Outwitters' low revenue - Marketing suggestions and ideas for OML

[Ravernoth]

*Please add ideas, I'll consolidate them in this post*
Updates are marked with *new*

Edit: Updated (1b) Business model, (4) App Icon, (5c) App Description, (7) Speed/Semi-realtime Games

I was pretty stunned to read OML's blog post and the Wired article about how little revenue Outwitters has generated.

The figures are: 500,000 downloads, $300,000 in costs, 18 months development... and $40,000 revenue

That's a very poor reward for Alex and Adam for creating this brilliant game. From the sounds of it, OML will continue to support the game, and the new team is part of their efforts, but I think we know that they can't work for free, and I'm concerned about the future of Outwitters.

I propose we put our marketing heads together here and help to save the game. I'll consolidate ideas here.

Here are some suggestions to OML:

Ideas to increase revenue per player

1) Change the business model

a) Make it a paid app - Example: Great Big War Game, $2.99

• All teams are included
• Release Demo version
  

b) Keep it free

• Raise price of Uber pack to $6.99
• Unlock teams by playing and winning X league games, or paying
• Add advertising that is removed upon a purchase
• *new* - Add advertising that appears after 20 games without a purchase
• *new* - Restrict free users to friendlies - League is a premium feature for paying customers only
• *new* - Add a Donation feature in the app, reflected by different levels of flags on bases
  

2) More add-ons (applicable to both models):

• Avatars for the game list (instead of the map image)
• Special team colours
• Skins - skin just the special units, and do overlays to make it easier to add. E.g. Hats that can go on a Mobi/Scrambler/Bombshell
  

*new*
3)Increase game 'stickiness'

• Integrate the forum into the app. Maybe auto-register a user for the forum
• Show a player's overall percentile ranking - notification when he moves up, e.g. "You are in the top 25% of Outwitters players in the world"
• Run official tourneys - or what's simpler - officially recognize community tourneys like the World Cup, and offer prizes or get companies to sponsor prizes
  

Ideas to increase downloads:

4) Change the icon (suggestion: Feedback soldier)

I think a picture of one of the units will draw people much more than the current icon. Compare the icon with competitors icons:



The current icon is too abstract - something more representative of the game would be better. Any of Adam's great unit art would be better.

In my opinion the Feedback soldier looks cool and would appeal to a large proportion of the strategy gamer demographic.


5) Multiply your downloads by improving your app description in the App Store!

I do online marketing and this is a huge point of leverage. You frequently have only seconds to engage a reader.

This description is your salesperson. Imagine a person sitting in front of you - would you really start with a quote from Stephen “Cheesedip” Donahue?

The person has tons of things on his mind, limited space on his iPhone, and 30 games already installed and waiting to be played. You have to convince him that it's worth the time and pain to install and try out Outwitters!

If you convert 5% of readers to downloads now, and increase this to 8% by rewriting your description (entirely possible), that's a 60% increase in revenue.

*new*
a) Tell readers that you are an Apple Editor's Choice for strategy games, that you have half a million downloads, all the accolades you've won, you've been featured in all the various sections, etc etc.

b) Outwitters has a ton of glowing reviews - show snippets and ratings in the description!

Win the reader's trust with third party approval - make them feel compelled to try the game.

Which is going to get you a download:


★ Recently featured as Noteworthy, What's Hot and Staff Favorite!

★ "Bite size strategy you can't put down" - Touch Arcade, 4.5 Stars

★ "It's a ridiculous amount of fun" - 148Apps, 5 Stars; Editor’s Choice

★ "What’s important is that you download this ridiculously free app for your iOS device immediately" - Penny Arcade

★ "The game looks great, and the diverse amount of units allow for some really creative play." - Nine Over Ten, 5 Stars

OR

“Outwitters is a lean, mean, robot-destroying, teddy bear shredding, fish filleting machine.” 
– Stephen “Cheesedip” Donahue

*new*
c) Add captions to your screenshots
Many readers will glance briefly at your text but most will look at the screenshots. By adding captions you have another opportunity to convince them.


*new*
6) Add AI, Single player functionality e.g. campaigns/challenges

This is a major change that would allow a relaunch, new pricing, new publicity, and attract a new audience.

For players wanting an instant fix.

This is a big task I know. AI or campaigns like Great Big War Game (which is doing very well revenue-wise) would be best and would widen the appeal of the game significantly.

An easier option is challenges/puzzles like Hero Academy offers, though I don't know how successful that has been.


*new*
7) Add 'Speed Games' or 'Semi-Realtime' Games with a time limit

This is a major change that would allow a relaunch, new pricing, new publicity, and attract a new audience.

Again, for players wanting an instant fix. There is a large audience of strategy gamers who just don't want to deal with waiting for a turn.

Then once they're hooked they may well see the appeal of async turns when they're busy.

