Hello,

I am developing an app to offer game developers a better way advertise their games. I just finished the website and I would like to know your thoughts about the design and overall experience, but importantly I would like to know what do you think of the service I am offering, is it as good as I am imaging it to be? If you had to advertise a game would you give us a chance? I just recently contacted via email a few developers (about 20) with the purpose of letting them know about our app. The problem is they didn’t click the link to the website, which means either my email was not engaging enough, or the service I have to offer is just not worth it. The link to my website is https://www.demogames.app​
I would like to know:

a) How good do you think is the website? Do you feel like it is a high quality website? What would you change to make it better?

b) Is there any way you can think of I could improve the service I am offering? Would you give us a chance if you had to advertise a game? If not, why? Do you think the app is innovative?

c) Why do you think most developers didn’t click on the link? How could I improve my email? This is the email I sent:

Thank you very much for any feedback you can provide me! It really helps a lot

Edgarfer said:
Why do you think most developers didn’t click on the link?

Because it's not a .com or a .net

Instead of being an intrusive ad, every “ad” inside DemoGames will take form of a playable demo

How do you plan on accomplishing this? I suppose console-exclusives are out of the question?

And what is your strategy for getting gamers to your site in the first place?
You're up established game magazines and online stores.

It's a fine idea, but I think it may be very difficult to break through.

You need to explain how your app is going to be widely distributed so that your clients, those who sign up with you, can be sure that their products will indeed be widely seen. All we see is that you are seeking content to distribute. How are you yourself going to get it distributed so widely that money will come rolling in for your clients? What's your track record? What's your marketing plan?

So your marketing strategy for getting developers on board is to send out unsolicited email? Of course they're not going to click on your link, because your email is going straight into the spam folder! An “business offers” I receive per email, I'm going to assume are scams unless proven otherwise.

Another problem I see, is you say demos must be in html format.

Although I see the reason for this, it means developers must create an entirely new demo to be compatible with your format.

I know without some standardization, it would be chaos, but it is unlikely they will convert their demo just for your platform.

I also Echo what tom says, how will you get the service marketed and widely used.

Advertisements need to be seen where people are. at. Are you going to use paid advertising to get the word out about your service. Besides as a place to play demos of games, what else will this be?

Also, it sounds like your catering towards mobile games with the app, is this the case?

What happens after 90 days? does the demo disappear, do they have to pay money to continue advertising?

Who is curating the demos?

It sounds like if they like the demo, they can buy the full game?

Do you take a cut of that?

@a light breeze Thanks for the feedback! I know is not ideal, but how would you suggest I get to developers then? We are a just a startup and don’t have a big budget for a marketing campaig.

@GeneralJist Yes, That is the reason we were offering 60 to 90 days of free advertising, I was hoping the Innovative idea, the low rates, and the free trial would be enough to be enough to get some developers on board to create the demo. I do not need every game on the play store/ App Store, but I was hoping to get about a hundred games to take off and start building up from there.

About the marketing campaign, I know it is important but we do not have a big budget for advertisement yet, so the plan is to take investors once we already have clients, but I can not offer the clients that we will be having a huge marketing campaign because we do not have that money yet. It is kind of like the chicken or the egg dilemma, I need the investor‘s money to make it appealing for developers and I need developer’s games to make it appealing for developers.

About the other questions, the app is made to advertise mobile games only. And after the 60-90 days of free advertising the would have to pay a fixed price of US$.05 per download. I believe the low rates should also be a good reason for some developers to develop an html demo, don’t you think?

And yes, the idea is that if the player likes the demo they download the full game, wether it’s paid or free we would not take a cut. We were trying to make the service appealing enough to make it worth it for the developer to create the demo, do you think it should be enough?

Well,

it really all depends on how much trouble a developer would have to go through to make an HTML demo.

The problem is that developers will only use your platform if they can get a good return on investment, and that only happens if you can get your platform widely adopted enough., and that only happens if you can market your service well.

IDK how complex and time consuming it is to make a html demo, but the effort needs to be justified by how much exposure they can be expected to get.

So let me get this straight.

1. Developer signs up with a game and demo
2. Other users can play that demo to see if they like the game enough to buy
3. this lasts for 90 days unless you pay 5 cents per download.
4. No other service charge is included

It's not a bad idea, but it would just require some initial investment in marketing fir it it to bear any fruit.

Say you launch, but less than 100 developers join. You'll have no idea what went wrong if you don't invest in marketing. Maybe not enough devs heard about it, maybe its a bad idea, maybe your website and User interface is hard to use. You'll have no idea which it is if you don't tell the right people and enough of them.

How much did you already spend on everything up until this point?

Meanwhile I can put my HTML demos on itch.io, which already has an audience, for free forever.