Time Travel: 2014

Lin Hui quickly mastered how to use Cocos2d-x.

After that, things fell into place.

By the morning of the 14th, Lin Hui had already finished the iOS version of FLAPPY BIRD.

Lin Hui tried it out, and it was the same style as in his previous life.

The picture quality is unremarkable and pixelated.

In addition to the lack of exquisite graphics, this game does not introduce a fascinating plot, nor does it have complex and changeable operations.

The only operation the user can control is just a click operation.

Can a game like this be successful?

Of course!

To be honest, this game became a hit because it successfully exploited people's gambler psychology.

The game operation of FLAPPY BIRD is easy to learn but difficult to master.

This gives people the illusion that although I didn't do it well this time, I will be able to counterattack soon.

It's this kind of illusion that eats up the player base.

Lin Hui knows the energy contained in this game better than anyone else.

In its previous life, this game once occupied the iOS free download list for several months.

But although this game was free in the previous life.

But Lin Hui still decided to charge.

It is impossible to be free, and it is impossible to be free in this life.

Not to mention anything else, just take the two bank text messages Lin Hui recently received:

...Your China Merchants Bank card with the last number 6699 received a transfer of 2215765.00 yuan at 23:33 on June 13. The current balance of the card is 18,500,637.00 yuan.

...Your China Merchants Bank card with the last number 0010 received a cross-border transfer of US$3,298,500 at 9:30 on June 14. The current balance of the card is US$9,589,000.

It can be seen that the profit from the game is considerable.

This income alone made it impossible for Lin Hui to cut his own flesh indifferently.

And from a player psychology point of view.

In the past, games were all paid. If they are suddenly free now, is it equivalent to telling players that the quality of this game is not as good as previous games?

Not only will you not make any money, it will also be very thankless.

To take a step back, even players can understand your approach.

But this time there is no charge. If future games charge, will there be resistance from the player community?

Anyway, all things considered, charging is safe, and not charging would be a lot of trouble.

As for the specific pricing plan of FLAPPY BIRD.

Lin Hui decided to still price it at 6 yuan in the domestic AppStore.

Overseas? The price is $1.

After clarifying the pricing plan, Lin Hui uploaded FLAPPY BIRD.

The difference from the past is that this time Lin Hui was uploading.

The game was officially launched three days later, on June 17th.

If the developer does not set the online time.

Usually, it will go online when it is approved by the AppStore.

And when the developer sets the launch date.

It will be launched online at the time set by the developer after it is approved by the AppStore.

Therefore, the set date must be reasonable and allow enough time for AppStore review.

The prerequisite for the set date to take effect is that the game can be approved normally.

Otherwise, no matter how reasonable the time setting is, it will be useless.

Lin Hui's previous two games did not set a specific launch time, but directly followed the AppStore's default time.

The reason for delaying the time this time is largely because Lin Hui did not want to cause several games he developed to compete with each other in the same week.

…

After uploading the game FLAPPY BIRD, it still passed the review in less than half an hour.

Now Lin Hui is almost 100% sure that the App Store has given him special treatment.

There is no one else with this review speed.

In addition, Lin Hui also received news from the App Store in his personal developer account.

The AppStore also promised that when FLAPPY BIRD is officially launched on June 17, it will give priority to recommending this game.

Despite the promise of the App Store, things aren't entirely rosy.

The previous game FLAPPY BIRD was launched in 2013 and became popular in February 2014.

Although it eventually became popular.

But there is a long fermentation period in between.

This too slow market feedback is obviously not something Lin Hui can afford to wait for.

What Lin Hui needs to do is to use a series of means to greatly shorten this fermentation period.

After thinking about it, it seems that the only non-violating method that can be used is online promotion.

But how to implement it specifically?

The pixel-like painting style may be said to be retro, and the unfriendly operating experience may be said to be suitable for advanced players...

Using these as publicity points can certainly fool some players into downloading.

But what about after downloading?

When users find that the so-called painting style is just rough graphics, and the so-called suitability for high-level play is just rejection of handicap.

What will it be like?

Such publicity is prone to backlash.

Lin Hui was destined not to try.

…

No, how was this game promoted in the previous life?

After thinking about it carefully for a long time, Lin Hui couldn't remember exactly how it was promoted.

As for why he plays this game.

Lin Hui only remembered that he accidentally saw on the news that this game was extremely difficult, almost to the point of being anti-human.

Is a small game anti-human?

Lin Hui, who did not believe in evil, decisively downloaded one...

etc.

Thinking of this, Lin Hui suddenly had an idea.

Since it’s hard to start with positive publicity, wouldn’t it be better to just do reverse publicity?

Taking advantage of people's rebellious psychology can also achieve publicity effects.

After clarifying the direction of publicity, things seem to be much easier after that.

At that time, we can follow the three-pronged approach of self-media + precise promotion + (Weibo/blog) topic popularity as used in the domestic promotion of 2048.

…

Of course, Lin Hui can't just patronize the country.

Judging from the recent income situation, overseas is also a huge market.

However, it may be a bit unfeasible to copy domestic publicity strategies overseas.

First of all, it is difficult to rely on Twitter, which is almost the same model as Weibo/Bo, to keep the topic hot overseas.

The calculation fee is different from that of Weibo/Bo based on the duration of the hot spot.

Twitter advertising prices are based on fans, ranging from US$2.50 to US$4 for a single fan, and US$0.60 to US$3 for a single Twitter interaction.

Even if it’s just calculated as $0.60 per interaction.

This interaction cost is almost ten times the cost of the same behavior on domestic Weibo/Bo.

Even Lin Hui, who has nearly 10 million US dollars, can't afford this price.

The most critical point is that Lin Hui spends money on domestic Weibo/blogs without worrying about feedback effects.

Although Weibo/Bo has some criticisms, it is still very effective in spreading public opinion effectively.

On the contrary, if Lin Hui spends money on Twitter, it is difficult to guarantee whether the money will be effective.

But the cost of publicity on Twitter is so high.

So if you create an account on Twitter and develop a group of loyal fans, wouldn't you be able to save a lot of money?

Well, maybe someone had the same idea at the beginning, so...