A project that we completed this week for DPPLR and SOS Kinderdorpen that we really would like to point out is SOSR.nl!
SOSR is a bazaar of favors where users can buy and sell practical, funny, or sweet favors to each other. Either 10% or 100% of the collected the money will go to SOS Kinderdorpen. The goal of the site is to generate enough money to build a real children's village in Africa.
The site is mainly build on HTML and Ajax-technology, and has narrow integration with several popular social media platforms. Flash has been used sparsely and appropriately. All content, favors, sales and user administration can easily be accessed and edited by a CMS.
The site is currently in beta to iron out the last bugs, and will be released to the greater public at the start of August.
Last month we constructed http://www.innovatieopdewerkvloer.nl/ for the Dutch NedTrain. The site went live two weeks ago. Unwind has been responsible for making the design interactive, and integrating the different content types. The site features a full screen player, the video content was provided by Campus.tv.
Client: Isabel http://www.isabel.nl
Out of our original press release from March new reviews of Dwindle are still dripping in. In the past two months we have seen reviews from sites in France, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom and the US. And so far each of them have been extremely positive! Take for instance these two gems:
"Some apps definitely deserve to be on the Top 25 in the App Store list and have the potential to. Dwindle falls under that category. It will wear your hands down to little stubs only if you get addicted, but it’s hard not to!"
-Appmodo.com
"Dwindle is horribly addicting–when you finally lift your head from the screen, don’t be surprised to find that a couple of hours have passed and you’re nursing a strangely sore drawing finger.
-Appsafari rating: 5/5"
So we got the game right, deserve to be in the Top 25, but currently we are still not even close to being in the Top 500. Although we see daily sales, with some nice encouraging spikes in the weekends, the development costs of the game have simply not been compensated for yet.
What's up?
Exposure is still our main problem. Out of the millions of potential customers only a few know of the existence of our game. We have various cards up our sleeves which we will play out the coming months. Our first will be experimenting with a cliche 'lite'-version. Although we expect the lite version will run into the same basic problem, how do we point it out to the greater public a lite version exist in the first place? Itunes is a complex landscape and there are no simple answers, magic formula's, or winning recipe's. I know we had a lot of presumptions on how things would develop and the majority were wrong for various reasons. We do know it's trial and error and learning a lot in the process.
Anyhow it are exciting times to be part of and we will report on it!
References:
AppModo: <http://appmodo.com/17728/dwindle-app-review-for-iphone-and-ipod-touch-one-of-my-favorite-new-games/>
AppSafari: <http://www.appsafari.com/games/11451/dwindle/>
Last week we attended Indigo 2010, it was marketed as the first large scale playable presentation of innovative and independent video-game design in the Netherlands. About 30(!) Dutch game developers were present to show their games. Since we found out about the event only two days prior to it in a national newspaper, we were unable to secure a stand of our own. We decided to head there with a “mobile” team.
It turned out great! Instead of being to glued to one spot, we were able, armed with matching Dwindle t-shirts, to freely roam the venue. Only five out of the thirty teams were developing for the iPhone, and most companies we already had heard of / seen on the internet. It seems that the iPhone game development scene is relatively small in the Netherlands and most of the teams are in the start up phase with their game(s). We managed to talk to the majority of them, it was great hear them out, exchange experiences, and give out a few pieces of advice ourselves.
It was also interesting to talk to companies who developed for other platforms. For example we learned from TwoTribes, that Nintendo's WiiWare can't really be compared to Apple's AppStore yet. This makes sense to us, people who own a Wii are more used to buying a Wii game as a physical medium, instead of buying it online and just owning it digitally. In that regard the iPhone is a great platform to develop for, as all users are used to install (free or paid) software through only one canal: iTunes. You even get a 0 euro invoice for free software, which is kind of weird experience the first time you get it.
All in all we had a great day, and good chance we will be attending Indigo 2011 next year again! Mobile or stationary.
References:
Indigo 2010: <http://www.indigoshowcase.nl/>
Two Tribes: <http://www.twotribes.com/>
First Dwindle reviews have been popping up on the web, so far all have been positive! We are especially happy with the review on AppAdvice. They really liked it and were, I quote, -surprisingly impressed- by the concept.
"Dwindle is a great new puzzle game for iPhone and iPod touch. Dwindle is difficult enough to keep you busy on a long train journey but simple enough to master on a coffee break and will appeal to you if you are a fan of casual puzzle games.
"The minimalistic, colourful styling of the app is quite enchanting and the gameplay experience is excellent."
"Puzzle games are ten a penny in the App Store but the good ones are few and far between, Dwindle is a really good one."
-AppAdvice.com
A review on the iphoneclub.nl was less favorable, saying there are already too many good games out there. (DoodleJump, Angry Birds anyone? :) Nevertheless they enjoyed the intuitive controls, well balanced levels and fitting graphical style, and graded the game 7/10. In my opinion the reviewer failed to realize the game should be compared to other games of the same genre. Only then you can see Dwindle for what it is, which is what AppAdvice.com did.
As we expected, reviews stimulate sales instantly. We already seen a real boost by the exposure so far and can add a lot of new countries to the list. We now have sales in South Africa, New Zealand, Switzerland, Singapore, Czech Republic, Portugal, Malaysia, Danmark and Canada.
We are currently working on a great new upgrade to the game, and continuously trying to get more exposure. Which for now is an uphill battle due to the tons of games coming out each day.
More news on Dwindle soon!
References
AppAdvice review: <http://appadvice.com/appnn/2010/03/dwindle/>
Japanese review: <http://applembp.blogspot.com/2010/03/dwindle.html>
iPhoneClub review: <http://www.iphoneclub.nl/65173/review-dwindle-is-leuk-maar-mist-magie/>