Category Archives: Xploding Boxes

AppWorld’s Top Paid chart now includes In-App Purchases

Yesterday I noticed that Xploding Boxes had snuck into the Top Paid chart on AppWorld. This is unusual because Xploding Boxes is listed as a free app.

Instead Xploding Boxes has made it onto the Top Paid charts by virtue of its in-app purchases. This represents a change by BlackBerry in how they determine their charts, and one that should benefit the consumer, as it gives additional promotion to those apps that can be tried for free. This will be a boost to those apps that make use of in-app purchases, which continues to be the best way to sell games on AppWorld.

Despite what I implied at the top of this post, it is actually rather common for these apps to do well. Previously there were plenty of times when Xploding Boxes would be outselling Pixelated Plus, yet Pixelated Plus would be the only one of my apps on the Top Paid chart. Currently four of the top twenty-five paid games on the PlayBook are technically free (including the number one game on the chart).

BlackBerry, Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes expands by another 10 levels

Xploding Boxes has been updated to version 3.5 which adds an additional 10 levels to the game. This brings the total number of levels in the game up to 320. This update is available to all versions of Xploding Boxes including BlackBerry phones, the BlackBerry PlayBook, the Barnes and Noble Nook, as well as the Google and Amazon Android stores.

As before, the first 25 levels are free, while the rest of the levels can be accessed after making a single $2.99 in-app purchase.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry, Android, and Nook, where the goal of the game is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level gives you a different number of touches, and requires a different strategy to solve.

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Android, BlackBerry, Nook, Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes now available for Android

Xploding Boxes is now available for Android phones and tablets through the Amazon app store and Google Play. This is the same full game that is available for BlackBerry and includes the full 310 levels. You may play the first 25 levels for free, and can then use an in-app purchase in order to get access to the rest of the levels.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry, Android, and Nook, where the goal of the game is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level gives you a different number of touches, and requires a different strategy to solve. The first 25 levels are free, while the full 310 levels can be accessed by making an in-application payment and requiring no further downloads. This game is available for the PlayBook, most BlackBerry smartphones running OS 5.0 or higher, most Android devices running OS 2.2 or higher, and the Nook Color and Nook Tablet.

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Android, Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes adds portrait orientation support for PlayBook

Xploding Boxes has been updated in BlackBerry AppWorld and the Nook Bookstore to version 3.4. This new version adds an additional 10 levels while also adding support for multiple orientations on the BlackBerry PlayBook. The level selection page on the tablet has also been reskinned to match the gradients found on the phone version of the game.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry and Nook, where the goal of the game is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level gives you a different number of touches, and requires a different strategy to solve. The first 25 levels are free, while the full 300 levels can be accessed by making an in-application payment and requiring no further downloads. This game is available for the PlayBook, most smartphones running OS 5.0 or higher, and the Nook Color and Nook Tablet.

New in Version 3.4

This update adds an additional ten levels, bringing the total number of levels up to 310. Additionally the PlayBook got a visual refresh to the level selection screen, and now supports portrait orientations in addition to landscape.

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BlackBerry, PlayBook, Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes reaches 300 levels

Xploding Boxes has been updated to version 3.2 in BlackBerry AppWorld, and the Nook bookstore. This update expands the number of levels to 300, and also adds some speed control to high res BlackBerry 7 devices.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry and Nook, where the goal of the game is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level gives you a different number of touches, and requires a different strategy to solve. The first 25 levels are free, while the full 300 levels can be accessed by making an in-application payment and requiring no further downloads. This game is available for the PlayBook, most smartphones running OS 5.0 or higher, and the Nook Color and Nook Tablet.

New in Version 3.3

In addition to the new levels, version 3.3 also adds the ability to increase the game speed on Bold and Torch phones running OS 7.0 or higher. This can be adjusted from the options page. This feature has already existed on the PlayBook since the last update.

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BlackBerry, Nook, Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes version 3.2 released

Xploding Boxes has been updated to version 3.2 in BlackBerry AppWorld, and the Nook bookstore. This update adds an additional 15 levels. Also, PlayBook users now have the option to adjust the speed at which the game runs.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry and Nook, where the goal of the game is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level gives you a different number of touches, and requires a different strategy to solve. The first 25 levels are free, while the full 285 levels can be accessed by making an in-application payment and requiring no further downloads. This game is available for the PlayBook, most smartphones running OS 5.0 or higher, and the Nook Color and Nook Tablet.

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BlackBerry, Nook, Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes after one year

Xploding Boxes was released a year ago for BlackBerry phones with 100 levels. Since then support has been extended for the BlackBerry PlayBook, and the Barnes & Noble Nook, and the game itself has expanded to 270 levels.

Even more impressive, is that Xploding Boxes has sold more copies in its first year then any other of my games including Pixelated Plus which has been on the market for almost three years.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry and Nook, where the goal of the game is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level gives you a different number of touches, and requires a different strategy to solve. The first 25 levels are free, while the full 270 levels can be accessed by making an in-application payment and requiring no further downloads. This game is available for the PlayBook, most smartphones running OS 5.0 or higher, and the Nook Color and Nook Tablet.

