Creating and designing a simulation game or app could be your breakthrough and mainstay in the mobile app market but there’s some work to be done. While your simulation game or app may guarantee user engagement and retention, you have to sell something to the users while they’re in the app.
This means that you ought to be thinking of monetizing your app one way or the other. Before this, you have to understand that your simulation game or app wouldn’t be the first in app stores. So, you’ll have to promote it for it to be able to compete with the best life simulation apps.
Promoting and monetizing simulation apps aren’t new practices, top simulation apps do these. In this post, we’ll show you workable ideas for promoting your simulation app or game.
Business Model of Simulation
Without a business model for any app, not just simulation apps, it’s going to be difficult to sustain and grow it. So, while developing your simulation game, start exploring the various app monetization strategies available to you.
You can insist that you want your app to be a free-to-play app, and that’s just fine. If you perform your research well, you’ll find simulation apps and games on both the Apple store and Play store that are free. However, as we stated earlier, sustaining the app would be tough, especially if you plan on displaying in-game ads.
Top simulation apps in mobile app stores usually offer users the option of paying a fee to install the app and enjoy an experience without in-game ads. They even include in-app purchases in the app.
You may be scared that attaching a fee to your simulation game would be a turn-off to the users or that the in-app purchase would not convert. The truth is that users are willing to pay. According to statistics from Udonis, the average revenue a single-paying simulation gamer generated for the top 2 percent of games amounted to about $94 monthly.
For the top 25 percent of games, the average revenue per paying user (ARPPU) was about $14. The ARPPU was 46.5 for the median 50 percent of simulation games and 41.5 for the bottom 25 percent.
So, when you put a monetization strategy in place for your simulation game and aim to be among the top 2 percent, you’re aiming to make bigger revenue – which should be the plan!
Ideas for Promoting Simulation Apps
Now that you’ve seen that you could monetize your simulation game and app, let’s show you some great ideas on how to promote your mobile app.
Prepare Perfect Port
Let’s face it; the best mobile life simulation apps are adaptations of PC apps or games. It’s usually enjoyable on PCs or desktops because the screens are bigger. But in this mobile era, not having your simulation game ported to a mobile version is doing the game a great disservice.
If you already have your simulation game on PC, it’s time to adapt it to the small screen. However, this could prove difficult as your users will be quick to compare the mobile version with the PC version. It’s going to be a critical analysis that would go a long way to determine the success or failure of your simulation game.
So, while you’re porting, ensure to retain the same experience – or an even better experience – with what you have on the PC version. The Sims mobile was able to achieve this, but after several trials. Now, users believe that the official mobile version is better than the new Sims 4 for PC.
Be Realistic in Simulation Games
What is a simulation game if it isn’t a neat representation of reality? If you want to market a game app that will attract users, it has to emulate reality to its finest elements. Ensure that the graphics and animations you use do exactly this.
It’s best if you add diversity to the missions in your simulation game. Also, the missions should strike a balance between difficulty and ease. It could get very frustrating if your users spend so much time trying to complete a mission; the same say it could get boring if they can complete missions without challenges.
Reality comes with challenges, right? Your game should have those so that the proper application of the available resources and skills can overcome them. When you make your simulation game or app realistic, it becomes more fun and educational.
So, mirror reality as much as possible in your simulation game because it is a getaway for your users to achieve what they wish to accomplish in real life in the gaming environment. That way, your app gives them a certain fulfillment that’ll keep them addicted to it.
Prepare Promo Videos
Promo videos are indispensable when you want to promote a game app or mobile apps. The reason is that while you’ve designed a wonderful icon, description, and screenshots of your simulation game and uploaded them to app stores, they’re not enough to capture the atmosphere and feelings of the game. Only a promo video can do this!
A promo video will reveal what the gameplay of your app is like while showing your users how worthy the game is. One concept you can employ in creating a promo video for your simulation game is the rookie versus veteran concept. This is the concept SimCity BuildIt used for their simulation game.
They created a split-screen promo video that showed the amateur versus the experienced gameplay. What this did was walk the user through a journey of what could be achieved in the game with consistency and time. It showed the different levels and themes of the game, from how you start with a few houses and grow into a well-developed city.
You can also try Minecraft’s strategy of allowing users to promote their creations in social media communities. This would save you cost while helping you to promote your simulation game.
Use Special Effects in Simulation App
Their use of special effects distinguishes the best life simulation apps. This is something you shouldn’t overlook when you want to market a simulation app, especially now that there is new technology to create the right sensation you want to create.
Two aspects of special effects that matter the most in simulation games are the play and environmental effects. The amount of these kinds of effects to use depend on the kind of game. A game like Castlevania requires a lot of gameplay effects like character powers and magic.
On the other hand, shooting games would require environmental effects like rain and mist to immerse the gamers into the game further.
Remember that simulation games and apps aim to place the users in a reality that isn’t real. A reality where they can overcome their fears and accomplish great achievements. So, you can use virtual reality gadgets to suck your app users into the reality you’ve created for them.
Bottom Line
There’s more to simulation games and app than creating one. There are effectively marketing it on the one hand and monetizing it on the other. When you monetize your simulation game and promote it well enough to push it to the top 2 percent of simulation apps in the app stores, you’ll make enough revenue to improve it and better engage your users continually. All you have to do is follow the simulation app ideas in this post to get your app there.