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Build it and they WON'T come
Jordan Parker
June 11, 2023
*CLICK*
And just like that I launched my first game.
After 7 months of hard work I finished the first game. It was ready.
It was a good game too. I had things I wanted to improve but it was better than most similar games on the market. Prettier too.
(partnered with a great artist)
*Refresh*
The little wheel spins… the numbers slowly appear on the screen…
0 Downloads
Okay.
It’s day 1. The store’s AI needs to pick things up and show it to everyone.
(yep, we had AI’s in 2012 too)
“It will be fine.”
But before I realized what I was doing, I clicked again.
*Refresh*
The little wheel spins… the numbers slowly appear on the screen…
0 Downloads
Annoying.
“That’s on me for being so impatient.”
I figured I’d wait for 3-4 hours and check again. That should do it.
47 minutes later:
*Refresh*
The little wheel spins… the numbers slowly appear on the screen…
0 Downloads
Again?!
“Fine.” A pissed off and very passive-aggressive Jordan started smashing the keys…
Until it was done.
The whole Play Store website was blocked for 24 hours. No running from that now.
23 hours and 59 minutes later:
*Refresh*
This web page is blocked.
*Refresh*
This web page is blocked.
*Refresh*
This web page is—
*Refresh*
This web—
*Refresh*
“YES. IT’S FINALLY LOADED. LET’S SEE HOW MANY DOWNLOADS DO I HAVE!”
This webpage is blocked.
(23 hours, 59 minutes, and 57 seconds have passed)
*Refresh*
The little wheel spins… the numbers slowly appear on the screen…
1 Download
WHAT?!
“The new products shelf in the app store got me 1 download?!”
I didn’t know what to do.
So I just waited…
1 week later:
3 Downloads
5 weeks later I finally gave up and asked my friends to get it. It had:
38 Downloads
9 weeks later I was already trying to promote it everywhere. It was still at:
98 Downloads
This was a free game. I needed 10,000 downloads to maybe make $1 every month. It wasn’t working.
I got furious. Then frustrated. Then just depressed.
All this work for nothing.
I built it.
No one came.
Don’t make my mistake.
Build your brand. Build your audience. Learn marketing.
Before you need it.
Your life will be better, I promise.
Your biggest fan,
Jordan
💡 Idea of the Week
Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.
⚙️ Tools, Apps, 'n' Gadgets
Here are today's picks:
Bunny — Use bunny if you want to host videos, files, or as a CDN.
(a CDN is like the magic potion from Asterix and Obelix for your website – makes it faster)Descript — You know you can’t spend the last 204 days of the year sleeping on video. Use Descript to do pro level video editing without actually learning a pro level video editing app.
ClickUp — ClickUp is like Notion had a baby with Zapier. It’s pretty dope. I’m waiting for version 3 that looks dope as well.
👋 Enjoying this so far? |
🔦 Creator Spotlight
It took me a way too long to see how awesome George is.
(Life lesson: don’t learn marketing from books; do the thing)
Don’t be like me. Follow George and stand out from an army of ChatGPT hamsters by… thinking. Yup, thinking. Still valuable in 2023.
📰 Last Week with Jordan
How to make shorts using Descript 👇️
That was it for today. Have a great week and I'll see you next Sunday!
— Jordan
PS: Help me out by sharing this with a friend who'll find it useful 🫶