2012: Review of the Year Part 1: My Android Games

This year I finished my first games and published them on the Google Play Store for android mobiles.  Although, I don't actually rate any of them as being any good (except for hangman for educational purposes), they have given me a useful introduction into the commercial side of game making and have allowed me to feel more confident for the future (as before 2012, I had NEVER finished a game).  They've also allowed me to pay the rent and buy a few beers.

Below, I have given the games that are available in the Android store my personal rating and then I'll show their total downloads for 2012.

My Scores
Hangman 6/10
Zombie Hell 4/10
Pixeloids   3/10
Zombie Infection Defender  2/10
PixelStrip 2/10
Don't Cry Ronaldo 1/10
Abramovich's Job 1/10
Stop Santa 1/10

The Penalty of Ramos  0/10
The Penalty of Messi 0/10


Free Downloads  (Total = 484,632)
The Penalty of Ramos:    238,965  :  (Released May 2012)

The Penalty of Messi 85,252  :  (Released May 2012)

Don't Cry Ronaldo:    59,980  :  (Released June 2012)

Zombie Infection Defender:    31,186  :  (Released March 2012)

Hangman:    27,636 :   (Released February 2012)

PixelStrip:    21,105  :  (Released February 2012)

Zombie Hell:    13,214 :  :  (Released May 2012)
Abramovich's Job:    3,804  :  (Released May 2012)
Stop Santa:    1,863  :  (Released December 2012)
Pixeloids:    1,627  :  (Released March 2012)

Obviously from the free downloads stats, you could probably imagine that the ones at the top made the most money from adverts and the ones at the bottom made only a little. Also, Santa was released on the 7th of December and was downloaded more times in December than Pixeloids was in 9 months, which shows that if your game doesn't look attractive, get any exposure or isn't relevant to any current subject it will probably die.



Total Downloads (Each Month of 2012)
February.  Downloads = 11,251
March.  Downloads = 19,889
April.  Downloads = 28,599
May.  Downloads = 225,884
June.   Downloads = 118,233
July.  Downloads = 60,420
August.  Downloads = 14,416
September.  Downloads = 15083
October.  Downloads = 14,350
November.  Downloads = 12,501
December.  Downloads = 23,745

Conclusion
From these stats, we can see that my worst apps made the most money by far.  So, even if you (like me with The Penalty of Ramos) make the worst game imaginable and only spend an hour on it, if you aim it at the right audience (in this case Spain) or target a popular subject at the right time, you can be relatively successful for a short period of time, such as The two 'Penalty of..' games where very successful for two months, and they quietened down.

Zombie Hell. Now available on Google Play for Android

My next game for Android mobile phones has been released, it's called Zombie Hell and is available here on the Google Play Store.

In the game you play a sole survivor of a zombie plague.  Use two different types of guns or a grenade to fight of the Zombies.

There are 13 levels and 5 different types of Zombies.

Download

El Penalti de Messi - La Leyenda del Larguero

I've released my second 'joke' game following the success of the Sergio Ramos Penalty game.  It's called The Penalty of Messi - The Legend of the crossbar.  This game is about the Champions League semi-final match between Barcelona and Chelsea where Lionel Messi took a penalty and hit the crossbar.  A penalty which could have won the game for Barcelona.

In the game, you are Messi and you have to hit the crossbar, if you miss or score a goal, you are deducted points.

Available here for free

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sionco.penaltidemessi


He lanzado mi segundo videojuego de bromeando tras el éxito del juego El Penalti de Ramos. Se llama La pena de Messi - La leyenda del Larguero. Este juego se trata de la Liga de Campeones semifinal entre el Barcelona y el Chelsea, donde Leo Messi tuvo un penalti y pegó en el larguero. Un penalti que podría haber ganado el partido para el Barcelona.


En el juego, Eres Messi y tienes que golpear en el larguero.

Disponible aquí gratis para los telefonos meviles de Android :

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sionco.penaltidemessi

Ads: Targeting other countries works!

I recently released a joke football game called El Penalti de Ramos (or The Penalty of Ramos) which is available here.  To be honest it's a very bad game, and I released it more as a joke about Sergio Ramos's Champions League Semi-final penalty miss against Bayern Munich where he kicked the ball high over the cross-bar.

In Spain the media were full of jokes about how Ramos missed the penalty, but in other countries this wasn't the case.  So, this app is targeted at Spain.

As usual I put ads from Leadbolt in the game and released it for free.  Now, I was disappointed by amount of downloads and lack of money from advertising in the first few days. But I don't know whether it was because of my Spanish blog post or something else, but for three days the amount of downloads has been between 200 and 700 a day, and I'm very pleased with the amount I have made so far from Leadbolt from this game.

It has meant that for 7 days, the main source of income from Leadbolt ads has been from Spain (before this it has been 80% from the USA).  While, I hope the this continues, this does prove that it is possible to have country specific apps that make money.

I can't recommend Leadbolt enough for your Android apps.  If you do sign up, please support me by signing up using this referral link:

http://leadboltapps.com/web/publishers/signup.php?ref=10031484

Hangman Android App/Game for sale on slideme

I've finally released my hangman Android game for sale.
While I'm waiting for it to appear on the Android market here is the link to the hangman app on the slideme website:

http://slideme.org/application/hangman-9

A description:

A game of classic hangman that is designed for both learners of the English language and native English speakers.

Currently featuring 18 different topics (with more topics to be added regularly)

Over 605 words (with more to be added in updates).

Also, if the google translate application is installed, the program will translate the word into your language, just by pressing the translate button at the end of a game.

If you are learning English this is the version of hangman to have. Created by a teacher of English.