[Blog Post] Porting Gun Frenzy to Windows Phone

[WaveLightGames]

No problem. Hopefully should be out there soon.

I have an important question for the community. The monetization model I chose initially doesn't seem to be working. I provided the game entirely free but with a couple of in-app purchases for some extra weapons and a permanent power boost as well as removing ads. However, very few people out of the total downloads are making in-app purchases so I think I need to make those more appealing. Secondly, ad revenue has been absolutely abysmal .... so far, less than a $1 from ads. I suspect that having a large game be ad-supported isn't the right approach.

So how do you guys feel about some other options?

1 - Have the first 7 levels free and then have an in-app purchase to unlock the remaining 21 levels?
2 - Add consumable in-app purchases to give a one off boost in power / toughness for 1 level and offer 5 to 10 of these as an in-app purchase?

Please let me know your thoughts. Gun Frenzy is largely a way to test the waters regarding monetization. I'm okay to not make much money on it but I would like to understand and develop the appropriate monetization model for similar, large 3D games.

 

[dKp1977]

It's available now http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=bc740f8a-af56-46f6-b48c-4ec4c911e30a

 

[Maritox Cacici]

No problem. Hopefully should be out there soon.


So how do you guys feel about some other options?

1 - Have the first 7 levels free and then have an in-app purchase to unlock the remaining 21 levels?
2 - Add consumable in-app purchases to give a one off boost in power / toughness for 1 level and offer 5 to 10 of these as an in-app purchase?

I would go for the 2nd option

 

[dKp1977]

I would go for the 2nd option

Same here. I wouldn't only offer temporary boosts though. I imagine offering special weapons and equipment as IAPs.

//Edit

I've spent a couple of minutes with the game now. I think you can safely increase the number of enemies, as it's perfectly fluent on my Lumia 1520 on highest settings. The only thing that is stuttering every once in a while is the background music.
I'd much prefer a dedicated reload button over the combined evade/reload one though. I don't wanna perform a roll evertime I simply want to reload my weapon.

But allow me one question.. Why would you call one of the protagonists after a porn actress? Oo

 

[Mohamed Ashid]

I love the game, from the logo to the gameplay!
Thanks for the 512 Mb ram support!!

 

[WaveLightGames]

Same here. I wouldn't only offer temporary boosts though. I imagine offering special weapons and equipment as IAPs.

//Edit

I've spent a couple of minutes with the game now. I think you can safely increase the number of enemies, as it's perfectly fluent on my Lumia 1520 on highest settings. The only thing that is stuttering every once in a while is the background music.
I'd much prefer a dedicated reload button over the combined evade/reload one though. I don't wanna perform a roll evertime I simply want to reload my weapon.

But allow me one question.. Why would you call one of the protagonists after a porn actress? Oo

Which one is the pornstar name? I can change names easily... let me know if you have any ideas.

Did you play past the first couple levels yet? I reduced the number of enemies on the early levels to ease players in but after that, the number of enemies increases sharply.

I'll add a couple of weapon packs as in app purchases. I'm thinking a Sci packof 8 guns and a mage staff pack of 8 more wizard staffs.

I'll add the reload button too.

 

[dKp1977]

Which one is the pornstar name? I can change names easily... let me know if you have any ideas.

Did you play past the first couple levels yet? I reduced the number of enemies on the early levels to ease players in but after that, the number of enemies increases sharply.

I'll add a couple of weapon packs as in app purchases. I'm thinking a Sci packof 8 guns and a mage staff pack of 8 more wizard staffs.

I'll add the reload button too.

I haven't had much time yet to progress any further, but I'll try and play some more levels tonight. I'll let you know my findings. But so far it's buttery smooth. Jenna Haze is the porn actress. I'm actually okay with the name, I don't care much. I was just wondering.
​Thanks for adding the reload button.

 

[Mellifluous]

Thanks for posting this, was cool following the release. I'm just downloading on my 520 and look forward to checking it out

Edit: I have something on my screen which I am not sure is intended.

On bottom right it says "Development Build"
On bottom left it says

"Multicast Bind Callback failed. Portnumber 67584856, Exception
'Catastrophic failure
,
Applicationid is required."

 

[WaveLightGames]

Just noticed that too ... Looks like it's running the development build. I uploaded the release version ... Perhaps I should have uploaded the master build. I'll put up an updated version when I get back home. I'm at the hospital right now as my wife just had our second child ... A healthy baby girl.

Strange coincidence ... the same day that Gun Frenzy hit the windows phone store was also the day my 2nd daughter was born.

 

[WaveLightGames]

I've hidden the app. The first level is completely screwed up ... Enemies appear so slowly that you can't kill them before time runs out. Also, for some reason, the debug console is visible and ads aren't displaying.

Already received two bad ratings because of it. I'll get a fixed version up as soon as I can. Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

[dKp1977]

I've hidden the app. The first level is completely screwed up ... Enemies appear so slowly that you can't kill them before time runs out. Also, for some reason, the debug console is visible and ads aren't displaying.

Already received two bad ratings because of it. I'll get a fixed version up as soon as I can. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Ouch.. I thought this was on purpose. Hence I said it was quite easy.

 

[WaveLightGames]

I love the game, from the logo to the gameplay!
Thanks for the 512 Mb ram support!!

So how well did it run on a 512 Mb device? Which settings did you use for the graphics options? Did you enable or disable particles? Also, which device did you test it on?

 

[WaveLightGames]

Hey guys ... quick update. Back home and working on the updates. Once done, I'll resubmit to Microsoft and enable downloads on the store again.

 

[greedo_greedy]

Looks good, I'll try it out later when i get home.
Sent from my Nokia Lumia 822 Windows Phone 8.1 using Tapatalk

 

[WaveLightGames]

Hey guys ... quick update. I've made some fixes and will be releasing a new verison today. Should then be available on the store for download.

I've added the following:

Given the user a consumable power up that increases life, damage and makes weapons appear more quickly. Players start out with 3 of these and can use them whenever they find a level tough to beat. They can purchase 5 more for a dollar. Let me know what you think ... perhaps it should be 10 for a dollar?

 

[WaveLightGames]

Submitted to the windows phone store ... certification in progress.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Hey Guys ... got the confirmation that it's in the Windows Phone Store!

Grab it here.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Also, for those that downloaded the previous release ... please make sure you update as this release contains not only a lot of bug fixes but also, as it's a final build rather than development build, it should run a lot faster and more smoothly. The development build has a lot of unnecessary code running in the background used for debugging.

 

[WaveLightGames]

Hi guys ... could I ask a big favour? The game received 3 bad 1-star ratings based on the initial release. I presume because most of the features weren't working as I accidentally uploaded the development build instead of the final build. For those that have downloaded the game, could you please put up a rating based on the latest version? I really don't want 3 bad reviews to deter people from downloading a good game. Many thanks.

 

[dKp1977]

Hi guys ... could I ask a big favour? The game received 3 bad 1-star ratings based on the initial release. I presume because most of the features weren't working as I accidentally uploaded the development build instead of the final build. For those that have downloaded the game, could you please put up a rating based on the latest version? I really don't want 3 bad reviews to deter people from downloading a good game. Many thanks.

Done.