Guest Post: Hellboy Studios’ Game Dev Tutorial – Vol. 4

Choosing your Android App Store

Hellboy Studios

Well, I thought a great way of completing this series of articles would be by sharing my views on publishing the app as that’s the final step in the entire process. Developing the game is only part of the process. Another aspect that most of us overlook is selecting which store to upload the game. How much thought do you put into deciding which app store we should publish our Android app in? If the answer is none, don’t panic; you are not alone.

Although many marketers are aware of alternative app stores, many don’t know the advantages of using all of these additional app stores. The vast amounts of app developers initially opt to publish their app in the largest and most popular app store, Google Play. Right now, though, there are 3 markets out there that are popular with developers.

 

1) Google Play

Google PlayWell, I’m not going to talk much about it. Google Play is without a doubt the most popular market among Android users, with over 50 billion apps downloaded and more than 900,000 apps in the store. So, if you are running on a limited budget and can only upload your files to one store, then Google Play should be your first choice.

The flipside to this is that with so many games in the market, your game can easily get lost. Between February 1, 2013 and May 30, 2013 there were on average 957 apps released per day — these figures alone highlight the competition your app will face.

 

2) Amazon Store

AmazonAmazon not only regularly highlights games — which is a great free advertising tool for you to utilize — but it also has a review process that encourages apps to be of high quality, and that makes it a favourite of mine. They also recently launched a new section for indie developers which helps in further discovery of your game.

Another point to note is that Google Play does not allow Kindle users to download their store, whereas Amazon has no such restrictions.

 

3) GetJar

GetJarDid you know that Angry Birds did not debut on Google Play or Apple’s App Store? It was first released on a lesser known site called GetJar.

GetJar promotes free apps, potentially giving developers a wider audience. It was here that Angry Birds gained its reputation as a free app and then polished their app and released it on Google Play. Strategically, that was a smart move; it prolonged the entrance into the wider marketplace, allowing the folks at Rovio to perfect their product and build audience anticipation.

The downside to this Android app store is that the submission of apps is a long process and the site does have a lot of down time.

 

Other app stores that you should check out are: SlideMe, Mobango, and AppsFire.      

 

This was a really short article that I thought would be appropriate right around the release of our game. Let me know if this article was useful, or if you have discovered some really awesome app stores that everybody must know about, in the comments below. Also, let me know how you found the entire series. If there are topics that you would like me to write about, let me know that too in the comments.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

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Author:MikeKnight

Mike Knight is a game developer working on his first game for Android, at Hellboy Studios. He still enjoys playing DOS games like Dave, Keen, and Price of Persia, on his Windows 7 ! He learnt how to code in class 7, when he made his first tic-tac-toe game on C , and has been passionate about game since. This is his first big project, and in a series of articles, he is going to share his experiences with developing for Android. You can check out these pages for frequent updates about his game. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HellboyStudios Twitter : https://twitter.com/HellboyStudios

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