How important is an App icon and name?

We've decided to try a little experiment with our latest game "DownToZero"...

After looking at the sales of DownToZero since release, we've been a bit disappointed. So far DTZ has sold around 350 copies in over a month in the App Store. Reviews for the game have been 100% positive, with nearly everyone who plays the game finding it engaging, unique, well-built, and suited to the usage pattern of the iPhone / iPod Touch (short bursts of play, ability to resume games easily, quick load times, leaderboards, etc).

So the problem doesn't appear to be the quality of the game.

So then what's the problem?

DownToZero has been reviewed on several sites, including a prominent mention on IGN.com in a "Unsung iPhone Games" feature (DownToZero was the first game featured, everyone who read that article was exposed to the game). But reviews have seemed to have no effect on the sales of the game.... nearly no visible spikes in sales around the posting of any reviews.

I have read from other sources on the internet that most of the purchases for apps on the App Store come from people browsing on their device, and discovering apps in the various lists that exist (Featured, Top Paid / Free / Release Date for a category, and Top 25). Common knowledge appears to be that to get any kind of volume sales you need to get your app into the top 100 paid/free list for your given category (in the case of DTZ, that would be Games>Arcade or Games>Puzzle).

Whenever you make an update to your game, you also get the option to update the "availability date", which basically gives your app a chance to re-appear on the "Release Date" list of new apps. This is a way to get some exposure to those people browsing the App Store on their device, at least until a new batch of newer apps show up and push you off the list.

The sales data for DTZ seems to confirm that indeed, whenever we release an update (and subsquently get on the New Release list for about 1-2 days), we see a spike in sales:


This seems to confirm that most of our sales are coming from people who see the game in the New Release list, click through to the app description page, and buy it.

So why aren't more people choosing to ckick through and buy DTZ when it's on that list? Why isn't the spike bigger?

Our rather obvious hypothesis is that when you look at the initial list of apps in the App Store, you only have 2 pieces of information to use to decide if you want to click through to the detail page for an app: Icon and Name.

We believe that most people are not even clicking through to the description of DTZ, simply because the description page contains quotes from IGN and other sources praising the game, and hopefully is a compelling description of the game.

Also, looking at our game name and icon in the context of a list, it becomes apparent that "DownToZero", and the simple pixel-style icon don't communicate much at all about what kind of a game this is:




The Experiment
We've decided to try something. We're going to change the name and icon ONLY for DownToZero (also updating the game itself to display the new name in the main menu), and see what effect that has on the "update spike".

Currently we're trying to decide on a new name for the game that will catch people's attention, and entice them to click through to the app description page. We need a simple, short title that grabs people's attention, and communicates something meaningful about the game.


Here are some of our ideas so far (in no particular order):

• Zero Sum
• Flash Drop
• Drop Down
• Touch Down
• Smarter than Numbers
• Flash Math
• Drop Factor
• Countdown
• Count it Down
• Hikizan
• Hayabiki Drop
• Drop Reflex

We'd love to hear your thoughts on the best name to use for this experiment! Once we settle on a new name, we'll work on creating a new icon.