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How to make it to the number one spot on the App Store

Amir Rajan on the success of A Dark Room

How to make it to the number one spot on the App Store

"No one can pay you for what an hour of you life is worth."

So began Scratchwork Developments' founder Amir Rajan, in his talk on how its game A Dark Room made it to number one on the App Store.

"Build games that have short sessions", he advised, pointing out that people don't have time to play games for as long anymore, and you need to keep that in mind when building for mobile.

He also said to "release as soon as you can", so you can find out what your audience thinks about the game, and iterate on the game to bring it up to scratch.

Rajan suggests asking for reviews at the end of a game, pointing to his game A Dark Room having an option to leave a review at the end leading to an improved review conversion rate.

He also warned about clones, saying that you shouldn't make them, that you will be cloned if you are successful, and that you should offer a free version of your premium game to entice players into buying the full version.

Finally, he says, "it's got to be a labour of love", saying that while the game was eventually successful, he was still making a loss nine months after the game was released.


Editor

Ric is the Editor of PocketGamer.biz, having started out as a Staff Writer on the site back in 2015. He received an honourable mention in both the MCV and Develop 30 Under 30 lists in 2016 and refuses to let anyone forget about it.