How to grow my game as a solo dev?

[CommonlyRed (com_mxn)]

Thank you for your advice!

@SnoutUpDev

User ads might be performing better for you, but they don’t give you any indication if the icon (CTR) or store page (conversion rate) looks good enough. Clicks are nice, but how many people are playing?

The mechanics of the game were originally centered around computer players, which is why I chose to do user ads, but overtime I started to make the game more compatible with mobile. Additionally, when I ran test sponsors for the game, I got a decent CTR:

But many of the players who joined off the sponsor immediately left after seeing that there were no players in the servers (before the single player update).

@SnoutUpDev

It is likely that sponsors didn’t work for you, because of poor targetting (want cheap players - console, want good CTR/CPP - 17+ mobile, want terrible numbers - target computer with both genders and all ages)

The game does not have console support so I didn’t care to advertise it to console. I don’t think most 17+ players would play Roblox on mobile so I’m not sure about that one. I can admit that targeting all genders and ages has always given me bad CTR so I didn’t even bother to test that one.

@SnoutUpDev

Your store page thumbnail is pretty bland, at this point you can just make something good looking with AI, even if it’s somewhat frowned upon

When I released the game, I chose to simply use a screenshot of the map for the thumbnail and use all my budget on advertising to get more visits but now I definitely regret not paying for a professionally designed thumbnail. However, I did pay someone for the icon, which I think looks pretty good.

@SnoutUpDev

Retention and playtime are kings, track those and fix any issues you can (smooth onboarding, tutorials, bug fixes, proper UI/inputs for different platforms, daily rewards, etc).

I’m not very good at data analytics and tracking retention/engagement (I’m in high school) so hopefully you can give me an idea of what to do with these numbers:

Retention

• D1: 1.25%
• D7: 0.03%
• D30: N/A
• W1: 0.80%

Stickiness

• D1: 2.28%
• D7: 11.87%
• D30: 7.45%

@SnoutUpDev

Not sure about [UPD 2] in the name… Who is that for? Unless you have a very recognizable title, I’d avoid tags like that, since I have a feeling that changing title deranks the game in search (just a feeling, not confirmed)

I actually tested this out when I updated the title. The position of my game in the search results did not lower when I changed it (still the same after checking it right now).

[CommonlyRed (com_mxn)]

After contacting dozens of YouTubers (who have all ignored me) and adding trendy keywords to the game’s description and title, visits have still remained roughly the same and the game seems to have went down a little bit in search results. Now that I am starting school again tomorrow, I probably will not have time to consistently update the game anymore so hopefully the Roblox algorithm delivers a miracle some day. Thank you all for the amazing and helpful advice!

[F0XY_ll (Foxy_Woxyy)]

I might try this. Thanks so much