Agreed. Flickitty, if our sites didn't cover big games, readers might not know whether they were good or not, and run the risk of a potential bummer once they start up the game and find it not to their liking. I myself never only pick the big players - I take time to find good games by indie developers or hidden gems on the App Store, and I divide time between those and the ones from the big players. Plus, the language wasn't really necessary to convey the meaning of your statement, though I'm not criticizing you on that.
I don't harbor any anger towards review sites that only review big games. They've gotta do what they need to to keep their readers happy. That's just the way of the world. I just wish that review sites had more polite policies i.e. replying with "I'm not going to review this game, there's no time, so you can reuse that code". Perhaps big review sites could offer ways for indie developers to get their foot in the door...not sure what that would be or how it would work.
I agree with Windburn, you've gotta cater to what the readers want, and all of these giant Gameloft and EA titles are talked about non-stop on the forums since the day they're announced, those members are actively waiting for TA to write the article. At the same time, I'm quite happy with how much exposure indie games get around here, more so on the forums than on the front page... which might be an issue when you take into account the fact a lot of viewers might never wander into the forums... but I'm here a lot and I don't think I miss out on much. If there's a great indie game on the loose, the chances are good I'll see it eventually. However I do think it'd be nice if TA could do a sort of "Indie Games Roundup" or "Games You Probably Haven't Heard About" article every so often, or even hire a reviewer who specifically sticks to the indie scene. I buy more indie games than any of that Gameloft/EA crap (all I have from that side is Driver), and I'm sure I'm not alone.
Dont blame TA for enough pay enough attention to smaller, indie developer. Blame buyers who only care about when EA or Gameloft gonna take their next craps. TA has to give what TA readers want. But on the other hand, as @MidianGTX said, it would b nice if TA has a new section for smaller, cheaper games, those are worth spend money, and time on. It would be a huge impact on the Iphone games market which was meant for indie developer, but now is gradually taken over by bigger player like EA, Gameloft...
I'm going to correct something that Hodapp seemed to imply... we don't cover games just because they are gaining traction. We might make a point to download and try a game if it's gaining traction to see what the fuss is about... but if we don't like the game, we don't cover it. To the original poster: don't pay to get your game reviewed. Most of those sites have little readership to begin with. Regarding TouchArcade's policies. I feel we're the most indie-friendly site out there. Indie's get plenty of exposure in our forums, and we make a point to try to seek out great games -- regardless of the developer. That list of "Best iPhone Games 2009" from Apple? I'm certain we were the first major coverage for practically all the indie games on that list: Jet Car Stunts, Doodle Jump, Boost 3D, Star Hogs, Meteor Blitz, Alive 4 Ever, Flight Control, geoDefense, Canabalt, Ragdoll Blaster, Earth vs. Moon, Spider. In fact, in most cases we were the very first review coverage for them, period (major or otherwise). We pride ourselves in game discovery, as we feel that is the major reason we have such a big audience. Our review criteria is simple and falls in two categories: 1) Notable games (that includes major franchises and developers) that people are going to hear about anyway. This is going to be the EA games and whathaveyou. 2) Games we Like/Recommend We don't make it a point to review games we don't like (Flickity for example) and don't recommend, because people won't have heard about them anyway. Though sometimes we include these in our podcast so people can hear our reasoning. arn
Well Flickitty was kinda digging his claws into the TA staff. I can almost picture Arn sitting there in an "Admins have feelings too" t-shirt
It is possible to get noticed on the top review sites but I stress you need to offer something unique - doing yet another block puzzle game will generate no interest from these sites, unless it is totally original. Barring the few lucky developers, spending a month rushing out a game, hoping that you will hit the big time is very rare... and the quality of the work will be under par (the App Store quality of games is just getting better) and will generate little interest. But we (True Axis) are proof that you can get onto the big review sites - we are an unknown company with no track record and we certainly did not have a well known license. I think next year it will be even harder for the indie devs to get noticed - which is a shame because without them the App Store would never of been this gigantic success story. Apple should have a best of indies selection on the App Store front pages, just the give indies a chance.
Thank you for mentioning Under The Radar! The mini-newsletter I made more or less explains why I put up my own review site. It's my way of providing reviews for indie apps that don't get noticed in the App Store - there are just too many games out there. I am also active in promoting the games of indie developers. However, though I have more than 100 reviews since October, I am an indie reviewer myself, so my blog is very, very small in terms of an audience and it's still fairly new. I don't get paid for writing reviews, and I humbly suggest to other developers not to resort to paying for reviews. I just receive a promo code, most of the time, and once in a while I host giveaways to create a buzz about the blog and the game itself. I also post excerpts of my blog reviews as App Store reviews and I always make it a point to highlight the good things about the app, as well as its shortcomings - to give prospective buyers an idea of what to expect from the game. When I checked out my site's stats in a site analyzer engine, I found that even without ads yet, the blog generates a very very small amount of daily revenue. I'm happy to have been of some help to developers in that sense. Personally, I think the TA forums is a great place for indie developers. I comb through the user reviews and other threads. Speaking as a reviewer, and believe me I've done my best to review each app that has been passed on to me, it's nearly impossible to review all the apps that come my way. I probably have a 95% success rate in this department. Even though I've come to realize that writing reviews is a lot of work - and compensation (if you can call it that) is technically the complimentary code that I got, it doesn't guarantee a positively gratuitous review on my part. I've been told that sometimes it's not enough (for example, $0.99 for a 300-500 word review), but I don't mind. I love games and I love writing about them
Review sites asking for money to speed up the process (= placing one more star) is just very bad bews for everyone. Now this means that unless we know a review site enough to have no doubt in its honesty, we just can't trust it anymore ...
Critics are supposed to be impartial and have some journalistic integrity. If a reviewer in the "legitimate press" (for lack of a better term to differentiate them from the blog world) was found to be taking cash for reviews that would be the end of their career as well as a black eye for the publisher/site/network they work for. If any reviewer asks you for money, then they should be outed. That's horrible practice and nothing they write should ever be taken seriously again.
A developer [name removed] offered money to European and Asian websites in order to review his application. Most of the websites covered [his application], but he didn't pay for that. This is how [this application] became so popular abroad.
Gigi : The trouble with random people naming and shaming developers is that we have no way of knowing it the reporter is trustworthy.
I'm pretty sure about it, and I'm pretty sure in this article they're talking about him: http://theportablegamer.com/2009/12/editorial-app-reviewed/ I read an App Store [application] review of a Spanish website reviewer that was complaining about the fact the Wobble guy offered money for a review, but at the end he didn't pay. I'd like to be careful with this, but I feel like to spread the word.
Yes that is about the person you are talking about. The reason why it isn't mentioned in the post is because any publicitty is good publicity for this person. Along with TPG he contacted more of the GotOATS members.. Offering large amounts of cash that in the end he would obviously not pay up. Oh and try not to say anything more about this developer.. it's all part of his plan to get his app heard and it's just helping his dirty cause
