It's been about 2 months now since my first Android game, Jumpers for Goalposts, was released on Android, and I thought I'd write a little piece about visibility (or the lack thereof) in the Android App Store.

Great Expectations

When I was building JFG, my expectations were mixed. On the one hand, I was quite concerned that the game would get thousands of downloads on day one, my server would fall over, and everyone would leave and never come back. I'd forever rue not building a more scalable architecture.

On the other hand, I thought nobody would download it, I wouldn't make enough money to cover the server costs, and I'd have to turn the game off.

The reality was sadly more along the lines of the latter. Thankfully, I have enough AWS credit to keep me going for a while yet, but the numbers have been brutally disappointing. Probably more so than even I thought they would.

If you build it, they will come not notice

The frustrating thing about the lack of downloads is that it's not that people aren't enjoying the game. Sure, it's not for everyone, and the uninstall metrics make me sad, but the main reason is nobody knows it exists.

In the olden days, when ah were a lad, the Play Store had a section for new releases so all new titles got their day in the sun even if that was for a short time. When I was working for a mobile games company, you would see this big spike on day one, and then after a week, it would tail off massively. That's what I'd hoped with this game. I feel confident that if I had a good first week install base that the game mechanics would keep people playing and sharing it with friends, and the organic growth would be enough for me to break even from maybe a thousand or so users. We're a long way short of that right now.

The graph above shows the number of users who have the app installed on at least one device. It's great that the graph is trending upwards. It's not so great that after two months, that has peaked at 40 users!

Is it actually any good though?

It's OK for me to say "But my game is so good, this is so unfair! Waaaah!", but is it actually? Well, I suppose it depends on who you ask. My wife is addicted to it. OK, she may be slightly biased, but she doesn't even like football, and I thought she might play it for a week or two out of politeness, but she is genuinely hooked. There's also a small (very small) group on Discord who discuss the game daily with me, and that makes me smile daily.

But statistically... is it any good?

I... think so... I'm still learning how best to use analytics, but an average engagement time of 25 minutes a day seems pretty good to me. It's a bit higher than I initially expected. I figured from playing the game myself that it would be about 5-10 minutes a day, setting up your team for the next match and checking the transfer list for bargains, so 25 minutes looks good to me. The other pleasing metric is purchases.

I might blog about my IAP strategy separately, but I don't like the way the industry is going with IAP. It feels too exploitative. So the IAP I have shouldn't skew the game towards people with more money being unbeatable by people who don't spend. Nothing is stupidly expensive. No "loot boxes". No gambling-type mechanics. and no $80 jumper bux. Even so, my total revenue in 2 months is around $45 from IAP from 4 different users. Given my install base is 40, 10% of my install base actually spending money on the game is a pretty decent sign of having something people enjoy!

So just buy some ads then

As previously mentioned in another blog, I'm trying to build for free. My current monthly AWS bill is $32, so I'm not breaking even yet, even with my 4 favourite players doing their best.

Advertising is expensive. Video ads are the current most effective way of generating installs, but the cost is WAY out of my budget. Businessofapps.com suggests, as of Feb 2025, the average cost to generate a single install is $1.50 to $4. So a marketing budget of $4000 might get me the 1000 users I was hoping for, but then that's assuming they all hang around! The numbers are so eye-watering that it makes you not want to bother at all. Still, if the IAP maintained its current $0.56 per user per month rate, 1000 users would bring in $562 a month, which would be quite nice - but even then, it would still be 8 months before I'd paid back the marketing costs.

So you can advertise on social media, right?

You can, and I have. You can also stand in the middle of Trafalgar Square and shout at the top of your lungs. Both are about as effective as each other. Social media is a void of its own, and without an existing following, you're relying on good hashtag use and good fortune. Is it working? I guess it's working a bit? I can't find any analytics that tell me if anyone found my app through some social post, but the installs sometimes do get a small bump after I've posted something.

I've also looked at Reddit, but a lot of the good communities have karma requirements for self-promotion, and I haven't had the time to build up a reputation to spam my game. So maybe that ones on me.

What about the press?

When I used to make mobile games as a job, I remember there were online video game magazines that specialised in mobile gaming. I had a look, and they still exist and update regularly. "Maybe", I thought, "Maybe if they play my game they'll realise it's amazing and review it and we'll have lift off". How naive I was. Most of the websites are owned by one of two media groups. I contacted both with media packs, a copy of the game and a blurb about me and the game. Both organisations responded with a very similar response. It went like this:

But I did get a response from someone at both groups. Both forwarded me on to their marketing team, who would, for a fee of only $1500 could offer me things such as:

• 2 news articles
• 2nd MPU on [mobile website] for one week
• 1 mock review
• 1 developer ticket to [game conference] 

Now, I don't want to sound ungrateful or even a little conspiratorial, but as an indie dev, trying to make it on his own, to get forwarded to the sales team and only get a response saying that "we'll put your app on our website if you give us some cash" feels a little bit murky. Is that all these websites are now? Just paid for advertisements masquerading as video game journalism? At any rate, it's just another example of how you don't get anywhere without a bucket load of cash.

Conclusion?

Well, that was all rather bleak, wasn't it? Where do we go from here? Well, as long as my AWS credit doesn't run out, we'll keep going, doing what we've been doing so far, and maybe some miracle will happen, and Bruno Guimarães will find it, love it and share it. Maybe when Rihanna sings "Rocking this skirt, rocking this club, got my middle finger up, I don't really give a f**k." she's talking about her village football club in Jumpers for Goalposts and one day she'll let her 96 million followers know.

Most likely, however, I'll run out of money, and the fun will stop, and I'll walk away feeling bitter and twisted about the games industry. This has still been an excellent learning experience, however, and I love everyone who has played the game for more than a couple of days with all of my heart. That anyone wants to play my stupid little game brings me so much joy.

If you haven't tried the game yet, or you want to share it with your millions of Twitter followers (I'm looking at you, Rihanna), then you can download it on the Play Store here.