Ease into the Switch » Off-Topic

Marketing Ramp Champ on the App Store

Michael — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 03:59:28 +0000

Marco Arment, the lead developer of Tumblr and creator of Instapaper, wrote a great article on how the App Store is really two different stores. He doesn’t say it, but it’s really Wal-Mart and L.L. Bean in the same store. One is focused on low prices and volume while the other is focused on quality.

Marco uses Ramp Champ as an excellent case study in how to approach these two stores. Shortly after this article was published, Gedeon Maheux and the team at Iconfactory updated Ramp Champ’s description and images in the App Store. I’m not a fan of the way they choose to update the images. The compositions they choose look good within iTunes.

Ramp Champ's App Store presence

But, they reduce the level of detail potential buyers are able to see. The Iconfactory put a lot of effort into their art and now with the revised images which are collages of different screenshots, they’re short-selling that work. It gets even worse than that when viewing the new images on the iPhone.

Screenshot collages are often painful to view on the device

The Iconfactory should go back to using full screenshots to display their artwork. But, taking the advice that Marco laid out in his article, they must pay more attention to the order their screens appear in. Clown Town is easily the most reminiscent of Skee-ball and carnival games of this sort and should get top billing rather than the ramp select screen as in the past.

Clown Town should be Ramp Champ's primary screenshot

The first two ramps in Ramp Champ are definitely the most visually appealing and evocative of the carnival aesthetic – and I bet Iconfactory planned this. So, it’s definitely Breakwater Bay that should come second. To the shoppers in the App Store, seeing a second ramp would reinforce the variety that Ramp Champ has over Skee-ball and other games.

Breakwater Bay is also bright and colorful – providing contrast to Clown Town

Now it is time to let the audience know about the hooks to the game. Why would they want to play it for more than a day or two? Because they get to redeem their tickets for cool loot!

Loot worked for World of Warcraft

OK, so they can cash in their tickets for loot. But, what if they’re looking for some more meaningful rewards? Show them the trophies they can get for different achievements on the various ramps.

Maybe they should get this shot from someone that's better at the game

What if they really want a game that they can come back to weeks or months later? The deeper the potential customer goes through the screenshots before making a decision probably correlates well with how deep they want to be able to go within the game. So, the final screenshot is when Ramp Champ should prove it is in it to win it.

Extend your play as you need to – for less than a game of real Skee-ball

Fascinating ultra-high frame rate video

Michael — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:59:59 +0000

Here are some extremely fascinating, ultra-high frame rate shots in High Definition courtesy of the SprintCam v3 showreel made for the NAB 2009 exhibition. They’re mostly shot at 1000 FPS but the reel ends with some video shot at 2500 FPS.

I-Movix SprintCam v3 NAB 2009 showreel on Vimeo.

Thanks to Daring Fireball for the link.

Unofficial “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” soundtrack

Michael — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:53:23 +0000

Here’s a list of the songs from the “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” soundtrack. John Hughes, the director of the movie, never bothered to put out an official soundtrack because he thought the selections were too eclectic. But, you can assemble most of your own by getting the songs from the iTunes Store. While they’re not all available as I write this, a lot of the very recognizable ones are. I’ll update this post when more songs are made available.

“Love Missile F1-11” by Sigue Sigue Sputnik

“Jeannie” (Theme from I Dream of Jeannie)

“Beat City” by The Flowerpot Men

“Star Wars Main Title / Rebel Blockade Runner” by John Williams

“Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” by The Dream Academy

“Danke Schoen” by Wayne Newton

“Twist and Shout” by The Beatles

“Radio People” by Zapp

“I’m Afraid” by Blue Room

“The Edge of Forever” by The Dream Academy

“March of the Swivelheads” (“Rotating Heads” remix) by The English Beat

“Oh Yeah” by Yello

“Bad” by Big Audio Dynamite

Life moves pretty fast… You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.