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BlackBerry, Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes updated

Xploding Boxes has been updated in BlackBerry AppWorld, and the Nook Bookstore to version 3.1. This update adds 10 additional levels, and improves the support for devices running OS 7.1.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry and Nook, where the goal of the game is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level gives you a different number of touches, and requires a different strategy to solve. The first 25 levels are free, while the full 270 levels can be accessed by making an in-application payment and requiring no further downloads. This game is available for the PlayBook, most smartphones running OS 5.0 or higher, and the Nook Color and Nook Tablet.

Links & Information

BlackBerry, Nook, Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes updated

Xploding Boxes has been updated in BlackBerry AppWorld, and the Nook Bookstore, adding 20 additional levels, bringing the total up to 260.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry and Nook, where the goal of the game is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level gives you a different number of touches, and requires a different strategy to solve. The first 25 levels are free, while the full 260 levels can be accessed by making an in-application payment and requiring no further downloads. This game is available for the PlayBook, most smartphones running OS 5.0 or higher, and the Nook Color and Nook Tablet.

Links & Information

BlackBerry, Nook, Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes on the Nook

Xploding Boxes is now available for through the Barnes and Noble Nook Bookstore for the Nook Color, and the Nook Tablet. This offers the same 240 levels as the BlackBerry version of the game does, and supports both English and Spanish.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry and Nook devices where the goal of the game is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level gives you a different number of touches, and requires a different strategy to solve. The current version of the game offers 240 levels.

Unfortunately the Nook Bookstore does not offer in-app purchasing so we are unable to offer the first few levels for free as we do on BlackBerry.

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Nook, Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes updated to 2.2

Xploding Boxes has been updated to version 2.2 in BlackBerry AppWorld. This update adds 10 new levels to the game.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry where the goal of the game is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level gives you a different number of touches, and requires a different strategy to solve. The first 25 levels are free, while the full 240 levels can be accessed by making an in-application payment and requiring no further downloads. This game is available for both the PlayBook, and for most smartphones running OS 5.0 or higher.

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BlackBerry, Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes version 2.1 released

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Xploding Boxes has been updated to version 2.1 in BlackBerry AppWorld. This version adds 15 new levels, adds BBM profile boxes, and improves navigation on the level selection screen.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry where the goal of the game is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level gives you a different number of touches, and requires a different strategy to solve. The first 25 levels are free, while the full 230 levels can be accessed by making an in-application payment and requiring no further downloads. This game is available for both the PlayBook, and for most smartphones running OS 5.0 or higher.

Improved level selection screen

When launching the game, the level selection screen now automatically starts with the last level played pre-selected. This allows you to restart the game where you left off, and get you back to playing the actual game quicker. Also you can use the keyboard short cuts ‘T’ & ‘B’ to quickly navigate to the top and bottom of the level selection screen.

BBM Profile Box

This version of Xploding Boxes, also allow you to attach a box to the bottom of your BlackBerry Messenger profile, to show off your success in the game. This feature requires that you have BBM version 6.0.1 installed, and that you check the box to allow Xploding Boxes to “Post recent activities to my profile”. There is a direct link to these BBM options from the Xploding Boxes options page, in order to make this checkbox easier to find.

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BBM, BlackBerry, Xploding Boxes

The importance of the PlayBook

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Overall sales of the BlackBerry PlayBook have been a bit disappointing. However that does not imply that it is a device that should be ignored. Support for this tablet was added to Version 2.0 of Xploding Boxes in mid September. Bolstered by having a spot in the top 25 free apps (peaked at #8, currently at #22), and by being featured in the carrousel, the game got a good amount of downloads on the device. More importantly though is that it significantly outperformed the BlackBerry phones when it came to users upgrading to the full version of the game. Over the past month, the PlayBook accounted for 5.13% of all downloads of Xploding Boxes, and 9.55% of all purchases of the app. So while the PlayBook makes up a relatively small part of the BlackBerry market, when it comes to purchases, the PlayBook outperforms its market share by almost a factor of two.

BlackBerry, PlayBook, Statistics, Xploding Boxes

The minimal advantages of localization

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Version 2.0 of Xploding Boxes added support for Spanish, so now almost a month later I figured that it would be worth a look to see how much of an improvement (if any) that this additional feature had on customer adoption of the product.

These first two charts show the break down by language for downloads, and purchases of version 1.6 of Xploding Boxes from July 23rd through September 8th. At this point Xploding Boxes was only available in English. None of the languages in the “other” category are close in size to Spanish, for a more detailed look at the languages in the first chart see this post from early September.

While English is by far the most dominant language for downloads, it is even more dominant when it comes to purchases of the full game. While part of this is probably due to correlations between language and income (and payment options), I supposed that part of it was also due to the game requiring you to play (and upgrade) in English.

So support for Spanish was added to version 2.0 of the game. The below chart shows the break down by language for downloads, and purchases of version 2.0 of Xploding Boxes from September 16th, through October 13th.

Despite expectations that support for Spanish would result in more downloads and purchases by those who speak the language, the data actually shows the trend going the other way. One possible explanation for this is that version 2.0 also added support for the BlackBerry Tablet, which has seen most of its sales in English speaking countries. However given how few tablets have been sold this does not explain away the lack of growth from Spanish users. As such the only conclusion that I can come to is that the benefits of localization are minimal.

BlackBerry, Statistics, Xploding Boxes