Hullo there yous!

My game, Carrum, has utterly tanked.  It seems that I'll be dropping to 0 downloads/0 sales fairly soon, so I was wondering if there were any plans to have mailo notification of when new sales figures are added for a given game.  Basically, I want to stop refreshing the My Business page and then seeing 20 downloads and 2 sales for a weekend ;0)

Anyone think this is a good idea, or if there are plans afoot?

Regards,
Mike

I don't really see any reason for the man hours that would be needed to implement that.

Considering email is one of the most insecure transmission methods, I'd say it's a bad idea to send any potential business related info like that.

JeBuS:

Considering email is one of the most insecure transmission methods, I'd say it's a bad idea to send any potential business related info like that.

Well it could just send a message that says "hey, you have new data. Go to the site to see it." which is what Apple does. Then you get a notification and there is no risk of someone stealing the data from the email.

Though personally I say why not just check every Sunday or every other Sunday? Sure it might be ten minutes wasted, but I think that's better than having the team work on emailing out notifications when there are other aspects of the sales data that might be more useful (such as exposing higher level data like averages, conversion rates, and monthly or weekly totals) that they could instead invest the time on.

DrMistry:

My game, Carrum, has utterly tanked

Sorry to hear that Mike.  To be honest it totally surprises me.

Mark

Cheers Mark,

Yea, we're a bit bemused, but I think we were unlucking with the timing of the release and I got the price wrong (or, I should have put more in the game for 400pts).  Coming out on a Sunday night so that you've sunk without a trace come the next weekend really hurt us, but that's life.  If we controlled the launchdate everyone would try to play the system and no-one would win.  Also, it's not what anyone would call an "intense arcade experience"!  Live and learn eh?  Well I'll keep polishing it until it's worth 400 points, I've added a new game mode and action replays in the next version, so we'll see.  Mind you, I just got told about a load of podcast mentions the game has had and apparently their (mainly) positive. 

Anyway back OT - if there are other things on the way, great.  I've found the basic stats good enough for my uses, and it's not like we're selling heavily enough to gain anything from additional information, so I look forward to writing a game that lets me get the most out of the reporting system ;0)

Regards,
Mike

DrMistry:

If we controlled the launchdate

Which you can't do anyway. You have no way of knowing when the game will get approved without gaming the system.

Jim Perry:

DrMistry:

If we controlled the launchdate

Which you can't do anyway. You have no way of knowing when the game will get approved without gaming the system.

That's why he said "If we controlled the launchdate".

When you come and check the forums it's only two or three clicks to check your sales.

I know how you feel, but I think self-control is the way forward. I'm just glad it only updates daily, otherwise I'd just be sat here hitting F5 all day.

Sorry to hear the game isn't doing too well. If it's any consolation, we're not getting the sales we were hoping for either.

Deej:

I know how you feel, but I think self-control is the way forward. I'm just glad it only updates daily, otherwise I'd just be sat here hitting F5 all day.

Lolz glad it's not just me!  Thanks for the find words deej - we'll carry on regardless doing the best we can, as I'm sure you will too.  My conversion rate is amazing - not unusual to see 16% - but the actual downloads?  Sucky-dos.

I thought I'd let all the nonsense and people who don't read posts properly get out of the way before I reply (PLEASE can we have a kill list?  It always seems to be the same people!)  and now that's happened maybe a discussion can proceed.

I was just making a casual enquiry as to if it was possible or planned.  I really don't know why every thread has to be so absolutist and confrontational.  I KNOW we don't control the release dates and I was suggesting that this is a good thing.  Do I have to start writing posts in 1st grade language from now on and stop using sub-clauses?  Funny how people can write shaders but not read English!  At least we can always count on Nick to be a moderating influence and to post reasoned replies.  Thanks Nick, the place would be all the poorer without you and your work.

Hurrumph,
Mike

Nick Gravelyn:

Jim Perry:

DrMistry:

If we controlled the launchdate

Which you can't do anyway. You have no way of knowing when the game will get approved without gaming the system.

That's why he said "If we controlled the launchdate".

I misread this. :( I guess that happens when you read several hundred posts a day.

Anyway, IMO there's absolutely no need for email notification and implementing something like that would take away from the team working on things that are actually important. If someone thinks this is important they should know where to go and what to do.

MarkMD76:

DrMistry:

My game, Carrum, has utterly tanked

Sorry to hear that Mike.  To be honest it totally surprises me.

Mark

Me too! It was really fun and well done! Was it 200?

Thanks fellas, you're all very kind.  We're discussing what I did wrong over at http://forums.xna.com/forums/t/31419.aspx?PageIndex=1 - I wouldn't want to incur the wrath of the mods ;0)  She's a 400-point game, which in retrospect is like charging $25 for a bag of chips - without the dipping sauce!

Regards,
Mike

DrMistry:

Thanks fellas, you're all very kind.  We're discussing what I did wrong over at http://forums.xna.com/forums/t/31419.aspx?PageIndex=1 - I wouldn't want to incur the wrath of the mods ;0)  She's a 400-point game, which in retrospect is like charging $25 for a bag of chips - without the dipping sauce!

Regards,
Mike

You can change your price now.
Also, I saw your game as lead game on the IGN.com pics! That's gotta help.

I think you can change the price no more often than every 90 days (was that the number?). And the initial release counts as the beginning of the first 90 days period, so if I recall this correctly, the first price change can't be earlier than 90 days after release.

Doc