Little Things Forever creator Matthew Hall spills the beans on getting featured in the App Store

Many developers try, but few succeed in getting their games featured in the Apple App Store, a coveted throne which will ensure your game’s success. Matthew Hall, the one-man army developer behind Klicktock who has produced many famous games like Little Things Forever and Doodlefind, delivered an excellent presentation at Casual Connect Asia, sharing his secret ways that let him ascend to the throne many times over.

Hall’s techniques start out pretty simple and “duh” in nature, yet too important not to mention: your games have to be good, and look even better. Apple loves games that make their devices look good, and we’re not just talking about pushing polygon limits. If your game has a great art style and is visually appealing, getting featured may not be just a pipe dream.

Hall believes that colorful and visually appealing games are the way to go for getting Apple’s attention, and it shows in the art for one of his next upcoming games, Deck War.

Hall’s other pieces of advice got increasingly unorthodox, and interesting. For example, he mentioned that Apple hates lowbrow games, citing a game about diffusing farts as a mechanic. Although that one is a brilliant game in his opinion, Apple didn’t pick up on it for its crude nature.

Hall also encouraged developers to embrace the devices they design games for, taking advantage of seemingly obscure functions, like tilting, that showcase the device’s capabilities. He also cautioned that clone games do not get featured, and encouraged developers to innovate and create original games.

Hall’s most interesting tip was that developers should aim to release their games on the App Store first before Google Play for a higher chance of getting featured. He said that Apple appreciates having great games first and exclusively, so that’s a great way to keep everyone happy (except Android users, I think).

These are just a few highlights of Hall’s talk. And you really can’t argue with results, seeing as how almost all of his latest games have been featured in App Stores worldwide. It seems to me that Hall may be getting some stiff competition soon though, after delivering such a stellar presentation to so many attentive developers.

(Image source)