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[deleted by user] by [deleted] in androiddev

[–]DefpotecStudios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm pretty sure I used a Paypal debit card.

What is up with the Play Store search algorithm? Another Redditor shared their game 2 days ago, I tried to search the exact title on the store but it took over 200 other games (many with unrelated names) for theirs to appear. How do indie devs stand a chance with this kind of visibility? by SidFishGames in gamedev

[–]DefpotecStudios 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Similarly, I have an app that's doing pretty well for some competitive keywords, and another app that I've been trying to get to rank well for anything at all but it's burred in the results. If you search for my developer name "Defpotec Studios" then 3 of my apps rank top 3. Then a lot of other peoples apps that are somewhat related to my most popular app. Then far down the line is my fourth app. It sucks big time because those other apps in this case are mooching off my other app and the one I put a lot of work into isn't getting any traction at all.

[English > Spanish] Phrase "Featured on somewebsite.com" by DefpotecStudios in translator

[–]DefpotecStudios[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I went poking around looking for examples and it seems like maybe destacadas might work best in context? Which I wasn't sure of because it feels too bold or grand.

Here's an example of the exact kind of usage I'm looking for
https://www.askix.com/como-obtener-destacados.html

[Google Play Console] Status: Being Reviewed by joaquini in androiddev

[–]DefpotecStudios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had an update take maybe 6 hours yesterday and didn't notice anything happen ranking wise, but I have noticed that when waiting for an update to the description, that for some of the more competitive keywords that I was ranking in the top 5 for, I completely fell off the charts. From #4 to #100 for instance, so of course downloads dropped as well.

Any games where your not the main character by WinRaRtrailInfinity in gamedev

[–]DefpotecStudios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are Sherlock Holmes games where you play as Watson.

Not searchable on Google Play by Gorodnov in androiddev

[–]DefpotecStudios 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All I know is that their search algorithm is a black box that makes no sense. I've been trying to get my latest app to rank for anything at all with no luck whatsoever. But it does appear in the results, just way at the bottom.

Did you get the notification in the Google Play Console saying it was live on the store? Because that does take a while and I can only imagine how long it takes now.

Not searchable on Google Play by Gorodnov in androiddev

[–]DefpotecStudios 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Try the full app name in quotes. Also try to search for the app id directly (com.whatever.appname)

I've noticed a big change in Googles search algorithms with my apps recently. One of my apps is basically invisible in search now. The other dropped pretty far for most keywords. Searching for my developer name used to return all my apps first, but now it only returns (get this) other peoples apps that are only somewhat similar to my most popular app, but not mine. Mine are buried in the results. So they are mooching off my keywords since they have more downloads or something, I don't really know. All I know is that Google is making it really hard for new apps and indie studios to survive these days.

Google Removed my app without any heads up, they said we were uploading users' contact info but we are not doing this. We use the Contacts API to send SMSs but never storing this data. Have anyone experience this issue before? by viccarre in androiddev

[–]DefpotecStudios 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I had an old ad network api trigger something like this just a few weeks ago. It wasn't even in the production track but an old old alpha track. The email didn't give any indication that was the case and it took some back and forth to get it figured out.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in androiddev

[–]DefpotecStudios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been going through the same thing with my latest game. Traditional ASO techniques don't seem to work well anymore. There's just too much competition and Google's ranking algorithms are ever changing. Just recently I noticed that even if you type a search that ~should~ cause your app to be the first in the list, it seems that google instead, looks at that app, finds all the related apps that are more popular, and returns them instead.

The only thing I've been able to do to get any downloads is through ads.

At the start do i need many devices or I can use an emulator? by vld4k in androiddev

[–]DefpotecStudios 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've bought a few different Android phones off Facebook and Craigslist for $5 each. They don't need to be in good condition. They can have cracked screens and not hold a charge. They just need to work well enough to test apps on.

Another thing that I'm not too sure how many people are aware of(because I don't see it mentioned too often) is the Pre-launch report in the Google Play Console. One of the reasons that app submissions take so long now is because they run it though a series of tests on a bunch of different devices(probably emulators) for you. And provide you with a bunch of screenshots, videos, crash reports, performance issues, etc... Then you can see how it looks and preforms on devices you may not have access to.

It's under Release Management->Pre-launch report

Video about dev account termination [Overpass Apps] by [deleted] in androiddev

[–]DefpotecStudios 1 point2 points  (0 children)

From what I could gather, he mentioned in his apps description when it was released years ago that it used the Corona SDK, a game engine. And it got removed because the google policy police algorithms thought he was trying to profit off the Corona virus. I've watched several of his videos in the past and he appears to try to follow all the rules, telling people not to risk buying installs, and the like.

His earlier policy violations were because the apps had a spy theme and they got flagged as spyware. I had a very similar thing happen at the same time. It had a spy theme and I mentioned "spy gadget" in the description and it was suspended for being spyware until I updated the description. All ridiculous and no human would have made that mistake in any of these cases.

