A Word Game That Does Not Try to Save the World

So what makes our products unique?  One of the rules of marketing is to know your product and be prepared with an elevator speech.  You know, a 30 second pitch prepared, the time of a typical elevator ride about your product and what sets it apart from all others.

So here goes:

Introspectively speaking, due to experiences in life unique solely to us, our acuity is shaped causing anything we create to be different from anyone else.  And blah…blah…blah…

So now that we’ve cleared the air and have identified on a cosmic scale what makes our product unique, looking on a more rudimentary scale, what motivated the creation of Word Crank?  Put simply, a desire to find a word game that we would actually play.

We’re not intimating that there weren’t any good word games out there, because there are.  We were simply looking for a game that combined elements of Word and Arcade style gaming that we both would be interested in.

You see although being siblings, we have two different backgrounds and stakes in our product.  Here comes the very exciting history lesson: 

Our CTO is a computer programmer by profession, and has single-handedly coded all of our projects. Her objective when creating a game centers on playability and usability.  The code has to work and memory allocation is central around enhancing the user’s experience.

The CEO’s experience with coding begins and ends with formulas for excel worksheets.  With a background in business and an avid “gamer”, for him it just has to pop and be fun.  “No chipped paint” as Walt Disney articulated around his reason for creating Disneyland.  It just has to look good!

Combine these and you get Word Crank our very first release.  A word game that’s not buggy, has a very expansive dictionary and does what it’s supposed to do (in our developer voice).  But then it does something else.  It creates an atmosphere with a beautiful UI (User Interface).  A word game with elements of grunge, hip hop, pop, and action!  (Guess whose voice added this)

You see, both voices played a major role in the creation of Word Crank.  We combined programming principles which allow our game to play smoothly and feel effortless.  We also brought arcade to our game by not just allowing you to make the word C-A-T and get 50 points, YAY *sarcastically* but we brought engaging music, cool animations, and some serious themes.

We thank all of our 5k+ downloads on the Android market and are excited that overall reception has been positive with only 6 users rating below 4 stars (send us a message on what you’d like to see to change that to a 4/5) We’re going to keep making cool apps that people like and promise to never take ourselves too seriously but remember it’s just a Word game that doesn’t try to save the world.

A.A.R.F.!! Another Amazing Review Finished!!

Sorry for the dog bark but we @ Sivart Technology are so excited that another review for Word Crank has been done.  Check out the YouTube video done by macrover180:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6KcGrzcPXI

Such an awesome Camera btw!!  A complete facelift of Word Crank is coming to try to keep up with it's siblings on the way (3 more games in the works!!)

Our first YouTube review!

We just had Word Crank reviewed on YouTube!
This is an excellent review which discusses how addictive the game truly is.

Check it out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyBu7B9qFo8

Take a chance on Android

Have you created an Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, or Cut the Rope game?  If so let me start by saying congratulations and may I borrow $20?   

For any other indie developer looking to break into the ever-growing mobile application market understand that competition is fierce, in particular on the iPhone.  With developers spending in some cases an estimated 100,000k + dollars (Angry Birds) it is very difficult to keep up with development companies when your typical indie developer is on a shoestring budget.  So what’s the antsy aggravated atypical developer to do?

Here comes the Android operating system with its open source indie roots.  Android has taken fire by critics for the “lack of quality apps” as well as the difficulty in making money with paid apps.  This leaves some developers scurrying to IOS with its safer
yet overcrowded marketplace.  I suppose the glass can be seen as half empty or half full?

For the developer looking to gain experience that has a vision they would love to share with the world, Android may be the best platform to use.  The market is growing exponentially and figures show that the sales of android devices have outpaced that of the iPhone.  As more developers create projects for the Android market, the quality of the app store is sure to increase as well.

Why not take the less beaten path and try your hand on the android market?  Depending on the type of app that you’re developing, the free model which lends itself to the android market may bring you more success.

Should My App Be Free? The reason we say YES! – sort of…

Months of hard work, countless hours plugging away at code, 150 cups of coffee and finally your app is finished! Now comes the question of whether to make the app free, paid, or both. Sidebar: A lot of the decision will be based on the type of application. The free model is not always apposite. Consider “exempli gratia” the ticket price of your app. If your app is a high-ticket item, ad revenues may not recover the loss of sales from a paid version. In this case a trial version of your app or an in-app purchase to unlock all features may be more appropriate.

After weighing the cost, if you do decide to go with a free version have no fear! There is still opportunity to make money. Paid vs. Free in some ways can be compared to selling a house or renting it out. If you sell (paid) a house, you can receive a large sum of money at once, however by renting (free); you are able to generate steady income over a protracted time period.

Ads can generate a substantial amount of revenue if you have enough active installs, a high eCPM and a high Fill Rate. For obvious reasons, free apps generate more downloads. Reports have shown that almost 80% of all paid android apps have less than 100 downloads compared to fewer than 20% of free apps. Understanding the composition of the market your app will be in is also important. The Android Market based on the open source theory, can acclimatize a free app, whereas Apple has created an ecosystem based upon a philosophy friendly to paid apps.

Screen real estate for your ads is another point of consideration. Does your app provide adequate space for an ad? Android users are accustomed to ads, however making overly obtrusive ads can result in uninstalls and less time spent enjoying your game. With enough downloads, a great marketing plan, and sheer determination, you may even be able to have your app sponsored. A sponsorship would benefit a company looking for a cluster of the market to advertise their product to, while allowing you to reap the benefits through revenue. This would be compared to Google and their business model.

If you are still apprehensive about making a free version of your app, why not do both?

Make a free version minus some of the features of the paid version, and focus your marketing towards the free app assuming there will be some spillover to the paid version.

Word Crank is currently making more money with the free version than the paid.