• There could be say 2 options: 15 minutes per player, or 30 minutes per player
• The timer would work like a chess clock, i.e. once a player submits his turn, the other player's timer starts counting down
• The timer is on the server, i.e. it counts down whether the player is in or out of the app.
• The player receives a notification when it's his turn, e.g. "It's your turn with X, you have 12 minutes 25 seconds on your timer"
• When a player's timer runs out, he loses.
• OR another option is: When a player's timer runs out, he enters 'Sudden death' mode where he has say 45 seconds per turn
• If we want to help account for long games, we could add say 15 seconds to each player's timer per turn.
• Speed Games could have separate leagues and rankings, or use the same rankings (with a point adjustment if needed)
  

Things to do for us players:

1. Spread the word - tell your friends to download Outwitters
2. Purchase teams/upgrades if you haven't already
3. Add more ideas to this list
4. Leave a review for Outwitters in the App Store
   

[poweewee]

That reminds me, I haven't done a review yet. LOL anyway, what about letting the players start with a team (possibly a new one) that has a really crappy special unit? Maybe no special unit? A lot of people get by with the scallywags because they are not bad at all. In turn, there is no need for them to purchase the other teams.

[Ravernoth]

(10-13-2012 08:20 AM)poweewee Wrote:  That reminds me, I haven't done a review yet. LOL anyway, what about letting the players start with a team (possibly a new one) that has a really crappy special unit? Maybe no special unit? A lot of people get by with the scallywags because they are not bad at all. In turn, there is no need for them to purchase the other teams.

Good point - I've added that to the list.

[Syvan]

Well, with no special you are entering pay to win territory. I think these are great ideas for fans of the game, but selling improved multiplayer gear is generally distasteful. I would have never purchased anything if didn't have access to a competent special.

I'm sad they didn't recoup their development costs, this game has some pretty incredible features and I would have loved to see them extended.

[awpertunity]

(10-13-2012 08:50 AM)Syvan Wrote:  Well, with no special you are entering pay to win territory. I think these are great ideas for fans of the game, but selling improved multiplayer gear is generally distasteful.

That's not really true for newbies of the game. I know when I first started, it took quite a while before I actually started tactically deploying specials. Back then, I generally won without the use of any specials, and if I deployed one it was just to play around with it after I already knew I had one the particular game.

I even purchased the uber pack before I even knew how to use the specials properly. I don't think a free generic team without a special would be too bad in this respect. Furthermore, it would force currently good players who have not yet purchased anything to do so when they lose their precious precious bombshell.



That said, I think the easiest and fairly effective one to implement in the short term would be paying for colors in 1v1 matches! Yellow and Green skins already exist for 2v2 even, and I don't think it would be too difficult to add a few extra colors. I'm sure many people would pay a dollar or two just to have that extra option.

[blckace]

*grabs gf ipad, buys uber pack*
Writing this in a bit of a rush

i love this game and i would hate to see it die, it's by far my fav IOS game. It's not just a fun game, it looks so good also! I believe there's hope to save outwitters yet

I think they can't make it a paid app, because that would just make them seem greedy, purchase game and then purchase iap? Wouldnt work. And if they removed the iap then what about all the people who downloaded the game for free would they get the uber pack free? Wouldnt work

the best thing to do is limit the number of games a free player can play, for example after starting ten games you can't start any more games until you purchase something

A community would help sales if we can get the free users on the forums they would be more engaged and then convinced to buy, so make these forums a prominenet part of the app?

New modes! Here's an idea after a player reaches super titan level he has an option to opt in this mode, where any player from lower leagues can match against him/her without a penalty, it serves also to engage more users

Getting the word out about outwitters would be the best thing, can we get john gruber and other prominent apple bloggers to talk about this game? i believe that would help so much

[GoHeat 3]

Here's a suggestion! Make the app paid and have the teams unlockable. You could have them unlock when you get to a certain league, # of wins, or points!

[Necrocat219]

You could change the app as an update for any new players to the price of the über pack and have it awarded with it so that it deserves the tag of a quality game that it is.

[worldfamous]

Definitely change the icon. Everything about this game is great, except the icon. It's a total drag. An icon with any of the beautifully drawn characters would attract much more attention and interest. Unfortunately I think the bigger problem is the nature of the game. The masses just don't want to play strategy games and many that do, don't want to play against other people. I've talked to many app junkies that get excited when I tell them about one of the best games I've come across, only to be let down when I tell them they have to play against other humans and not a computer. With all the crap making money out there, it sure is frustrating to hear a game like Outwitters can't make it.

[AJaW96]

I think customisation is the way forward. Imagine if you could purchase additional team colours, such as purple or white or black. The alternate bases look sweet, so why not offer them as paid content? I saw flags mentioned somewhere, this could also be an avenue. Finally, you could offer substitute special units that could be used instead of the existing one. This gives us an opportunity to explore new strategies while supporting the game (without breaking the games balance).