App Development/Consumer Psychology

Hey Veeky Forums, do apps ever go viral anymore? I know it would be tough for an app to get as successful as Flappy Bird, but surely some people get a bit lucky nowadays, right? I'm very slowly learning programming on the side, and I'm thinkig of developing an app, but also learning how the market works. I wanted to market my app, maybe a simple yet challenging game that won't take too long or too many people to make, in such a way that normies freak out about it and it becomes a craze. If I can pull this off then I should make a ton of money, but I'm wondering if people still give a shit about apps anymore.

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They do. But your real question is : Am I able to make an app go viral ?

And the response is no.

Well maybe I can follow a plan of successful apps and look at trends. Also some viral marketing and shill accounts. Hell, if I get some money saved then maybe I can convince some youtubers with a decent viewer base to play this new "addicting" game. Again, might not reach flappy bird success but is this still a good idea?

youtube.com/watch?v=5rJzLoz0zIQ

Example of a game that contains "the brainless reward" system app that was given to a youtuber who was paid to promote the app to his "decent amount of youtube 'gamer' audience"

Best case scenario, and it can't be propelled any further.

A game will be popular if its good.
A game can be viral naturally, but not forced.

The likelihood of you producing a naturally fun and well composed game, while also being able to spread your knowledge of the market while also knowing the youtubers/marketing area you want and having the funds to pay them.... you're hitting the 1% of the 1% of the 1% success and thats not including the issues of producing a well produced game.

The real problem, if its apps that you're looking for, is to make 10 smaller game apps, that aren't great/perfect/viral and get the crumbs from the table. 10 small crumbs are a small bite. 1 massive undertaking of several fields at an attempt to force a viral sensation at a near impossible rate for a big slice.. I just dont see it happening.

take the 50-500$ a month an app over 10 apps over the course of their life and focus on other projects. Use those projects as a stepping stone into a good resume and use that to step into a bigger potential company and take a piece of their pie.

>can i win the lottery by spending many hours and money

Just buy a ticket instead

Well that specific guy was sarcastic as fuck.

Also,
>a game will be popular if it's good

Counterpoint: Flappy Bird

gamedev here, gamedev is a terrible business.
if you can somehow force a hit than financially you'd still be better off as taking a cut as a """"publisher""" than actually making em.

Obviously he was sarcastic, but thats what made it appealing to the viewers. Things don't normally sell themselves in 2016/17, people do.

Read the comments. You're paying a youtuber/marketer for their personality and their audience, not some genuine 100% positive review, that doesn't exist anymore. Either way, you're looking for a market, and there it is. That's what you're getting.

Your opinion doesn't matter when it comes to something being "good" or not. Whether you accept it or not, people like Justin bieber or whoever are by definition "good" because of their ability to branch in the market, to sell in the market and to continue to perform well over time.
Sticking to the point, Flappy bird was definitely "good" because it kept the attention of the user and presented a situation where we would constantly be challenged.

Better yet, you're already full of shit.
>A game will be popular if it's good
Doesn't mean every popular game has been good, I said a game CAN be popular if it is good. huge difference, why don't you make a similar experience to flappy bird, hit me up, I'll be more than happy to buy this "bad game" from you.

Yeah but what made Flappy Bird different from the game it ripped off from (Helicopter)? Was it the nostalgia-inducing Mario pipes he ripped off that people loved so much? What did the market see in this app with the hundreds of other original challenging apps already on the AppStore?

Because it was shitty enough to be a meme and normies love memes

They just copied clicker hero or w/e that game was called and made an app and are now most likely swimming in money.

I hate life.

Piss back to agdg mate, you made a game that every youtuber made money of but nobody actually bought it because it has no gameplay and is worse than a VN.

I cant believe there are actually people this fucking pathetic and cucked that they make stuff for others to make money off while getting almost nothing.

>focusing on the product instead of the process
never gunna make it

That's the key then, I have to make a shitty meme app.

research rovio, the angry birds company, and supercell, both extremely small companies that are making billions

Social interaction as well, it invoked an emotional response with how difficult it was, it was possible to get better at it over time, giving a sense of personal achievement, AND you could save your high score and share it publicly giving social validation. a meme supreme combo

So I'd make mine challenging but endless.

Familiar with Angry Birds. I should probably make characters that soccer moms and kids will like because it got them a movie too.

It's fun to focus on flappy bird and angry birds and whatever indieshit title of the month is a huge success but for every one of those there are thousands if not tens of thousands of miserable, catastrophic failures that nobody ever seems to want to focus on. Apps and especially games are memes, effort is not rewarded anymore.

Just like seo/sem, it can pay off if you have an app that nobody else is targeting, window on that is closing but you should try it if you have an untargeted market and it won't take too much time to make. Games are memes no matter how hard you try to pretend they aren't.

Absolutely, I'll make it good if I can, but I'm really going to just focus on meme value.

don't underestimate marketing. things like FNAF and undertale only got on the radar because of youtube and free demos

Not to mention furries and tumblr.

I feel like apps could be somewhat different. Those games cost money and apps that go viral are usually free with ads. Of course marketing is still really important but I'm wondering if I could do something differently.

Bump, I like this thread.

Its basic survivor fallacy

The chance for you to have a success app like flappy bird is basically 0.0000000000000001%. There's thousands of apps that get uploaded daily and you'll maybe hear about one of them in your lifetime. I think that in order to be successful you gotta step up your game. Instead of making small shitty games that will get no installs at all you should try to make a bigger, more ambitious game. Incorporate some kind of interactivity with other player, make it social. Basically, look for Clash of Clans type games for inspiration, not flappy bird.