36% CTR: 1.16% Statistics so far for Windows Phone 7: In store since: 29-Nov-2011 Free version: 2,612 Paid version: 32 Revenue so far: $29 Microsoft Ads for Windows Phone 7: Revenue: $1.20 Requests: 1,400 eCPM: $0.85 Statistics so far for iPhone: Full version in store since: 06-Dec-2011 Lite version in store since: 12-Dec-2011 Free version: 211 Paid to free promo: 2,002 Paid version: 24 Revenue so far: $16 Admob iPhone: Revenue: $2.36 Requests: 515 eCPM: $5.45 Fill rate: 84.27% CTR: 10.14% Revenue so far: $53 Admob revenue so far: $4.58 Microsoft ad revenue so far: $1.20 |
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| We got featured in the Top Overall section for Windows Phone! Don't know yet what this exactly mean though... |
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| Ok, some more statistics: Admob Geo Stats:  Android platforms:  Android devices:  Android countries:  Distimo Overview (all stores):  I think I'll continue that in a more generic section in the general discussion to not bump my project thread here all the time... |
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| Got a few reviews including videos! :) http://www.androidappsreview.com/2012/02/01/blotty-pots-android-app-review/ http://www.theiphoneappreview.com/2012/01/blotty-pots-iphone-app-review/ |
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| And another review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGzbebd7ssM |
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| HA! Big Fish Games has now published our game! :) http://www.bigfishgames.com/online-games/15848/blotty-pots/index.html |
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| Is this why the screenshots were removed, do they become the official publisher and it's taken out of your hands? I was never sure how their system worked, but on iOS, it seems like I see multiple Big Fish Games featured all the time. |
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| No. We just had to remove any links and mail addresses. The publishing is only related to the Flash version. I was not interested in their app publishing stuff. Might be worth a second thought. They just did a one time payment to me. |
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| Would you be able to put anything in there like "available on the app store", etc, but not link to it? The exposure seems very cool, but if you could leverage that so people could play it on the go, that would be huge. |
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| Might be a good idea, indeed! Maybe it already helps without this change. :) |
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| Congrats on the BFG flash release :) BTW How did you add the loading screen? And nice Monkey plug (along side JundgleIDE) too - LOL! |
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| Hehe thanks. For the loading screen I use my own mechanism where I just load the splash screen, display it and load the other stuff after that. Nothing special here. ;) |
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