I’m thrilled to announce that Kickabout has just released on the App Store! In this newsletter I’ll cover the final push, and what it took to get this solo developed game finished for release. Let’s dive in!

MARKETING

• Wrote the store page (inc US and UK variants, coz “soccer”)
• Created the screenshots for iPhone and iPad
• Created the store video for iPhone and iPad
• Choose App Store search keywords (ASO using Astro for those who know)
• Made trailer and press kit (trailer, screenshots, promo images)

Over time in the games industry, and especially in mobile games, CGI trailers have dropped away and true gameplay footage is king. Turns out overpromising CGI underperforms pure gameplay at turning eyeballs into players. As a solo indie dev with zero time or resources to create fancy trailers, this is definitely a good thing. Check out my launch trailer on YouTube, or keep reading.

BUG HUNT

• I found, tracked, and fixed, lots of bugs

Big shout out here to my teenage son here, who has become seriously good at Kickabout on EXPERT difficulty and reporting bugs he finds to me. He’s been playing with his friends during PE class downtime, and they’ve been loving it! He even helped me find a dominant strategy I’d missed. A "dominant strategy" is one set way to play that always gets the optimal score, seriously lowering any game’s replay value for return players. So that was an important find. I fixed it, and we haven’t found another one yet. Let the score chasing begin!

• Navigated Apple submission & testing

While I have 26 years experience from PS1 to PS5, Android, and web… this was my first iOS App Store submission. I ran into 2 issues that needed fixing at the last minute (a missing test plan, and incomplete IAP linking). Apple’s app submission support team was great, even calling me back to help get my linking issue resolved and expediting testing so I could make the 6/2 launch date!

TUNING DIFFICULTY AND MORE

• Play-tested & collected feedback on metagame UX & tuning
• Named and tuned the 9 CPU playstyles (standard, tiki-taka, pressing, brick wall, direct, fighters, rockets, total football)
• Tuned the difficulty levels (easy, medium, hard, expert)

MONETIZATION & LEADERBOARDS

I had just three weeks left after the huge lift of building the metagame systems and content (as covered in my last newsletter)... and still had 3 essential launch features to implement. Monetization via ads, remove ads IAP, and leaderboards! Plus the stuff above you just read about. So of course the producer / TPM in me said I had to cut something… but the designer in me won. Even my wife Ryn was against cutting leaderboards, so with her blessing I burned the midnight oil and got it done.

• Implemented ads (ad breaks every 2 games)
• Implemented ‘Tip to Remove Ads’ (2.99 In App Purchase)
  • Inc evaluated services and UE5 plugins (unreal mobile devs, ask me for deets!)
• Implemented Game Center Leaderboards

THE JOURNEY TO LAUNCH

Getting from idea to App Store feels like a major achievement for Kickabout. It’s been 9 months of solo development, which I’ve covered in my regular newsletters (read ‘em at robkay.com). Thanks for the kind notes people have sent about how much they’ve enjoyed reading these missives, thanks for joining me on this journey so far, and please join me in celebrating this milestone! 🎉

Here's a visual summary of the dev journey from idea to app store, to mark the occasion...

GET IT, PLAY IT, RATE IT

Kickabout is out now on iPad and iPhone in UK, USA, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and I’m super proud of how it’s turned out. I made a game I love to play, and others enjoy too.

I’m excited for what the future holds for Kickabout, and looking forward to learning from a wider audience of players on how they find it, and where they want to see it go next.

Download it for yourself, try it with friends at world cup parties this summer, and give it a boost on the app store!

​https://apps.apple.com/us/app/kickabout-table-football/id6759622976​

Bye for now!

Rob