A few people have been asking me for more stats on the Qwak sale, and I also wanted to waffle on a bit about the experience. Okay, so I didn’t actually do much promotion for this at all, I made a post on the indiegamer.com forums, the TIGsource forums, and perhaps one or two other smaller forums, then I sent out a newsletter to all the subscribers on the Qwak mailing list (which isn’t that big), and that was about it.

The really good thing was that so many people on the mailing list echoed the news of the sale (so, thank you people on the mailing list), and so they they really helped things along nicely.

The following image shows the top 10 traffic sources for the 7 day period of the sale. As you can see, the ‘deals’ sites were major sources of traffic. Though I feel there may have been a lot of 1p sales from those kind of sites.

On the subject of the 1p sales, and how do I feel about getting so many (240 I think) 1p sales? Well, there’s no money in if for me; there’s extra support (so, that’s my time), but, if it gets people playing (and enjoying) the game; perhaps there’s a chance those people will pass the word on to their friends? So, I don’t think it’s so easy to predict the longer-term effect of those sales (and sales at regular price are currently pretty healthy).

There was also a discussion on indiegamer.com forums, if a minimum £1 purchase price would have been a good idea. It may well have been, but again, it’s perhaps not so black and white (simple to predict).

I’ve learned a lot from this little experiment; not the least that it’s good to make noise, stand out and be different. People notice you if you’re doing something unusual and different. Another thing I’ve learned; is the power of having people on your side, rooting for you, and helping you to make a noise; I mean, fans of the game, and people on my mailing list (also the words of encouragement and approval I get from fans of Qwak, and even my other games; always gives me hope and spurs me on).

So yeah, I feel kinda warm and fuzzy, and quite optimistic right now; and looking forward to making more games!