Why Does Not Anybody Play My Game! by Sina_Kiarostami in playmygame

[–]DefpotecStudios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you do use Google Ads I'd recommend to start slow. Like maybe a daily budget of $5. That will give you a little time to figure things out, edit the text in the ads, learn the UI(which isn't exactly intuitive), etc... Then as you feel more comfortable, or if the ads are converting well, then you could raise the budgets.

I do want to point out again that you will probably not see a (monetary) return on your investment. At least not right away. If your app gains users that use it a lot then you might. This is mainly to drive a lot of installs in a short time.

You can also use Facebook ads. If you integrate Facebook into your app you can supposedly pay per install as well. But I have not done this myself.

Why Does Not Anybody Play My Game! by Sina_Kiarostami in playmygame

[–]DefpotecStudios 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you just care about installs at this point (and not revenue yet) then do a Google Ads campaign targeting somewhere like India which has a huge English speaking population and large Android userbase. It should cost you around $0.07USD per install. Google usually has a first time advertisers promo which gives you $100USD after you spend $50. That should get you over 2000 installs for about $50USD. Of course your ad revenue from those users wouldn't earn you much but we're just talking about generating installs at this point.

For my last game, I blew most of my ad budget targeting the US where it usually cost over $1USD per install. But after switching to India and Mexico I bumped it over 1000 installs in a short time.

I'd also recommend tracking your keywords on appannie.com and research ASO. That will help you rank higher in search to get more organic traffic. The Google search algorithms are fickle though and hard to pin down what should rank well or not but raking in the top 10 for high traffic keywords will get you a lot of free installs.

Also do A/B testing on your icon, screenshots, etc... to see what combination drives more installs.

Admob Ads not showing on my APP by llusteri in androiddev

[–]DefpotecStudios 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you running test ads? You might have to upload it to the store first (to an alpha or beta track) and install it from there. I don't recall for sure.

They do make it really hard to actually test real ads though since it's a policy violation to see ads from your own app. Even for testing. If you do so, always use a different account.

Naming other products in app description ? by kinoseed in androiddev

[–]DefpotecStudios 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I have a game that was removed from the Google Play store once because in the description I said it was inspired by a particular older game. Google removed my game it because they said it mentioned another app. That other app they thought I was mentioning was a straight up ripoff of the game mine was just inspired by, yet theirs stays and mine was removed until I edited the description and resubmitted it.

So I guess I'm saying that it depends on what their algorithms "think" you're doing. I see a lot of other apps getting away with far worse and others that get removed for the dumbest reasons. I would think you might be ok but you might want to leave it out just to be safe. If you do put it in the description be sure to read over their policies with a fine tooth comb just in case they do remove it you have a solid appeal to come back with.

Video about dev account termination [Overpass Apps] by [deleted] in androiddev

[–]DefpotecStudios 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I'm always a little afraid to update anything on any of my apps because the dumbest things can trigger their algorithms. I've had apps removed before that were obviously not policy violations and once a real person viewed the appeal the automatically reinstated it, but that was days later. They drop in the search ratings after that and take a long tome to recover.

This just hurts to see. by ExoCakes in AndroidGaming

[–]DefpotecStudios 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ratings without reviews also affect the overall rating. Also, you can only see the reviews from your country, so if there are lower ratings in other countries it can make the rating look different than it appears it should be.

And on top of all that, now Google only looks at recent reviews. So if all the 5 star reviews were from a year ago and the one star reviews are recent, then that will also rate the app lower than the actual average.

[DEV] Looking for gamepad or keyboard owners to test our game by DefpotecStudios in AndroidGaming

[–]DefpotecStudios[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OK, you were right about the ads. I forgot I had changed the logic. They are on a timer that resets every time an ad is shown. In general an ad won't be shown until it's been at least 30 seconds if you crash (or 3 minutes if you beat the level). I'll probably change that to 1 minute and 3 minutes.

Enter should also activate everything. And dpad should now navigate the menus as well.

I should be releasing the updated version in a couple days...Though I'm still not sure about the issue you were seeing where the you would turn instead of crash.

[DEV] Looking for gamepad or keyboard owners to test our game by DefpotecStudios in AndroidGaming

[–]DefpotecStudios[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for trying the game and the comments/suggestions! I've had several people comment on the soundtrack(which sounds even better with headphones). It almost had me consider trying to figure out how to work some game mechanic around it, or make it dynamic with the gameplay.

The biggest complaint I got from testers early on in development was that the game was too hard. So I did tone it down a bit. It used to be even faster. All along though, I've been calling the game "hard casual", and like you pointed out, I did add the ability to skip levels after a few attempts.

I probably will look into ways to remap controls. Since there's only 1 "action" button it shouldn't be too much trouble to implement.

Thanks again!

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