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.

Hangman stats

Ok here goes

Downloads
Ad-Supported Version
Total: 3000+
Android Market: 1,032
Slideme.org: 1775
mobango.com: 395
The slideme.org version started great after being on the first page for 2 days, but version in the Android Market is catching-up. The mobango version was added later, however it does now appear first when the user searches for 'hangman'.

Paid Version
Total: 7
slideme.org: 5
Android Market: 2


Leadbolt Ads:
Now, I think I could improve the placement of ads in the game. As for money from the ads,(I have one banner ad on the title screen and then a wall ad that appears in between each game) it's certainly slowed down from the initial 2 or 3 dollars a day. It's been 12 days, and I'm earning between 0.06 to 0.60 $ a day.

Ad-revenue: $12.04
Paid: less than $3 (although I can only take the money from the android market sales at the moment ($1+), because slideme.org requires you to make $100 before you can take it out)

stats.not yet

I was thinking of giving stats of downloads of the free version and paid version everyday, but I think that is going overboard.

So, maybe I'll release them at the end of the week. So anyone in a similar position can have a good idea.

Stats First Day

I thought I'd release some stats.

I've released my games on the Android Market:
Sionco on Android Market

and on slide me (the slide me full version being slightly cheaper, as the android market as a limit on some countries)

Sionco on Slide me

It's been two days since I've released the paid app
and one and a day since I've released the ad supported free app

On slide me:
I've had 2 completed purchases of the full version
326 downloads of the free limited ad-supported version

on Android Market (of the first day and a half)
0 purchases
65 downloads of the free limited ad-supported version.

From the adds using two in-game adds from leadbolt.net, I've got 0.65$.


I think it's helped with slideme having newer apps on the front page, so it's got a lot more screen time.

But, as my first try at developing an Android game, I'm very happy with that!