150,000 games played and counting…

Ramp Racers has passed 150,000 games played which is great news.  The IAP rate is on the increase too which is pretty cool.  We have an updated version of the iPad app trickling through the app review process that we’ve made a few changes to.

1) We now give the nitrous away for free….yes FREE!  We decided it was more important that people actually enjoyed playing the game rather than trying to force people into giving us their money…it would be nice if people still gave us money as it’s really rather difficult to run a company without income.  We believe that people who enjoy playing the game will want to buy bigger engines and tricked out body-work to show their thanks for all the hard effort that’s gone into the game.

2) We’ve put an option in the game to “buy” your way past a level for 50 coins.  It’s really frustrating to be stuck on the same level for hours on end so for a few coins it’s now going to be possible to get to the next level and come back to a problematic level later.

3) To help people get through the trickier levels we’ve also included links to video walkthroughs so players can see how we finish the levels and get 3*

It’s a very delicate balancing act getting people to enjoy a game whilst also generating enough income to pay for developers, graphic designers…and you know…food!  So we’re going to be making a series of tweaks in the coming weeks to fine tune the playability v revenue generating aspects of the game.

I desperately want to avoid In-App advertising but it’s something that we’re considering.  I suspect the plan will be add advertisements, but a single In-App-Purchase makes all the evil just go away!