It's been two months since the last post so we'd like to give you a quick update on the latest happenings.

We've released our first "serious" app for Android: BilbaoBus. This project was born because we love public transit and we think it's the most sustainable way of moving within a city. However, after having a look at the existing public transit apps for the city of Bilbao, we found that most of them were way too complicated to use. As passenger, my first and foremost problem is: "I'm here and I want to go there, show me how". The available apps didn't solve this question effectively. Here's where everything started out. 

The first milestone we set was coming up with an algorithm to calculate routes using public transit. This was the feature that we missed the most in the existing apps. Once we had developed a good solution, we thought it would be useful to add more stuff: lines, schedules, CO2, streetView... and then we ended up with an standalone app. Despite the project was still unfinished, we thought that "ship early, ship often" must be the way to go, so we let the app see the light as Beta. 

However, we're still halfway. We've got a bunch of ideas we haven't included, the user interface is rather spartan, neither tram nor subway are supported yet, etc. So we plan to invest more time on the project because our ultimate goal is to create the best public transit app.

Now it's time to listen to users and get as much feedback as we can.

Regarding to Archer Master, we had to postpone the second version while we were working on BilbaoBus. Furthermore, we weren't completely satisfied with the new scenarios we were designing so we decided to take a break, let our brains rest and make some room for fresh ideas. 

In terms of downloads, we've got around 2000 per month from the Android Market and, so far, the total number reaches 12500. To the previous figures we've got to add the "unofficial"  appstores, forums, etc, so we estimate 20K-25K downloads overall. 

With regard to revenue, unfortunately we've lost all data because our Admob account was closed by Google. On November 2nd we received the following message:

"Your account has been disabled for invalid activity or repeated policy violations. Some examples include recurring manual clicks or impressions, violation of our content policies which can be found here, robots, automated click and impression generating tools, third-party services that generate clicks or impressions such as pay-to-click, pay-to-surf, autosurf, and click-exchange programs, or any deceptive software. If you have any questions or concerns about the actions we've taken, how you can appeal this decision, or invalid activity in general, you can find more information here."


We think it's been due to the bonus screen we introduced in 1.0.1 version. Truth is that the bonus feature was performing pretty well: generated revenue by 1.0.1 version was five times higher than the previous one.

Honestly, we knew we were walking on thin ice so the account closure wasn't totally unexpected. However, in our humble opinion, exchanging points by clicks is at least as fraudulent as placing ads strategically to provoke accidental clicks. The latter it's done by many famous games that are even marketed by Google as an example of spotless advertising integration.

Anyway, this is nothing but a tantrum. We're not considering suing Google yet :) We've learnt the lesson the hard way and now it's time to look ahead and come up with a different approach.


That's all for now. We'll keep reporting regularly in this blog.

Marketing Plan for Week #12

After checking the project backlog, we're officially behind schedule. As a result, next version of the game is going to delay till at least mid November. The main reason is that we're involved in another time-consuming project we can't abandon right now. Notwithstanding, we'll push as hard as we can to launch new stuff ASAP.


Statistics

1. Downloads. This split bar chart shows downloads per week.

2. Ad Requests. The game is supported by ads (AdMob) so each time you enter the game or play a level, some ads are shown. The following chart shows how many ad requests Archer Master has made to Admob servers. It’s a good indicator to know how many people are playing the game.

3. Ad Clicks. This graph shows how many times ads were clicked.

4. Revenue.

Conclusion:

• The Google's bug we mentioned in the last report has already been fixed so we've updated the last week data.

• With regard to downloads and revenue, the situation seems to improve slightly, but when it comes to the rest of the parameters everything remains steady. At this point we must admit that we're pleasantly surprised because, after eight weeks without new content, we expected to be a little bit worse. In a sense, it feels as if the game promotes itself.
  

• We're considering moving from weekly to monthly reports because currently there's not enough activity to support a weekly update. The plan is back to the usual frequency once we launch the new version. 

So, next update on stats will be published in early November but, in the meantime, drop by this blog from time to time, because we will unveil some details of the next Archer Master.

Marketing Plan for Week #11

We continue putting all our efforts and time into creating new levels with new scenarios and challenges.


Statistics

1. Downloads. This split bar chart shows downloads per week.

Marketing Plan for Week #10

Just working on the new version. 


Statistics

1. Downloads. This split bar chart shows downloads per week.

Marketing Plan for Week #9

Nothing remarkable...still working on the next version. 


Statistics

1. Downloads. This split bar chart shows downloads per week.

Marketing Plan for Week #8

There is nothing worth mentioning. We're focused on the next version that will be released very soon.


Statistics

1. Downloads. This split bar chart shows downloads per week.

Marketing Plan for Week #7

Data from the last few weeks reveal how frequent updates impact positively on downloads, visibility and monetization. Due to this reason, we've started to work on a new version of the game which is expected to be released in 4-6 weeks. Although the sprint backlog is still open, that new version will surely include more levels (with new challenges) and some other improvements. 

Moreover, we're thinking about changing our advertising provider and moving from Admob to another one with better eCPM, but no decision has been made yet.


Statistics

1. Downloads. This split bar chart shows downloads per week.

Marketing Plan for Week #6

No big deal, we just submitted the new version of the game to AppChina and Amazon for approval.

Statistics

1. Downloads. This split bar chart shows downloads per week.

Marketing Plan for Week #5

Last tuesday we published Archer Master 1.0.1 in the Android Market. From a marketing standpoint, this new version includes two worth mentioning characteristics:

• A bonus screen. Monetization has been one of our concerns from the very beginning because we think there were too few ad-clicks (~10/day) compared with the ad-requests (~10K/day).  The new version integrates a component that monitors the number of times a level is played and failed. In doing so, we can find out if players have trouble passing the level and then offer up extra points, arrows, seconds in exchange for ad clicking. Of course, if the user is not interested in the ad or simply don’t want to click on it, there is an additional button to skip it over.